So many questions have been raised and one of them is the history of flights and modern aviation came about. Even though this is not a straight forward answer but enquiries about how today’s aerospace industry evolved from man’s first dream of making a flight to the very air flight that gave mankind wings to fly? Earth has always been known to be a curious planet, and one that is driven by aerospace so now, its inhabitants are venturing with daring courage and will power, going further deep into space. It is often said that Man has always wanted to fly ever since he saw the bird fly. This innate curiosity of humans propelled the engine of his brains, thoughts and invention into producing those flights that eventually gave way to the working, growth and development of aviation. Here is a brief history of flights in human existence and the timeline of flight development through the decades.

The flight history began in China with the discovery of the kite by the Chinese. The kite is a light material that could be flown in the air. It was this simple move that got humans thinking about the possibility of flying too because back then, kites were widely used by the Chinese people as part of their ceremonies. They also used to make colorful arrays of kites as well. Kites have been an important part of the flight invention process as they have been the precedence of balloons and glider objects. In addition, given man’s inclination towards inventing new things that tend to make life easier for him; man has tested flight concepts based on the birds system of flying. Flight wings pieced together with feathers have been tested by man in his quest to fly; by attaching them to human arms but expectedly, these tests kept failing because they were simply incomparable to a bird’s unique and divine way of flying.

Along came the renowned Greek engineer, whose name is the Hero of Alexandria. This Researcher went on to discover how to create sources of power with air pressure and steam. Alexandria made his brief and modest contribution to the early development of flight. However Leonardo Da Vinci made the first real scientific breakthrough when he made over a hundred illustrations of his flight theories which he made with proofs to show that man could indeed fly. Thereafter, modern helicopter gradually emerged based on some of Vinci’s flight concepts. Then in the late eighteenth century, the brothers - Joseph and Jacques went on to become the inventors of the world’s first hot air balloon. They used crude methods to generate the heat in the balloon by using the smoke from fire to blow the needed hot air into a silky-made bag. This bag was attached to a large basket which rose up, being lighter than the atmosphere.

Having been successful, the J brothers began to fly people into the skies in their hot-air ‘aircrafts.’ A German engineer known as Otto who studied aerodynamic flights worked to design gliders that fly and was the first person to build a glider that could fly over very long distances. Based on his studies on birds and how they fly, he wrote a book on aerodynamics which was later used by the Wright Brothers as the basis for their own flight experiments. Finally, the Wright Brothers - Orville and Wilbur - were more successful than all the other scientists in their flight tests. They tried out all the theories of flights that were written long before them by using balloons and kites; but after a thorough research on the earlier inventions. It is now on record that on December 17th 1903, the first man made flight in the air for a few seconds.

The two brothers took turns in testing their flights but it was Orville Wright who first tested the plane therefore he is being credited with the first human flight ever made. Afterwards, man became able to fly an aircraft in the sky. Throughout the twentieth century, new and modern airplanes with very powerful multiple engines were developed to help transport different things including passengers and their luggage, goods, cargo, military personnel and weapons. We all wait to see how the twenty first century flights will be like.