Guest Author - Violette DeSantis

There is an ancient Greek legend about a man and his son. Daedalus was an engineer who was in jail because of King Minos. After leaving jail Daedalus and his son Icarus wanted to fly. They made wings of wax and feathers to glue to their arms. Daedalus flew to Naples. Icarus wanted to fly high but he flew too close to the sun. The legend says the wax melted and the wings fell and Icarus fell into the ocean.

Thankfully man’s ideas on flight did not stop there. Orville and Wilbur Wright were two brothers who wanted to build a flying machine. They studied the history of others who wanted to fly and started by testing gliders of different shapes. The Wright brothers’ biggest challenge was figuring out how to control the gliders in air.

To control the gliders they made wings and tails of many sizes. After finding the right shapes for flight they then needed a machine. After Orville and Wilbur found the right engine they were ready. Their flyer flew at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903.

Before airplanes many people dreamed of flying. In the 1480’s, Leonardo da Vinci a famous painter made drawings about how to fly. He drew pictures of a flying machine. Leonardo never tried to make the machine.

In the 1800’s two different men designed gliders. George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal’s gliders were controlled by body movements. Another man tried to add an engine to a plane model. Later in 1894, Octave Chanute wrote a book about all the history of flying. It was this book that the Wright brothers used to learn about everything that was investigated in the area of flight before them.

Men aren’t the only individuals interested in flight. A great number of women enjoy flying and the history of flight. Women have been able to fly in war. When planes were new, women tested how far they could fly. Today women fly to space and many have flown in space shuttles to explore or work on the International Space Station.

A couple of great women in flight were Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran who was the first woman to break the sound barrier and Amelia Earhart. They both had an opportunity to change the history of aviation for women. When Cochran was rejected from flying in an aviation race in 1935 she objected and finally was accepted. Although her plane was faulty and she could not continue to compete, because of her actions Amelia Earhart was able to fly as well and finished fifth in the competition.

Let’s take a moment to applaud the incredible people involved in the history of flight. We have many more opportunities to discuss what is happening in the history of flight at News for Kids.