Honoring the Fathers of Aviation

PEACHTREE CITY, USA – Father’s Day is June 19 in the United States. For this occasion, we would like to honor the “Fathers of Aviation” Sir George Cayley, Orville Wright, and Wilbur Wright.

In 1849, Englishman Sir George Cayley built the world’s first flying machine, which was piloted by a 10-year-old boy. Called a “governable parachute,” it had a cruciform tail and kite-shaped wing mounted above a cockpit resembling a boat. It also had oars, with which the pilot was to row himself through the sky. In 1853 his redesigned machine, piloted by a man, flew 900 feet.

50 years later in 1903, American inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright invented powered flight. Their airplane flew 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina, lasting 12 seconds and covering 120 feet. Like Cayley, the Wright Brothers would go on to create many more related ground-breaking inventions.

Wright Brothers aircraft flying in the sky as three figures wave from the ground
Aventure staff celebrate high school graduate Grace DesLaurier (center).