When, who and how invented the world's first airplane

Humanity wanted to fly long before it learned to move quickly on land or on water. The birds moved too temptingly in the air, without experiencing noticeable external resistance. A man in his movements was limited by the plane of the earth or the smooth surface of water, and could accelerate the movement only with the help of animals, current or wind.

At first, the desire to fly only led to tragedies. Icarus and Daedalus are mythological characters, but there is evidence of real attempts to fly with the help of wings fastened with wax. Such jumps could not be good for the forerunners of today's pilots.

Gradually, attempts to fly became more calculating. People have learned to take off in hot air balloons and build similarity to gliders and hang gliders. But if people, according to some sources, could make hang-gliding flights already in the first millennium of our era, then the development of aviation rested on the absence of a propulsion system. As one of the pioneers of aviation, Emmanuel Swedenborg, wrote, the human body is too heavy and produces too little power.

Nevertheless, centuries of labor of people striving to fly were not in vain. Gradually, general ideas about the design of aircraft, methods of controlling them and the aerodynamic properties of materials were developed. The matter remained with the engine ...

In the second half of the 19th century, steam and gasoline engines learned to be made quite compact and powerful for placement on an airplane. The race to create a workable airplane received a new acceleration, and work of varying degrees of success was carried out in several countries at once.

Most often, the Americans, the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, are called the creators of the first aircraft in the world. There is ample evidence that other pilots had successfully flown before Orville Wright's flight on December 17, 1903. But the Wright brothers have well documented and photographed their flights. In addition, they approached the business of designing aircraft with great care, carefully recording all the results of their work.

The main driving force behind the Wright brothers' duo was Orville, although Wilbur was the first to take an interest in aviation. It was he who, in 1899, after the death of the famous balloonist Otto Lilienthal, began to collect literature on aviation. When Orville got involved, the brothers began their journey to glory.

Creating their own plane (they called it "Flyer", from the English verb fly - "to fly"), the Wright brothers did a huge amount of research along the way. After performing the calculations, they decided that the power of the existing engine and the strength of the materials for the flight would be enough. But before the brothers, no one really thought about controlling the aircraft in flight, which often led to injuries and deaths. The brothers' invention of the control system was key, which allowed the aircraft not only to make small maneuvers, but also to withstand a crosswind. Only after testing the control system on their own built kites and gliders, they decided on a manned flight.

December 14, 1903 "Flyer", piloted by Wilbur, who won this right to the toss, crashed to the ground immediately after being detached from the guide rails due to a pilot error. Three days later, Orville was more fortunate, and the 36.5-meter flight is now considered the first in aviation history.

Subsequently, the Wright brothers continued to work on the aircraft, while simultaneously trying to obtain funding from the US and other governments. Having received no money from the authorities, they patented their aircraft control system, attracted a company involved in military equipment to sales, and their business took off dramatically. Their planes sold at unprecedented prices of $ 25 and $ 30,000. The moment of triumph came in October 1909. In front of the millions of people celebrating the anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River, Wilbur Wright flew along the river within the borders of New York, and then flew around the Statue of Liberty.

The plane of the Russian engineer Alexander Mozhaisky took off more than twenty years earlier than the Flyer. Moreover, Mozhaisky's flying car was much more like modern airplanes than the fruit of the Wright brothers. On July 20, 1882, mechanic I. Golubev, who was piloting the plane, was able to get off the ground on it and make a short flight.

However, the primacy of Mozhaisky was not properly recorded for two reasons at once. The engineer himself considered the flight to be only an ordinary test, not worth the fanfare. And later he ran out of funding and was unable to continue work on the aircraft. Nevertheless, the scientific community recognizes that technically Mozhaisky's plane was developed at a very high level.

Interestingly, at the end of the 20th century, scientists conducted aerodynamic tests of the Mozhaisky aircraft model. They showed that for a full-fledged flight, a properly designed apparatus lacked only the power of the available engines.

Alberto Santos-Dumont was born and died in Brazil, but achieved major successes in aeronautics and aviation in France. Supporters of the fact that it was Santos-Dumont who was the creator of the first aircraft argue that his aircraft did not use a strong headwind for launch (like the plane of the Wright brothers), an accelerating plane (like the Mozhaisky plane) or a catapult. Accordingly, they believe, the year of the invention of the aircraft must be considered 1906, when Santos-Dumont made its first flight.

Santos Dumont has gained immense popularity flying balloons and airships. He has created for himself the image of a lightweight dandy athlete. Having collected a whole collection of cash and other prizes for setting records, the miniature Brazilian became a part of the high society. The rich and those in power gladly met and maintained friendship with him.

However, beneath the sleek exterior of Santos Dumont, there was a deep intelligence. For his 14-bis aircraft, he created a control system with the predecessors of the perfect ailerons. He constantly worked on the manufacturability of the aircraft assembly and the increase in the specific power of the engines.

On October 23, 1906, he flew 60 meters in the presence of dozens of spectators. The Santos-Dumont plane took off and landed on its own, without dropping the landing gear, which still allows us to consider it as an aviation pioneer.

Arguments in disputes

Most likely, all three points of view as to who invented a machine capable of moving in the air ocean are well founded. In some aspects, the Wright brothers, Alexander Mozhaisky, and Alberto Santos-Dumont were the first.

For example, supporters of the Wright brothers believe that their plane took off on the rails simply because of the sandy soil at the test site. Admirers of Santos Dumont have built dozens of copies of the 14-bis and have flown hundreds of hours on them, while of the many attempts to build copies of the Flyer, only a few have been successful, and even then only partially. Well, Mozhaisky's plane was two decades ahead of its competitors, and if a Russian engineer had received funding, the first plane would most likely have been created in Russia. We must pay tribute to all the pioneers of aviation. Through trial and error, often risking their health and life, they built and piloted the first airplanes, and laid the foundation for the huge industry that aviation has become today.