1452 – 1519 Leonardo designed a multitude of mechanical devices, including parachutes, and studied the

flight of birds as well as their structure. About 1485 he drew detailed plans for a human-
Remarkable powered ornithopter (a wing-flapping device intended to fly). There is no evidence that he
artist actually attempted to build such a device, although the image he presented was a powerful
one. The notion of a human-powered mechanical flight device, patterned after birds or bats,
European recurred again and again over the next four centuries.
Leonardo da Vinci
First true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying
principles and forces of flight. In 1799, he set forth the concept of the modern aeroplane as a
1773-1857 fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. He was a
pioneer of aeronautical engineering and is sometimes referred to as "the father of aviation."
Engineer, He discovered and identified the four forces which act on a heavier-than-air flying vehicle:
inventor, and weight, lift, drag and thrust. Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries and on
aviator the importance of cambered wings, also identified by Cayley. He constructed the first flying
model aeroplane and also diagrammed the elements of vertical flight. He designed the first
England glider reliably reported to carry a human aloft. He correctly predicted that sustained flight
would not occur until a lightweight engine was developed to provide adequate thrust and
Sir George Cayley lift. The Wright brothers acknowledged his importance to the development of aviation.

1812-1888
In April 1841 he patented an improved lightweight steam engine. In 1842 he designed a
Aviation
large passenger-carrying steam-powered monoplane, with a wing span of 150 feet, which he
engineer and
named the "Henson Aerial Steam Carriage". He received a patent on it in 1843 along with
inventor
Stringfellow.
England
William Samuel Henson