The earliest Chinese aviation exploration dates back to the Warring States Period . As recorded in “Master Mo : Lu Queries” :
　　“Master Gongshu sharpened bamboo and wood and made a wood magpie, which flew up and stayed in the sky three days without falling down . Master Gongshu deemed it a most clever achievement .” Master Gongshu was also named Lu Ban . He was a master craftsman in the ancient times . Master Han Fei also sated a wooden eagle was invented in the Warring States Period .
　　We are not certain if the wooden magpie assembled by Lu Ban was a glider , but we are sure according to historical documents the wood eagle could glide . The glider has two fixed wings , and can “fly” with the resultant lifting power of forces . In the Eastern Jin Dynasty , a scholar named Ge Hong conceived an idea of building a “flying chariot” , which was a worthwhile conception , for he saw that man had the same desire to fly as the birds . But he conception was hard to realize . The ancient Chinese tried to make use of air buoyancy by imitating the birds . Before Ge Hong , toward the decline of the Western Han Dynasty , the monarch Wang Mang ordered his subordinates to be fixed with wings of big birds and clad with feathers , linked by strings and buttons .

　　A ceramic model ship in the Eastern Han Dynasty was unearthed in ceramic modern ship in the Eastern Han Dynasty was unearthed in Guangzhou . An axial rudder was found at its stern . It was transitional from the long oar rudder to the axial turning rudder . Between the second and fourth centuries A.D. , the true axial turning rudder was used already in China , which was important for raising ship-operating efficiency . In about the twelfth century A.D. both the water-tight compartments and the axial turning rudder spread westward to the Mediterranean via the Indian Ocean . In the eleventh century A. D. the Chinese already invented the balance rudder and the holed rudder , both of which were only found in Europe at the eighteenth century A.D.

　　They glided several hundred steps and all fell . Emperor Wen Xuan of the Northern Qi Dynasy , also called for an experiment on flying with men lifted by kites . The experiment resulted in over sixty men fell down and died , with the only exception of one man who glided from the inside of the city to the outside of the city .
      Chinese folks invented many scientific-oriented flying apparatuses . The bamboo dragonfly , an ancient toy for children , was very similar to the modern aircraft propeller both in the shape and in the flying principle . Zhang Heng , a scientist in the Eastern Han Dynasty , was the first to put a dynamic mechanism on a wooden vulture .
 　It was said the wooden vulture “could fly alone for several li.” “Kongming Lantern” was an ancient hot-air balloon . It flew in the sky , but no one tried to ride it . The most tragic aviation disaster was that of Wan Fu trying to ascend to the sky on a rocket . He tied forty-seven biggest burning firecrackers (ancient rocket-like firecrackers) on a big chair . He sat on the big chair with his two hands each holding a fan and asked people to ignite the firecrackers simultaneously . He wanted to fly up resorting to the force of the rockets and the flapping fans . But he died in a thunderous bang . His experiment failed . But the same principle of his experiment has sent the modern jet planes to fly into the sky .