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Fixed Wings: Gliders | |
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The lighter-than-air travel was limited. Man had to return to his study of birds to find the last thread to today's design of aircraft. Leonardo da Vinci made the first real studies of flight in 1486. He had 150 drawings that illustrated his theories on flight. However, his notebooks were lost until 1797.
George Cayley saw that people could not fly on their own because they didn't have enough muscle power to create lift. He turned to the invention of the kite that had been around for study for over 2000 years.
Over the next 50 years Cayley added to and improved his principles for controlled gliding flight. He studied air pressure and found out the correct angle for the wing so that the air flow would lift the glider. Cayley built a glider that you could control. His coachman flew in it. He had made the first manned heavier-than-air flight in history. The first real success at glider flight was done by Liliental in 1891. He was the first person to be able to show that controlled flight was possible. He did studies of birds and learned how birds fly and used this understanding for flight for man.
Hang-gliders of today are based upon Lilienthal's plans. A drawback to his design was that a great deal of control was dependent upon his body movement. Octave Chanute from America wrote a book called the Progress in Flying Machines. He was a champion of flight and his greatest work was as an educator. His book had all the known information on flight to that point in history.
Chanute wrote long letters about flight to Wilbur and Orville Wright. Chanute helped them to understand the principles of flight.
The Wright Brothers ran a bicycle shop and had more than a passing fancy in aviation. They wanted to give flying the final part: Power!
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