Factfiles: Flight: 400 Headwords

Three thousand years ago, Icarus tried - and died. One thousand years ago, Oliver of Malmesbury tried - and nearly died. Five hundred years ago Leonardo da Vinci tried - but his plane was too heavy. And finally, in 1903 the Wright brothers tried - and flew for fifty-nine seconds. Today, we think nothing of flying thousands of kilometres, but the fight for flight has been long and dangerous.