Aeronautics is the art or science of navigating the air, including Aviation (see Aeroplane and Sea-planes) and Aerostation (see Balloons and Air-ships). From the days of the mythical exploit of Dædalus and Icarus, students of 'experimental philosophy', or scientists, of all ages, turned their thoughts and inventive genius to the evolution of a machine by means of which man could fly. Most of the early schemes of which any details have survived were based upon the observation of birds and embodied the flapping of wings affixed to the arms or legs. Among the very early experimenters may be mentioned the monk Oliver of Malmesbury (A.D. 1050), de Pérouse (1420), who is said to have succeeded in flying over Lake Trasimene, and the great Leonardo da Vinci. All these produced designs for what are known as Ornithopters, or flapping-wing machines. There was, however, another school which believed in the future of machines which would be themselves lighter than air. The idea in the minds of the experimenters of this school was in the early days the replacing of the air in brass globes by a vacuum. If the brass were thin enough it was believed that the globe would then be sufficiently light to rise. It was, however, not realized that under such circumstances the globe would inevitably collapse under the pressure of the atmosphere with no corresponding internal pressure to withstand it. Among this 'lighter-than-air' school of experimenters were the famous Roger Bacon (twelfth century), Robert Hooke of the Royal Society (1644), and Francesco de Lana, a Jesuit priest (1660). It was this school which ultimately achieved success by providing the first machine of any sort to leave the ground and rise into the air. On 5th June, 1783, the first balloon ascended from the village of Annonay in France. It owed its inception to the genius of two brothers, paper-makers by trade, named Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier. Struck by the sight of smoke ascending from a chimney, after many failures with flapping-wing models, they conceived the idea of filling a receptacle with smoke and seeing if it would rise. They built a balloon or 'globe' of paper and canvas, and lit a fire of wood and straw below the aperture in it. The balloon gradually filled and rose into the air to a height reported to be 6000 feet, though this is probably an exaggeration. It remained in the air for ten minutes and landed 1½ miles away. This was the forerunner of the 'Montgolfières', or hot-air balloons, which are a feature of fêtes and Guy Fawkes' Day celebrations. It was followed by the sending up of a 'Montgolfière' from Versailles on 18th Sept. of the same year, carrying a basket containing a sheep, a cock, and a duck. The first human beings to make an ascent were Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlande, who went away from Paris on 21st Nov., 1783. They passed right over Paris, and were in the air for twenty-five minutes, during which time they replenished the fire suspended in a brazier below the neck of the balloon.

"Montgolfière", or Hot-air Balloon, above Furnace

The real genesis of the balloon, or air-ship as we know it to-day, was due to the discovery of hydrogen as the lightest gas, which discovery was made in 1766 by an English chemist, Henry Cavendish. Various people claim the credit of having been the first to call attention to the possibilities of this gas for aerial navigation. In 1781 Dr. Joseph Black of Edinburgh suggested to his pupils that a thin bladder filled with 'the inflammable gas' (hydrogen) would rise into the air, but it appears doubtful whether he ever actually made the experiment. Tiberius Cavallo the same year, before the Royal Society, demonstrated that soap-bubbles filled with hydrogen would rise and float in the air. The honour of building the first hydrogen balloon belongs, however, to three Frenchmen—the brothers Robert, and Charles, a physicist. They sent up a hydrogen-filled balloon of varnished silk from the Champ de Mars, Paris, on 7th Aug., 1783. One of the Roberts and Charles themselves made the second human ascent in their balloon—the first in a hydrogen balloon as opposed to a Montgolfière (as above)—on 1st Dec. the same year. In 1784 the same Frenchmen constructed the first 'air-ship' or navigable balloon to the order of the Duc de Chartres (Philippe Egalité). The gas container of this was elongated in form, and it could be propelled to some small extent by means of oars, and steered by a rudder. In the same year a French military officer, named Meusnier, produced a completely detailed design for an air-ship. This embodied the first suggestion of screw-propellers, to be worked by man-power, and also provided for a 'ballonet' into which air could be driven to replace hydrogen lost owing to expansion during the ascent. Meusnier's design was the genesis of the modern non-rigid air-ship, all the essential features remaining. This air-ship was, however, never built.

Giffard's Steam-driven Air-ship

The first ascent in the British Isles was made in a Montgolfière by James Tytler at Edinburgh, on 27th Aug., 1784, though he travelled only a few hundred yards. He was followed by Vincent Lunardi, an Italian, who ascended from the artillery ground in London three weeks later (Sept., 1784), landing near Ware in Hertfordshire. The first Channel crossing by air was made in a hydrogen balloon from Dover to Calais on 7th Jan., 1785, by Blanchard and Dr. Jeffries.

Subsequent developments in air-ships are due to the pioneer work of Giffard (1852) (the first steam-driven air-ship), Dupuy de Lôme (1872), the brothers Tissandier (electric propulsion) (1883), Rénard and Krebbs (1884), Wölfert (1897), Santos Dumont (1898-1905), Zeppelin (1900), Lebaudy (1903), Barton (English) (1905), Willows (English) (1910).

In the meantime experimental work was being carried on by the exponents of the heavier-than-air school, who soon abandoned the flapping-wing principle and eventually evolved the modern aeroplane. The modern aeroplane was evolved from the brain of an Englishman, Sir George Cayley, who in 1809 contributed an article to Nicholson's Journal in which he outlined the outstretched wings, vertical and horizontal steering surfaces, screw-propeller, 'explosion' motor, and 'stream-line' form of the modern aeroplane. In 1842 Henson and Stringfellow, both Englishmen, constructed a steam-driven model on this principle, which is now in the South Kensington Museum. Wenham in 1866 contributed a valuable paper to the Royal Aeronautical Society on the subject. In 1896 Lillienthal in Germany carried out a number of glides with rigid wings, provided with a movable tail, fixed to his body. He was followed by Chanute, who in America emphasized the biplane principle in his glider. In 1896 Ader, a Frenchman, built an 'avion' which is claimed to have risen from the ground at Satory, but this is doubtful. In 1895 a huge steam-propelled aeroplane built by Sir Hiram Maxim burst the rails holding it down and lifted for a few feet.

A Handley Page Biplane, showing the principal parts

The real credit for the evolution of a man-carrying aeroplane is, however, due to the American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio. Encouraged by the advice of Chanute, they commenced experimenting with biplane gliders on the sand-hills at Kittyhawk. Meeting with considerable success, they fitted a petrol motor of their own design in 1903 and made several straight flights during the same year. In 1904 they succeeded in making the first turn in the air. These experiments were carried out in great secrecy, and it was not until 1908 that their first public flights were made in France, the first taking place in October of that year. The first aviator to fly in Europe was Santos Dumont, who, on 12th Nov., 1906, covered 220 metres, having previously in the same year flown for shorter distances. At this time and during the two or three ensuing years many experiments were carried out, and flights made, by Farman, Voisin, Esnault-Pelterie, and Blériot in France; Wright and Curtiss in America; and Roe, Ogilvie, and Moore-Brabazon in England. A prize of £2000 offered by MM. Deutsch de la Meurthe and Ernest Archdeacon for the first circular flight over a distance of 1 kilometre, returning to the point of starting, was won in Jan., 1908, by Henry Farman.

Wright's Biplane Glider

The second crossing of the Channel, and the first by a 'heavier-than-air' machine, was effected by Louis Blériot in a machine of his own construction with an Anzani engine from Calais to Dover on 25th July, 1909. From that date the science of aviation (flight by heavier-than-air machines) may be said to have begun, and progress was merely a record of improvements. By the end of 1919 the Atlantic had been crossed four times; once by sea-plane, once by a non-stop aeroplane flight, and twice (outward and return) by non-stop air-ship flights. Aeroplanes had achieved a speed of 190 miles an hour, had attained to a height of over 34,000 feet, and had covered upwards of 1900 miles in one non-stop flight.—Bibliography: De St. Fond, Description de la Machine Aerostatique; Cavallo, History and Practice of Aerostation; Lunardi, The First Aerial Voyage in England; Moedebeck, Pocket Book of Aeronautics; Santos Dumont, My Air-ships; The Aeronautical Classics (Aeronautical Society); G. Tissandier, Histoire des Ballons; A. Berget, The Conquest of the Air.

[From 'The New Gresham Encyclopedia.' ]