Download History of Flight

History
of
Flight
• For our course, we will define flight as
meeting the following characteristics:
– The act, manner, or power of flying or
moving through space above the ground
and/or water
–Act must be controlled
– Flying device must be intended to return
to the ground safely and be able to be
used repeatedly
First “known” flights
• Icarus
– Ancient Greek mythology
– Icarus and his father
Daedalus were imprisoned
on the island of Crete
– Minotaur guarded cell
• Daedalus was an talented
craftsman
– Build 2 sets of wings for he
and Icarus to escape the
prison by flying
– Wings made of wood frame
with wax
and
feathers
• What did Daedalus warn Icarus of before they
took off?
“Do not fly too close to the sun
or too close to the sea.”
“Do not fly too close to the sun
or too close to the sea.”
• Too close to the sun…
…wax melted and the
feathers fell off
Icarus fell into the sea below
and drowned
• Too close to the sea…
…the feathers would get
wet and become too heavy
to work
• The oldest recorded flying objects were….
– …..kites!
– Originated in Ancient China
– The earliest recorded flying kite
was in 200 B.C.E.
First Successful Human Flight (maybe)
• 559 C.E.
• Chinese Prince Yuan Huangtou
– Imprisoned for using a puppet to impersonate the
Emperor
– Escapes by tying himself to a kite and flying out of
prison
– (there are no records of this- so we are not sure if
the story is 100% true)