The Wright Brothers are credited with the first powered heavier-than-air flight, which took place in 1903. Their flying machine design started the evolution of the airplane, and it didn't look all that different from the biplanes that were made for a couple of decades afterward. The first plane to fly in England was another story. Horatio Phillips built what's known as the Philip’s Flying Machine, which left the ground in 1907.
Phillip’s aircraft actually had a brains-boggling 200 wings (a ducentiplane, if you’re into that)—Phillips called these airfoils “sustainers,” and technically the 1907 machine had four banks of 50 wings each.
This mass of very narrow wings and supporting hardware was dragged aloft by a 22 horsepower gasoline engine, and Phillips was able to fly it for over 500 feet—keep in mind, the very first hop by the Wright brothers was only 120 feet.
Read the story of the Philip’s Flying Machine at Jalopnik. -via Digg