text: who invented the first airplane?   the first working areoplane was built by orville and wilbur wright, the wright brothers.  however many unsucessful aeroplanes had been designed earlier by a number of inventors going back centuries.   flying machines have been theorised since classical antiquity.  the legendary inventor daedalus invented a flying harness which allowed him and his son, icharus, to fly... until icharus flew too high and melted the wax in the wings and fell to his doom!