Although the Wright brothers' heavier-than-air flight in 1903 is considered a milestone in the history of world aviation, the first manned flight was actually a lighter-than-air hot air balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783. The controllable airship was designed by the German count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1899. At the beginning of the 20th century, important developments began to be experienced in civil and military aviation activities. In 1909, first the English Canal was crossed, and then the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. The first use of airplanes for military purposes was by Italians against the Ottoman Empire in the 1911 Tripoli War, and later warplanes were widely used in the First World War. The newly established Republic of Turkey understood the importance of aviation and the Turkish Aeronautical Association was established in 1925 under the leadership of Atatürk.
The momentum that started with the establishment of aircraft factories in these years could not be sustained due to various reasons such as the shortage of trained human resources, and at the end of the Second World War, due to the grants received from abroad, it completely stopped. Advances in aviation have also paved the way for access to space. On October 4, 1957, the first man-made satellite, Sputnik-1, was stationed into Earth orbit. From this moment on, a space race began. With the moves that started with the Earth orbit, first the Moon, then Mars and other planets were reached.
As a result of these rapid developments in the field of aviation and space, aviation and space engineering departments have started to be opened in various universities in our country to solve the problem of trained human resources. Turkish Aeronautical Association also established the University of Turkish Aeronautical Association in 2011 in order to transfer its knowledge and experience from the past to the academic environment, and our university has started to admit students to both Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Engineering departments since 2012.