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Answer :
From what I hear, people have always wanted to fly like the birds. Imagine a cave man looking up at a bird and wondering how things would look from their vantage point in the air. You can imagine them thinking how fantastic a view to see predators and prey!
History tells us through myths and legends about Pegasus, the winged horse; Icarus, who had wings of wax and feathers; Daedelus, who flew from Crete to Naples; and Alexander the Great who harnessed Griffins, mythical winged animals, to a basket and took him flying. So the early Greeks and Romans dreamed about flying too.
Early on the Chinese built kites and later the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci designed a helicopter. In 1783 the Montgolfiers built a hot air balloon that soared aloft. And, as everyone knows, in 1903, the Wright Brothers were the first to successfully fly a powered airplane off the dunes at Kitty Hawk.
So, from our earliest history we know that people have wanted to fly.
Why do people like to fly? Because flying gives us the freedom to soar above the earth and see things from a different perspective. Because flying gives us the power to go places that we could never go any other way. And, because flying is a beautiful challenge that many people love. I think it's about beauty, freedom and challenge.
Not everyone likes to fly or has the desire to become a pilot, but at least everyone should appreciate how much aviation has given us and how much we rely on it every day.
Patty Wagstaff
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