The Invention of the Airplane
The 20th century was dominated by many significant developments and technological advances.
Right at the start of it was the defining moment
when the American Wright Brothers flew the first ever powered aircraft.
This historical moment took place on December 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA.
That dream of flying did not start there though. More than a century before the
Wright Brothers’ revolutionary invention, there were hot air balloons, wings strapped to arms
and kites mounted on sticks to create a kind of glider effect. But it was Wilbur & Orville
Wright who were the first to ever use a ‘sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight’.
They took four cracks at it and the longest recorded flight that day
was 259 metres (852ft) in 59 seconds. Hard to imagine now but think about this…only 10 years
earlier in 1893, the first gasoline powered car had just been introduced to the world.
The evolution of transportation was thriving!
The world’s first commercial airline flight - a small, two passenger plane (basically
a flying boat) - took place on January 1st, 1914 in Florida. Flying from St. Petersburg,
in one part of the state, to Tampa, in another part, 27 kilometres away,
took just 23 minutes and paved the way for today’s transcontinental flights. The airline made
2 flights daily, 6 days a week and a ticket cost $5…that was a big spend in those days!
Airplanes then went on to play a huge role
in World War I as their fighting ability became clear.
In April 1924, four airplanes set off from Washington, USA,
with 8 Army Air Service pilots to complete the first ever circumnavigation of the globe
by air. Amazingly, and much to their own surprise, they all successfully completed the trip 175 days
and 27,550 miles later. The aviation industry was unstoppable.
Fast forward almost 100 years later to 2019, (let’s just put Covid aside for the moment!)
where approximately 4.5 billion passengers took 42 million flights worldwide…wow,
that is some carbon footprint!
On that very subject, the aviation industry’s most recent goals
are to create more environmentally friendly,
quieter, cheaper airplanes that will release fewer harmful emissions. Let’s hope they work on
those queues at check-in whilst they’re at it! A few interesting aviation facts to finish -
- It is estimated that the odds of dying in an airplane crash are 1 in 9,821 (compared
to 1 in 114 in a car crash). That is equal to 1 fatal accident per 16 million flights. So there,
nothing to fear, start packing your suitcase!
- The busiest airport in the world is Guangzhou
Baiyun in China, serving around 43 million passengers annually.
- The Wright Brothers, though clearly very intelligent,
both attended high school, but did not receive diplomas.
- Amelia Earhart is the most famous woman in the world of aviation
after becoming the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932.
Sadly, she lost her life attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1937.