Wilbur and Orvill Wright were the first to perform a powered fight on what would become the precursor to all modern aircraft. The pair of brothers observed birds and avidly read the work of Sir George Cayley to create their aircraft. Leading up to the first successful aircraft, they preformed preliminary wind tunnel testing in their bicycle shop to predict aircraft performance, combined a rudder with warped wings to perform coordinated turns, developed their own gas powered engine, and created a highly efficient professor. Their first famous flight in Kitty Hawk North Carolina lasted for 12 seconds and flew 120 feet. The Wright brothers flew multiple times that day, the longest lasting 59 seconds and travelling 852 feet. This marked the beginning of the development of the aircraft that is used today. The image is from the first day of flight and is from Wikimedia commons.