Aviation Educational Posters- the Science, Art & History of Flight, pg 1/2
for the classroom and home schoolers.

M

Beryl Markham
Marie Marvingt
Wop May
Billy Mitchell
Montgolfier Bros
John Moisant

T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

Tuskegee Airmen

Wright Brothers

Chuck Yeager
Jeana Yeager
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin

Humans have long sought to soar in the sky, just like birds. This informative and visually striking poster shows what it took to accomplish that seemingly impossible goal. The bottom row shows mans earliest attempts to fly. Moving up the poster, the most important discoveries, inventions and events are presented in chronological order. The great aviation pioneers are honored by a portrait and a brief biography. In the late 1700s, English engineer Sir George Cayley correctly identified the four forces that would affect a flying machine. A century later, Lawrence Hargrave discovered the lift provided by a cambered wing. About that time, Octave Chanute compiled and published the first organized, written collection of aviation research. He shared his knowledge with many aviation pioneers. Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled flight of a heavier than air machine on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It flew 120 feet in 12 seconds. Their Flyer was very experimental, and it took the Wright brothers three more years to make it reasonably practical. Some of the valuable improvements made by other early aviators are incorporated in the two planes shown above the Flyer.

The first public demonstration of a hot air balloon was made on 4th June 1783, in France by the Montgolfier Bros. Benjamin Franklin witnessed one of the Montgolfier's flights.

In December 1783 Sebastien Lenomard jumped from a Montpelier observatory tower in Paris with a 14’ round piece of linen cloth shaped like an umbrella. He named the device a 'parachute', Fr. parare=to shield, chute=fall. (oh- I just got 'parasol' - shield from sun.)

Leonardo da Vinci made notations of a device that would break a fall c. 1495; and in 1617 Venetian Fauste Veranzio constructed an application based on da Vinci's drawing and jumped from a tower in Venice.

The Chinese also worked on the concept of letting a person fall safely from some height c. 1200, and in 852 AD a gentleman named Armen Firman sustained only minor injuries when he lept from a tower in Cordoba using his cloak stiffened with wooden struts.

William Samuel Henson
b. 5-3-1812; England
d. 1888; New Jersey

W.S. “Mad-man” Henson, patented a “Henson Aerial Steam Carriage” in 1843, and formed the Aerial Transit Company to raise money to construct the machine. His scale models were never able to fly; the image of the flying machine were created to advertise the new possibility of air flight.

Jean-Marie Le Bris
b. 1817; Brittany
d. 1872

Sea captain Jean-Marie Le Bris accomplished a glider flight in 1856 with a design based on his observations of the highly efficient albatross soaring over cover great distances with little exertion.

Henri Giffard
b. 1825
d. 1882; committed suicide because of failing eyesight

French engineer Henri Giffard invented a steam powered airship (dirigible) that made the FIRST powered and controlled flight on 9-12-1852. Giffard's contributions are commemorated as one of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower.

Octave Chanute
b. 2-18-1832; Paris, France
d. 11-23-1910; Chicago

Octave Chanute, both an engineer and pioneer in aviation, was consulted by the Wright brothers early in their aviation endeavors because of his willingness to share his thoughts and latest development. Chanute's openess caused a rift with the Wrights when they wanted to protect their work with secrecy.

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
b. 7-8-1838; Germany
d. 3-8-1917

Von Zeppelin invented a buoyant airship that used a cavity filled with a gas less dense than air and manuvered with rudders and propellers. After some spectucalr accidents airships are no longer viable in commercial transportation, though most people are familiar with blimps (soft sided airships) used in advertising where the ability to hover for long periods is desirable.

Wright Brothers

Technologies Past Text: “We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests.” Orville Wright

The Wright's Flyer had a “tail first” arrangement. Wing-warping allowed the plane to turn, but the brothers found that a bank could cause the plane to spiral into the ground. Thy added moveable rudders to keep th turn under control.

Orville and Wilbur Wright, American inventors and aviation pioneers, achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight of an airplane in 1903. The brothers built two sturdier, more reliable planes in the next two years, and in 1906 received a U.S. patent for a powered aircraft.

17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk: Flyer No. 1 rises into the air for the first time. Three flights were made that day. The longest, piloted by Wilbur, was 852 feet and took 59 seconds. ...

• more Wright Bros. posters
• Technology's Past posters
• Historic Headlines posters

Ten Days that Shook the Nation -
First Flight of the Wright Brothers December 17, 1903

Ever since Icarus donned his wings of feathers and wax, humans have dreamed of flying. But as the 20th century began, few believed people would ever fly through the air. But two young men from Dayton, Ohio, knew better. Their names were Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright brothers first became interested in powered flight after reading about the pioneering glider pilot Otto Lilienthal. Soon, they began experimenting with gliders and kites of their own design. On the advice of weather experts, they chose a narrow strip of sandy beach near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina for their experiments. . ...

• Ten Days That Shook the Nation posters

Louis Bleriot
b. 7-1-1872; France
d. 8-2-1936

Louis Bleriot, French inventor and engineer, achieved the first flight over a large body of water, the English Channel, in 1909. The flight was 22 miles and took 40 minutes.

Glenn Hammond Curtiss
b. 5-21-1878; Hammondsport, NY
d. 7-23-1930; Buffalo

Glenn H. Curtiss, aviation pioneer, was the winner in the world's first air meet (August 1909, France) and on May 29, 1910 he won the $10,000 first prize offered by Joseph Pulitizer for his 153 minute flight from Albany to New York City (137 miles). His victory lap was flying over Manhattan and circling the Statue of Liberty.

Curtis had the first U.S. pilot license (1911) and was the founder of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. The Curtiss “Jenny” is associated with the training of pilots for World War I.

Hindenburg Disaster,
History Through a Lens Poster

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Robert H. Goddard
b. 10-5-1882; Massachusetts
d. 8-10-1945

It is hard to believe, but the most important flight in the history of space travel may have been the one that took place on a Massachusetts farm on March 16, 1926. The flight lasted only 2.5 seconds and reached a height of only 41 feet. But it marked the first successful test of a new invention – the liquid fuel rocket. ...

• Inventions that Changed the World posters

General Claire L. Chennault of the American Volunteer Group commands USAAF 14th Air Force in China, Photographic Print

Claire Chennault
b. 9-6-1893; Texas (raised in Louisiana)
d. 7-27-1958; New Orleans (lung cancer)

Military aviator Claire Chennault advocated “pursuit” / fight-interceptor aircraft during the 1930s when the U.S. Army Air Corps focused primarily on high-altitude bombardment. After Chennault retired from the USAAC in 1937, he went became an aviation trainer and adviser in China, commanding the “Flying Tigers” during World War II.

Men Walk on the Moon - July 20, 1969

• Astronauts posters
• Ten Days That Shook the Nation posters