For many centuries before the ascension of the first Montgolfier balloon, which, as we have seen, marked the beginning of aerial flight, men had dreamed of a different method of conquering the skies,—in fact, the very natural one suggested by the flight of birds. To build artificial wings was the ambition of many an old-time scientist. Yet practicable as the idea seemed, its working out was, as a matter of fact, beset with difficulties. The Montgolfier balloon rose in the air because it was lighter than air,—just as a piece of cork rises in water because it weighs less in proportion to its volume than the water. But a man equipped with wings is a fairly heavy object; where is the force that is to lift him and carry him soaring into the sky?

Unfortunately the early experimenters in aeronautics were not men who had had the long training in keen observation nor the groundwork of mechanical knowledge which would have fitted them for their task of devising a flying machine. They were dreamers and philosophers, often with very clever ideas about how man might succeed in flying. But the exact science of mechanics was yet unborn, and it was not until the nineteenth century, with its great advance in this direction, dawned, that the time was ripe for any measure of success. Still, in many old pictures and medieval manuscripts there are curious examples of the ideas of these old philosophers, designs which were never actually tried out, but which show the longing of men, even in those days, for the great adventure of sailing above the clouds.

All these strange theories of the middle ages were hampered by the superstition that there was some “magic” connected with the power of birds to fly. Cameras were unheard of, or it would have been a simple matter to have recorded on paper the actual motions of the bird's wings in order to study their significance. The astounding ease with which these little winged creatures were able to float across the heavens was indeed baffling; it was difficult to determine just how it was accomplished. Any one who watches the flight of a seagull realizes that here is an accomplished aeronaut, able to balance himself with perfect ease in the atmosphere, to mount upward on flapping wings, or, taking advantage of a rising air current which can support him, to float motionless with wings extended. All this requires an unusual amount of skill, particularly in balancing. Drop a piece of paper and watch how it turns and tumbles at every angle before it reaches the floor. That is just what a bird or an airplane has a tendency to do, and it takes a perfect system of control and a skilled pilot indeed, to keep it right side up.

The first idea, of course, for a heavier-than-air machine, was that of a pair of wings to be attached directly to the human body, and to be worked with the arms. As early as 1480 Leonardi da Vinci drew up a design for an apparatus of this sort. And the idea was not a bad one: it would have worked all very well had it not been for one small fact which the philosophers overlooked, that man is not provided with the powerful shoulder muscles such as the bird possesses for moving his wings.

Altogether, it was not until the nineteenth century that any real progress toward flight in a heavier-than-air machine was made. It came when experimenters began to investigate the definite laws of air resistance and air pressure which control the action of a bird just as they do the action of a kite. As a matter of fact, a bird, or an airplane, is nothing more than a complicated kite, controlled by an intelligence within itself, rather than by an operator standing on the ground and guiding it by means of a cord.

Every one knows that a kite, if placed at an angle to the wind, will be carried upward. The reason for this can be seen from a very simple diagram.

The pressure of the wind would, if unhindered, push the kite into a horizontal position. But the string prevents the angle of the kite from altering, and since the pressure on its lower surface is greater than that on its upper, it naturally rises. This is just what happens when the bird sets his wings at such an angle to the wind that he is lifted into the sky. It is also the principle which governs the airplane or glider, whose planes are kept at a definite angle to the air current. The bird can of course readjust the angle of his wings when he has risen high enough, or when he meets a current of air moving in a different direction, and in the same way the elevating plane of a modern airplane can be lifted or deflected at the will of the flyer, to produce an upward or a downward motion.

The first man to study seriously the effects of air pressure on plane surfaces was an Englishman named Sir George Cayley, who in 1810 drew up plans for a flying machine somewhat resembling the modern monoplane. In 1866 Wenham patented a machine which involved an ingenious idea, that of several parallel planes ranged above each other, instead of the single surface, as of the bird's wing. Wenham believed that the upward pressure of the wind, acting on all these surfaces would give a far greater lifting power, as well as a greatly increased stability, for the machine could not be so easily overturned. Here was the principle of the modern biplane and triplane in its infancy. Yet the idea of strict “bird-form” was more appealing to the imagination, and the experimenters who came after Wenham did not adopt his suggestions.

The man who may truly be said to have given the airplane its first real start in life, was a German named Otto Lilienthal. His figure is a very picturesque one in the long story of the conquest of the air. Lilienthal was a very busy engineer, but from boyhood he had had a consuming interest in the problems of flight, and as he traveled about Germany on his business undertakings he cast about in his mind incessantly for some plan of wings which would support the human body and carry it up into the air. He finally began a very systematic study of the wings of birds with the result that he made some unusual and important discoveries. While the men who had preceded him had attempted only flat wings in their plans for flying machines, Lilienthal decided that the wings should be arched, like those of a bird, heavier in front, with an abrupt downward dip to the front edge, and then sloping away gradually to the rear where their weight was comparatively slight. When still quite a young man he began building kites with planes curved in this manner. To his surprise and joy he found that they rose very rapidly when set to the breeze. They even seemed to move forward slightly in the air, as though they had a tendency to fly. Like a bird resting on a current of air with wings motionless, these little toy wings were carried along gracefully on the breeze. Lilienthal was jubilant. A man equipped with wings like these, he said to himself, would have no difficulty at all in flying.

Lilienthal was not a rich man and it was many years before his opportunity to test his ideas with a real flying machine came. When by hard toil at his profession he had accumulated a comfortable fortune, he turned at last to his beloved study. He had often watched the baby birds in their efforts to fly, and he knew it would be a long time before he attained any skill with wings, but he was absolutely confident that with much practise and perseverance he could actually learn to fly like the birds. So he constructed for himself a pair of bird wings, arched exactly like those which he had studied. They were arranged with a circular strip of wood between them for his body. Here he hung, with his arms outstretched on each side, so that he could operate the wings.

The difficulties Lilienthal had looked for he experienced in large measure. It was no easy thing to attempt to fly in this crude apparatus, but day after day he went out upon the road, turned to face the breeze as he had seen the baby birds do, ran swiftly a short distance, and then inclined the wings upward so that they might catch the current of air. For a long time he was unsuccessful, but imagine his joy when he actually did one day feel himself lifted off his feet, carried forward a few feet and set down. It was scarcely more than a tiny jump, but Lilienthal knew he had commenced to fly. From that time on his efforts were ceaseless. He succeeded in being lifted a number of feet off the ground and carried for some distance. But try as he would he could not get high in the air. He realized that what he lacked was any form of motive power, and for want of a better, determined to make use of the force of gravity to start him through the air at greater speed. Accordingly he had built for him a hill with a smooth incline, and from the top of this he jumped in his flying machine. The wings he had first constructed he had since improved on, adding two tail planes at the rear which gave greater stability and decreased the tendency to turn over in the air. As he sprang from the hilltop in this curious apparatus, he turned the wings upward slightly to catch the breeze, which supported him exactly as if he had been a kite while he glided out gracefully and finally came gently to earth. This spectacle of a man gliding through the air attracted large crowds. People assembled from far and wide to behold the flying man, and his achievements were greeted with wild cheering. On his huge winged glider he floated calmly over the heads of the astounded multitude, often landing far behind them in the fields. In the difficult matter of balancing himself in mid-air he became exceedingly skilful. Every slight gust of wind had a tendency to overturn him, but Lilienthal constantly shifted the weight of his body in such a manner as to balance himself. As he gained confidence he began practising in stronger winds. His great longing was to soar like a bird up into the sky, and so when he felt a rising air current, he inclined his wings slightly upward to take advantage of it. Often he did rise far above the hilltop from which he had sprung, but he never succeeded in actually flying like a bird. His glider had not the motive power to drive it against the breeze with sufficient velocity to send it up into the air, and his wings were but crude imitations of the wonderful mechanism on which the bird soars into the sky. Undaunted by his failure he set to work on a double set of wings, very similar to a modern biplane. He thought these would have greater lifting power, but when he came to try them he found them exceedingly unwieldy and hard to control. For where the biplane has an intricate control system, Lilienthal relied entirely upon his own body to operate his glider.

Lilienthal became more and more reckless in his gliding efforts, and in 1896, while gliding in a strong wind, he lost control of his winged contrivance and came crashing to the earth from a great height. When the horrified spectators rushed to the spot, they found the fearless pioneer flier dead beneath the wreck of his machine.

What Lilienthal had done for the cause of aviation, however, would be hard to estimate. He had drawn the attention of thinking people the world over to his experiments. He had pointed the way to the real solution of the problem of flying: that of studying and imitating the birds; and he had discovered the form of plane which on airplanes to-day is well known to give the greatest lifting power: that of an arched surface, deeply curved in front and sloping gradually back to its rear edge where its thickness is very slight. Moreover, his attempts at flight had presented a challenge to engineers and scientists—a challenge which was quickly to bear fruit.

An Englishman named Percy S. Pilcher had followed the work of Lilienthal with the deepest interest, and he now determined to begin a series of experiments on his own account. Like Lilienthal he realized that it would be useless to attempt a motor driven airplane until the principles of glider construction were fully understood. A glider is simply an airplane without an engine, and Lilienthal succeeded in giving it a certain motive power by starting from a high point, so that the force of gravity could draw him forward and downward. Pilcher adopted an even more original scheme for making his glider “go.” He treated it exactly as if it had been a huge kite, fastening a rope to it and having it pulled swiftly by a team of horses, until it had gained sufficient momentum to carry it up in the air. The moment it began to rise, Pilcher, who hung between the two large wings much as Lilienthal had done, detached himself from the rope and went soaring into the air like a kite, attempting to balance himself and prevent his glider from overturning. But he had not the experience that long and careful practise had given to Lilienthal, and before he had made very many flights in his glider, he fell and met his death.

In 1896 an Australian, Hargrave, experimented with kites in order to discover a glider form which possessed both lifting power and stability. He was the originator of the familiar “box-kite,” which flies so steadily even in a strong breeze. Hargrave connected four very large kites of this sort by a cable, swung a rope seat beneath them and succeeded in making ascents without fear of accident.

Chanute, a Frenchman, now devised a biplane glider with which he succeeded in making brief flights of a few seconds.

The way was now paved for the coming of two great pioneers in the history of aviation. Wilbur and Orville Wright were owners of a small bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They were men with an innate mechanical skill and with the same dogged persistence and indifference to physical hardships which might have brought success to Lilienthal if he had had the time to devote to his experiments.

The Wright brothers had read with fascination accounts of the gliding efforts of Lilienthal. They determined to set to work to solve the problem of human flight. For two years they read and studied everything that had been written upon the subject, and then finally they felt ready to make a trial of a glider of their own construction. They had made up their minds that Chanute's idea of the biplane was most practicable, and so the machine which they built was not strictly bird form, but had two long planes extending horizontally and parallel to each other, attached by wooden supports. The operator or flier lay face downward in the center of the lower plane.

Their glider was too large to be operated with the arms as Lilienthal's had been, and so they had to devise some new method for controlling and balancing it in the air. This they managed by the use of small auxiliary planes, which were operated by levers and ropes. In front of the two large planes was a small horizontal plane which could be raised or lowered. When raised to catch the wind it gave the glider an upward motion which carried it into the air, bringing the large planes to an angle with the wind where they could continue the climbing process.

One of the great difficulties of the early gliders was their tendency to turn over sidewise. Lilienthal counteracted this whenever he felt one side of his glider falling by shifting his weight toward the highest wing and thus pulling it down. This crude method was impossible in the Wright biplane. The brothers set themselves to seeking a solution from the balancing methods of birds, and right here they made a discovery which was of the greatest importance to the progress of the airplane. The bird when he feels one of his wings falling below the level of the other, simply droops the rear portion of the wing which is lowest, forming a cup or curve at the back which catches the air as it rushes under. This increased pressure of air forces the wing up again until in a second the bird has regained his balance. Imitating this method, the Wright brothers constructed the planes of their glider in such a manner that a cord fastened to the rear sections of each plane could be pulled to draw the rear edge downward. If the left side of their machine became lower than the right it was a simple matter to pull down the left halves of the rear edges of the two planes, and so catch the air currents which would force that side upward. This ingenious scheme of obtaining sidewise or “lateral” balance is used in a modified form in airplanes to-day, and is known as “wing-warping.”

The brothers chose the coast of North Carolina as the best place for their first attempts to fly, for there the breezes were usually not too strong. After a good deal of difficulty they learned not only to glide, as Lilienthal had done, but also to soar some distance into the air. They had so far no means of turning around, but this was remedied by fastening at the rear of the two large planes a small vertical plane which could be moved from side to side and which served to turn the glider.

There were three achievements in airplane construction which so far could be placed to the credit of the Wrights. One was the elevating plane by means of which an upward or downward motion of the glider was obtained. The second was the ingenious wing-warping device, for securing stability. The third was the rudder, which enabled the pilot to turn around in mid-air.

Not satisfied with what they had already accomplished, the brothers now turned their attention to constructing a motor suitable for use in a flying machine. This had to be exceedingly light and at the same time strong, and some means had to be discovered for converting its power into motion. The first engine they built was a four-cylinder petrol, and it was used to revolve two wooden propellers acting in opposite directions. The blades of these propellers as they churned the air, gave “thrust” to the airplane exactly as the propellers of a ship drive it through the water. In this new model airplane the flier no longer lay face downward as in the old glider, but sat on a bench between the planes, from which he controlled the action of the engine, the elevating plane, the rudder and the wing warping arrangement by means of levers and cords.

It was in the memorable year of 1903 that this first real airplane was flown by the Wrights. They continued to work steadily upon the problems of design and construction, and after many trials in the next two years, they succeeded by 1905 in building an airplane which would actually fly a number of miles.

They determined to offer their precious secret to some government, and decided on France, which has always been the patron of aviation. But the French government, after an investigation did not accept their offer, and so, disappointed, but still dogged, they retired into silence for a period of several years. In 1908, when their inventions had been patented in every country, they began a series of public demonstrations of their remarkable machine, Orville in America and Wilbur in France.

By that time, unfortunately, other pioneers had stepped forward to claim honors in the field which they first had explored, but the Wright biplane easily outstripped its contemporaries. Their wonderful demonstration flights made them heroes, acclaimed by millions, and their achievements aroused immediate and intense interest in aeronautics.