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Identifying the inventor of the first air craft

Ravana is essentially a mythical/religious hindu figure with little to no physical proof of his existence therefore I will not go into detail about him. If we wish to enter the realm of mythology there are several different cultural beliefs that have their creators astride flying mounts such as magical clouds and such.

On a more practical basis:
Leonardo Da Vinci drew an airplane in the fifteenth century, but the light yet strong materials he would have needed to make a functioning airplane didn't exist yet. Wether or not the invention of aircraft demands its actual construction or merely its conception is free for interpretation.

If you wish to think of an air craft as flying vehicle (vehicle as in able to carry passengers) then it changes the nature of the question and its resultant answer.

As far as I know, the first working aircraft was the hot air balloon made by Montgolfier brothers, yet it was at first an unmanned flight in june 1783 followed shortly after with animal tests. Francois Pilatre de Rosier and Francois D'Arlandes were the first to accomplish a manned flight in a montgolfier balloon in november 1783.

The first glider flight was made by a british man by the name of Cayley in 1853, the first powered flight was done in a horse drawn glider "L'albatros artificiel" by a frenchman in 1856.
They was a lot of development in aeronautical technology before the Wright brothers first took flight in dec 17, 1903.

What made the Wright brothers so famous was that theirs was the first self sustaining and well documented attempt. But the brazilians claim that brazillian inventor (alberto santos dumont), in October 23 1906, developped the first modern airplane. His plane was capaple of taking off under its own power, flying and then land on its own non-detachable landing gear. But it only flew 222meters whilst the wright brothers had achieved was around 30 kilometers in 1904. It was point of some debate who the first was... Check out this site:
http://web.archive.org/we b/20030820050506/http://www.th efirsttofly.hpg.ig.com.br/pion eer2.htm

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Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Identifying the inventor of the first air craft

  • 1 of 7

    by James Mockridge.

    For centuries man has been fascinated with the concept of flight. The true pioneer and inventor of the first true aircraft

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  • 2 of 7

    by Ken Ichikawa

    Ravana is essentially a mythical/religious hindu figure with little to no physical proof of his existence therefore I will

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  • 3 of 7

    by Michael Carleton

    The first recorded human flight was made on November 21st 1783 in a rural part of France. The Montgolfier brothers designed

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  • 4 of 7

    by Tn Fr0g

    This question can be a tricky one. Depending on the area of which you live. If you go back to you "your" history. If you

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  • 5 of 7

    by Paddy K

    There are two periods in the World history: Prehistoric and Historic periods.

    RAVANA'S MACHINE
    King Ravana existed around 6000years

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Identifying the inventor of the first air craft

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