NO ONE could accuse Abbot John Damian of lacking courage. Whether he had the sense he was born with is another matter. In 1507 he jumped from the battlements of Stirling Castle, sporting a pair of feather-covered wings he had made himself, in a bid to achieve man's age-old dream of flying.

It didn't work, of course. He plummeted to the ground, where he was lucky to suffer no more than a broken thigh. The disappointed aviator had a ready-made excuse. He blamed his failure on using chicken feathers rather than eagle feathers to make his 'wings'.

He wasn't the first or last pioneer to come to grief in man's quest to conquer the skies. King Bladud of Britain may be the first man on record who died in pursuit of the dream: he was reputedly killed in 843 BC after trying to fly from the top of a temple with a pair of wings made of feathers. In 1020, Oliver of Malmesbury was fortunate to escape with two broken legs when he jumped off Malmesbury Abbey.

Even the great Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) failed. He was the first to apply serious scientific principles to the dream of flight. He studied the anatomy of birds' wings, and used his knowledge to draw up plans for mechanical aircraft that imitated birds' flapping flight. Sadly, not having access to time-lapse photography, he failed to understand how birds actually flew - and, even if they had ever been built, his machines would have been unworkable.

It wasn't until 1783 that man finally conquered the skies. On November 21 that year two French noblemen, Jean Francoise Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, were carried 1500 feet above Paris in a hot-air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers - the first people ever to get a truly aerial view of the ground.

It is hard today, when flight is commonplace, to realise what it must have been like for those two men to see the world laid out beneath their feet. "Today, we're faced with such views all the time, on TV, in books, even first hand," says Anne Skelton of the Yorkshire Museum n York. "Then, it must have changed our perception of the world."

The lives of all the great aviation pioneers are brought magnificently to life in the new Flight exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum.

They're all here. King Bladud and Oliver of Malmesbury, Leonardo and the Montgolfiers, the Wright brothers - who achieved the first successful powered flight in 1903 - and Neil Armstrong, who so memorably muffed his lines on setting foot on the moon in 1969. But who can blame him?

You'll also find out about Sir George Cayley, who did much of his work designing early fixed-wing gliders at Brompton Hall near Scarborough, and who is considered by many to be the true inventor of the aeroplane. He it was who, in the 1850s, persuaded his reluctant coachman to make the first gliding flight in history, across the valley at Brompton.

The exhibition doesn't only concentrate on Man's attempts at flight, however. It covers the whole history of flight on our planet - beginning with the insects that made it into the skies 350 million years before we did.

They had the benefit of astonishingly light, strong bodies, so we needn't feel too ashamed about lagging so far behind. For millions of years insects, with their strong exoskeletons and double-layered chitinous wings reinforced with hollow veins like aircraft struts, were the only occupants of the skies - not counting seeds, that is.

Then, a couple of hundred million years ago, along came the pterosaurs - the great flying reptiles of the dinosaur age, which glided across the ancient skies on batlike wings that were essentially great flaps of skin stretched between fore- and hindlegs, and could stretch 25 feet from wingtip to wingtip.

They were the first flying vertebrates - but they were only gliders. It was left to the birds - evolved, it is thought, from warm-blooded, feathered dinosaurs - to work out the secret of powered, flapping flight.

The exhibition gives a vivid account of how it might have happened. "Flight may have evolved as small dinosaurs ran along the ground with their long arms outstretched chasing their prey," a display panel says. "Eventually they were able to take small jumps in their air, and then lengthen these by flapping their 'arms'. The feathers, which originally evolved for warmth, now helped the animals to fly."

If you think all this sounds technical - don't worry. This is a wonderfully hands-on, visual exhibition. Giant insects hang from the ceiling, a pterosaur dives towards you from the roof. There are some great hands-on displays - including a large hot-air balloon that lifts off when you press a button which causes air to heat up, and a 3D computer simulation that allows you to navigate your way around a space station, getting a glimpse through portholes at the Earth floating beneath you.

The exhibition ends with a display symbolising man's final triumph in his conquest of the skies. A life-sized replica of the glider in which Otto Lilienthal made 2,500 flights in the late 1890s hangs from the ceiling - and, best of all, occupying most of one side of the room is a giant wall display showing footage of a spacecraft hanging high above an achingly beautiful Earth, and then cutting to Neil Armstrong's historic first steps on the moon. "The eagle has landed," says a crackling voice, while the music of Erik Satie swells in the background. Truly inspiring.

Flight runs at the Yorkshire Museum,York, until September 2002. Entry is free to York residents on presentation of a Yorkcard; admission £4.95, concessions, £3.95 for non-residents.

A series of Birds of Prey demonstrations by the Parkrose Owl and Bird of Prey Centre near Bridlington has been organised to tie in with the exhibition, giving you the chance to see owls and other birds of prey in flight in a 40- minute indoor exhibition. The next ones are tomorrow, Sunday May 4 and Bank Holiday Monday May 5, at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm in the Tempest Anderson Hall. Admission to the demonstration only is £1.95 for adults, £1.50 concessions, £7.50 family ticket.

Updated: 09:12 Saturday, May 04, 2002