History Tuesday/Flight

When we think about the history of flight we think of the Wright brothers and maybe of Leonardo da Vinci who most of us know designed a glider way back in the 1480's even though he had over a 100 drawings that illustrated his theories on flight, he never actually created a flying machine. Although the modern day helicopter is based on his concept of the Ornithopter

Of course there is also the hot air balloon way back in 1783 the first passengers in a colourful balloon were a sheep, a rooster and a duck, it climbed to a height of about 6,000 feet and travelled more than a mile. This balloon was the creation of inventors Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier after the success of the first flight with the animals the brothers began to send men up in balloons.

How about Sir George Cayley heard of him he we was first called the “father of the aeroplane” in 1846 yeah way back then. He would design the first modern heavier-than-air craft. In 1799 he set down the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion and control. In 1804 he constructed a model glider which was the first modern heavier-than-air flying machine

Now look at the planes we have so big so powerful and flying all over the world, we have come a long way since those first machines invented way back when. The world's first airline was the Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft,It was founded on November 16, 1909 with government assistance, and operated airships manufactured by The Zeppelin Corporation. Its headquarters were in Frankfurt.

The first fixed wing scheduled air service was started on January 1, 1914 from St Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, Florida. The four oldest non-dirigible airlines that still exist are Netherlands' KLM, Colombia's Avianca, the Czech Republic's Czech Airlines and Australia's Qantas. KLM first flew in May 1920, while Qantas (which stands for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited) was founded in Queensland, Australia, in late 1920.

Why a post about flight, well on Sunday Tim and I are flying to New Zealand for a weeks holiday, we booked with Qantas but the flight is being operated by Emirates, on our first trip to New Zealand we fly over with New Zealand airline and back with Qantas and pefered Qantas. We flew with Hawaiian Airline when we went to Hawaii. This will be out first flight with Emirates I will let you know what I think of the airline after Sunday.