Aeroplanes

Man’s Greatest Invention: Flight

Callum
Miller
The Aeroplane: A Brief History
The aeroplane is rightly considered by many to be one of the greatest inventions ever conceived by the
human race throughout history. The discovery of flight led to many more innovations in many fields,
including that of transport and travel, in which it completely revolutionised the way we conduct such
activities nowadays. Many people believe that the invention and pioneering of modern flight began on
December 17th, 1903 by the Wright Brother’s Kitty Hawk. However, this is far from the truth. The first
aeroplanes were born during the industrial revolution, with such bold men as George Cayley, who was
successfully fling fixed wing gliders as early as 1803. Or even Jean-Marie Le Bris, who flew the first
powered flight, by having a horse pull him and his aircraft down a beach. Sir Hiram Maxim had built an
aircraft with two onboard 360 Horsepower steam engines powering two propellers. His many tests
showed that this aircraft had indeed enough lift to take off. These brave pioneers all were vital in the
engineering of modern flight and we most certainly would not be flying today without them.

However, as world tensions began to rise in the 20th century, man began turning these beautiful machines
of flight into instruments of war. The first instance of this was back in 1911, when it was baptised in fire
by being used in the Italo-Turkish war, where they were used for reconnaissance (artillery spotting,
watching enemy movement) and bombing roles against the Turkish. The first world war was the perfect
opportunity to test the Aeroplane’s use as a weapon of war. The first machine gun armed aeroplane was
the Experimental Fighting Biplane Mark 1, which was armed with a single mounted Vickers machine gun.
Throughout the war on both sides, aircraft proved themselves as formidable weapons to wage war on the
enemy. Famous fighting aircraft such as the Sopwith Camel, and the Fokker DR.I were born. And so begun
the integration of aircraft into military doctrines across the world.

The Second World War is considered the single greatest conflict humanity has ever seen. Roughly 60
million people died in total. A major part of the war however was the use of aircraft. The first all metal
combat aircraft had since been invented and the original designs had been remarkably improved upon.