"Don't fly too close to the sun"- A brief history of aviation

11/06/2020

"Don't fly too close to the sun"

This upper idiom, sparked by the legend of Icarus and his father Daedalus, represents a perfect example of mankind's desire to fly since our very early civilizations. Humans are born with the desire to explore the world, to see new landscapes, to connect with others and thus develop and extend the human knowledge and bond. This is incarnated in various fields in our lives and is often related to freedom, holiness and pureness. I mean angels can fly right? Many people, at some point, would have wanted to fly in the air freely like birds or angels. But birds are blessed with wings that let them kiss the sky, whereas humans can only fly virtually (for the moment at least). This is a natural limitation and we can only try our best to mend it. While the first unbound human flight took place in the late 1700's, planning for flying machines that could defy the nature can be traced as far back as 428BC.

Let's have a quick look in the past to understand the long path of human flight.

In the 9th century, Abbas Ibn Firnas, an Andalusian polymath, conducted the first attempt in heavier-than-air flight in aviation history. The attempt was based on two wings attached to the body of Ibn Firnas which was covered with vulture feathers. The jump that occurred in the Spanish city of Cordoba resulted in Ibn Firnas flying for a short distance before landing with major knee injuries.

Ibn Firnas' Statue in Irak
Ibn Firnas' Statue in Irak

Other types of flying mechanisms include kites, a fun toy for kids and a passion for kite surfers. The history of kites goes as far back as the 5th century in ancient China and they are therefore considered to be the first even human-made aircraft.

The Chinese, who are great contributors to the development of aviation, were also able to notice that hot air rises and thus paved the way for the appearance of hot air balloons in the 3rd century BC. Roughly two thousand years after, the principle was reapplied marking what many believe to be the beginning of the conquest of skies.

On a clear winter's morning in November 1783, a giant paper bag rose gently above the grounds of the Château de la Muette on the western outskirts of Paris. The balloon which was designed by the Montgolfier brothers enabled the first untethered human flight to take place and crowned centuries of human work with an irreversible psychological shift : the air was no longer to mythologize, but to colonize.

Other lighter-than-air flights took place in the following years and enabled a rapid development of various aeronautical concepts. One of the most important creations of the following century was the Zeppelin airship, a rigid structure that was named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Zeppelins have also been a major inspiration to various arts and were featured in several science fiction works due to their surrealist size and ingenious design.

The modern aviation history however starts in December 17, 1903 with the Wright brothers. They were able to complete the first sustained flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft carrying an adult human on board of their Wright Flyer. The flyer featured the first flight control system providing active control about each longitudinal, lateral and vertical axes with the help of asymmetric wing deflection by the means of mechanical linkage and human actuation over pulleys and control wires.

The Wright Flyer
The Wright Flyer

The first ailerons which constitute an major system in todays modern aircrafts were introduced 6 years after with the Farmann III. The development and growth of aviation had become exponential ever since, leading to the appearance of the Douglas DC-3, the first aircraft that made air transport profitable. Another milestone had been established : aviation as a business.

Other major milestones include the De Havilland Comet in 1949: the first commercial jet-powered airliner (wing-integrated jet engines).

In 1969, the Pocket Rocket a.k.a Concorde came into existence and marked the first flight of the commercial supersonic transport aircraft (one of two ever build) and was also the first commercial transport aircraft with analogue Fly-by-wire flight control system. A digital Fly-by-wire system was first introduced in 1987 on the Airbus A320.

More Electric Aircrafts (MEA) were pioneered with the introduction of the Superjumbo A380 in 2005 and especially with the Dreamliner 787 in 2008 marking a new era of modern air transportation, leaning more towards electrical energy.

Other major concepts were introduced and their development is still in progress such as the Bombarbier CS300, the first commercial airliner to use a geared turbofan propulsion system, and Airbus who eyes hydrogen power for airliners in the next years.

Based on our collective memory, we as humans were able over the span of more than 2000 years to make the dream of flying come true.

What is next? Something better, something faster, something more efficient and eco-friendlier for sure. Why? Because this desire is perpetual, because in the words of Wilbur Wright "the desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who... looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space... on the infinite highway of the air." 

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