While the invention and perfecting of the balloon was a triumph of human ingenuity, it offered few of the difficulties that faced those who dreamed of navigating the air in a heavier-than-air machine. The very name seemed to defy the immutable law of gravitation. But the audacity of the idea acted as a stimulant rather than a deterrent. For centuries, men have tried to achieve the seemingly impossible. In the time of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci,, who did so many things and did them excellently, sketched out several devices, which were however ineffective, because of the lack of the motor power that succeeding centuries have supplied. In the 19th century a great deal of attention was devoted to the subject in England. Gayley, Henson, Wenham and Stringfellow supplied illuminating ideas that were afterward utilized, and contributions were made by Penaud and Mouillard in France. Only, however, with the approach of the 20th century did these theories and experiments begin to give a real promise of success. Otto Lilienthal, a German inventor, demonstrated the principles of passive flight, the value of the arched wings and the pressure of air upon the wings at various angles. Had he not met with a fatal accident in 1896, he might have anticipated the Wrights. Pilcher, Chanute, and Montgomery elaborated and improved on Lilienthal's work. In the period between 1890 and 1903, aeroplanes were built by Langley in America, Ader in France, and Maxim in England, but though they represented marked advances on anything before achieved, they fell short of real success. Both Maxim's and Adier's machines were wrecked at their first trial. Langley did somewhat better. Congress had appropriated $50,000 to further his invention. He had constructed a tandem monoplane with 48 feet of wing spread and 52 feet in length. A 50-horse-power engine was employed. His experiments were carried on over the Potomac river, but at each of its two trials the machine was wrecked and thrown into the river. While the defective launching apparatus was chiefly responsible for the failure, there was a reaction in public interest, no more money was furnished by Congress, and the project was generally ridiculed.
It remained for the Wright brothers, two remarkable young men of Ohio, to achieve the actual mastery of the air in a heavier-than-air machine. During their boyhood days, they had been obsessed by the idea of flying, but their thoughts did not take a practical turn in that direction until 1896. Then they gave themselves up to experiment and study, and in 1900 began to try to fly at Kitty Hawk, N. C., where the sand dunes and wide spaces gave them ample room for tests. Nearly three years passed, however, years of tremendous labor and concentrated thought and indomitable resolution. Then, on Dec. 17, 1903, they actually flew in a light glider fitted with a small motor. Their first flights lasted only for from 12 to 59 seconds. But they had flown—and the aeroplane was born.
