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History
of Aviation
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Flying Machines: Before the Wright Brothers achieved the first successful heavier-than-air controlled flight on December 17, 1903, hundreds of women and men attempted to fly, in airships, gliders and aeroplanes, and many did go aloft in gas and hot-air balloons. This website documents a number of those pre-Wright attempts at heavier-than-air flight, as well as significant events and thoughts which contributed to the ultimate success of powered, heavier-than-air human flight.
History of Aviation: In 1487 Leonardo da Vinci designed his first flying machine. At first his designs were based on the way bird's flew. Later he realised this was impractical and produced drawings of machines with fixed wings. This website looks at these early experiments to produce flying machines that were carried out by people such as Francesco de Lana, Laurenco de Gusmao, Joseph Michel Montgolfier, Jean Pierre François Blanchard, George Cayley, Henri Giffard, Louis Charles Letur, Alphonse Pénaud, Alexander Mozhaiski, Otto Lilienthal, Clement Adler, Percy Pilcher and Samuel Pierpont Langley.
Canadian Air Aces and Heroes is a set of biographies on Canadians who distinguished themselves in military aviation from WWI through WWII and Korea. Linked with the biographies are technical pages on the aircraft they flew and fought against. It is continually being updated and added to so check back occasionally to see if anything new has been added.
Aviation Pioneers: A collection of biographies of those people who played an important role in the history of aviation. This includes Clément Ader, William Bland, Frederick Brearey, Jean-Marie Le Bris, George Cayley, Octave Chanute, Glenn Curtiss, Henri Giffard, Lawrence Hargrave, William Henson, Otto Lilienthal, Etienne-Jules Marey, Louis Mouillard, Thomas Moy, Alexander Mozhaisky, Alphonse Pénaud, Horatio Phillips, Percy Pilcher, Charles Renard, John Stringfellow, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Victor Tatin, Felix du Temple de la Croix, Nikolaj Teleshov, Thomas Walker, Francis Wenham, John Wise and Wilbur & Orville Wright.
Domination of the Air: John Mackenzie Bacon died in 1904. His classic book, Domination of the Air is now available online. Topics covered include: Invention of the Balloon, First Balloon Ascent in England, Famous Early Voyagers, Charles Green and the Nassau Balloon, John Wise: the American Aeronaut, Commencement of a New Era, Henry Coxwell and His Contemporaries, Highest Ascent on Record, Scientific Voyages of Glaisher and Coxwell, Famous French Aeronauts, Adventure and Enterprise, The Balloon in the Siege of Paris, The Tragedy of the Zenith, The Coming of the Flying Machine, New Departures in Aerostation, The Modern Airship and The Possibilities of Balloons in Warfare.
The Aerodrome: Aces and Aircraft of World War I: Scott Hamilton is responsible for this beautifully designed and easy to use website. As the title suggests, the website contains details of all the main First World War aces and aircraft. The database includes biographies of aces from sixteen different countries. The entries are extremely detailed and very good use is made of hypertexted links. Other features include a Discussion, Forum and Today in History, where information is provided on all the significant events that took place on that particular date during the war.
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Educational Websites
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