Man and His Amazing Flying Machines

'Anything the mind of man can believe it can achiev'’ - a wonderful homily that has led man to conquer the most amazing summits in this wonderful life of ours. But perhaps one of the most significant was the ultimate desire to fly to the moon. Songs were written about this and ever since humankind was aware of the 'man in the moon' he must have wondered what it was like up there.

This must have been one of the catalysts that spurred on Leonardo Da Vinci to design his first flying machine in 1487. At first his designs were based on the way birds flew. Later, he realised this was impractical and produced drawings of machines with fixed wings. He also experimented with what later became known as gliders.

The history of flights in all sorts of craft is littered with the most inspirational events. Francesco de Lana is credited as being the first person to design a lighter-than-air craft based on definite scientific principles. In 1670 he used this information to design a flying boat. The machine was propelled by a sail and lifted by 4 copper spheres from which all the air had been pumped. He speculated that the climbing speed of his airship could be regulated by using small sacks of sand for ballast. Imagine how the first flight of this machine ended!

The famous French Montgolfier brothers became interested in science and in 1782 they constructed an air balloon that was lifted by lighting a cauldron of paper beneath it, and therefore heating and rarefying the air it contained. On 4th June, 1782, this hot air balloon reached a height of about 6,560 feet. They later moved to Paris and in 1782 their balloon carried a sheep, a goose and a rooster.

And so, little by little, these great explorers and conquerors of gravity developed ever more sophisticated flying machines. The history of this subject is fascinating and the development has not finished but the strength of human persistence is epitomised so well in the words of Neil Armstrong when, as the first man to land on the moon on 20th July 1969 said, "that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". Where will the next step be taken?

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