Sir George Cayley

Sir George Cayley has been called the "father" of aerial navigation. In 1803 he developed the first proper understanding of the principles of flight and constructed a series of models to prove his ideas. In 1853, Cayley’s coachman flew across Brompton dale in the north of England in the first glider . Cayley defined the form of the present day airplane by breaking away from the previous ideas of how powered flight would be achieved. The drawing he made on a silver disc in 1799 shows a machine with a fixed wing, a fuselage and a tail. It also had separate systems to provide lift, propulsion and control. Cayley later tried to develop the "prime mover" that he realized was necessary for powered flight, but unfortunately his gunpowder engines were not reliable.

He carried out the first serious, experimentally based aeronautical research. The reverse side of the disc shows Cayley’s analysis of the lift and drag forces on a wing surface, representing a significant step in our understanding of flight, and in 1804 Cayley followed it up with experiments using a "whirling arm," the first ever scientific testing of aerofoils—the key to the Wright brothers' success .