From Leonardo da Vinci's 15th-century sketches to the very first manned gliders and airplanes, these early prototypes made modern flight possible.
After the Wright brothers made the first sustained and controlled flight of a heavier-than-air craft near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 1903, humanity’s race to the skies hardly ended. To the contrary, the competition to invent bigger and better flying machines heated up more than ever.
In the wake of the brothers’ breakthrough, 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 with names that hardly explain their functions.
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 Daily Mail aviation prize in April 1910 after completing a 195-mile journey from London to Manchester in less than 24 hours and with just a single stop.Public Domain
Farman was a British-French aviator who later founded Farman Aviation Works with his brothers, which produced aircraft that were widely used during World War I. Public Domain
On August 9, 1884, Charles Renard and Arthur Constantin Krebs piloted the La France in the first successful completion of a closed-loop flight path by an airship.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 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 this photo was taken, 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 moment marked the first successful flight of a manned, powered, heavier-than-air craft in history.John T. Daniels/Library of Congress
On August 14 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.Public Domain
Lilienthal's early success in achieving what some say were history's first true glider 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."Public Domain
On August 9 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 many wings. This 1904 model, for example, featured 21 wings.Public Domain
Such kites were intended for use when high wind speeds (above 20 miles per hour) prevented the use of observation balloons. The kite could reach 2,500 feet in ideal conditions.Royal Engineers/Imperial War Museums/Wikimedia Commons
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.Public Domain
Throughout the war, hundreds of balloons were put into use.Mathew Brady/Library of Congress
By many accounts, this plane was the first to take off by first accelerating with wheels along a roadway. It is also the craft that influenced the invention of the monoplane.Wikimedia Commons
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. He was both the pilot of the first plane from which a parachute jump was made (1912) and the pilot of the world's first commercial airplane flight, which ran from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Tampa, Florida, on Jan. 1, 1914.
Two years later, Jannus died when the plane he was using to train Russian military pilots crashed into the Black Sea.Public Domain
Blériot achieved fame in July 1909 by making the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft as well as building 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
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
Many of these attempts went nowhere. They were simply rough drafts left on the scrapheap of history. However, plenty of them did contribute to the methods of flight we take for granted today.
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, and when simply taking off and landing was anything but a sure thing.
The Pre-Engine Era Of Aviation
Humanity has perhaps always dreamed of flying. While we can't say for certain 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, his concepts 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 a few hundred years away from being able to determine 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 Aviation," 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 interest into practical application. He conducted a variety of tests to 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.
The 19th-Century Aviation Pioneers And Their Flying Machines
Across Europe and America, the race to flight was in full swing. Inventors and aviation enthusiasts were working day and night to propel humanity 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.
The British MuseumAn artist's impression of John Stringfellow's concept for a flying machine soaring over Egypt.
Meanwhile, 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 band-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 is naturally a key element of 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 drew the attention of Orville and Wilbur Wright, two Ohio 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 Flying Machines Forever
Between 1900 and 1902, the Wright brothers built a series of gliders, taking their own hyper-detailed notes on each design and making changes as needed. 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 propellers, 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 manned, powered, controlled, and sustained flight of a heavier-than-air plane. Orville 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 the brothers 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 a 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 best-known breakthrough. Then, take flight beyond our atmosphere and take a look at some vintage NASA photos from the glory days of space travel.
