GLIDER(1804)

CAYLEY BOOSTS THE QUEST FOR A FLYIMG MECHAIN

     A sailplane or glider is a type of aircraft used in the sport of gliding. gliders are aerodynamically streamlined and are capable of gaining altitude when flown in rising air.

     The originality of Cayley design lay in abandoning flapping as a mean of propulsion. It had previously been assumed that a human would fly like a bird. But Cayley, having defined flight in terms of lift, drag, and thrust, confined the wing to providing lift. But having given up flapping, Cayley lacked an alternative power source to provide thrust. He later built the Glider, which, in 1853, led to the first sustained manned glider flight .power flight, however, had to wait another half century for the people engine and the Wright brothers.

      
      Born into a wealthy family in Yorkshire northern England, George Cayley(1773-1857) was a prolific inventor with an interest in human flight. He devised a heavier than air flying machine, with a wing to provide lift a fuselage in which a pilot could sit, and a cruciform tail for balance and control. In 1804 he built a glider based on this design, with a kite for a wing and a pole some 5 feet (1.5 m) long as the fuselage .this seem to have flow down slopes unmanned, with varying weights of ballast on board, although Cayley recorded that in later experiment with similar but large gliders man running into “a gentle breeze” had found himself lifted off the ground “several yards”.

    
     The reconstruction of the man carrying glider Cayley flew in 1853 was built in 1973 by Anglia TV in England