Invention Of Glider

The history of flight began long before the Wright brothers: the Montgolfiers started flying balloons in 1783, and the first heavier-than-air craft to carry a human being - a glider - was invented by Yorkshireman George Cayley in 1849.


For many years, the significance of the glider invented by George Cayley (England) was overlooked, but he is now universally acclaimed as the father of flight. His pioneering work was recognized by the Wright brothers (USA), who acknowledged that they had based the design of their Wright Flyer on Cayley's glider. The Wright brothers are famous for making what is generally accepted to be the first sustained, manned, controlled, powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft, in 1903, but more than 50 years earlier, in 1849, Cayley had been the first to put a human being in the air in a heavier-than-air craft.

Cayley's interest in aviation began when he read about the model helicopters made in 1784 by Launoy and Bienvenu (both France). Inspired by the idea that something heavier that air could fly, in 1799 Cayley produced his first design for a fixed-wing aircraft, build a scale model in 1804 and flew a full-size model in 1809. The went on to build thousands of scale model aircraft, which he is said to have tested on the staircase of the family seat at Brompton Hall, Yorkshire, much to the annoyance of his wife. He returned his attention to full-scale flight on 1849, when he build a three-winged glider that succeeded in carrying a 10-year-old on the first (tethered) manned flight by a heavier-than-air craft.

Then in 1853, came the flight that secured his fame as the father of flight. On 25 September 1852 Cayley published designs in Mechanics' Magazine of a single-wing glider that could be controlled by its pilot and was capable of carrying an adult. The following June Cayley persuaded his coachman, John Appleby (England), to fly the glider across a valley in the grounds of Brompton Hall, making the first manned free flight of a heavier-that-air craft. Little realizing the importance of his place in the history of flight, Appleby said on landing: 'Please, Sir George, I wish to give notice. I was hired to drive, not fly.'

Source - The Book Of Inventions by Ian Harrison