what is aviation? The word aviation was coined by the French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863. He derived the term from the verb avier (an unsuccessful neologism for "to fly"), itself derived from the Latin word avis ("bird") and the suffix -ation. History There are early legends of human flight such as the stories of Icarus in Greek myth and Jamshid and Shah Kay K ā vus in Persian myth. Later, somewhat more credible claims of short-distance human flights appear, such as the flying automaton of Archytas of Tarentum (428–347 BC), the winged flights of Abbas Ibn Firnas (810–887), Eilmer of Malmesbury (11th century), and the hot-air Passarola of Bartholomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (1685–1724). In 1799, Sir George Cayley set forth the concept of the modern airplane as a fixed-wing flying mach...
