The Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge provides basic knowledge for the student pilot learning to fly, as well as pilots seeking advanced pilot certification. For detailed information on a variety of specialized flight topics, see specific Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) handbooks and Advisory Circulars (ACs). This chapter offers a brief history of flight, introduces the history and role of the FAA in civil aviation, FAA regulations and standards, government references and publications, eligibility for pilot certificates, available routes to flight instruction, the role of the Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI) and Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) in flight training, Practical Test Standards (PTS), and new, industry-developed Airman Certification Standards (ACS) framework that will eventually replace the PTS. The identity of the first “bird-men” who fitted themselves with wings and leapt off of cliffs in an effort to fly are lost in time, but each failure gave those who wished to fly questions that needed to be answered. Where had the wing flappers gone wrong? Philosophers, scientists, and inventors offered solutions, but no one could add wings to the human body and soar like a bird. During the 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci filled pages of his notebooks with sketches of proposed flying machines, but most of his ideas were flawed because he clung to the idea of birdlike wings. [Figure 1-1] By 1655, mathematician, physicist, and inventor Robert Hooke concluded that the human body does not possess the strength to power artificial wings. He believed human flight would require some form of artificial propulsion.