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Aeroplanes - Early history of Flying
Introduction
Flying machines are distinguished from balloons and dirigibles in being 'heavier
than air', and consequently raised and supported by dynamic means alone, by
the reaction of the air on surfaces driven through it. Although the first practicable
flying-machine was built and flown so long agoas 1809 by Sir George Cayley, in
England, no definite results were achieved until the last decade of the 19th century.
Progress was so long delayed by two causes: firstly, the lack of information relating
to the laws of air resistance; and secondly, the want of suitable motive power of
sufficient lightness. The lightest motor known to Sir George Cayley - Boulton and
Watt's steam engine - weighed but little under 200 lbs. per H.P. It was not until the
development of the internal combustion engine, which in its latest form, weighs as
little as 3 lbs. per H.P., that power-driven flight became possible.