Airplanes, engine-driven vehicles that fly through the air, have evolved in less than a century into one of the most important inventions in history. Every day, airplanes commute people and goods great distances. Over the last 100 years, they have been developed and perfected from simple gliders to ...

The notion that man could fly or someday would be able to achieve flight has long since been an idea of man for literally centuries. As early as 400 BC, a Greek scholar by the name of Archytas built a wooden pigeon that moved through the air. Approximately 100 years later the Chinese developed kite...