Dale wrote:

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:

Leonardo da Vinci lived 1452-1519, centuries before the actual aviation
and aerospace era. Did anyone else on the list predate the actual
practice by a large margin?

Well, Daniel Bernoulli died in 1782. Maybe that's the second largest "margin"
on the list. (?)

Isn't the Montgolfier Balloon considered to be the first manned
vehicular flight? That was in 1783.

http://inventors.about.com/library/i.../blairship.htm

Then, the first successful manned airplane flight was in 1903.

Even though Leonardo da Vinci did work on the theoretical foundation of
aviation, it was literally centuries later before it came to fruition
with actual manned vehicular flight. As such, I'm surprised that he got
the #4 ranking.

Also --
42 Space Shuttle Challenger Crew

But the Space Shuttle Columbia Crew didn't rank within the 100.
Illogical, IMO.


I see that Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) didn't make the list of 100.

"The exploring expedition organized by Richard E. Byrd in 1928 may be
considered the first of the mechanical age of exploration in
Antarctica. The program was the first of its kind to utilize the
airplane, aerial camera, snowmobile and massive communications
resources".

http://www.south-pole.com/p0000107.htm

--
Scott M. Kozel Highway and Transportation History Websites
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