Early Flying Machines - 19th Century

19th Century

• Hans Andreas Navrestad, Norway — 1825

Allegedly flew manned glider.

• John Stringfellow, England — 1848

First heavier than air powered flight, accomplished by an unmanned steam powered monoplane of 10 feet (3.0 m) wingspan. In 1848, he flew a powered monoplane model a few dozen feet at an exhibition at Cremorne Gardens in London.

• Henri Giffard, France — 1852

On 24 September 1852 Giffard made the first powered and controlled flight, travelling 27 km (17 mi) from Paris to Trappes. It was the world's first passenger-carrying airship). Both practical and steerable, the hydrogen-filled airship was equipped with a 3 hp steam engine that drove a 3 bladed propeller.

• George Cayley, England — 1853

First well-documented Western human glide. Cayley also made the first scientific studies into the aerodynamic forces on a winged flying machine and produced designs incorporating a fuselage, wings, stabilizing tail and control surfaces. He discovered and identified the four aerodynamic forces of flight - weight, lift, drag, and thrust. Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries including cambered wings. He is only one of the many called the "Father of aviation".

• Jean-Marie Le Bris, France — 1856

Jean-Marie Le Bris was the first to fly higher than his point of departure, by having his glider pulled by a horse on a beach, against the wind.

• Matias Perez, Havana, flight in 1856

Matias Perez was a Portuguese pilot, canopy maker and Cuban resident who, carried away with the ever increasing popularity of aerostatic aircraft, disappeared while attempting an aerostatic flight from Havana's "Plaza de Marte" (currently Parque de la Fraternidad) on June, 1856.

• Louis Pierre Mouillard hang glided successfully with a 33 lb wing he made. He described his frightful flight.

• Jan Wnek, Poland — controlled flights 1866 - 1869.

Unsubstantiated claim of controlled flight. Kraków Museum of Ethnography, the source of claims of documentary evidence, refuse to allow independant researchers access to these.

• Félix du Temple de la Croix, France, 1874

First take-off of a manned and powered aircraft, using a sloping ramp, resulting in a brief flight a few feet above the ground.

• John Joseph Montgomery, United States of America 1883

First controlled glider flight in the United States, from a hillside near Otay, California.

• Charles Renard, France 1884.

Aboard the dirigible "La France", first closed course circuit, length 7.6 kilometres (4,7 mi) near Chalais-Meudon, August 9, 1884.

• Alexander Feodorovich Mozhaiski, Russian Empire — 1884

First powered hop by a manned multi-engine (steam) fixed-wing aircraft, 60–100 feet (20-30 m), from a downsloped ramp.

• Clément Ader, France — October 9, 1890

He reportedly made the first manned, powered, heavier-than-air flight of a significant distance (50 metres) but insignificant altitude from level ground in his bat-winged, fully self-propelled fixed wing aircraft with a single tractor propeller, the Ader Éole. Seven years later, the Avion III is claimed to have be flown over 300 metres, just lifting off the ground, and then crashing. The event was not publicized until many years later, as it had been a military secret. The events were poorly documented, the aeroplane not suited to have been controlled and there was no further development.

• Otto Lilienthal, Germany — 1891

The German "Glider King" was a the first person to make controlled untethered glides repeatedly, and the first to be photographed flying a heavier-than-air machine. He made about 2,000 glides until his death on 10 August 1896 from injuries in a glider crash the day before.

• Lawrence Hargrave, Australia — November 12, 1894

The Australian inventor of the box kite linked four of his kites together, added a sling seat, and flew 16 feet (4.9 m). By demonstrating to a sceptical public that it was possible to build a safe and stable flying machine, Hargrave opened the door to other inventors and pioneers. Hargrave devoted most of his life to constructing a machine that would fly. He believed passionately in open communication within the scientific community and would not patent his inventions. Instead, he scrupulously published the results of his experiments in order that a mutual interchange of ideas may take place with other inventors working in the same field, so as to expedite joint progress.

• Hiram Stevens Maxim, United Kingdom — 1894

The American inventor of the machine gun built a very large 3.5 ton (3.2 t) flying machine that ran on a track and was propelled by powerful twin naphtha fuelled steam engines. He made several tests in the huge biplane that were well recorded and reported. On July 31, 1894 he made a record breaking speed run at 42 miles per hour (68 km/h). The machine lifted from the 1,800-foot (550 m) track and broke a restraining rail, crashing after a short uncontrolled flight just above the ground.

• Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, India — 1895

The Sanskrit scholar Shivkar Bapuji Talpade designed an unmanned aircraft called Marutsakthi (meaning Power of Air), supposedly based on Vedic technology. It is claimed that it took off before a large audience in the Chowpathy beach of Bombay and flew to a height of 1,500 feet.

• Samuel Pierpont Langley, United States — May 6, 1896

First sustained flight by a heavier-than-air powered, unmanned aircraft: the Number 5 model, driven by a miniature steam engine, flew half a mile in 90 seconds over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. In November the Number 6 flew more than five thousand feet. Langley's full-size manned powered Aerodrome failed twice in October and December 1903.

• Octave Chanute, United States — Summer 1896

Designer of first rectangular wing strut-braced biplane (originally tri-plane) hang glider, a configuration that strongly influenced the Wright brothers. Flown successfully at the Indiana shore of Lake Michigan, U.S. by his proteges, including Augustus Herring, for distances exceeding 100 feet (30 m).

• Carl Rickard Nyberg, Sweden — 1897

Managed a few short jumps in his Flugan, a steam powered, manned aircraft

• Gustave Whitehead, United States — 1899

Allegedly flew a steam-powered monoplane about half a mile and crashed into a three-story building in Pittsburgh in April or May 1899, according to a witness who gave a statement in 1934, saying he was the passenger. Aviation historians dismiss all of Whitehead's claims to powered flight.

• Percy Pilcher, England — 1899

Pioneer British glider/plane builder and pilot; protege of Lilienthal; killed in 1899 when his fourth glider crashed shortly before the intended public test of his powered triplane. Cranfield University built a replica of the triplane in 2003 from drawings in Philip Jarrett's book "Another Icarus". Test pilot Bill Brooks successfully flew it several times, staying airborne up to 1 minute and 25 seconds.

• Augustus Moore Herring, United States — 1899

Claimed a flight of 70 feet (21 m) by attaching a compressed air motor to a biplane hang glider. However, he was unable to repeat the flight with anyone present.