Icarus and Daedalus

Ancient legends and mythology reflect man's long standing aspirations to fly. Most famous is the story of Daedalus and his son. Icarus, imprisoned by Minos, King of Crete. To escape they made wings of feathers and wax. Daedalus reached Sicily safely. But Icarus, elated by the experience or flight, soared so high that the sun melted the wax in his wings and he crashed to his death

Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519

This great Italian artist and inventor developed several original and very remarkable ideas for flying machinery. We now know that it is most unlikely that any of Leonardo's designs would have worked because they were too heavy But this in no way detracts from the brilliance and range of his thinking about the problems of flight, which included ideas for a helicopter and a parachute

Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier, 1783

The first recorded free ascent by man was at the Bois de Boulogne in November 1783, in a balloon constructed by the Montgolfier brothers. Flown across Paris by Pilatre de Roziedr and the Marquis d'Arlandes the balloon was inflated with heated air from a fire beneath an opening in the bag.

Wilbur and Orville Wright, 1903

At Kitty Hawk, USA, in December 1903. The first sustained flight by a powered aircraft was made. Constructed by Wilbur and Orville Wright the 5 aircraft flew 120 feet on its maiden voyage piloted by Orville Wright on a later flight on the same day Wilbur Wright covered a distance of 852 feet.

Louis Bleriot, 1909

The true potential of the aeroplane war finally demonstrated in 1909 by French aviator Louis Bieriot On July 25, 1909, he flew his Type XI monoplane from Calais to Dauer, making the first crossing of the English Channel by a heavier-than-air machine and foreshadowing the ability of aircraft to travel anywhere regardless of boundaries.

Alcock and Brown, 1919

The ability of aircraft to cover long distances was shown in June 1919 when John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown achieved the first nonstop transatlantic flight in a Vickers Vimy biplane they covered the 1,890 miles from Newfoundland to Ireland in 16 hours 12 minutes.

Charles Lindbergh, 1927

In 1927 Charles Lindbergh achieved the first solo non-solo transatlantic flight. Piloting his Ryan monoplane the "Spirit of St Louis", he flew the 3,610 miles from Long Island USA to Paris 33½ hours

Graf Zeppelin, 1928

Possibly the most successful airship of all time was the Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127) Completed in 1928 it saw 9 years of continuous service. Having flown 1,053,391 miles and carrying a total 13,110 passengers. In 1929 it made the first round-the-world passenger-carrying flight in an elapsed time of 20 days, 4 hours, 14 minutes.

Auguste Piccard, 1931

The first manned flight into the stratosphere was achieved by Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer. On May 27, 1931. at Augsburg Germany their balloon reached an altitude of 51,775 feet higher than any man had been before

Sikorsky VS-300, 1939

From the earliest days of aviation attempts were made to develop aircraft able to take off and land vertically. But it was Russian-born Igor Sikorsky working in the US.A who pioneered the development of the modern helicopter over many years. He war successful in September 1939 with the flight of his VS-30O-the world's first truly effective helicopter

De Havilland Comet, 1952

A major advance in civil aviation was the advent of the first jet airliner, the British de Havilland Comet 1. It entered service with BOAC on May 2, 1952 on routes to South Africa, India and the Far Fast

Sputnik 1, 1957

October 4, 1957, saw the beginning of the Space Age, when Russia launched into orbit Sputnik - the first artificial earth satellite life it weighed 184 lbs, had an orbit of 96 minutes and remained in orbit until early 1958

Yuri Gagarin, Vostok 1, 1961

Man at long last went into space when Major Yuri A Gagarin of the USSR became the first man to orbit the earth on April 12 1961. He circled the earth once in 108 minutes, reaching a maximum altitude of 187 miles, and landed at Smelovoka, Russia

Alexei Leonov and Paul Belyaev, Voskhod 2, 1965

On March 18, 1965 cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to leave the protection of his space capsule. Linked by lifeline to the spacecraft, he floated in space for approximately 10 minutes free of the earth's gravitational pull

Berman, Lovell and Anders, Apollo 8, 1968

With the Apollo 8 mission, mankind's ambition of reaching the moon took a major step forward. Astronauts Borman, Love and Anders left earth on December 21, 1968, entered earth orbit on December 24 and successfully returned on December 27 - thus becoming the first men to fly around the moon.

Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, Apollo 11, 1989

On July 20 1969, one of mankind's earlier dreams was realised when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon with the famous words "that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"