Airplane (powered controlled flight)
Avión (vuelo controlado con motor)
- Date
- 1903 · confidence high
- Place
- Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, United States
- Credited to
- Wilbur and Orville Wright (Dayton, Ohio); Alberto Santos-Dumont (Paris, 1906); Gustave Whitehead (claimed, 1901)
- People
- 👤 Alberto Santos Dumont1873–1932👤 Gustave Whitehead1874–1927👤 Orville Wright1871–1948👤 Wilbur Wright1867–1912
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
First sustained, controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft, with three-axis control via wing warping. It inaugurated aviation.
Santos-Dumont made the first publicly certified flight in Europe (14-bis) in 1906 without a catapult or wind assistance; Brazil regards him as the inventor. Whitehead (Bridgeport, 1901) and Richard Pearse (New Zealand, 1903) have claims without conclusive evidence.
What it led to
- Aerial warfare and strategic bombing
- Commercial aviation and global tourism
- Reduction of the planet's distances to hours
Built on
- Cayley's glider (fixed wing separated from propulsion)1799-1853
- Four-stroke internal combustion engine1876
- Pneumatic tyre1888–1891
- Lilienthal's hang glider1891
- Spray carburetor1893
- Wind tunnel1871–1901
- Lilienthal and Chanute gliders
- Otto four-stroke engine
- Kite and Cayley's aerodynamics
Made possible
- Seat belt1885–1930s
- Santos-Dumont 14-bis12 de noviembre de 1906
- Seaplane1910
- Knapsack parachute1911–1912
- Ilya Muromets (first four-engine aircraft)1913
- Gyrocompass and autopilot1908–1914
- All-metal aircraft (Junkers J 1 and F 13)1915-1919
- Aircraft carrier1918–1922
- La Cierva's autogyro1923
- Flying doctor service (Royal Flying Doctor Service)17 de mayo de 1928
- Radar1935
- Pressurised cabin (Lockheed XC-35)1937
- Turbojet engine1937–1939
- Practical helicopter1936–1939
- Modern parachute