The Time before Cheap Flights

As a modern civilization there is much we take for granted. Highways, bridges, world-class airports, reliable and cheap flights, clean water… the list goes on. We forget that we are in fact only dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants, as Sir Isaac Newton once said. The evolution of our intellectual pursuits is the result of understanding the research and works of notable thinkers of the past. The same goes for the engineering marvels which were created based on this research.

Flight and flying have fascinated human beings since the beginning of time. Nearly all ancient cultures contain myths about flying deities. Imposing wings are found in portrayals of the gods of ancient Egypt, Minoa, and Mesopotamia. Angels, interestingly enough, were not necessarily shown to have wings until the Middle Ages. Winged flight was seen as being the privilege of the gods and men who donned wings were thought to be arrogant in their quest for flight. The famous Greek legend of Daedalus and Icarus carries a clear warning - arrogance shall quite literally come before a fall.

All these dire warnings did nothing to deter humankind from experimenting though. Bird flight was researched avidly, but a clear understanding of the mechanisms behind it was not achieved until the 20th century. Passion defeated by reality was a lesson that would-be aeronauts would learn repeatedly throughout the centuries, often at a high price. Imagination was in no short supply and many a fellow met his end jumping from high buildings and mountains strapped into ill-advised home-made contraptions of wire and feathers.

Leonardo Da Vinci, the celebrated 15th century artist and scientist, left over 500 pages of drawings and research showing a developing understanding of the mechanics of flight. His involved study of the structure of birds’ wings led him to understand that that human form was not capable of birdlike flight, but he designed many ornithopters that required simultaneous pedalling of arms and feet. Inspired by the principle of the Archimedean Screw, a device known since antiquity and used to transport water uphill, he proceeded to draught an elemental proto-helicopter that used a wide screw to lift itself into the air. But since power would still have to be supplied to the contraption by a human being, it was a hopeless endeavour.

Let’s skip over all the fruitless endeavours of subsequent centuries and get down to the lads who got it right – the brothers Wright. Orville and Wilbur Wright had many aspiring engineer-inventor fellows who worked through multiple failures. The Wright brothers were inspired by the glider experiments of the German Otto Lilienthal and the Scottish engineer Percy Pilcher. December 17 1903 saw their 750-pound plane launch from a railroad track at less than seven miles per hour, attaining an altitude of perhaps ten feet, and landing after 120 feet. With this, heavier than air, fixed-wing powered aircraft suddenly became a very real possibility.

Military requirements played a large role in the subsequent development of airplanes. Emerging from the war with tremendous manufacturing capacity and engineering talent, the Douglas, Boeing, and Lockheed companies dominated the commercial aircraft industry.

And the rest, as they say is history. So, next time you board your cheap flight east take a second to think about all the achievements of the men that went before us and left us with the knowledge to build these powerful flying machines.

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