Though toy planes might seem like a byproduct of human flight, toys were actually airborne long before we were. In the late 1700s, Sir George Cayley built the first flying top using feathers, cork, and whalebone; by the middle of the following century, a helicopter device launched using a pull-string, called the “Spiralifère,” was a major hit in France. As inventors worked to develop life-size flying machines, they often tested their ideas on...Continue Reading