Ask an Explainer

The Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur) were the first people to fly a successful human-powered, heavier-than-air flying machine in 1903. However, before that, other people flew using gliders, like Otto Lilienthal's 1894 Glider. Long before that, though, humans used hot air balloons to fly. The first untethered, manned hot air balloon flight took place way back in 1783 in France! The pilots were also a pair of brothers: Joseph-Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier.