Today aviation is very important and is used for various reasons. Flying in an airplane is used for many things, from allowing people to move to another place quickly and efficiently, to transporting important materials in a short time. But who invented the airplane?
- Throughout history there has always been talk of flying ships and beings that have been able to levitate, but beyond being fictional stories or historical myths, these kinds of things have contributed to making the minds of dreamy and curious people grow, and Thanks to these dreamers who fought to achieve their dreams, today we have everything we know about aviation and air navigation.
- Today it is difficult to imagine a civilized and modern place where flights are not carried out since airplanes have meant a great technological advance in history. Since effective airships exist, they have been used for thousands of things, from transporting things or people to being used as military weapons during various wars.
- But without a doubt, the greatest advance that leaped at what we know today as airplanes and that makes us think about who invented the airplane happened at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, when various inventors in various parts of the world managed to maintain flights in aerial machines. There is an idea that the Wright brothers invented the airplane, but far from being “the true story” and not to discredit anyone, here we will tell you everything about how the airplane came to be.
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- Since we were children we have grown up with the idea that the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright have been the inventors of the airplane since these American brothers patented their invention and documented the execution of the flights. In the 9th century, the Muslim chemist and physicist Abbas ibn Firnas made the first historical attempt to fly with a machine. Unfortunately, although he managed to fly, the fall almost broke his back. This invention went on to later inspire Leonardo Da Vinci
- Leonardo Da Vinci himself had planned and designed his version of a self-propelled aircraft which inspired many later inventors, as well as a helicopter. The great inventor Nicola Tesla also designed a version of the helicopter.
- Artifacts like balloons and gliders had already been created in Europe. Steam-powered ships too. Flights carried out by external propulsion, such as catapults, had already been carried out, so if you think that the Wright brothers or Alberto Santos Dumont were the first, then you are wrong.
- Some of the people who could also be coined as the inventors of the airplane are Gustave Whitehead, who on August 14, 1901, claimed to have flown a craft that propelled itself into the air. Unfortunately, he did not document the fact, but his plane was later successfully replicated. On the other hand, the following year Lyman Gilmore on May 15, 1902, claimed to have flown. Richard William Pearse managed to fly more than 3 meters above the air in a monoplane ship that crashed into a mountain. Traian Viua managed to take off an aircraft made by himself without the help of any external propellant accessory. Karl Jathohe also created his version of the plane in 1903 with 3 platforms that served as wings.
- In the year 1903 in Ohio in the United States, the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright managed to fly for 59 seconds in a catapult-propelled aircraft on the beach of Kitty Hawk. But the most relevant flight to date that changed the history of the United States and that made them considered the fathers of aviation for a long time was a flight made in the year 1905 on October 5 in its prototype called Flayer III, which covered a distance of 39 kilometers in 38 minutes.
- However, at the same time in Europe, the Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumontmanaged to become the first man to fly aboard it with a device that was propelled without the help of catapults or external drives, that is, a self-propelled plane piloted by the same. His plane was called the 14 Bis and managed to rise several meters above the air, take off, and land in a controlled manner. However, a prototype had already been made in 1904.
- This flight occurred on October 23, 1906, more than a year after the Wright brothers tested their Flayer III, however, the brothers used external elements to propel their craft, not unlike what they had done before. and to other inventors, it can be considered that Alberto Santos Dumont was the first man to carry out a self-propelled, piloted, and controlled flight.
Tips
- Dumont himself witnessed the flight of Gabriel Voisin, who traveled more than 150 meters in the air in what could be considered a seaplane, for which reason, wanting to assign credit as the inventor of the airplane to someone specific, is not feasible and little verifiable, since as we have said, dozens of people managed to fly in airships before Dumont or the Wright brothers. What we can affirm is that without all these men, aircraft, as we know it today, would not exist