Ever since the beginning of time we looked up at the skies and wished we could fly.  We have tried many different contraptions such as tying feathers to our arms and jumping off of cliffs on bicycle powered flying machines. 

    This changed when China came up with the Kongming lantern or a prototype of the hot air balloon.  It is said that this was used to scare off enemies.  The way this lantern worked was an oil lamp was put under a large paper bag and as the air in the bag heats up, the heated air lifts the bag in the air.

    As we evolved so did our inventions for flight.  In the year 852 in Iberia a gentleman named Abbas Ibfirnas invented a glider that is now considered the prototype to the modern parachute.

    During the Renaissance Leonardo Da Vinci drew a picture of a glider that in principle would glide.  He never flew in it.  Only in the late 20th century was a version of his glider constructed and shown that it would fly.

    Before the invention of the airplane in the early 1900’s, people flew in hot air balloons. The first navigable balloon was created in 1852 and in 1884 the first fully controllable airship was built in France.  From these first flights evolved the first zeppelin in 1900.  This flight only lasted eighteen minutes.

    Although we had the ideas and drew up plans that would work, we didn’t have the technology to put those ideas and plans into action.  In 1906 two  brothers figured it out.  The Wright brothers did make mistakes but they never gave up and they learned what it takes to make their dreams come true.  This happened at Kill Devil Hills, N.C. on December 17 1903.  The first flight only went 120 feet.  This flight was photographed and is the first well documented flight.  In 1905 there was even a crash.  This made them make very important design changes.  Flyer III was the first practical airplane and in 1905 Wilbur Wright flew this plane 24 miles in less then forty minutes.

    After this flight planes became an important part of our lives and in less then 100 years we went from the Wright plane that went 24 miles in less then forty minutes to planes that can break the sound barrier.  We now have planes that can fly and not be detected by radar and sonar.  We have planes that can take off like helicopters. 

    Planes can take you anywhere in the world in about a day.  Planes carry people and goods all around the world.  We wouldn’t have some of the things we have today if it weren’t for aviation advancement.  We wouldn’t have the space shuttle or the type of satellites we have today.  We might not even have computers.  Airplanes played a huge role in both world wars.  Who knows what would have happened if we didn’t want to know how to fly.  It takes the right person at the right time to change the world.

    Humans have pushed the limits of everything we do.  Aviation has been only one technology that has grown in leaps and bounds.  Above everything else we went from flying single engine planes in WWI to flying twin engine planes that carry atomic bombs in WWII and that was only in 25 years.  Now we have prototypes of unmanned planes that fly over enemy territory to do recon and drop bombs so that soldiers don’t get hurt.  This is all done by computers that can be as far away as the next country.

    Who knows with advancements being made every day in aviation what is going to happen in the next 100 years.  Maybe we will all have airplanes to go wherever we want just like the Jetsons.