Aviation History

1799-1809

     Between 1799 and 1809 Sir George Cayley who was an English Baronet came up with the concept of the modern airplane. At this time Cayley had abandoned the ornithopter tradition. He designed airplanes with rigid wings to provide lift, and separate propelling devices to provide trust. Cayley laid the foundations of aerodynamics through his published works. He showed both with models and full-size flight control by means of a single rudder-elevator unit mounted on an universal joint. In 1853 Cayley sent his coachmen on the first gliding flight in History on his third full-size machine.

     In 1843 an English inventor by the name of William Samuel Henson published his patented design for an Aerial Steam Carriage. His design was a big step towards establishing the modern airplane. The design was a fixed wing monoplane with propellers, and fuselage, and wheeled landing gear, and flight control by means of rear elevator and rudder. The steam-powered models by Henson in 1847 were promising however unsuccessful.

Glenn Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, founded the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) in 1907, which designed and built several aircraft. One of the aircraft built by the AEA was the first American aircraft to be equipped with ailerons, the White Wing. The invention of the aileron led to a protracted patent fight between Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers. The AEA also built the first seaplane to be flown in the United States. In 1908, Glenn Curtiss won the Scientific American Trophy in the first plane that he built and flew, the June Bug, when it made the first public flight of more than one kilometer (0.6 mile) in the United States.