Thousands of people have contributed to Aviation. Dreams by the Wright Bothers made flight possible for all of us. Others like Emelia Earhardt, and Charles Linburg stretched the limits to accomplish what had never been done before. Many have even given their life to be in the air. I will discuss some of the paramount events and people that helped transcend Aviation.

             The most appropriate place to start is on the Seventeenth of December in 1903, the brothers Orville and Wilber Wright flew the first powered aircraft a total of 120 feet in 12 seconds. Wilber the eldest, and younger brother Orville always were fascinated by flight. During their childhood, gliders and balloons were being used. Painstaking efforts were made by them later in life to create an efficiently powered craft. They had used aerodynamics tables set forth by Langley to test their own gliders. They found that the tables didn't provide enough lift to get hardly anything off the ground. So they set out to forge their own tables by expereimenting with two-hundred different wing designs in a home-made wind tunnel. They invalidated Langley's aerodynamics tables. From there with the help of mechanic Charles Taylor, they were able to design an engine light and yet powerful enough to propell a small craft. The powerplant on the "Flyer 1" weighed 170 lbs. and operated with 12hp at 1200rpm. With this design they made aviation history as described above. Later on that day though, Wilber soloed a flight of 152 feet in 59 seconds. After hundreds of successful flights and little attention, the military took an interest in their progress. They designed the first plane that could turn, bank, and do figure eights for one-half an hour. They named thier creation the Flyer III. The Wright's flying machine recieved a patent on March 22nd, 1906. One year after that in 1907, the foundation of the Aeronautical Experimental Association(FEA, now the FAA) was founded.