The history of aviation has extended over more than two thousand years from the earliest attempts in kites and gliders to powered heavier-thanair, supersonic and hypersonic flight.

The first form of man-made flying objects were kites. The earliest known record of kite flying is from around 200 BC in China, when a general flew a kite over enemy territory to calculate the length of tunnel required to enter the region.

Mythology

Human ambition to fly is illustrated in mythological literature ofseveral cultures; everyone knows about the wings made out of wax and feathers byDaedalus in Greek mythology, or the Pushpaka Vimana of kingRavana in Ramayana, for instance.

Early attempts

Flight automaton in Greece

Around 400 BC, Archytas, the Greek philosopher, mathematician,astronomer,statesman and strategist, designed and built abird-shaped, apparently steam powered model named "The Pigeon" (Greek: Περιστέρα "Peristera"), which is said tohaveflown some 200 meters. According to Aulus Gellius, themechanical bird was suspended on a string or pivot and waspowered by a "concealed aura or spirit".

Hot air balloons, glider and kites in China

The Kongming lantern (proto hot air balloon) was known in Chinafrom ancient times. Its invention is usually attributed to the generalZhuge Liang (180–234 AD, honorific title Kongming), who is said tohave used them to scare the enemy troops: An oil lamp was installed under a large paper bag, and the bag floatedin the air due to the lamp heating the air. ... The enemy was frightenedby the light in the air, thinking that some divine force was helping him.

Manned kite

Yuan Huangtou, Ye, first manned kite glide to take off from a tower— 559 During the Yuan dynasty (13th century) under rulers like Kublai Khan,the rectangular lamps became popular in festivals, when they wouldattract huge crowds. During the Mongol Empire, the design may havespread along the Silk Route into Central Asia and the Middle East.

Kublai Khan

Gliders in Europe

In the 9th century, at the age of 65, the Muslim Andalusian polymath Abbas Ibn Firnas is said to have flown from the hill Jabal al-'arus by employing a rudimentary glider. While "alighting again on the place whence he had started," he eventually crashed and sustained injury which some contemporary critics attributed to a lack of tail.

Abbas Ibn Firnas

Between 1000 and 1010, the English Benedictinemonk Eilmer of Malmesbury flew for about 200meters using a glider (c. 1010), but he toosustained injuries. The event is recorded in thework of the eminent medieval historian Williamof Malmesbury in about 1125. Being a fellowmonk in the same abbey, William almost certainlyobtained hisaccount directly from people therewho knew Eilmer himself.

 Eilmer of Malmesbury

William of Malmesbury

From Renaissance to the 18th century

Some six centuries after Ibn Firnas, Leonardo da Vinci developed ahang gliderdesign in which the inner parts of the wings are fixed, andsome control surfaces are provided towards the tips (as in the glidingflight in birds). A model he built for a test flight in 1496 did not fly, and some otherdesigns, such as the four-person screw-type helicopter, have severe flaws.

Leonardo da Vinci Projects

Italian inventor, Tito Livio Burattini, invited by the Polish KingWładysław IV to his court in Warsaw, built a model aircraft with fourfixed glider wings in 1647. Described as "four pairs of wings attachedto an elaborate 'dragon'", it was said to have successfully lifted a cat in1648 but not Burattini himself. He promised that "only the most minorinjuries" would result from landing the craft. His "Dragon Volant" isconsidered "the most elaborate and sophisticated aeroplane to be builtbefore the 19th Century".

Burattini's Dragon Volant (lit. "Flying Dragon").

In 1670 Francesco Lana de Terzi published work that suggested lighterthan air flight would be possible by having copper foil spheres thatcontained a vacuum that would be lighter than the displaced air, lift anairship (rather literal from his drawing). While not being completely offthe mark, he did fail to realize that the pressure of the surrounding airwould crush the spheres.

Francesco Lana de Terzi publishes a design for lighter-than-air ship

In 1709 Bartolomeu de Gusmão presented a petition to King John V ofPortugal, begging for support for his invention of an airship, in whichhe expressed the greatest confidence. The public test of the machine,which was set for June 24, 1709, did not take place. It is certain that Gusmão was working on this principle at the publicexhibition he gave before the Court on August 8, 1709, in the hall of theCasa da Índia in Lisbon, when he propelled a ball to the roof bycombustion.

"Passarola" (Bird) (1709) by Bartolomeu de Gusmăo

Modern flight

Lighter than air

1783 was a watershed year for ballooning and aviation, between June 4and December 1 five aviation firsts were achieved in France:•On 4 June, the Montgolfier brothers demonstrated their unmanned hotair balloon at Annonay, France.•On 27 August, Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers (Les FreresRobert) launched the world's first (unmanned) hydrogen-filled balloon,from the Champ de Mars, Paris.•On 19 October, the Montgolfiers launched the first manned flight, atethered balloon with humans on board, at the Folie Titon in Paris. Theaviators were the scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, themanufacture manager Jean-Baptiste Réveillon, and Giroud de Villette.

• On 21 November, the Montgolfiers launched the first free flight withhuman passengers. King Louis XVI had originally decreed thatcondemned criminals would be the first pilots, but Jean-François Pilâtrede Rozier, along with the Marquis François d'Arlandes, successfullypetitioned for the honor.• On 1 December, Jacques Charles and the Nicolas-Louis Robertlaunched their manned hydrogen balloon from the Jardin des Tuileries inParis, amid a crowd of 400,000. After Robert alighted, Charles decided toascend alone. This time he ascended rapidly to an altitude of about 3,000meters, where he saw the sun again, suffered extreme pain in his ears andnever flew again.

First public demonstrationin Annonay, 4 June 1783

The world's first mannedhydrogen balloon flight. 1783

The launching of the balloonon 19 October 1783, Claude-LouisDesrais

First untethered voyage by Pilâtre de Rozierand d'Arlandes, November 21, 1783

Contemporary illustration of the first flightby Prof. Jacques Charles with Nicolas-LouisRobert, December 1, 1783

Ballooning became a major "rage" in Europe in the late 18th century,providing the first detailed understanding of the relationship betweenaltitude and the atmosphere. Non-steerable balloons were employed during the American Civil Warby the Union Army Balloon Corps. The young Ferdinand von Zeppelinfirst flew as a balloon passenger with the Union Army of the Potomac in1863. Another advance was made in 1884, when the first fully controllablefree-flight was made in a French Army electric-powered airship, LaFrance, by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs.

The 1884 La France, the firstfully controllable airship

The navigable balloon created by Giffard in 1852

Heavier than air

During the last years of the 18th century, SirGeorge Cayley started the first rigorous study of thephysics of flight. In 1799 he exhibited a plan for aglider, which except for planform was completelymodern in having a separate tail for control andhaving the pilot suspended below the center ofgravity to provide stability, and flew it as a modelin 1804. Later Cayley turned his research tobuilding a full-scale version of his design, firstflying it unmanned in 1849 and in 1853.

Sir George Cayley'sgovernable parachute

Sir George Cayley'sgovernable parachute

In 1848 John Stringfellow made a successful indoor test flight of asteam-powered model, in Chard, Somerset, England. In 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first flight higherthan his point of departure, by having his glider "L'Albatros artificiel“pulled by a horse on a beach. In 1866 Jan Wnęk - a Polish peasant, sculptor and carpenter is alleged to have built and flown a controllable glider. Wneks claims are largelybased on a local oral tradition. Francis Herbert Wenham built a series of unsuccessful unmannedgliders. He presented a paper on his work to the newly formedAeronautical Society of Great Britain in 1866, and decided to prove it bybuilding the world's first wind tunnel in 1871.

Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flyingmachine, Albatros II, 1868.

In 1871 the Frenchman Alphonse Pénaud successfully flew a modelaircraft powered by twisted rubber in Paris. In 1874, Félix du Temple built the "Monoplane", a large plane made ofaluminium in Brest, France, with a wingspan of 13 meters and a weightof only 80 kilograms (without the driver).

The Du Temple Monoplane

Patent drawing of the Monoplane, 1874

About the history of aviation in Romania

Romania has a rich tradition in the aviation field. At the beginning ofthe 20th century, flight pioneers like Aurel Vlaicu, Traian Vuia andGeorge Valentin Bibescu brought important contributions to earlyaviation history, building revolutionary aeroplanes and changing theage's mentalities. In the present, the Romanian Civil Aeronautic Authority is the oneoverseeing the activities.

Aurel Vlaicu at the controlsof Vlaicu II airplane Vuia in his flying machine

Along the 20th century Romania built military aircraft (the IAR-39 andIAR-80 before and during World War II and the IAR-93 and IAR-99 Soim since the 70s), helicopters (IAR 316, IAR 330 - under Aérospatialelicence) as well as passenger aircraft (ROMBAC 1-11 built underBritish Aircraft Corporation licence).

The industrial facilities for aircraft building and maintenance are locatedin Bacǎu (Aerostar), Braşov (Industria Aeronautică Română), Craiova(Avioane Craiova) and Bucharest (Romaero, Turbomecanica). Dumitru Prunariu is the only Romanian astronaut who participated in aspace mission (Soyuz 40 - May 14, 1981).

Pair of Romanian IAR 80s IAR-93