For the Love of Planes

1800s

Sir George Cayley is the first to successfully build and fly a glider in 1804.

With balloons still wildly popular, more people are taking risks in the sky. In 1809  Marie Madeleine Sophie Blanchard was killed when her hydrogen balloon caught fire and blew up in the air. Then in 1880 Mary Myers was the first American woman to pilot her own balloon. 

Meanwhile, strides were being made with steam engines. In 1852 Henri Giffard uses a steam engine to fly the first airship. In 1890  Clément Ader flew a bat-like monoplane, called Eole with a steam engine. The engine wasn’t ready for sustained flight however and flew only a short distance.

1700s

This was the century for hot air balloons, from  Father Bartolomeu de Gusmao, who demonstrated a balloon for King George V in 1709 to the Montgolfier brothers who made the balloon that took the first untethered manned flight in 1783. Also worth mentioning was the first successful parachute jump from a balloon, that was at approximately 2,000 feet, by Andre Jacques Garnerin in 1797.

1500-1600s

Several attempts were made to fly in the years after de Vinci, many I’m sure were never recorded and some unfortunate souls that made only one attempt. Denis Bolor of France was one such fellow. In 1536, he fashioned a pair of wings that worked with a spring mechanism but unfortunately the spring broke and he fell to his death. 

1400′s

Leonardo de Vinci came up with several ideas for flight, although his most enduring and popular one was the man-powered machine fashioned after the features of a bird. 

A second design was a predecessor to the helicopter (bottom pic). His early helicopter was flawed, however as the base rotated in the wrong direction but there are still many stories about de Vinci successfully taking flight. No hard evidence can be found to support this but judging by his diagrams and notebooks his inventions should have been successful.

1000 B.C.

Recently becoming a fan of all things flying, I have done some history hunting in the field of aviation and I found out some interesting facts. 

Cessna Caravan program milestones

1981    Cessna launched the Caravan program

1982    First flight of Caravan 208 prototype

1984    Caravan 208 received FAA type certification

1985    Cessna began deliveries of the Caravan 208

1985    Caravan 208 approved for amphibious floats

1986    Caravan 208B Super Cargomaster, stretched by four feet in a freight specific configuration, received FAA type certification

1990    First production Grand Caravan 208B delivered

1998    Delivery of 1,000th production Caravan 208

1998    Cessna began deliveries of the new standard Caravan 208, a Caravan 208 that features a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A engine rated at 675 horsepower

2002    Delivery of 1,000th Grand Caravan 208B

2003    Oasis executive interior option offered

2005    Delivery of 1,500th production Cessna 208

2008    Garmin G1000 becomes standard avionics equipment

2008    TKS ice protection offered as optional

2012    Cessna and China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Company Ltd., (CAIGA) announce joint venture to conduct final assembly of Caravans in China for the Chinese market

2013    Cessna began deliveries of Grand Caravan EX, featuring a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-140 engine rated at 867 horsepower