Man has been taking off the ground in different ways for hundreds of years, and the desire to fly has been psychologically prevalent for much longer. As far back as the ancient tales of Icarus, all the way to the detailed designs for bizarre flying machines by the Italian painter Leonardo Da Vinci, man has clearly always wanted to take to the skies. The true beginning of air travel, however, happened right at the start of the 1900s with the Wright Brothers.
On December 17 1903, the Wright brothers took to the sky in their own design on plane. What made this such a momentous occasion was the fact that it was the first powered and sustained flight by a machine that was heavier than air. Previous attempts at human flight had just been various kinds of gliding. That day ushered in the era of air travel that we still enjoy today.
As with many technological advances, the initial use of air travel was for military purposes. World War I involved many famous skirmishes between fighter planes, and the planes which dropped bombs were instrumental, too. Once the war was over, however, effort could be put into developing aircrafts for civilian purposes.
After the war, great leaps forward in technology came, and as the technology improved, cargo and people began to be carried from location to location through flight. Perhaps the most famous example of this was the Graf Zeppelin, which could travel much further than any other of its contemporaries. In 1937, on May 6, however, the famous Hindenburg caught fire, killing 37 people.
Around this very same time, Lindbergh took his famous solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and the Douglas DC-3, a true milestone in plane technology, was developed. This was the first true passenger plane, and was also the first of its kind to make a profit. This means it marked not only the start of passenger only flying, it was the beginning of the air travel industry, too. When WW2 started, airports were built in many major cities across the world.
On December 17 1903, the Wright brothers took to the sky in their own design on plane. What made this such a momentous occasion was the fact that it was the first powered and sustained flight by a machine that was heavier than air. Previous attempts at human flight had just been various kinds of gliding. That day ushered in the era of air travel that we still enjoy today.
As with many technological advances, the initial use of air travel was for military purposes. World War I involved many famous skirmishes between fighter planes, and the planes which dropped bombs were instrumental, too. Once the war was over, however, effort could be put into developing aircrafts for civilian purposes.
After the war, great leaps forward in technology came, and as the technology improved, cargo and people began to be carried from location to location through flight. Perhaps the most famous example of this was the Graf Zeppelin, which could travel much further than any other of its contemporaries. In 1937, on May 6, however, the famous Hindenburg caught fire, killing 37 people.
Around this very same time, Lindbergh took his famous solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and the Douglas DC-3, a true milestone in plane technology, was developed. This was the first true passenger plane, and was also the first of its kind to make a profit. This means it marked not only the start of passenger only flying, it was the beginning of the air travel industry, too. When WW2 started, airports were built in many major cities across the world.
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