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 > The Wright Brothers > The Myth of Icarus > The Dream of Leonardo da Vinci dimarts, 16 de desembre de 2003
On the 17th December, it will be one hundred years to the day that the North American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright flew a biplane that they themselves had built. This marks a historical milestone: the beginning of aviation, which over the last century has developed to an extent that was then unimaginable.
Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948) Wright made the first motorised and steered flight in history, at the beach of the town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA. At 10.35 in the morning of that historic day, Orville managed to take to the air for twelve seconds, travelling just over thirty-six metres. Later, at around 12.00 noon, Wilbur did the same, flying for 59 seconds and covering a distance of almost two hundred and sixty metres. The 'Flyer', for that was the name given to the Wright brothers' rudimentary aeroplane, had flown! And all that, despite the fact that the biplane didn't amount to much. It weighed just 274 kilos and had a 12 horsepower steam-driven engine; enough, though, to move the two propellers and allow a machine that was heavier than air to fly. The Wright brothers' invention was the starting point for a new way of understanding transportation and interplanetary communication, because it led the way to flying becoming something completely normal, when for many centuries it had been a dream that had seemed unrealisable.
 
The Wright Brothers)
+ The Wright brothers made the first motorised and steered flight in history.
Before making the first powered flight in history, the Wright brothers had a bicycle business (they built, repaired and sold the bicycles themselves). And before that, they had even tried their hand at a printing shop. But these businesses didn't distract them from their great passion: aeronautics. The experiments conducted around that time (at the end of the 19th century) by the German aeronaut and constructor Otto Lilienthal immediately captured their attention, and in 1899 they decided to devote themselves entirely to building aeroplanes, with the help of the Frenchman Octave Chanute. In 1903, after four years of research and continued efforts, they managed to fly with the 'Flyer', a motorised machine with its own propulsion system.
The Myth of Icarus)
+ The old desire to fly is reflected in the legend of Icarus.
The desire to fly is as old as mankind itself, and this is reflected in the mythological traditions of many peoples of antiquity. Greek mythology gives us a very clear example: the legend of Icarus, which is closely related to that of the Minotaur. Icarus was the son of Daedalus, a brilliant Athenian inventor who helped Theseus to kill the Minotaur, a monster with a human body and bull's head. When he did so, he provoked the ire of Minos, King of Crete, who had him imprisoned along with his son in a labyrinth. But the astute Daedalus built some wings made of feathers, and he and Icarus escaped… by flying. Ignoring the advice of his father and excited by the ability to fly, Icarus went too close to Sun, the wax that joined the wings to his body melted and, as a consequence, he fell into the sea, and drowned.
The Dream of Leonardo da Vinci
+ Leonardo designed different flying machines.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is considered the prototype of Renaissance man, interested in all fields of knowledge and bestowed with limitless curiosity. He was a painter, illustrator, sculptor, engineer and inventor, but no project took up so much of his time as that of making his dream of flying come true. Leonardo believed that birds' flight followed certain mathematical laws that, once discovered, would allow man to design a machine able to imitate it. On the basis of his extensive knowledge of physics, Leonardo designed parachutes, aeroplanes and the most assorted and outlandish devices, but without ever reaching his great objective: to fly. However, it is probable that at least one of these devices would have been able to take to the air if they had been constructed with lighter materials, that were nonexistent or unknown in the time of the great Tuscan man of knowledge.
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> El Concorde, l'avió més veloç del món, va deixar de volar el 24 d'octubre.
> Vet aquí unes quantes fotografies dels germans Wright i de les proves aeronàutiques que feien.
> Leonardo da Vinci, precursor de l'aviació.
> Repassa la història de l'aviació.
I també...
- El 'Flight Simulator 2004', un joc que permet de reviure les aventures dels pioners de l'aviació.
- Què se'n va fer, del 'Flyer', biplà que van enlairar Wirbul i Orville Wright?
- Com es va calcular la velocitat del primer vol motoritzat de la història?
- L'aviador Charles A. Lindbergh fou el primer a travessar l'Oceà Atlàntic
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