History




Many human cultures have built devices that fly, from the earliest projectiles such as stones and spears, the boomerang in Australia, the hot air Kongming lantern, and kites.

Aviationedit

George Cayley studied flight scientifically in the first half of the 19th century, and in the second half of the 19th century Otto Lilienthal made over 200 gliding flights and was also one of the first to understand flight scientifically. His work was replicated and extended by the Wright brothers who made gliding flights and finally the first controlled and extended, manned powered flights.

Spaceflightedit

Spaceflight, particularly human spaceflight became a reality in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Robert H. Goddard. The first orbital spaceflight was in 1957, and Yuri Gagarin was carried aboard the first manned orbital spaceflight in 1961.

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Physics

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