Aviation History: History of Aviation - Documentary

The history of aviation has extended over more than two thousand years, from the earliest forms of aviation, kites and attempts at tower jumping, to supersonic, and hypersonic flight by powered, heavier-than-air jets.

Kite flying in China dates back to several hundred years BC and slowly spread around the world. It is thought to be the earliest example of man-made flight. Some kites in China and Japan were capable of carrying a man into the air.

The ancient Chinese also flew small hot-air lanterns and bamboo-copter toys with spinning rotors.

Leonardo da Vinci's 15th-century dream of flight found expression in several rational but unscientific designs, though he did not attempt to construct any of them.

The discovery of hydrogen gas in the 18th century led to the invention of the hydrogen balloon, at almost exactly the same time that the Montgolfier brothers rediscovered the hot-air balloon and began manned flights. Various theories in mechanics by physicists during the same period of time, notably fluid dynamics and Newton's laws of motion, led to the foundation of modern aerodynamics, most notably by Sir George Cayley.

Balloons, both free-flying and tethered, began to be used for military purposes from the end of the 18th century, with the French government establishing Balloon Companies during the Revolution.

The term aviation, noun of action from stem of Latin avis "bird" was coined in 1863 by French pioneer Guillaume Joseph Gabriel de La Landelle (1812–1886) in "Aviation ou Navigation aérienne".[3][4]

Experiments with gliders provided the groundwork for heavier-than-air craft, and by the early 20th-century advances in engine technology and aerodynamics made controlled, powered flight possible for the first time.

The modern aeroplane with its characteristic tail was established by 1909 and from then on the history of the aeroplane became tied to the development of more and more powerful engines.

The first great ships of the air were the rigid dirigible balloons pioneered by Zeppelin, which soon became synonymous with airships and dominated long-distance flight until the 1930s, when large flying boats became popular.

After World War II, the flying boats were in their turn replaced by land planes, and the new and immensely powerful jet engine revolutionised both air travel and military aviation.

In the latter part of the 20th century the advent of digital electronics produced great advances in flight instrumentation and "fly-by-wire" systems. The 21st century saw the large-scale use of pilotless drones for military, civilian and leisure use.

On a bleak December day in 1903, among the dunes at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, a fragile bi-plane took off in a strong buffeting wind and flew for just 12 seconds, skimming 120 feet across the sands.

At the controls a man called Orvill Wright. Man's first controlled powered flight.

Only sixty years later the world's first supersonic jetliner thundered into the air at Toulouse in France.

This programme tells the extraordinary story of flying history from Kitty Hawk to Concorde, from brave pioneers staggering into the air in their string bag machines, to the age of global mass air travel. It's a hell of a story.

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