WE CONTINUE ON OUR JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

Man-carrying kites are believed to have been used extensively in ancient China, for both civil and military purposes and sometimes enforced as a punishment. Stories of man-carrying kites also occur in Japan, following the introduction of the kite from China around the seventh century AD. It is said that at one time there was a Japanese law against man-carrying kites. In 1282, the European explorer Marco Polo described the Chinese techniques then current and commented on the hazards and cruelty involved. To foretell whether a ship should sail, a man would be strapped to a kite having a rectangular grid framework and the subsequent flight pattern used to divine the outlook.

The next major breakthrough was made by Leonardo da Vinci (yes the painter). He studied bird flight for many years, analyzing it rationally and anticipating many principles of aerodynamics. He understood that "An object offers as much resistance to the air as the air does to the object". Newton would not publish the Third law of motion until 1687. From the last years of the 15th century on he wrote about and sketched many designs for flying machines and mechanisms, including ornithopters, fixed-wing gliders, rotorcraft and parachutes. 

His early designs were man-powered types including ornithopters and rotorcraft, however, he came to realise the impracticality of this and later turned to controlled gliding flight, also sketching some designs powered by a spring. In 1488, he drew a hang glider design in which the inner parts of the wings are fixed, and some control surfaces are provided towards the tips (as in the gliding flight in birds). While his drawings exist and are deemed flight-worthy in principle, he himself never flew in it. Da Vinci's work remained unknown until 1797, and so had no influence on developments over the next three hundred years.

What happened after that??? How did the situation change in the 17th century??? For answers to those questions, wait for my next post!!