The Apprentice's Wings

• One of the first unsuccessful flights was attempted in 1338 by a little-known apprentice of Valenciennes, in France. According to "A Short History of Balloons and Flying Machines," the apprentice designed "a pair of wings six feet and a half high, and requested the Count of Flanders to be allowed to try them in his presence." The test flight was originally scheduled to take place on a drawbridge, but the Count insisted the young man jump over a moat. Fortunately, "this turned out to be a good precaution...as the venturesome lad tumbled head foremost into the water."
  
  

Kongming Lantern

• Unmanned flying crafts predate manned machines by over a thousand years. According to Ancient Chinese Culture Online, the Kongming lantern was developed by Zhuge Liang, a military strategist, in the late 3rd Century C.E. Liang's lantern, a kind of paper balloon, was sent up as a distress signal for his soldiers, to let them know he was trapped in the city of Pingyang. The Kongming lantern is constructed of "bamboo frames, oiled rice paper and a small candle ... When it is lit, the air inside the lantern is heated rapidly, thus reducing the density of the air inside, causing the lantern to rise into the air."
  
  

Eilmer the Hang-Gliding Monk

• Eilmer, a Benedictine monk in 11th Century England, completed his painful, 200-yard journey from the high tower of the Malmesbury Abbey on the wings of a homemade hang glider. Eilmer's journey --- recorded by William of Malmesbury, a fellow monk and noted historian --- was brief and resulted in two broken legs. According to James Wanborough, author of the article "Eilmer the Flying Monk," the glider would have had roughly "100 square feet of surface area," and would have been launched from the high tower of the abbey, which "stood on a hill top with a sharp 50-60 feet drop to the river."
  
  

da Vinci Flying Crafts

• According to the Aeronautics Learning Laboratory for Science Technology and Research (ALLSTAR), Leonardo da Vinci designed and successfully tested two prototypes for a manned helicopter and parachute. ALLSTAR states that da Vinci "understood the importance of center of gravity, center of pressure, and streamlining." However, as his 160-page manuscript was not discovered until 300 years after his death, much of the early innovations in modern flight were overlooked. His helicopter, or ornithopter functioned by using a series of levers that propelled and kept the device aloft with flapping wings. According to da Vinci's Inventions.com, his parachute "was a tent made of linen, of which the apertures were stopped up" that would "allow a man to throw himself down from any great height without suffering injury."