who is the first man to invent airplane?

Question

on science and technology

Answer 1

It was not the Wright Brothers, contrary to popular belief. Leanardo Davinci even experimented. Here is a little timeline of recorded milestones in flight technology, both science and mechanisms.

Pre-19th Century
Anonymous, Chang'an, the first human in the air with feathery wings — 19 [1]
Yuan Huangtou, Ye, first succeed manned kite glide take off from a tower — 559 [2]
Abbas Ibn Firnas, Al-Andalus, first scientific attempt glide — 875
Eilmer of Malmesbury, a monk who flew a glider from an Abbey in the early 11th Century
Lagari Hasan Çelebi, Istanbul,Turkey, first rocket flight; 17th Century
Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi, Istanbul,Turkey, first fully successful manned glider flight; 17th Century

19th Century
Hans Andreas Navrestad, Norway — 1825 allegedly flew manned glider
John Stringfellow, England — 1848 first heavier than air powered flight (unmanned)
George Cayley, England — first Western human glide 1853
Jean-Marie Le Bris, France, flight in 1856
Jean-Marie Le Bris was the first to fly higher than his point of departure, by having his glider pulled by a horse on a beach, against the wind.
Félix du Temple de la Croix, France, 1874
Félix du Temple accomplished in 1874 the first take-off ever of a manned and powered aircraft, resulting in a brief flight, also sometimes described as a short "hop".
Alexander Feodorovich Mozhaiski, Russian Empire — 1884
Mozhaiski was developing concepts for heavier-than-air flight 20 years before the Wright brothers' first flight. In 1884, in Krasnoye Selo Mozhaiski's monoplane design made what is now considered to be a power assisted take off or 'hop' of 60-100 feet (20-30 meters).
Clement Ader, France — October 9, 1890
In 1890 the Frenchman Clément Ader is said to have made the first manned, powered, heavier-than-air flight of a significant distance (50 meters) in his bat-winged monoplane. The event was not publicized until many years later, as it had been a military secret. According to other reports, the French military said he also flew 300 metres at a later date in a different machine. The events were poorly documented, the aeroplane not well controlled, and there was no further development. Otto Lilienthal, Germany — 1891
The German "Glider King" was a pioneer of human aviation. First controllable glider. Lilienthal was the first person photographed flying a heavier than air machine. He made about 2,000 glides until his death in a crash in 1896.
Hiram Stevens Maxim, United Kingdom — 1894
The American inventor of the machine gun built a very large flying machine that ran on a track and was propelled by powerful twin steam engines. Machine lifted from the track and was restrained by a safety mechanism; it fell back and crashed.
Augustus Moore Herring, United States — 1899
Attached a compressed air motor to a biplane hang glider and flew about 70 feet.

20th Century
Gustave Whitehead, United States — August 14, 1901
First publicized account of a flight by an aeroplane heavier than air propelled by its own motor. Reports were published in the New York Herald, and the Bridgeport Herald. The event was reportedly witnessed by several people, one of them a reporter for the Bridgeport Herald. Children and youngsters who were present signed affidavits about 30 years later about what they saw. Reports said he started on the wheels from a flat surface, flew 800 meters at 15 meter height, and landed softly on the wheels.
Lyman Gilmore, United States — May 15, 1902 reportedly becomes the first person to fly a powered aircraft (a steam-powered glider). Several people saw him acomplish this.
Richard Pearse, New Zealand — March 31, 1903 Several witnessed hops including one on this date of over a hundred feet in a high wing tricycle undercarriage monoplane powered by 15hp air-cooled horizontally opposed engine. Usually considered uncontrolled flight as Pearse's lateral and pitch controls were ineffectual.
Karl Jatho, Germany — August 18, 1903
On August 18, 1903 he flew with his self-made motored gliding aircraft. He had four witnesses for his flight. The plane was equipped with a single-cylinder 10 horsepower (7,5 kW) Buchet engine driving a two-bladed pusher propeller and made hops of up to 200 ft (60 m), flying up to 10 ft (3 m) high.
Orville & Wilbur Wright, United States — December 17, 1903
First controlled, sustained heavier than air flight: in the day's fourth flight, Wilbur Wright flew 279 meters (852 ft) in 59 seconds. First three flights were approximately 120, 175, and 200 ft, respectively. The Wrights were the first to fully and accurately describe all of the conditions needed for controlled, powered flight and put these into use in an airframe.
Traian Vuia, Romania — March 18, 1906
First flight by a heavier-than-air, self-propelled aircraft, without aiding external takeoff mechanisms, such as rail or catapult. Many newspapers in France, the US, and the United Kingdom wrote about the first man to fly with a heavier-than-air machine with its own take off systems, propulsion units and landing gear. The thing that has been emphasized eversince about Vuia's achievement is that his machine was able to take off on a flat surface "only by on-board means", without any "outside assistance", be it an incline, rails, a catapult, etc.
Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazil — October 23, 1906
Described himself as the first "sportsman of the air". He made his first flight in Paris. His aircraft, designated 14 Bis, was the first to be officially documented and photographed to take off, fly and land without a rail, catapult, or the presence of high winds.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_flying_machine)

The Wright Brothers were not the first, as you can see. Leanardo DaVinci even created early forms of the Helicopter, like a giant Archimedes' Screw with cranks to spin the screw, and invented other winged flying machines with flapping wings, such as a bird. Leanardo loved studying nature, and in fact got many of his ideas and inventions and wonderful knowledge from studying nature and conducting experiments. There are more great scientific minds to be discovered, as flight has bewildered all of man for all of time ever since we first saw birds. A quick fact, if you wanted to physically "fly", you would need a wingspan of 20 feet and muscles 8 feet deep to lift the average American!

I hope that I helped!

Answer 2

First to invent the "airplane"? Well that would be Leonardo Di Vinci.
First to fly in an heavier than air vehicle? Wright Brothers or Clément Ader or Augustus Moore Herring

Answer 3

ILOVESCIENCE is right on point, well documented...the kind of answer I like to see.

I should point out, however, that the Wrights not only documented the science behind their flights, but they were the first to actually provide lateral control of them. All the other manned, powered flights up until that time were basically up-down and straight ahead. Some of the principles used by the Wrights were used to successfully control the flight paths of subsequent flying machines by others.

One other point, I'm not convinced designs and drawings constitute "invent." To my way of thinking, unless a flying machine was actually built and tested successfully, it was not invented...thought about, maybe...but not invented.

Answer 4

Leonardo Da Vinci was the fisrt to design an airplane. The first to build and fly the first airplane was the Wright Brothers

Answer 5

The first man to invent a plane was Leonardo Da Vinci. He made the first plane and the first person to fly the airplane were the Wright Brothers.

Answer 6

Leonardo Da Vinci


Or you could even go Lu Ban - 5th Cent BC with his giant flying bird

Felix de Temple de la Croix is credited with powered flight 29 years before the Wright brothers.

Eilmer of Malmesbury is probably the first un-powered flight that has been recorded in a provable fashion. This would be 11th cent approx.

Answer 7

Wright Brothers.

Answer 8

A guy named J. F. Pickering patented what was called the airship in 1892, where as the wright brothers were credited in 1903 for their version.

Answer 9

Sir George Cayley

Answer 10

As far as history goes, the Wright brothers.

Answer 11

the Wright brothers