Early flying machines

This article is about early flying machines. For the history of aviation, see History of aviation.
"Early flight" and "Flying machine" redirect here. For the Jefferson Airplane album, see Early Flight. For others uses of Flying machine, see Flying machine (disambiguation).

A 1786 depiction of the Montgolfier brothers' balloon

Early flying machines include all forms of aircraft studied or constructed before the development of the modern aeroplane by 1910. The story of modern flight begins more than a century before the first successful manned aeroplane, and the earliest aircraft thousands of years before.