The dream of flight
For thousands of years, people watched birds and dreamed of flying. Leonardo da Vinci sketched flying machines in the late 1400s. Hot-air balloons first lifted people in 1783 in France. But a powered, controllable flying machine heavier than air seemed impossible until the early 1900s.
Early pioneers
| Year | Person | Achievement |
|---|---|---|
| 1783 | Montgolfier brothers (France) | First hot-air balloon flights with people |
| 1804–1853 | George Cayley (England) | Worked out the four forces of flight; built gliders |
| 1890s | Otto Lilienthal (Germany) | Made about 2000 glider flights before dying in a crash in 1896 |
| 1903 | Wright brothers (USA) | First controlled, sustained, powered airplane flight |
The Wright brothers
Orville and Wilbur Wright ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They studied birds, read about earlier experiments, and tested more than 200 wing shapes in their homemade wind tunnel.
Their biggest breakthrough was control. They invented "wing warping," twisting the wingtips to steer and balance, like a bird. This idea led to modern ailerons.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville flew the Flyer for 12 seconds and 37 m. Later that day, Wilbur flew 260 m in 59 seconds. The age of the airplane had begun.
Flight in Canada
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1909 | The Silver Dart, built by Alexander Graham Bell’s Aerial Experiment Association, made the first powered flight in Canada at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, flown by J.A.D. McCurdy |
| 1920s–1930s | Bush pilots opened up northern Canada, carrying mail, supplies and people to remote communities |
| 1937 | Trans-Canada Air Lines (later Air Canada) founded |
| 1949 | The Avro Jetliner was one of the first jet airliners in North America |
| 1950s | The Avro Arrow, an advanced fighter jet, was designed in Canada (cancelled in 1959) |
| Today | Canada is a world leader in aerospace, making regional jets, flight simulators and the Canadarm for space |
The de Havilland Canada Beaver, first flown in 1947, is a famous bush plane still flying in remote areas around the world.
How airplanes fly
Four forces act on a plane in flight:
| Force | Direction | Comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Lift | Up | Wings |
| Weight | Down | Gravity |
| Thrust | Forward | Engines or propellers |
| Drag | Backward | Air resistance |
To take off, lift must be greater than weight, and thrust must overcome drag.
How wings make lift
A wing is shaped and tilted so it pushes air downward. By Newton’s third law, the air pushes the wing up. The wing’s curved shape also makes air flow faster over the top, lowering the pressure above the wing compared with below. Both effects work together to create lift.
Aerodynamics is the study of how air flows around objects. Engineers use wind tunnels and computer models to design efficient, streamlined planes.
Controlling a plane
| Control surface | Location | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Wing edges | Roll (tilt left or right) |
| Elevator | Tail (horizontal) | Pitch (nose up or down) |
| Rudder | Tail (vertical) | Yaw (nose left or right) |
Faster and farther
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1919 | First nonstop transatlantic flight (Alcock and Brown), from Newfoundland to Ireland |
| 1927 | Charles Lindbergh’s solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris |
| 1932 | Amelia Earhart, first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic |
| 1939 | First jet engine aircraft flight (Germany) |
| 1947 | Chuck Yeager flies faster than the speed of sound |
| 1952 | First jet airliner service (de Havilland Comet, UK) |
| 1969 | Boeing 747 "jumbo jet" first flies |
| 1976–2003 | Concorde carries passengers at twice the speed of sound |
A jet engine sucks in air, compresses it, mixes it with fuel and burns it. Hot gases blast out the back, pushing the plane forward (Newton’s third law).
Impact of airplanes
- Trips that took weeks by ship now take hours.
- Airplanes deliver mail, medicine and supplies to remote communities, including many in northern Canada.
- They’re used for firefighting, rescue, mapping and science.
- Air travel connects families, businesses and cultures.
- Airplanes produce greenhouse gases; engineers are working on more efficient planes, sustainable fuels and electric aircraft for short flights.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the Wright brothers were the first to fly at all. Balloons and gliders came first; they made the first controlled, powered airplane flight.
- Thinking lift comes only from the curved top of the wing. The wing’s tilt deflecting air downward is also essential.
Try it yourself
- Fold three paper airplanes with different wing shapes. Which flies farthest? Why?
- Hold a strip of paper just below your lips and blow over the top. Watch it rise.
- Label the four forces of flight on a drawing of a plane.
Quick recap
- The Wright brothers made the first controlled, powered airplane flight in 1903.
- The Silver Dart made Canada’s first powered flight in 1909.
- Lift, weight, thrust and drag act on a plane.
- Ailerons, elevators and rudders control a plane’s movement.
- Airplanes transformed travel, trade and life in remote communities.