"This dream was firmly within the realm of science fiction for millennia until the dawn of the twentieth century when the Wright Brothers changed the world by proving that it is possible for humans to pilot a heavier-than-air powered aircraft...Fast forward fifty-seven years...Yuri Gagarin climbed into the Vostok 1 capsule and was blasted into space in the first manned space flight in history."
This comparison is made so often that it has become it's a pet peeve of mine. Rocket propulsion to space is so vastly different from fixed wing flight...it's like suggesting that the first automobile led to the first crewed submarine. They are operating under such different laws of physics, there is no point or reason to connect one to the other.
The only thing they have in common is flight...lifting off of the ground. But, and not to take anything away from anyone, humans had been "flying" in balloons and gliders well before the Wright Brothers.
Oh dear, oh dear.
You think we landed in the moon.
"This dream was firmly within the realm of science fiction for millennia until the dawn of the twentieth century when the Wright Brothers changed the world by proving that it is possible for humans to pilot a heavier-than-air powered aircraft...Fast forward fifty-seven years...Yuri Gagarin climbed into the Vostok 1 capsule and was blasted into space in the first manned space flight in history."
This comparison is made so often that it has become it's a pet peeve of mine. Rocket propulsion to space is so vastly different from fixed wing flight...it's like suggesting that the first automobile led to the first crewed submarine. They are operating under such different laws of physics, there is no point or reason to connect one to the other.
The only thing they have in common is flight...lifting off of the ground. But, and not to take anything away from anyone, humans had been "flying" in balloons and gliders well before the Wright Brothers.
Yes, ballon flight goes back a surprisingly long way. 1783. https://rationalwalk.substack.com/p/flights-of-fancy