, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.
Many cultures have built devices that travel through the air, from the earliest projectiles such as stones and spears, the
boomerang
in Australia
, the hot air Kongming lantern, and kite
s. There are early legends of human flight such as the story of Icarus
, and Jamshid
in Persian myth, and later, somewhat more credible claims of short-distance human flights appear, such as the flying automaton of Archytas
of Tarentum
(428–347 BC), the winged flights of Abbas Ibn Firnas
(810–887), Eilmer of Malmesbury
(11th century), and the hot-air Passarola of Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (1685–1724).
The modern age of aviation began with the first untethered human lighter-than-air flight on November 21, 1783, in a hot air balloon
designed by the Montgolfier brothers
.
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
Pilots take no special joy in walking. Pilots like flying.
The way I see it, you can either work for a living or you can fly airplanes. Me, I'd rather fly.
Pilots are a rare kind of human. They leave the ordinary surface of the word, to purify their soul in the sky, and they come down to earth, only after receiving the communion of the infinite.
If God had intended us to fly, He would have given us wings.
If God had intended us to fly, he wouldn't have invented Spanish air traffic control.
Any landing that you can walk away from is a good one!
Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.
Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting.