Flight Before the Airplane

The story of Icarus and Daedalus symbolizes the wonder danger of flight. Daedalus, a brilliant engineer, builds wings of wax and feathers for his son Icarus. The boy ignores his father’s advice and flied too close to the sun. This melts the wax, cause him to fall to his death.

Pictured: An etching by artist Annibale Carracci of a scene from the classical myth of Daedalus and Icarus. Gift of the Norfolk Charitable Trust.

Australian Lawrence Hargrave (1850–1915) conducted important aeronautical experiments and produced a number of flying models. Invented by Hargrave in 1893, the box kite played a key role in the development of the airplane. It inspired the twin wings of a biplane—solidly braced with wires and struts. 

This Box Kite, sometimes called a Marvin Kite, was used by U.S. Weather Bureau in the 1930s to study the atmosphere and weather. In this photo, it hangs on exhibit in the Aircraft Building, National Air Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1933.

This Clement V-2 engine powered the Santos-Dumont Airship No.9 in 1903. Although designed for a motorcycle, the engine’s light weight and ample power made it well suited to propel the airship. The V-2 also powered a belt-driven blower that pressurized a separate air bag in the airship’s hydrogen-filled envelope. Santos-Dumont brought the No.9, which was his smallest airship, to the U.S. to compete the at 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. It was damaged during shipping, which Santos-Dumont thought was sabotage, so he refused to fly during his visit to the U.S. 

This small steam engine is the oldest surviving aeronautical engine. John Stringfellow (1799-1883) won the first prize for best power-to-weight ratio at an Aeronautical Society of Great Britain exhibition in 1868. With the strength of one horsepower for its 13-pound (6-kilogram) weight, it was judged the lightest engine in proportion to its power.  

Inspired by George Cayley, Stringfellow and fellow experimenter William Samuel Henson (1812-1888), hoped to develop their Aerial Steam Carriage to create air routes linking the far corners of the British Empire.  

Aerodrome No.5, a 25-pound (11.4 kg) steam-powered model with a wingspan of 13ft 9in (4.2 meters), was twice catapulted into the air from the roof of a small houseboat on the Potomac River on May 6, 1896. On the first flight it traveled 3,300 feet (1,005 meters). The second time it covered 2,300 feet (700 meters) at a speed of about 25 mph (40 km/h). The flights represent the first time that a powered, heavier-than-air machine of significant size has completed a sustained flight. Langley eventually produced the Great Aerodrome, a full-scale, human-carrying version of his models. Both attempts in 1903 to launch it from the roof of the houseboat ended in watery crashes. The Great Aerodrome proved incapable of flight.  

Chanute was one of the most important figures in world aeronautics from 1880 to 1910. As a civil engineer, student of flight theory, and promoter of active gliding, Chanute set the stage for the success of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Chanute became interested in flight after noticing the impact of high winds on bridges and roofs. He corresponded with aeronautical experimenters around the world and published a book of his articles, Progress in Flying Machines (1894), which had an important influence on the Wright brothers.

In 1896, Chanute and a group of young assistants tested a series of full-scale gliders on Lake Michigan’s sand dunes. One glider—the Chanute Herring two-surface machine—was the most advanced of all pre-Wright designs. Chanute gave the models of his gliders (pictured below) to the Smithsonian in 1909. 

In this photo, Augustus Moore Herring prepares to launch himself in his 1897 version of Octave Chanute's biplane glider. The lower wing is supported by an unidentified man, most likely William Avery, and the proceedings are observed by Augustus Herring's dogs Rags and Tatters on the Indiana Dunes in 1897. It had a biplane wing layout, vertical struts, and bracing wires.  As with Lilienthal's glider, the pilot controlled the craft by shifting his body weight.

This is the only original Lilienthal glider in the Western Hemisphere. Lilienthal considered it the most successful of his designs. The pilot controlled the glider by shifting his weight. Lilienthal made glides of over 900 feet (274 meters) in this model. Photographs of Lilienthal in the air established him as an internationally known figure. Known as “the Flying Man,” he appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world between 1890 and 1896. He inspired other flying machine experimenters, including the Wright brothers, who used Lilienthal’s aerodynamic information as their starting point.  

American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst bought this glider from Otto Lilienthal in 1896 and had it flight-tested on the lawn of an estate. It was given to the Smithsonian in February 1906 after appearing at a New York Aero Club show.