The History Of Aviation

The history of aviation reaches back throughout centuries into ancient cultures. It is even included in Greek mythology of the legend of Daedalus and Icarus. Although the earliest knowledge of a man-made flight dates back a few hundred years in BC in China through kite flying. It is important to note that aviation throughout history has several stages such as balloons, rotor wings to kites. This paper will focus on the three main stages that I believe pivoted the history and knowledge of aviation: Lighter-than-air flight (airships), heavier-than-air flying machines (airplanes), and military aviation.

The first powered airship was believed to have been created in France during 1852 with a steam engine. Again, another advance was made in 1884 but those airships were not long term and extremely weak. The first airship that were not rigid and made controlled flights were blimps (sometimes called “non-rigid airships”). The most successful early pioneering pilot of this type of aircraft was the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont. The first rigid airships were being developed as non-rigid “blimps” were starting to gain success. Rigid airship design and advancement was pioneered by the German count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Zeppelin airship started in 1899.