A Brief History of Lighter Than Air Flight
Posted in Fly Fishing Gear on the May 28, 2010
If there is one word that is continuously being proved incorrect throughout history, it is the word ‘impossible’. Whenever a rational mind thinks of anything that has never been done before, there is always a majority of people present to say thatit can not be done. Yet, from time to time, human ingeniunity has proved its supremacy over human reasoning. Man hasbeen able to accomplish almost everything that a braincan possibly imagine. The best example in this aspect is aviation. From the earliestendeavor of flying via huge feathers to the super secret future planesin military bases, there is anumber of moments which added a new wing in the flight of scientificadvancements. Moreover, the love of flying was not only restricted to a certain class. Today, all of us can enjoy the flight as well as flying. Enthusiasts can choose to be air force pilots or commercial pilots. Many flight schools are offering courses such as Floatplane training and float endorsement for leisure flyers.
Flight perhaps is among the most amazing prodigies, yet it is also a really common mean of transportation. It is reallyexciting to see how this unbelievableaccomplishment turned into the industry that it is today.
Theoretically, the very first fruitful attempt of making an object fly was the kite which was devised in China in 200BC. However, a very ancient Greek myth ofDeadlus is also considered to be taken from a factual incident. It is assumed that Deadlus tried to mimic the flight of bird by using wax to stick huge wings to his back. The authenticity of this myth is debatable, though it plainly does explainsman’s wish to fly from the oldest of civilization.
Even after such failed attempts, a nearly fruitful attempt of flying is said to be of around the ninth century. A Berber man took a short flight on his gliding machine and landed back to that point. This can possibly be the earliest glider, but the landing was more of a crash. The first recorded and credible event of such flight is found in year 1010th when an English monk Eilmer of Malmesbury hovered about 200 meters in his glider.
During the 18th century, it was Leonardo da Vinci who illustrated designs and illustrations that are assumed to be the major inspiration for what we see as modern aviation. Da Vinci himself was a great believer in man’s capability to fly in flying machines. He drew many machines which very much resemble the planes and helicopters that we see today.
Jean-Francois and Francois Laurent made the first modern in a hot air balloon. The idea of lighter than air flight was almost a century old, but it was in 1783 when these two men took the flight. The balloon later was enhanced as a steerable airship by Henri Giffard in 1852.
Not long ago in 1884, the French armed forces made the very first electric powered airship. The Airships were grounded on the “lighter than air” theory, which suggested that anything lighter than air can float on the air like a boat on water. This was successfully achieved by heating the air, yet the airships were short lived and fragile. The twentieth century came with a newer idea that was denser than air flying machines, but that is a completely new chapter in history of flight.