Aerial Carriage Early fl ying machines had fl apping wings like birds The fi xed wing was developed by Englishman George Cayley His aerial carriage of 1843 had four disks that were designed to raise the machine vertically In 1853 he built a glider that could carry a person Introduction The fi rst airplane took fl ight about one hundred years ago It had taken many centuries for people to learn to fl y In the 1000s Eilmer an English monk jumped off an abbey in Wiltshire England equipped with a set of wood and cloth wings He glided a little way but then fell and broke both his legs Since then many more brave people have risked their lives to achieve the power of fl ight The First Aircraft A hot-air balloon was the fi rst fl ying machine After testing fabric and paper balloons with animal passengers the French Montgolfi er brothers built one big enough to lift a crew of two people It made its fi rst fl ight over Paris in 1783 4
Lower-pressure air Lift force Wing cross section Higher-pressure air As the angle of the wing increases the lift force also goes up This is because there is a greater difference between the air pressures above and below the wing INSIDE OUT CREATING LIFT An airplane rises into the air because its wings create a lift force This is because of the wing’s airfoil shape with a flat bottom but curved upper surface Air rushing over the top travels faster and farther than the air passing underneath This means that the air pressure above the wing is lower than below it The difference in pressure creates the upward lift force Lighter than Air Hydrogen gas is so light that it fl oats up through the air This hydrogen balloon was used for spying on the enemy in the American Civil War in the 1860s These balloons inspired the invention of the airship the fi rst long-distance passenger aircraft which also used hydrogen gas 5
Taking to the Air The fi rst motorized airplane fl ew in December 1903 from a beach near Kitty Hawk North Carolina It was fl own by the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright THE WOODEN PROPELLERS were at the back of the aircraft They were attached to the engine by bicycle chains THE RUDDER at the back turned Flyer I from side to side Before the Wright brothers many early aviators had built simple aircraft big enough to carry a person However they were just gliders None of them had engines adding one made them too heavy to fl y The big breakthrough from the Wright brothers was a small gasoline-driven engine that was light but still powerful enough to lift their aircraft Wright Flyer I History records this as the fi rst real airplane As well as having an engine the pilot could steer it in any direction when in fl ight THE LIGHTWEIGHT ENGINE was powered by gasoline TIMELINE 1890 Steam Plane Frenchman Clément Ader fl ies his steam powered machine Éole right for 160 feet 50 m near Paris 6 1892 Wright Cycle Company Orville and Wilbur Wright start making bicycles in Dayton Ohio 1904 Round Trip Orville Wright takes Wright Flyer II on the fi rst circular fl ight successfully turning the plane around in the air and landing
THE WINGS were made from muslin a thin cotton fabric stretched over a wooden frame THE PILOT lay on his stomach He steered by pulling on wires to warp or change the shape of the wings OTTO LILIENTHAL The fixed-wing gliders of German aviator Otto Lilienthal were a great inspiration to the Wright brothers Lilienthal leaped off hills to catch the wind and rise into the air In 1896 he broke his neck in a fatal crash POWER PEOPLE 7 THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER was at the front attached to the skids 1908 Airwoman Thérèse Peltier a French artist is the fi rst woman to fl y in an airplane and to take the controls on a solo fl ight 1909 Monoplane French aviator Louis Blériot makes the fi rst fl ight across the English Channel He uses the fi rst working monoplane an aircraft with one fi xed wing
