The Forgotten Dawn of Flight: Sir George Cayley, the Father of Aerodynamics

Abstract

Great Britain’s industrial revolution, which occurred between 1750 and 1850, is most often associated with advances in agriculture and manufacturing, not the invention of mechanical flight. Yet, nearly a century before the Wright brothers’ historic first flight in December 1903, a quiet, unassuming Englishman, Sir George Cayley, planted the seed that would blossom on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk. Curiously, most people, apart from aviation historians, have no idea of who he was or what he accomplished. A recent Internet search on Google yielded 142,000 hits using the search term “Sir George Cayley.” By contrast, typing “Wright Brothers” in the search term produced 13,800,000 results. This paper will seek to remedy the neglect of Cayley’s pivotal role in the development of the airplane.