In 1899, Scottish American engineer Alexander Graham Bell, the man best known as the inventor of the telephone, began investigating the possibility of powered flight. To wit:

Inspired by the box kites of Australian [aeronautical pioneer] Laurence Hargrave, Bell began to multiply the lift-providing cells, creating compound structures of multiple kites.The basic problem of creating flying objects is that as a body’s surface area is squared, its weight is cubed, limiting the maximum size and lifting capability. Over the course of years experimenting at his Nova Scotia laboratory, Bell discovered that a tetrahedron — a three-dimensional prism of four triangular sides — could be useful.

READ ON: Bell’s Tetrahedral Kites (Mashable)

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