Flight

Birds do it. Bees do it. Insects and bats do it. Planes, helicopters, gliders, kites, boomerangs, ultralites, and hot air balloons do it. According to cartoons and comic books, a lot of Superheroes do it too. What do they do? They all fly, of course.

What about you, have you ever wanted to glide, dive, and roll above the earth? Have you wondered what it would be like to feel the wind whipping across your face as you flew above mountains, cities, and oceans?

If so, you're not alone. Flight has fascinated humans for as long as we have looked skyward and seen birds soaring gracefully above the trees. Our attempts to fly have taken us from flimsy paper hot-air balloons and strange-looking gliders, to supersonic jet airplanes. We have learned about the forces of flight, and we know what it takes to keep birds and planes in the air.

Let's take a look at the hard work and inspiration, the dreams and defeats, that have made flight possible.

How Does Being Able to Fly Help Us Today?

Our ability to fly machines of all shapes and sizes has not always been a positive accomplishment. As early as 1200 B.C., kites were used in China for military signaling. People have been thinking of ways to use flying machines in battle ever since.

Fortunately we have learned better ways to use our ability to fly. Medical evacuations can save the life of someone who has an accident far from a hospital. Search and rescue missions locate people lost on a camping trip or sailors cast adrift. Aerial pictures help us monitor areas to see the effect of human activity (for example, in logging areas). Regular transport flights get essential food and medicine to remote communities. Special planes are used to fight forest fires. Commercial airline travel makes it easy to visit distant friends and family, as well as new countries and cultures. Flight has made the world a plane trip away.

Fame and Fortune in the Sky

For a while there was big money to be made in the skies:

Newspaper publisher, William Randolph Hearst offered $50,000 to the first person to fly across the U.S. in 30 days or less.

The London Daily Mail offered a prize to the crew of the first airplane to cross the Atlantic non-stop. In 1919, despite a broken radio, thick blinding fog, and severe icing conditions, engineers John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown made the crossing in just over 16 hours.

Also in 1919, the Australian government offered a prize of $50,000 for the first flight from England to Australia by an Australian crew flying in a plane made in the British Empire. It took 27 days and 20 hours for Captain Ross Smith and his crew to make the flight and win the prize.

In 1927, Charles A. Lindberg won a $25,000 prize when he became the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. When he landed 33 hours after take-off, he said, "I have been to eternity and back."

	The Science Behind Flight
	The History of Flight
	Nature's Flight
	Just For Fun