1853

— (Inventing Flight: The Centennial Celebration Series #5) —

I feel perfectly confident that we shall be able to transport ourselves and families, and their goods and chattels, more securely by air than by water...."
-Sir George Cayley

After the Montgolfier brothers, mankind was ready to move beyond floating to flying. Sir George Cayley, in the first real study of aeronautics, identified lift, drag, and thrust as the three forces affecting flight. His analysis of lift and drag allowed him to develop the basic shape of the modern airplane: a fuselage, fixed wings, and a tail. The difficulty he encountered was in thrust - steam engines were far too heavy to be carried aloft.

Knowing this, Cayley turned his efforts to gliders. In 1804, he launched a small glider, the first man-made aircraft to fly. In 1853, he built a full-sized glider and ordered his coachman aboard. A galloping horse towed the glider and frightened coachman down a hill, and they soon lifted into the air, floating for 200 yards. Upon landing, the coachman resigned.

For his studies and writings, Sir George Cayley is known as the Father of Aeronautics. For his conclusions, many went forward with theories and experiments of their own. The way being paved for the Wright brothers of Dayton.

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