Earliest Possible Sustained Flight Craft

Just watched a video of the history of Aviation and was wondering what is the realistic earliest point that the world could see something like what the Write brothers invented.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
If you mean the Wright brothers, then the requirement is basically engine power. The wings are (relatively) easy, just stiff wood and fabric, and the propellor is something there's naval precedent for.
 
All it needs is a light enough power source and then anytime from Sir George Cayley proposing it in 1799. However that's a big caveat!
 

TFSmith121

Banned
If the requirement is controlled, LTA is the 1870s

If you mean the Wright brothers, then the requirement is basically engine power. The wings are (relatively) easy, just stiff wood and fabric, and the propellor is something there's naval precedent for.

Just watched a video of the history of Aviation and was wondering what is the realistic earliest point that the world could see something like what the Write brothers invented.

If the requirement is controlled flight (as opposed to ballooning), than LTA with propulsion and control in the 1870s is probably as early as one can get, realistically. Light metals for engines really are not available much earlier than that, in any real sense.

Best,
 

Driftless

Donor
It was the combination of a lightweight engine and directional control that really made sustained heavier-than-air flight possible. Cayley, Stringfellow, Henson, Ader, and others got close on the engine part - including surprisingly light weight steam engines, but they couldn't control direction - up/down right/left. A few got their craft off the ground for short hops apparently, but not for any distance, or any controlled turns. Some of the early successful gliders, such as Lillienthal, accomplished directional control by shifting body weight - legs, hips, shoulders. On a craft big enough to support an engine, that weight shifting technique didn't work as well. One of the several steps forward the Wright's made was to combine wing warping for directional control with their own scratch built engine (designed and built by Charles Taylor - a bicycle mechanic who worked for the Wright's). While the Wright's weren't engineers by training; they had carefully studied the work of their predessesors, what the current level of knowledge of aerodynamics, and they built their own wind tunnel and conducted design experiments with it. They even evaluated different types of wood - weight vs strength. They also frequently consulted with Octave Chanute, a trained engineer and flight enthusiast. He was a valued sounding board for new ideas and for evaluating others flyers attempts.

It could be possible for someone to have achieved those two central concepts (power & control) earlier. Having more folks like Octave Chanute: both knowledgeable and happy to share information would have speeded up the process significantly. Most of the pioneers had that very human trait where they wanted to be acknowledged as the first to fly, so a lot of work was done in secret, or with very limited access.
 
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the wright brothers really did make a major contribution to aviation with control others might have if they had gotten closer but its impossible to know. I always wondered what about the possibility of Ram and Pulse Jets? they are very simple to make and a very were even designed in the 1860s!
 
Solid rockets?

With the right ideas for control, a solid rocket--or rather, series of them, lit in series, could produce controlled <for some definitions of controlled, anyway> flight...
 
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