Our series on Modes of Transport has covered the precursors of land and sea/water travel/transportation but what of the air? Man has always been fascinated with the sky; and seeing birds swoop and soar, man has wanted to do the same.
Let us first look at two words: Myth and Legend.
A myth is a widely held but false belief or idea.
Myth: A traditional story passed down through the ages of early history of people. A myth is used to explain something that took place that the ancients could not quite understand – it was an event involving the supernatural! Similar words are “folk tale,” “fable,” “parable” and “folklore.”
A legend is about an extremely famous or notorious person: "The man was a living legend."
Legend: A traditional story that is passed down to people through the ages and more recently about someone who has done something extraordinary.
It may have happened; it could have been historical but the story has not been fully authenticated. Similar words are “saga,” “epic,” “tale,” “old wives' tales” and “yarn.”
Different ethnic groups had myths and legends and in Greece, the Greeks have a legend about Pegasus.
“Bellerophon the Valiant, son of the King of Corinth, captured Pegasus, a winged horse. Pegasus took him to a battle with the triple headed monster, Chimera.”
The Greeks also have a legend about Icarus and Daedalus.
“Daedalus was an engineer who was imprisoned by King Minos. With his son Icarus, he made wings of wax and feathers. Daedalus flew successfully from Crete to Naples, but Icarus tried to fly too high and flew too near to the sun. The wings of wax melted and Icarus fell to his death in the ocean.”
There are many other legends but as we are wanting to find out how people started flying, let’s read about these stories.
The Chinese discovered that they could fly kites around 400 years before Christ was born. Kites have been important to the invention of flight; it is because of the kites that people thought about flying hot air balloons and gliders, the forerunner of airplanes.
Because of the legends above, people have tried to make wings of feathers. For many centuries, people have tried to fly just like the birds. They used feathers or light weight wood to make wings then attached them to their arms, jumped off high cliffs and flapped their arms hard, hoping to soar with the breeze – just like the birds.
You can imagine that this did not work and so man fell down to the ground. (That must have hurt! Owww!)
There is one man who is very well known for his amazing paintings and ideas. His name is Leonardo da Vinci. In 1480, Leonardo da Vinci made the first real studies of flight. He made more than 100 drawings that illustrated his ideas. No one actually used these drawings until the helicopter was built using his concept.
It was in 1783 that two men thought about a different kind of way to fly. These men thought up the idea of a “hot air balloon.” Imagine that! These two men were brothers; they spent hours together thinking up this invention.
These inventors thought to use fabric – it had to be very light fabric – to make the balloon, so they chose silk. Silk is soft and flows easily. To fill the balloon, they thought up the idea of blowing hot air into it.
The first hot air came from a fire – the hot air was the smoke! Of course, they needed to attach the balloon to something and so they used a basket. As you know, hot air rises – and that is what happened. The hot air in the smoke rose and filled the silk balloon and this in turn started to go into the sky, pulling the attached basket up into the air.
Imagine the excitement of making a flying machine! The first passengers of this hot air balloon were not the men, though; they were a sheep, a rooster and a duck. The balloon travelled about a mile before coming down to earth.
As this first flight was successful, the brothers then started sending other men up in the air – how fun was that! Men finally could fly in the sky!
