People who are seriously concerned with the history of flying machines determine that a device is an aircraft first and foremost on the basis of the ability of such a machine to lift a man into the air.

The first known flight in history dates back to 559 AD. In a state in China, a man condemned to death was secured to a kite and after launching, he was able to fly over the city walls. This kite was most likely the first glider of the “carrier wing” design.

At the end of the first millennium A.D., in Muslim Spain, the Arab scholar Abbas ibn Farnas designed and built a wooden frame with wings that had a semblance of flight controls. He was able to take off on this prototype of a hang-glider from the top of a small hill, stay in the air for about ten minutes and return to the starting point.

1475 – sketches made by Leonardo da Vinci are considered the first serious drawings of flying machines and parachutes from the scientific point of view.

1783 – the first flight with people in an aerostat by Mongolfier, in the same year a helium-filled balloon is launched and the first parachute jump is performed.

1852 – the first dirigible with a steam engine makes a successful flight and returns to the starting point.

1853 – a glider with a man on board is in the air.

1881 – 1885 – Professor Mozhaisky receives a patent, builds and tests an airplane with a steam engine.

1900 – Zeppelin’s first rigid airship is built.

1903 – The Wright Brothers perform the first real controlled flights in airplanes with piston engines.

1905 – The International Aeronautical Federation (FAI) is founded.

1910 – the first seaplane flies from the water surface.

1925 – ANT-4, twin-engine all-metal bomber aircraft, makes its flight.

1928 – serial production of the legendary U-2 training aircraft was launched, which would train more than one generation of famous Soviet pilots.

The thirties of the last century is the period of various world records set on the aircraft of various types.

1946 – the first helicopters appeared in civil aviation.

Up to mid-forties of the XX century the main building material for aircraft were wood and fabric. But in the first years of World War II all-metal structures made of duralumin replaced wooden ones.