WHAT WOULD
IT BE LIKE TO FLY? HUMANS HAVE LONG
LOOKED AT BIRDS AND WONDERED. BUT THE
PULL OF GRAVITY MAKES IT HARD TO LEAVE EARTH.
The first human-made object to defy Earth's gravity and fly was a kite. Kites were invented in China more than a thousand years ago. Today kite flying is still popular around the world. It's fun to take a brightly colored kite outside on a windy day, give it some air, and watch it climb into the sky. A skillful kite flier can make a kite soar and dive and weave.
Not until 1783 did humans figure out how they could take flight. Two brothers in France sent the first humans skyward. Their experiments with hot-air balloons changed the way people viewed the world. More than a hundred years later, two brothers in the United States solved the puzzle of controlled flight and invented the airplane.
The story of humanity's quest to fly is told in the many objects, drawings, documents, photos, and other evidence that have been preserved and collected in museums. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., holds the largest collection of air- and space-related objects in the world. Therefore, it's a good starting place to learn about how we got to where we are today. The first flight objects that the Smithsonian collected were kites. The Chinese delegation at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 presented the Smithsonian with an almost fifty-foot-long dragon kite and several other kites, and they became the basis for the museum's unparalleled flight collection.
Each milestone described in this book was an important moment or innovation in the history of flight. Many, but not all, led to a major advancement in flight. The list includes some of the most iconic objects in the Smithsonian's collection. Most of them happen to be American, mainly because the United States has been a leader in flight from the beginning. But many other countries have mastered the air and contributed to the story of human flight as well. By no means is this a comprehensive list.
Milestones of Flight gathers some of the most significant airplanes, rockets, and spacecraft in history. These soaring machines tell us a lot about our world. They speak of ingenuity and courage, war and peace, and politics and power, as well as society and culture. In many ways these milestones of flight have made our planet seem smaller and the universe appear larger. They have transformed our world.