Before scientific investigation of aeronautics started, people started thinking of ways to fly. In Greek legend, Icarus and his father Daedals built wings of feathers and flew out of a prison. Icarus went to close to the sun and fell. When people started to scientifically study how to fly, people began to understand the basics of air and aerodynamics. One of the earliest scientists to study aeronautics was Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci studied the flight of birds in developing engineering schematics for some of the earliest flying machines in the late fifteenth century AD. His schematics, however, such as the ornithopter ultimately failed as practical aircraft. The flapping machines that he designed were either too small to generate sufficient lift, or too heavy for a human to operate. Although the ornithopter continues to be of interest to hobbyists, it was replaced by the glider in the 19th century.

Sir George Cayley designed the first manned glider, the Coachman Carrier, in 1853. Although unpowered, it successfully flew 130 meters across a valley in Scarborough