if flying is theoretically impossible

I read a interesting article the other day that cites an 1887 article about the flying machine being impossible (see below).




However this article being as laughable as it is today does have some sanity in it from the time, the science surrounding flight at the time just obviously wasn't credible, but now just over a hundred years later not only do we have fixed wing aircraft but we also have massive heavy lift aircraft that can bring space shuttles into orbit!



While time is a vital factor in the development of anything just because we're into the 21st century doesn't mean we know everything, the idea of traveling faster than light is very hard to comprehend outside of a science fiction frame of mind.



My response to this is that if it was 1940 and you said to someone that there are tiny little particles called atoms in everything and that within five years the US would have a bomb that could harness the power of the atom, break it and cause a chain reaction that could level an entire city, they would think you were off it!