There's a reason why we all have dreams about flying, why our superheroes do it, why so many cultures have their own Icarus myths. Flight is one of the oldest and simplest of our desires to overcome the physical limitations of being human. Hundreds of years before the first controlled flight, inventors like Leonardo da Vinci, whose 15th-century ornithopter design is shown above, were busy trying to engineer their way into the clouds. Read on to see more images of the evolution of human flight.
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As early as 1783, two French papermakers known as the Montgolfier brothers were able to achieve artificial flight by burning a fire under the opening of a giant bag made of cloth and paper. Their initial hot air balloon has been the basis for all those that came after.
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Although it would be some time before anybody put together a self-propelled flying machine that really worked, several 19th-century inventors built gliders that could be pushed or pulled to achieve a modest semblance of human flight. Above is Jean-Marie Le Bris' manmade "Albatross" glider, photographed in 1868.
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During the 1890s, a German-born inventor named Otto Lilienthal made thousands of brief flights on the gliders he built. Though he had some fairly fruitful designs, Lilienthal died in 1896 when one of his gliders malfunctioned and crashed, breaking his back.
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Octave Chanute was a French-American engineer who took a great interest in the burgeoning field of aviation design toward the end of the 1800s, designing stacked gliders like this one. Chanute was a friend and advisor of the Wright Brothers, the crowning achievement of whom you'll see on the next page.
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On the morning of December 17, 1903, near Kill Devil Hills, N.C., Orville Wright climbed into the machine he had built with his brother, Wilbur, and piloted the first controlled, sustained, heaver-than-air flight known in human history. That momentous ride was captured in this photo. Next, you'll see how a new class of flying machines figured into World War I.
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Like many inventions that are essentially peaceful in nature, the newborn airplane was quickly reinterpreted as a weapon of war. Early bombers could carry the means of destruction far beyond the range of ground-based artillery, and agile fighters, like the German Fokker D.VII, shown above, could blast enemy bombers out of the skies.
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The Allied powers had their own fighter planes, of course. This is the British Sopwith F-1 Camel, which destroyed more enemy aircraft than any other fighter during World War I. While very effective in battle, the Camel was notoriously difficult to operate. In fact, more Sopwith Camel pilots died from training accidents than from enemy attacks.
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This is the Russian-built Sikorsky Russky Vityaz, a precursor to the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, which was one of the first passenger aircraft in history. It's hard for a modern airline passenger -- even while riding in a cramped coach seat -- to imagine this flight, suspended high above the earth in a squeaking, shaking wooden box. Next you'll see another early airliner.
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Imagine you're a German soldier in World War I and you suddenly notice this grim beast cruising overhead. The Farman Goliath began its career as an Allied bomber, but after the end of the war, its bulky frame became appealing not for its ability to lug heavy explosives but for the cabin space it provided to passengers as a commercial airliner.
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Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) made history when on May 21, 1927, at 10:21 p.m. (Paris time), he landed the world's first continuous flight from New York to Le Bourget Field in France. While a modern trans-Atlantic flight might be over by the time you've gotten through a long nap, a snack of peanuts and a bad in-flight movie, it took Lindbergh and his custom-built airplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, more than 33 hours to complete the trip.
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Lindbergh wasn't the only famous pilot of the interwar period. Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), shown here with her Lockheed Electra, was celebrated as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. On July 2, 1937, Earhart disappeared in the Pacific Ocean while attempting to circumnavigate the globe. The details of her fate are still unknown.
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The Montgolfier brothers would have been proud. While fixed-wing, heavier-than-air vehicles would dominate the air travel scene for most of the 20th century, airships like the ill-fated LZ 129 Hindenburg were popular technology until their decline around the time of World War II.
Image Credit: U.S. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Aeronautics. Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This is Frank Whittle, demonstrating the advantages of a turbojet engine. During the 1930s, while Whittle was serving as a member of the British Royal Air Force (RAF), he developed the idea for a gas turbine-propelled airplane. Propellers gave way to jet engines. The rest is history.
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The German Heinkel He-178, shown above, was the first turbojet-powered aircraft in history. The jet engine revolution opened up new possibilities for what self-propelled airplanes could do in terms of speed and altitude. Next up, you'll see the bomber model that earned the name "Flying Fortress."
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Used extensively by the Allies during World War II, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is recognized by its hulking frame, its quad engines, and its distinctive machine gun ball turrets. The first mass-produced version of the Flying Fortress, known as the B-17E, could fly with heavy bomb payloads and was known to stay aloft even after taking significant damage.
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By the time of World War II, it would be easy to think that wooden aircraft had fallen into total obsolescence. The British de Havilland Mosquito, however, put wood to good use. The wood-framed Mosquito, which was unusually nimble for a bomber, became an important part of the Allied air effort.
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The Sikorsky R-4 helicopter began chopping for the United States Air Force in January 1942, and it went on to become the first mass-produced helicopter in the history of the world. This aircraft was designed by Igor Sikorsky -- the same man who built the Russian passenger ship the Russky Vityaz and the Ilya Muromets.
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For years, many aviators and engineers believed that it might be impossible to break the sound barrier. Enter the Bell X-1, which showed in 1947 that attaining the speed of sound was more of a simple obstacle and less of a prohibitive "barrier." Click ahead to see the pilot who took the X-1 to the limit.
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USAF Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager was the first human to pilot a manmade vehicle faster than the speed of sound. On Oct. 14, 1947, Capt. Yeager took his Bell X-1 past the local speed of sound, to about 700 miles per hour (1,127 kilometers per hour), proving the possibility of supersonic flight.
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In terms of sheer numbers, the Cessna Skyhawk rules the skies. It is the most popular airplane in history, according to the manufacturer, with more than 43,000 Skyhawks delivered in total. Click ahead to see another hugely popular aircraft.
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The Boeing 737 family is the most popular commercial airliner in the history of human flight. According to Boeing's claims, as of September 2011, one 737 takes off or lands every 2.3 seconds, and on average, about 1,700 airplanes from the 737 family are airborne at all times. Next, you'll see a class of jet fighter with a unique selling point.
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Wish your jet fighter had moves like a helicopter? Meet the Harrier Jump Jet. The Harrier is capable of vertical and/or short takeoff and landing, meaning it doesn't need the full length of a normal runway to begin and end each flight. Vertical takeoff means this machine is capable of hopping straight up into the air on command.
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The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, better known as the Huey, has been a versatile and dependable helicopter in the history of the American armed forces. The Huey served all sorts of purposes during the Vietnam War, from medical evacuations to gunship assaults. Next, you'll see a modern speed demon.
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It's not worth talking around it: This thing just looks like pure evil. This is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird -- a reconnaissance plane. Despite having been around for decades, the Blackbird is still considered one of the pinnacles of performance for a manned aircraft. Pilots in the 1970s demonstrated that the SR-71 is capable of flying more than three times the speed of sound.
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For many years, space-exploration vehicles were not designed to work in Earth's atmosphere. They rode huge rockets into orbit and then crashed down and waited for rescue on the return. That all changed in 1981, when the space shuttle Columbia, which looked surprisingly like a conventional airplane, launched into orbit for the first time and became the first piloted reusable orbiter.
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For an aircraft designed with stealth in mind, the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, also known simply as "the Stealth Bomber," is an ironically conspicuous cornerstone of American military power. With its long strike range and unparalleled stealth capabilities, the B-2 Spirit ensures that no enemy target in the world is safe.
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This is the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor -- America's flagship fighter jet. Whether facing air-to-air combat or an air-to-ground strike mission, if there's an experienced pilot at the stick, there's nothing this model can't handle. Next, you'll see one way the U.S. military extends its air power around the globe.
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Modern aircraft carriers make a well-trained and technologically advanced air force even more formidable, since they allow short-range aircraft to strike targets far from home. But this incredible power comes at a serious price: The carrier known as the Ronald Reagan cost the United States $4.45 billion to commission. Next, you'll see what many believe is the future of military aircraft.
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The golden age of the manned aircraft may already be in our past, as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like this Predator drone take on more and more of the mission load in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and even the United States' border with Mexico. Surveillance missions and air strikes that would once have put a pilot in danger now can be carried out by this robotic order-follower.
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The Airbus A380 is the king, the queen, the whole court -- it is the largest passenger airliner in the history of human flight. With two separate decks and an unprecedented amount of cabin space, the A380 is definitely more than most airline passengers are used to. Click ahead to see inside.
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This is the interior view of the Airbus A380. The manufacturers boast that the A380 offers bigger seats, wider aisles, more storage space and more general comfort than the standard commercial airliner.
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Could the Wright Brothers or Leonardo da Vinci ever have imagined they'd see a staircase inside a flying machine? Airplanes have come a long way in barely more than a century. Who knows what the next hundred years will bring between the wings?
Now that you've witnessed the evolution of aviation in photos, do you wonder how modern trains, planes and automobiles keep us moving? Take our transportation software quiz and see what you know!
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