Man has always sought to fly into the air and feel the freedom of flight along with the birds. Since nature did not give people wings, dreams of flying were embodied in the creation of special aircraft. The first aircraft was created by several inventors in different corners of the globe with small time gaps. Therefore, the owner of the palm in this matter has not yet been clearly established. History offers us a choice of three, or rather even four applicants for the invention of the aircraft: the Wright brothers from the USA, Alexander Mozhaisky from Russia and Alberto Santos-Dumont from Brazil.
The most recognized ancestor of modern aircraft is still considered the Wright brothers' aircraft. Inventors from the United States, Orville and Wilbur Wright, lifted their Flyer-1 airplane into the sky on the morning of December 17, 1903. The first flight lasted only 12 seconds, and the device covered a distance of 36 and a half meters, and Orville Wright, who controlled the aircraft lying on its wing, became the first pilot, respectively.
Actually, this was not a purely self-flying vehicle, since the airplane glided along the guide rail and accelerated with the help of a catapult. But at the same time, an internal combustion engine was designed in his design , which was personally designed by the brothers.
Following the first experiment, a series of improvements followed, and soon Flyer-2 and Flyer-3 took off. In the fall of 1905, the Wright brothers were able to fly away almost forty kilometers. For all their primitiveness, their aircraft still had the right to be called aircraft, since they were equipped with engines, controlled by pilots and moved according to the laws of aerodynamics. True, such airplanes never got a landing gear and took to the air with the help of a catapult.
Almost simultaneously with the Wright brothers, the Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont launched his plane into the air. This happened in 1906 in France. The main difference between this aircraft was that it took off without additional devices, that is, it was completely self-propelled. The first aircraft, called the 14-bis, had fixed landing gear and flew only with the help of its own engine thrust.
Now the fact that the very first aircraft was still built not in America, but in Russia thirty years earlier than the Wright brothers' airplane, is becoming more widespread. It was designed by Rear Admiral Mozhaysky, who for a long time conducted relevant studies. His aircraft looked like a small boat with several tubes, two small masts and a steam engine. It was called a balloon, and Mozhaisky received a patent for such an aircraft in 1881.
The design of Mozhaisky can be attributed to the fuselage type aircraft, which began to be fully built only after 30 years. The inventor was very limited in funds, and the state tried to allocate as little money as possible for research, and, if possible, to secret and stop all development.
The documented first flight took place in the summer of 1882 near St. Petersburg, in Krasnoye Selo. A specially invited commission observed the flight of the aircraft, which Mozhaisky called the aerodynamic. The first plane accelerated on a wooden floor, flew a couple of meters and sank into the water, breaking the wing.
Modern research has shown that at that time the aerodynamics were designed correctly, but he lacked the power of the power plant for a longer flight.
Mozhaisky, overcoming bureaucratic and financial problems, continued his development. In 1890 he died, there was no one to develop his business, and the tsarist authorities preferred to quickly forget about the plane and bury such studies for a long time. No one even needed the designed aircraft — it was transported to the Mozhaisky estate near Vologda, and in 1895 it burned down there.
So which of the inventors can be given the final priority? Everyone decides in his own way. Aviation is a very important page in the history of mankind, which was created by the work of many people: theorists, practitioners, engineers, dreamers. Therefore, they all have the right to recognition and memory.