Editing Fixed-wing aircraft (section)

==History==
{{Main|Aviation history|Early flying machines}}

===Kites===
Kites were used approximately 2,800 years ago in China, where kite building materials were available. Leaf kites may have been flown earlier in what is now [[Sulawesi]], based on their interpretation of cave paintings on nearby [[Muna Island]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.drachen.org/journals/journal10/journal_10.pdf |title=Drachen Foundation Journal Fall 2002, page 18. Two lines of evidence: analysis of leaf kiting and some cave drawings |access-date=2 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723191642/http://www.drachen.org/journals/journal10/journal_10.pdf |archive-date=23 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> By at least 549 AD paper kites were flying, as recorded that year, a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 1 127">Needham, Volume 4, Part 1, 127.</ref> Ancient and medieval Chinese sources report kites used for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, and communication for military operations.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 1 127"/>

[[File:Kinderspiele 1828 Drachensteigen.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Children flying a kite in 1828 [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]], by [[Johann Michael Voltz]]]]
Kite stories were brought to Europe by [[Marco Polo]] towards the end of the 13th century, and kites were brought back by sailors from Japan and [[Malaysia]] in the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref name="G-Kites">{{cite web|url=http://www.gombergkites.com/nkm/hist1.html|title=Kite History: A Simple History of Kiting|last=Anon|work=G-Kites|access-date=20 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529022551/http://www.gombergkites.com/nkm/hist1.html|archive-date=29 May 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> Although initially regarded as curiosities, by the 18th and 19th centuries kites were used for scientific research.<ref name="G-Kites"/>

===Gliders and powered devices===
Around [[Ancient Greece|400 BC in Greece]], [[Archytas]] was reputed to have designed and built the first self-propelled flying device, shaped like a bird and propelled by a jet of what was probably steam, said to have flown some {{convert|200|m|abbr=on}}.<ref>[[Aulus Gellius]], "Attic Nights", Book X, 12.9 at [https://archive.today/20120713140825/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/10*.html LacusCurtius]</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20021029221138/http://www.tmth.edu.gr/en/aet/1/14.html Archytas of Tarentum, Technology Museum of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece]}}. Tmth.edu.gr. </ref> This machine may have been suspended during its flight.<ref>[http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070104/NEWS02/701040323/1006/ Modern rocketry]{{Dead link|date=December 2014}}. Pressconnects.com.</ref><ref>[http://www.mechanical-toys.com/History%20page.htm Automata history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215232219/http://www.mechanical-toys.com/History%20page.htm |date=15 February 2015 }}. Automata.co.uk.</ref>

One of the earliest attempts with [[Glider aircraft|gliders]] was by 11th-century monk [[Eilmer of Malmesbury]], which failed. A 17th-century account states that 9th-century poet [[Abbas Ibn Firnas]] made a similar attempt, though no earlier sources record this event.<ref>White, Lynn. "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition." ''[[Technology and Culture]]'', Volume 2, Issue 2, 1961, pp. 97–111 (97–99 resp. 100–101).</ref>
[[Image:LeBris1868.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Marie Le Bris|Le Bris]] and his glider, Albatros II, photographed by [[Nadar (photographer)|Nadar]], 1868]]

In 1799, [[Sir George Cayley]] laid out the concept of the modern airplane as a fixed-wing machine with systems for lift, propulsion, and control.<ref>{{cite web
| title = Aviation History
| url = http://www.aviation-history.com/early/cayley.htm
| access-date = 26 July 2009
| quote = In 1799 he set forth for the first time in history the concept of the modern aeroplane. Cayley had identified the drag vector (parallel to the flow) and the lift vector (perpendicular to the flow).
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090413155148/http://aviation-history.com/early/cayley.htm
| archive-date = 13 April 2009
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Sir George Cayley (British Inventor and Scientist)|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/100795/Sir-George-Cayley-6th-Baronet|encyclopedia=[[Britannica]]|access-date=26 July 2009|quote=English pioneer of aerial navigation and aeronautical engineering and designer of the first successful glider to carry a human being aloft. Cayley established the modern configuration of an aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control as early as 1799.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311002545/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/100795/Sir-George-Cayley-6th-Baronet|archive-date=11 March 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, and built a successful passenger-carrying [[Glider aircraft|glider]] in 1853.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/100795/Sir-George-Cayley-6th-Baronet "Cayley, Sir George: Encyclopædia Britannica 2007."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311002545/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/100795/Sir-George-Cayley-6th-Baronet |date=11 March 2009 }} ''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'', 25 August 2007.</ref> In 1856, Frenchman [[Jean-Marie Le Bris]] made the first powered flight, had his glider L'Albatros artificiel towed by a horse along a beach.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gibbs-Smith|first=Charles Harvard|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52566384|title=Aviation : an historical survey from its origins to the end of the Second World War|date=2003|publisher=Science Museum|isbn=1-900747-52-9|location=London|oclc=52566384}}</ref> In 1884, American [[John J. Montgomery]] made controlled flights in a glider as a part of a series of gliders he built between 1883 and 1886.<ref name=Quest>{{cite book |last1=Harwood |first1=Craig |last2=Fogel |first2=Gary |title=Quest for Flight: John J. Montgomery and the Dawn of Aviation in the West |year=2012 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman, Oklahoma |isbn=978-0806142647}}</ref> Other aviators who made similar flights at that time were [[Otto Lilienthal]], [[Percy Pilcher]], and protégés of [[Octave Chanute]].

In the 1890s, [[Lawrence Hargrave]] conducted research on wing structures and developed a [[box kite]] that lifted the weight of a man. His designs were widely adopted. He also developed a type of rotary aircraft engine, but did not create a powered fixed-wing aircraft.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Inglis|first=Amirah|publisher=[[Melbourne University Press]]|volume=9|chapter=Hargrave, Lawrence (1850–1915)|access-date=28 December 2014|chapter-url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hargrave-lawrence-6563|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141229064955/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hargrave-lawrence-6563|archive-date=29 December 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Powered flight===
{{See also|Aviation in the pioneer era}}
[[Sir Hiram Maxim]] built a craft that weighed 3.5 tons, with a 110-foot (34-meter) wingspan powered by two 360-horsepower (270-kW) steam engines driving two propellers. In 1894, his machine was tested with overhead rails to prevent it from rising. The test showed that it had enough lift to take off. The craft was uncontrollable, and Maxim abandoned work on it.<ref>Beril, Becker (1967). ''Dreams and Realities of the Conquest of the Skies''. New York: Atheneum. pp. 124–125</ref>
[[Image:Wright Flyer III above.jpg|thumb|[[Wright Flyer III]] piloted by Orville Wright over Huffman Prairie, 4 October 1905]]
The [[Wright brothers]]' flights in 1903 with their [[Wright Flyer|''Flyer I'']] are recognized by the ''[[Fédération Aéronautique Internationale]]'' (FAI), the standard setting and record-keeping body for [[aeronautics]], as "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight".<ref>[http://www.fai.org/news_archives/fai/000295.asp FAI News: 100 Years Ago, the Dream of Icarus Became Reality] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113080326/http://www.fai.org/news_archives/fai/000295.asp |date=13 January 2011 }} posted 17 December 2003. (The 1903 flights are not listed in the official FAI flight records, however, because the organization and its predecessors did not yet exist.) Retrieved 5 January 2007.</ref> By 1905, the [[Wright Flyer III]] was capable of fully controllable, stable flight for substantial periods.
[[Image:Wk000002.jpg|thumb|[[Alberto Santos-Dumont|Santos-Dumont]]'s self-propelled {{nowrap|[[Santos-Dumont 14-bis|14-bis]]}} on an old postcard]]
In 1906, Brazilian inventor [[Alberto Santos Dumont]] designed, [[Santos-Dumont 14-bis|built and piloted an aircraft]] that set the first world record recognized by the [[Aéro-Club de France]] by flying the [[14 bis]] {{convert|220|m|ft}} in less than 22 seconds.<ref>Jones, Ernest. [http://earlyaviators.com/edumonb.htm "Santos Dumont in France 1906–1916: The Very Earliest Early Birds."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316120252/http://earlyaviators.com/edumonb.htm |date=16 March 2016 }} ''earlyaviators.com'', 25 December 2006. Retrieved 17 August 2009.</ref> The flight was certified by the FAI.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070324025948/http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_14bis.htm Les vols du 14bis relatés au fil des éditions du journal l'illustration de 1906.] The wording is: "cette prouesse est le premier vol au monde homologué par l'Aéro-Club de France et la toute jeune Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)." (This achievement is the first flight in the world to be recognized by the France Air Club and by the new International Aeronautical Federation (FAI).)</ref>

The [[Bleriot VIII]] design of 1908 was an early aircraft design that had the modern [[monoplane]] [[tractor configuration]]. It had movable tail surfaces controlling both yaw and pitch, a form of roll control supplied either by wing warping or by ailerons and controlled by its pilot with a [[joystick]] and rudder bar. It was an important predecessor of his later [[Bleriot XI]] [[English Channel|Channel]]-crossing aircraft of the summer of 1909.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bleriot XI, The Story of a Classic Aircraft|last=Crouch|first=Tom|publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution Press]]|year=1982|isbn=0-87474-345-1|pages=21 and 22}}<!--|access-date=13 April 2011--></ref>
[[File:Aircraft with people and buildings.jpg|thumb|[[Curtiss NC-4]] flying boat after it completed the first crossing of the Atlantic in 1919, standing next to a fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft]]

===World War I===
{{Main|Aviation in World War I}}
[[World War I]] served initiated the use of aircraft as weapons and observation platforms. The earliest known aerial victory with a synchronized [[machine gun]]-armed [[fighter aircraft]] occurred in 1915, flown by German [[Luftstreitkräfte]] Lieutenant [[Kurt Wintgens]]. [[Fighter aces]] appeared; the greatest (by number of air victories) was [[Manfred von Richthofen]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-09-01 |title=Ace of Aces: How the Red Baron Became WWI's Most Legendary Fighter Pilot |url=https://www.history.com/news/ace-of-aces-how-the-red-baron-became-wwis-most-legendary-fighter-pilot |access-date=2025-01-01 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref>

[[Alcock and Brown]] crossed the Atlantic non-stop for the first time in 1919. The first commercial flights traveled between the [[United States]] and [[Canada]] in 1919.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

===Interwar aviation; the "Golden Age"===
{{main|Aviation in the interwar period}}
The so-called Golden Age of Aviation occurred between the two World Wars, during which updated interpretations of earlier breakthroughs. Innovations include [[Hugo Junkers]]' all-metal air frames [[Junkers J 1|in 1915]] leading to multi-engine aircraft [[Tupolev ANT-20|of up to 60+ meter wingspan]] sizes by the early 1930s, adoption of the mostly air-cooled [[radial engine]] as a practical aircraft power plant alongside V-12 liquid-cooled aviation engines, and longer and longer flights – as with [[Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown|a Vickers Vimy in 1919]], followed months later by [[Curtiss NC-4#The transatlantic flight|the U.S. Navy's NC-4 transatlantic flight]]; culminating in May 1927 with [[Charles Lindbergh]]'s solo trans-Atlantic flight in the [[Spirit of St. Louis]] spurring ever-longer flight attempts.

===World War II===
{{Main|Aviation in World War II}}
Airplanes had a presence in the major battles of World War II. They were an essential component of military strategies, such as the German [[Blitzkrieg]] or the American and Japanese [[aircraft carrier]] campaigns of the Pacific.

[[Military glider]]s were developed and used in several campaigns, but were limited by the high casualty rate encountered. The [[Focke-Achgelis Fa 330]] ''Bachstelze'' (Wagtail) rotor kite of 1942 was notable for its use by German [[U-boats]].

Before and during the war, British and German designers worked on [[jet engine]]s. The first [[jet aircraft]] to fly, in 1939, was the German [[Heinkel He 178]]. In 1943, the first operational jet fighter, the [[Messerschmitt Me 262]], went into service with the German [[Luftwaffe]]. Later in the war the British [[Gloster Meteor]] entered service, but never saw action – top air speeds for that era went as high as {{convert|1130|km/h|mph|abbr=on}}, with the early July 1944 unofficial record flight of the German [[Messerschmitt Me 163#Later versions|Me 163B V18]] rocket fighter prototype.<ref>de Bie, Rob. [http://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/me163/production.htm "Me 163B Komet – Me 163 Production – Me 163B: Werknummern list."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022052441/http://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/me163/production.htm |date=22 October 2015 }} ''robdebie.home.'' Retrieved: 28 July 2013.</ref>

===Postwar===
In October 1947, the [[Bell X-1]] was the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound, flown by [[Chuck Yeager]].<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-085-DFRC.html#.VZTAlPlViko NASA Armstrong Fact Sheet: First Generation X-1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713021710/http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-085-DFRC.html#.VZTAlPlViko |date=13 July 2015 }}, 28 February 2014</ref>

In 1948–49, aircraft transported supplies during the [[Berlin Blockade]]. New aircraft types, such as the [[B-52]], were produced during the [[Cold War]].

The first [[jet airliner]], the [[de Havilland Comet]], was introduced in 1952, followed by the Soviet [[Tupolev Tu-104]] in 1956. The [[Boeing 707]], the first widely successful commercial jet, was in commercial service for more than 50 years, from 1958 to 2010. The [[Boeing 747]] was the world's largest passenger aircraft from 1970 until it was surpassed by the [[Airbus A380]] in 2005. The most successful aircraft is the [[Douglas DC-3]] and its military version, the [[C-47]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/douglas-dc-3/nasm_A19530075000#:~:text=The%20airlines%20liked%20it%20because,hours%20with%20Eastern%20Air%20Lines | title=Douglas DC-3 &#124; National Air and Space Museum }}</ref> a medium sized twin engine passenger or transport aircraft that has been in service since 1936 and is still used throughout the world. Some of the hundreds of versions found other purposes, like the [[Douglas AC-47 Spooky|AC-47]], a [[Vietnam War]] era gunship, which is still used in the [[Colombian Air Force]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.twz.com/39236/theres-one-place-in-the-world-where-ac-47-spooky-gunships-still-fly#:~:text=Based%20on%20the%20venerable%20World,of%20the%20Colombian%20Air%20Force | title=There's One Place in the World Where AC-47 Spooky Gunships Still Fly | date=12 February 2021 }}</ref>