The earliest Aircrafts

         At the end of the XIX century The aviation pioneers were competing in creation of aircrafts. They created a lot of interesting inventions: Big or small,real or motor. Many of these inventions were equipped with vapor engines. Most of them have not had a chance to succeed. Inventors often worked alone and had a poor technical education. However, it helped to aviation science to move forward. Gradually it became clear that the most successful aircraft should to have wings, light engine and flight management control. These were the challenges, which were organized by inventors in the beginning of XX century. 

Clement Ader's Eole

It was built in 1890. It was monoplane without tail and had wings, which were similar to bat. It had a 15 kW steam engine and propeller with four knifes. It turned out to be difficult to control.

 Phillip's Multiplane

In 1907,  Horatio Philip designed fantastic multiplane. It had a 200 - or more separated wings. Nevertheless it could not fly above. 

Santos-Dumont  14-bis

In 1906 Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont made the first significant flights of a powered airplane in Europe with his 14-bis.

Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica