In the 1900s,  the Wright brothers invented the first airplane,  a big time success, given that up until this point no other person had successfully created such an invention.

Though the Wright brothers are credited with the invention, years before painter, Leonardo Da Vinci, was credited with having plans for what would later became the helicopter.

Research shows that Da Vinci had disappeared for periods of time during his life.   It is rumored that he spent time in a cave, explains davinciinventions.com.   Nobody knew exactly what he went he was doing there, but his paintings and ideas are allegedly products of the experience.

Divinci invented plans for  a helicopter that was described as a “shallow saucer like gondola [with] 2 upright posts that were attached.”    One very popular airplane/helicopter, Da Vinci invented was called the “Ornithopter”, whose  wing span exceeded 33ft. The frame of the ornitopter was made from pine and covered in raw silk, according to davinciinventions.com.

Years later, the Wright brothers took what Davinci had only thought about on paper and made the concept of flight come alive.  They were credited for making the first airplane known to man kind.

The brothers started testing out different types of flying devices from the kite, to a glider on the hills at Kitty Hawk, where they did most of their test flights in the 1900s, according to history1900s.about.com.  

The original glider the Wright Brother created had many problems along the way and was improved through the years.

From having man pushing the glider off a hill to see how far the wind would take the glider, which wasn’t far, the brothers ended up, in 1911, putting a motor on the rear of the glider. This seemed to work well and the first flight across the United States was successful with 70 landings along the way. This glider was called “The Van Fiz”.