Linton Harrison Richmond Public Library

Lots of sites on flight

With this month marking the centennial of the Wright Brothers' pioneering first flight, now is the perfect time to review web sites recounting the history of human flight-manned, powered and otherwise.

Locally, both the B.C. Archives' Amazing Time Machine (http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/ exhibits/timemach/galler08/frames/air.htm) and the Royal B.C. Museum's Air Transportation (http://rbcm1.rbcm.gov.bc.ca/ index_rc.html#modern) offer brief accounts and photographs of important events and the vital role that air transportation has played throughout this province's development.

At the national level, Altitude is Everything-A Canadian Celebration of 100 Years of Flight (http://www.altitudeis.com) from Transport Canada, contains essays and photographic collections on the history of Canadian aviation, accompanied by a listing of national events to celebrate the centenary. So does the National Aviation Museum's Highlights in the History of Canadian Aviation (http://collections.ic.gc.ca/highlights), and the Canadian Aviation Museum's FlightDeck-Canada's Aviation and Aviator web site (http://exn.ca/flightdeck/ home.cfm), which includes multimedia presentations on famous Canadian aviation personalities and aircraft, including the Avro Arrow.

Further afield, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (http://www.flight100.org), the U.K.'s Royal Aeronautical Society (http://www.raes.org.uk/ public2003), and the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission (http://www.centennialofflight.gov) have all created web sites celebrating the centenary of manned, powered flight. Each site provides details of pioneering aircraft designers and pilots, visionary industrialists, key moments in aviation history and aircraft.

Other sites covering flight's pre-history include the Pioneer Aviation Group's Flying Machines (http://www.flyingmachines.org) and Lawrence Hargrave-Australian Aviation History (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave).

The Hargrave site features timelines and biographies of many pre-Wright pioneers from around the world, and covers other forms of flight such as kites, balloons, rocketry, gliders, ornithopters, flying wings, remotely-piloted aerial vehicles, and much, much more.

Finally, the approach of this centennial has also stimulated intense interest in, and debate about what direction the next century of human flight is expected to follow.

Many of these opinions and predictions can be reviewed at Aviation Week & Space Technology's Next Century of Flight (http://www.aviationnow.com/ content/ncof/index2.htm).

This column and its links can be accessed from the Internet version of the Richmond Review, found on the Richmond Public Library's website at www.yourlibrary.ca.