- The glider originated in China in 500 B.C. A contemporary of Confucius, named Lu Pan, built the first glider, but it was more of a toy and was not meant for manned flight.
- Artist, musician, scientist and engineer Leonardo Da Vinci was fascinated with flight. In 1486, he began designing gliders that resembled the modern helicopter and the ornithopter. He also made designs for a parachute.
- Percy Pilcher worked on wing design for gliders. Otto Lilienthal built the first truly successful glider and later developed a two-wing glider. Octave Chanute, a civil engineer, worked on designs to try to eliminate movement in the aircraft's body. The Wright brothers used gliders in their work to achieve sustained, controlled, manned, powered and fixed-wing flight.
- In 1853, George Cayley sent his driver on the first flight of Cayley's glider in England. His aircraft was dubbed the coachman's carrier and was considered a true glider.
- After World War I, many countries began using gliders for military reconnaissance. Prisoners of war at the end of World War II at Colditz Castle in Colditz, Germany, secretly built a glider in hopes of using it to escape.
- Today most gliders are made to serve as toys for children and adults. These gliders come in the form of hang gliders, parasails, and glider planes.
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