Sir George Cayley

Hello there! My name is George. A long, long time ago, in the year 1773, I was born. When I was a little boy, my favorite thing to do was watch the birds. I would lie in the grass for hours, watching them swoop and soar through the big blue sky. They made flying look so easy and fun! I used to wonder, 'How do they do that?' and I dreamed that one day, people could fly just like them.

I watched the birds very, very closely. I noticed the shape of their wings and how they held them out to ride the wind. I had a big idea! I realized that wings had to be a special curved shape to lift things into the air. I started making little toy flying machines with wings, and I would test them by flying them across my room. Whee! It was so exciting to see my ideas work.

After lots of practice with my toys, I built a very big glider—so big a person could ride in it! In the year 1853, we took it to the top of a hill, and with a whoosh, it flew across the valley. It worked! It was the very first time a person had flown in a machine like this. My dream of flying was coming true.

I lived a long and happy life full of big ideas. I lived to be 83 years old. People remember me today because my ideas about flying helped other clever people build the amazing airplanes we see in the sky. So next time you see an airplane zoom overhead, you can think of my dream to fly like a bird.