by Stanisław Polnik

There are a lot of evidence that people always wanted to fly – just see the myth about Dedal and Ikar. Leonardo da Vinci was a great engineer, artist and also a dreamer. We can steel see his sketches of different flying machines. He never had put his dreams to reality.

The first recorded balloon using hot air carrying passengers was built by the brothers Montgolfier in France. The first public demonstration of their baloon took place in 1783.

… was Jan Wnęk, polish carpenter, but also a sculptor. He was also talented for mechanics. His longest flight of 2 kilometers on „Flys” took place in 1866, on church celebration.

Using the studies on the bats, Clement Ader constructed his first flying machine. It was a bat-like, run by a steam engine. It flew for 50 meters in Ader was French inventor and engineer, improved the thelephone and was the author of the first stereo transmission. He was busy man!

Otto Lilienthal was called the Gilder King. In 1893 he flight on the distance of 350 metres. He wrote a book about aviation and made several projects. He died after a crush of his gilder in The most important award for gilders now is „Otto Lilienthal medal”

Orville and Wilbur Wright were Americans, the bicycle producers who invented and built the first airplane that was controlled by the pilot. They built also the plane’s engine. Their first flight took place in In 1904 they managed to fly for 40 minutes on the aircraft competition. They made everyone to believe that man can fly after all.

The first one to fly across English Channel was Louis Bleriot, French engineer and inventor. It was in Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in 1927 Amy Johnson flew around the word in 1933.