When was the first aeroplane flown? Wilbur and Orville Wright of the USA made the first successful powered flight in 1903. They flew a two-winged ‘biplane with a petrol engine weighing 90 kg (200 lb) that they had built themselves. The first flight lasted twelve seconds and covered 36.5 m (12o ft). Aeroplanes developed quickly. In 1909 Louis Bleriot of France flew across the English Channel. The next year an American,...

How can heavier than air machines fly? For an aeroplane to fly two things were needed: specially shaped wings to give ‘lift’ when they rushed forwards through the air ; and a good enough propeller-engine to drive the plane forward. The wing shape is called an ‘aerofoil’. It is curved so that the air rushes over the top very quickly. This causes the wing to lift. The first heavy machine to...

Must man grow wings in order to fly? There were two ways man might be able to fly. One was to copy the way birds fly. That is he could use a machine which was heavier than air with some kind of wings. However, the heaviest bird is only about 16 kg (35 lb and we weigh much more. The other way was to make a machine lighter than air so...

Birds can fly – why can’t we? Some of man’s oldest legends are about his dream of flying. A Greek myth tells of Daedalus and his son Icarus. They escaped from the island of Crete using wings of wax and feathers. Icarus was supposed to have flown too near the sun. It melted his wings and he fell into the sea and drowned. Many people, seeing birds fly, thought feathers were...

Mongol Empire At its height, the Mongol Empire covered almost the whole of Asia. It ran from the coast of China to the borders of Europe, extend north into Russia and south into Persia. No other empire in history has controlled such huge piece of territory, which amounted to about a fifth of the land surface of the world ! yet it began in a small way and lasted a comparatively...

How did rockets originate and develop? Rockets were first known to be used in 1232, when the Mongols were advancing into China. While besieging a Chinese city, they came under attack from rockets carrying fire. The Chinese had invented gunpowder long before, and developed their fire rockets from rockets used in fireworks. However, gun-power came to be used to fire cannons and rockets were little used thereafter. In 1420, an Italian...

What kind of weapons were used by ancient man? The first kind of tool made by man was a stone that was broken to give an edge that could be used for scraping. These simple pebble tools were used probably more than one million years ago. Eventually, ancient man found that a stone could be shaped into a blade. A rough one is called a chopper and a sharper blade a...

Why do bees dance? Honey bees take nectar and pollen from bright, open flowers like buttercups, daisies and roses. The whole life of the hive depends upon the worker bees finding the right sort of flowers, so they send scouts out to hunt for them. When they return, the scouts show the workers where to go by performing a ‘dance’ on the comb. The round dance means that food is nearby....