1854 to 1879

Jean-Marie Le Bris, a French sea caption, tests a glider modeled after an albatross. This "artificial bird" makes one short glide, but on the second glide it crashes and Le Bris breaks his leg.

Felix Du Temple and his brother Louis, France, fly a model monoplane whose propellers are driven by a small steam engine. It takes of under its own power, flies a short distance, and glides to a safe landing. It is the first successful flight of a powered aircraft of any sort.

The patent drawings of Du Temple's 1857 model airplane.

Count Ferdinand d’Esterno, France, publishes the first scientific observations of the effects of the wind on a wing in his pamphlet Du Vol des Oiseaux.

The Aeronautical Society is founded in England.

Francis Herbert Wenham, England addresses the first meeting of the Aeronautical Society. His speech, titled Aerial Locomotion, is another milestone in aeronautics. He also proposes that aspiring pilots should practice first in gliders before trying to fly powered aircraft. His own 5-wing gliders have little success.

April 16 — Wilbur Wright is born in Millville, Indiana.

Jean-Marie Le Bris tests an improved version of his glider, making several unmanned glides before it crashes.

John Stringfellow, England, proposes a man-carrying triplane, similar to Henson’s aerial steam carriage. It captures the public’s imagination, although the model does not perform well when tested.

The great Aeronautical Exhibition of 1868. Note that Stringfellow's triplane is prominently displayed.

Alphonse Penaud, France, uses twisted rubber bands to power a miniature helicopter. It�s copied by dozens of toymakers in Europe in America.

Alphonse Penaud builds a planophore, a 20-inch long monoplane with a pusher propeller powered by a rubber band. It flies 131 feet in 11 seconds — the first flight of an inherently stable aircraft.

Francis Herbert Wenham and John Browning, England, invent the wind tunnel. They use it to prove that cambered wings produce more lift than other shapes.

Penaud also designed this remarkably prescient monoplane with retractable landing gear and a glass-enclosed cockpit. It was never built.

Clement Ader, France builds a bird-shaped glider with feathered wings and makes a few tethered accents.

Felix Du Temple builds a man-carrying steam-powered monoplane. With a young French sailor at the controls, it makes a ski-jump take-off and a brief hop but cannot sustain flight.

Bishop Milton Wright, then living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, brings home a rubber band-powered Penaud-type helicopter for his sons. They build several successful copies. Orville tells his schoolteacher that he and his brother Wilbur plan to build a large enough machine to carry the both of them. But when the try to build a larger model, it doesn’t fly.