The Beginning And Early Years Of Aviation

Throughout history, to be able to fly was a dream for many people. On the 17th of December 1903, the Wright brothers designed and developed a power propelled aircraft which flew for 12 seconds at an estimated altitude of 110-130 ft. The flight which took place that year was between North Carolina and Ohio which resulted in a dispute between the two states, both of which wanted to make the claim of being the first location for a power propelled flight to take place. The Wright brothers achieved what they aimed for and began testing and trying to fly 3 more times, their most successful flight was almost a minute which covered a total distance of 850ft. The success of the Wright brothers however didn’t come noticed until 1909, at the flying demonstrations when the military signed a contract for a new design of an airplane which needed to be able to carry one person at a speed of 40 miles per hour and a total range of 125 miles.

Throughout the early years of aviation, members of the public and enthusiasts began creating their own flying machines, many fatal, many have lost lives to their creations and many failed to take off. Although danger and loss of life was a possibility, aviation and the development of new aircrafts carried on for decades.

In the coming years before the 1st world war, the Airmail experimented with flying passengers around the country, many believed that a new major industry is going to come out of passenger air travel and aviation. The development of aircraft and military aviation really kicked off during the 1st world war, the demand for aircraft in the military was high, the expectations of 20. 000 plus aircraft was foreseen within 12 months of the war.

A breaking event in history was achieved in 1927 when a pilot named Charles Lindbergh successfully completed a flight from New York to Paris which took 33 hours to complete in a plane with a single engine, those were called Monoplanes. This astonishing achievement sparked interest in aviation and its business potential. The realisation of the flight created a surge in investments around the world, those investments were made in stock exchanges in the aviation sectors.

Throughout 1909 and 1930s more significant events were taking places through development, design and test flying aircrafts. Between the 1920s and 1930s the development of commercial aviation sped up and grew rapidly this meant that an evolution was about to make the world smaller and more accessible for everyone.