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THE HISTORY OF FLIGHT *
Author(s) -
Garber Paul Edward
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1963.tb13291.x
Subject(s) - annals , citation , institution , art history , portrait , national museum of natural history , library science , history , operations research , classics , computer science , law , political science , engineering , medicine , natural history
The history of man’s flight is a wonderful story, rich in heroism, accomplishment, disappointments, successes-one of the most marvelous records of man’s final triumph over many obstacles. At the Smithsonian Institution, National Air Museum in Washington, D. C., we are assembling the tangible record of t h i s story by the collection of famous aircraft and spacecraft, engines, accessories, mementos of famous fliers and inventors, relics of great flights, and authentic documents. The latest acquisition is the Mercury capsule “Friendship-7,’’ in which Colonel John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, February 20,1962. The story begins in nature. Millions of years before man existed there were many flying creatures. Insects were the fist, dating back over 200 million years. The first birds evolved from reptiles, and the greatest of all flying creatures, the ptereodactyl, looked like a huge lizard with wings, shaped like those of a bat, spanning about twenty feet. Today we know that there are over 750,000 types of insects, more than 20,000 types of birds, and one form of flying mammal,-the bat. There are also so-called flying creatures such as flying squirrels, flying fish, flying lizards and frogs, but these do not possess the power of true flight, being more in the nature of gliders or parachutists. When man came upon the earth he learned that living required much effort. There were no roads, no vehicles, no stores, no books from which he might learn of what others had done. Everything he needed had to be produced by his own efforts. It was difficult to get from one place to another. Trees, rocks, hills, rivers, nearly everything was an obstacle. In the midst of his labors how he must have envied the birds that could so easily fly from one place to another, and, from their lofty vantage so easily locate their food. As man considered the many forms of flying creatures he wondered why he had not been born with wings. He thought of wings as symbolic of the ideal, yet he had neither knowledge nor tools with which to acquire them.