Von Hardesty

Provides an overview of the principal stages in the history of flight, from animal flight and the first attempts to develop human flight to the present, and describes the invention of the various systems on an airplane and notable aircraft.

The first people to fly did so in hot-air balloons. Some 120 years later, the Wright brothers' heavier-than-air flying machine made powered, controlled flight possible. Ever since, aviators have aspired to fly faster, farther, and higher. With advances in rocketry, a new era dawned.