I n the United States in the early 1800s, it took six
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, two
brothers in France made the first hot-air balloon.
Hot air is lighter than cool air, so when it is
pumped into a large balloon, it makes the balloon
rise. If there is a basket tied to the bottom of the
balloon and people get into the basket, could
you say they are flying?
months to travel from the mid-West to California
on a wagon train. You can now make that
same trip in a few hours. How? On an airplane,
of course!
Was all of this flying talk wishful thinking?
Maybe. But the determination of a different
pair of brothers changed that wishful thinking
into reality.
Before 1903, the only things that could fly
were kites, balloons, and birds. It’s not that
people did not think of flying. They did. They
thought about it for thousands of years.
Orville and Wilbur Wright owned and ran
a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They had built
t
s
i
e
h
R
o
g
f F li
The
For example, the ancient Greeks and Romans
had legends and myths about flight. More than
2,000 years ago, the Chinese developed kites.
They used these kites to test weather conditions.
In the 1480s, an Italian inventor named Leonardo
da Vinci studied flight. He made many drawings
to show his ideas about machines that could
fly. One was a machine that was the basis for
the helicopter!
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com
The Wright brothers are on their first airplane.
Credits: main: © MARKA/Alamy; background: © iStockphoto.com/blackred
1
used for dropping bombs
and shooting other
airplanes out of the sky.
DID YOU
KNOW?
The longest nonstop
flight by any aircraft
lasted almost 77 hours
and took place in 2006.
When World War I
ended, planes were used
for commercial purposes,
transporting goods and mail. In 1958, passenger
jets began flying people over the Atlantic to
other countries. We’ve been flying every since.
The Wright Brothers first heavier-than-air Flight. December 17, 1903
gliders, but none of them had motors. In 1903,
they added a gas-powered engine and a pair of
propellers. The powered-glider measured a little
over 40 feet from wingtip to wingtip. It weighed
750 pounds, pilot and all. Late that same year, in
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville flew the plane
for 120 feet. The flight lasted all of 12 seconds.
The date was December 17, 1903. By 1905, the
improvements they’d made on their plane allowed
them to travel a little over 24 miles in 38 minutes.
Traveling by air is one of the most popular
modes of transportation in the world. In any
given 24-hour period, 93,000 flights leave from
around 9,000 airports around the world. There
are between 8,000 and 13,000 planes up in the
air at one time. It takes countless numbers of
people to monitor all those flights and keep them
out of each other’s way.
If only Orville and Wilbur could see us now!
By the time World War I started in 1914, planes
were used to to explore the area beyond where
friendly forces were.. Eventually, the planes were
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com
Credits: left: © History Archive/Alamy; right: © iStockphoto.com/kickers; background: © iStockphoto.com/blackred
2