![International Context](/web/20061029113642im_/http://www.warmuseum.ca/cpm/courrier2/images/cpmcci07.gif) |
The Airplane!
![Louis Blériot in his monoplane](/web/20061029113642im_/http://www.warmuseum.ca/cpm/courrier2/images/mcpcc22a.jpg) |
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Louis Blériot in his monoplane the Blériot XI, 1909
Courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum |
On December 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, brothers Orville and Wilbur
Wright made their first flight in a machine that they had invented. This was the
first time an engine-propelled airplane had been flown, and it successfully covered
a distance of 40 metres.
Though, at first, it was seen as nothing more than a curiosity, the airplane
later proved to be the invention of the century. It revolutionized means of
transportation and communication, and its possibilities as a mail carrier were
soon recognized.
Avion
Name of the aircraft invented by Clément Ader, a French engineer, who
flew his model plane, Éole, on October 9, 1890. "Avion" comes from the Latin
word avis. meaning bird.
Petit Robert
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