After the Wright brothers made the first sustained and controlled flight of a heavier-than-air craft near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903, humanity’s race to the skies hardly ended. Quite the contrary, it heated up more than ever.
In the wake of the brothers’ breakthrough — not unlike the years before as well — dozens of daredevil pilots, engineers, and manufacturers tried out hundreds of various flying machines to put humans in the air. There were gliders, wingsuits, balloons, airships, flying darts, and even stranger contraptions whose names can hardly explain their functions.
Many of these attempts went nowhere — rough drafts left on the scrapheap of history. But plenty of them contributed to the methods of flight we take for granted today.
So while we may now have little fascination left with flight, the photos above will take you back to a freewheeling time when “pilots” and “airplanes” were “aviators” and “flying machines,” when flight was still shiny and new, when simply taking off and landing was anything but a sure thing.
The U.S. Navy evaluated two units for radio-controlled tests in 1937. Despite its innovative design, however, only 20 were ever produced due to limited demand.Public Domain
In 1912, Latham set off on an expedition to French Equatorial Africa and was never seen again. Official reports stated that he was killed by a wounded buffalo near Fort Archambault, but later accounts and analyses have suggested his death may have been the result of foul play, possibly murder, as his body reportedly bore a single head wound inconsistent with a buffalo attack.Public Domain
Paulhan won the first Daily Mail aviation prize in April 1910 after completing a 185-mile journey from London to Manchester, completing the flight in less than 24 hours and with just a single stop.Public Domain
Farman was a British-French aviator who, in 1908, achieved the first officially observed one-kilometer circular fight, winning the Grand Prix d'Aviation.
He later founded Farman Aviation Works with his brothers, which produced widely used aircraft during World War I. Public Domain
Qantas (short for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) was founded in 1920 and quickly became one of the pioneers of aviation in Australia. In its early years, Qantas relied heavily on de Havilland aircraft, which were known as reliable and well suited for the difficult Australian environment. Public Domain
On Jan. 18, 1911, Eugene Ely became the first person to land an aircraft on a ship. Flying a Curtiss Model D pusher biplane, he took off from Selfridge Field near San Francisco and landed on a specially constructed platform aboard the Pennsylvania, which was anchored in San Francisco Bay.
After a brief stay on the ship, Ely then took off from the Pennsylvania and returned safely to his starting point.Public Domain
Here, he is pictured holding his experimental flying machine engine. It weighed 300 pounds and at the time of the photo, around 1894 or 1895, it was considered to be the lightest aircraft engine in the world.Public Domain
In 1896, he unveiled a roughly 21-foot wingspan flying machine that incorporated carbonic acid cylinders meant to produce carbon dioxide gas for propulsion. Public Domain
This historic takeoff marked the first successful flight of a manned, powered, heavier-than-air craft in history.John T. Daniels/Library of Congress
On August 14th of that year, Whitehead reportedly piloted a controlled, powered flight of this heavier-than-air craft in Fairfield, Connecticut.
If true, this would give Whitehead (and not the Wright Brothers) the title of "first in flight." However, the claim remains disputed to this day.Valerian Gribayedoff/Wikimedia Commons
Some credit Le Bris with making history's first glider flights all the way back in 1856. A development on the craft used to make those flights, the glider pictured here achieved little success as an aircraft but nevertheless stands as the first one to ever be photographed, according to some sources.Wikimedia Commons
Lilienthal's early success in achieving what some say were history's first true gliding flights inspired, among others, the Wright brothers. As Wilbur once said, "Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important."Carl Kassner/Wikimedia Commons
On August 10th of the following year, Lilienthal's glider stalled mid-flight near Gollenberg, Germany, causing him to fall 50 feet to his death.Library of Congress
Although his crafts weren't very successful, Phillips achieved some fame for building multiplanes with far more wing surfaces than what one would find on most planes then and now. This 1904 model, for example, featured 21 wings.Wikimedia Commons
Such kites were intended for use when high wind speeds (above 20 miles per hour) prevented the use of observation balloons. The kite could ascend 2,500 feet in the right conditions.Royal Engineers/Imperial War Museums/Wikimedia Commons
br> Founded by brothers Richard, Henri, and Maurice Farman, the company designed more than 200 different types of aircraft during the early years of flight. Bain News Service/Library of Congress
After doing pioneering work in lighter-than-air crafts, Santos-Dumont piloted Europe's first flight in a heavier-than-air craft in 1906.
Because he believed that aviation would bring peace and prosperity to the world, he declined to patent his breakthroughs, instead publishing his designs for all to share.Wikimedia Commons
Many credit the Intrepid with helping the Union Army to win this battle over the Confederates. Throughout the war, hundreds of balloons were put into use.Mathew Brady/Library of Congress
The airship's fatal crash two years later helped convince militaries around the world to move away from airships and toward airplanes, then just in their infancy.Library of Congress
This period marked the zenith of balloon usage for military observation purposes.Europeana/Wikimedia Commons
Jannus used "flying boats" like these to make history as both the pilot of the first plane out of which a parachute jump was made (1912) and as the pilot of the world's first commercial airplane flight, which ran from St. Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, Florida on January 1, 1914.
Two years later, Jannus died when the plane he was using to train Russian military pilots crashed into the Black Sea.Wikimedia Commons
Blériot would soon achieve fame by making the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft as well as making the first true monoplane.Bain News Service/Library of Congress
On May 12, 1926, the Norge made history as the first aircraft to travel to the North Pole.Pacific and Atlantic Photos, Inc./Detroit Publishing Co./Library of Congress
Founded by pioneering American aviators Augustus Moore Herring and Glenn Curtiss in 1909, the Herring-Curtiss Company became one of the most important aircraft manufacturers during the early years of flight.Bain News Service/Library of Congress
Paulhan set many height and speed records in his day and frequently clashed with the patent-holding Wright brothers over the legality of his practice of putting on air shows for profit.Bain News Service/Library of Congress
Baldwin made history as the first pilot to fly over the Mississippi River and later built aircraft for the U.S. Navy and helped lead American military efforts in aviation during World War I.Bain News Service/Library of Congress
The Pre-Engine Era Of Aviation
Humanity had perhaps always dreamed of flying. While we can't say for sure whether our cave-dwelling predecessors looked at birds with envy, there is some evidence that people in ancient times at least toyed with the thought. The story of Icarus, for example, while being a cautionary tale about hubris, shows that the concept of human flight had at the very least worked its way into myth.
But more concretely, the idea of practically creating a flying machine filled the sketchbooks of the 15th-century polymath Leonardo da Vinci. While most of da Vinci's designs were purely theoretical, many of his designs for things like ornithopters and parachutes weren't actually that far off from some of the real flying machines that emerged at the tail end of the 19th century.
Public DomainA page from one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, showing his design for an "aerial screw."
Da Vinci was unfortunately crippled in his pursuit of flight due to the limitations of his time. As pioneering and brilliant as he was, science as a whole was sadly a few hundred years away from being able to identify the necessary components for flight.
The man who did eventually identify those components was Sir George Cayley, an English pioneer known as the "Father of Aeronautics" — even if he is often overlooked in casual conversation.
Cayley had been fascinated by flight since his childhood, and around the turn of the 19th century, he began to turn that fascination into practical application. He conducted a variety of tests to try and gain an understanding of aerodynamics and find out what the ideal design for a flying machine would be. In 1809, he published the results of his research, identifying the four aerodynamic forces: lift, drag, thrust, and weight.
Cayley went on to design various gliders, helicopters, airships, and fixed-wing machines throughout the rest of his career, but he was hardly the only person making strides in aviation.
19th-Century Pioneers And Innovations In Aeronautics
Across Europe and America, the race to flight was in full swing. Inventors and aviation enthusiasts were working day and night to propel humanity quite literally into the skies.
In 1842, for example, British inventor William Samuel Henson proposed the Aerial Steam Carriage, a design for a steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft, and although it was never actually built, Henson's concept included many features common to modern airplanes, including a fuselage, wings, and control surfaces.
A few years later, another Englishman by the name of John Stringfellow managed to fly a small steam-powered model aircraft indoors. This event was a major milestone, as it was the first known powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft, albeit this one was unmanned.
In France, Alphonse Pénaud was working to advance the theory of wing contours and aerodynamics. He tested his innovations in 1871, when he flew the "Planophore," a rubber-powered model monoplane that demonstrated remarkable levels of stability and control not seen in other flying machines. Later designers would look back to Pénaud's contributions when creating their own machines, as stable control was naturally a key element to manned flight.
Then, there was the German engineer Otto Lilienthal. Another enthusiast of manned aviation, Lilienthal conducted more than 2,000 glider flights in the 1890s. He also took meticulous notes on his designs and tests, which provided incredibly valuable data on lift and control. His feats also drew the attention of Orville and Wilbur Wright, two Dayton, Ohio-based bicycle makers who just so happened to have some pretty keen ideas on flight methodology.
When Lilienthal tragically broke his neck in a glider crash on Aug. 9, 1896 and died the next day in the hospital, it oddly served as the final push of inspiration that the Wright brothers needed to start conducting their own flight experiments.
And those experiments eventually led to the creation of the world's first fully practical airplane.
How The Wright Brothers Changed Human Aviation Forever
Between 1900 and 1902, the Wright brothers built a series of gliders, taking their own hyper-detailed notes and iterating on each design. Perhaps the most substantial development was that of the three-axis control system, which allowed a pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and with great precision. The brothers also designed and built a lightweight internal combustion engine and efficient propellors, leading to the creation of the Wright Flyer.
Then, on Dec. 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers successfully completed the first powered, controlled, and sustained flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville Wright piloted the Wright Flyer for 12 seconds over a course of 120 feet, and with that the era of modern aviation had truly begun.
Public DomainWilbur Wright in flight from Governors Island in New York Harbor, 1909.
But the Wright brothers didn't stop there. They continued to refine their designs, leading to longer and even more controlled flights. By 1905, the Wright Flyer III was capable of sustained flight for more than 30 minutes, and they quickly attracted the attention of aviation enthusiasts around the world — and, of course, the U.S. military.
After securing a patent for their invention, they went on to sign contracts with both the U.S. Army and French investors who wanted to build and sell licensed Wright airplanes.
By 1910, the brothers had established both the Wright Company and the Wright Exhibition Company to oversee their rapidly growing business, and although Wilbur Wright would die just a few years later on May 30, 1912, his brother Orville lived on for another 36 years and saw even greater advancements in the technology he had helped build.
Fascinated by this look at vintage flying machines? Next, see which legendary innovators join the Wright brothers among famous inventors who don't actually deserve credit for their most famous breakthrough. Then, take flight beyond our atmosphere and have a look at some vintage NASA photos from the glory days of space travel.
