IN DEPTH: AVIATION
Introduction
CBC News Online
December 17, 2003 marked the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first successful airplane flight – the first time a heavier-than-air vehicle with an engine successfully propelled itself into flight.
Aviation has come a long way since 1903. We've broken the sound barrier. We can fly more than 500 people on a single jumbo jet – indeed, millions of people fly in commercial passenger liners every day. We've landed on the moon. All in less than a century.
The Wright brothers demonstrating their plane in France in the early 1900s |
It's an amazingly compressed success story, from the early days of skepticism about the Wrights' initial flight, to today's routine disinterest about something as commonplace as air travel.
Of course, there have been a few bumps along the way.
More than 46,000 people worldwide have been killed in plane crashes and aviation disasters in the last 100 years.
One of the early airplanes that didn't make it off the ground |
Humanity has come leaps and bounds since 1903, pushing flight beyond the skies and into space. In the next century, our sights are set on new destinations – Mars and beyond.
Here's a look back at some of the significant achievements in aviation in Canada and around the world, and a look ahead at what Canada's role in the future of aviation – and space – might be.
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