Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Fredrik (talk | contribs) at 19:04, 10 May 2004 (entrepeneur -> entrepreneur). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Humanity's desire to fly probably dates back to the first time prehistoric man observed birds. Through all of recorded history aspects of this desire have surfaced from time to time. The most well known is the legendary story of Daedalus and Icarus. Daedalus was trapped on the island of Minos, and so built wings out of feathers and wax for himself and his son. His son Icarus, flew too close to the sun and the wax melted, destroying the wings and causing Icarus to fall into the sea, killing him. The legend was designed to be a cautionary tale about attempting to reach heaven, similar to the Tower of Babel story in The Bible. Nevertheless, it exemplifies man's desire to fly.

The modern history of aviation has had several broad trends. Aircraft designers have struggled to make their planes go faster, fly higher, and be controlled more easily. To that effect, engine designs have moved towards more compact, more powerful engines, beginning with steam engines and ending with jet and rocket engines. Planes have become more streamlined and made of stronger and lighter materials. Initially airplanes were made of canvas and wood. Today airplanes are made of aluminum, and increasingly, titanium, which is prized for its lightness, strength and heat resistance. The methods used to control planes have advanced significantly as well. Initially planes were controlled by moving your entire body (gliders) or warping the planes wings (wright brothers). Modern planes are controlled by computers, wich can make planes that were otherwise unflyable able to fly (for example the F-117)

19th century and earlier

(See Early flying machines)

Leonardo da Vinci was the first person to seriously design an aircraft, designing a glider in the 15th century. While this glider was never built by Leonardo, its plans were preserved and it was constructed in the late 20th century. The design was deemed flightworthy and the prototype actually flew. Leonardo also sketched designs for a helicopter, but this design would not have flown.

The first published paper on aviation was "Sketch of a Machine for Flying in the Air" by Emanuel Swedenborg published in 1714. This flying machine consisted of a light frame covered with strong canvas and provided with two large oars or wings moving on a horizontal axis, and so arranged that the upstroke met with no resistance while the downstroke provided the lifting power. Swedenborg knew that the machine would not fly, but suggested it as a start and was confident that the problem would be solved. He said "It seems easier to talk of such a machine than to put it into actuality, for it requires greater force and less weight than exists in a human body. The science of mechanics might perhaps suggest a means, namely, a strong spiral spring. If these advantages and requisites are observed, perhaps in time to come some one might know how better to utilize our sketch and cause some addition to be made so as to accomplish that which we can only suggest. Yet there are sufficient proofs and examples from nature that such flights can take place without danger, although when the first trials are made you may have to pay for the experience, and not mind an arm or leg." Swedborg was prescient in his observation that powering the aircraft through the air was the crux of flying. Sufficiently light and powerful engines would not be available for powered flight until the gasoline engine designed by the Wright Brothers.

The first known human flight ever took place in Paris in 1783: Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois d'Arlandes went 5 miles in a hot air balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers. The balloon was powered by a wood fire, and was uncontrolled, that is, it flew wherever the wind took it. For the first flight, the balloon was tethered, and ultimately reached a height of 26m

The first powered (and controlled and sustained) flight took place in 1852 (15 miles, Henri Giffard, France, with a steam engine mounted on a dirigible). (See Airship)

The first recorded flight by a manned heavier-than-air glider took place in 1853 at Brompton, near Scarborough in Yorkshire. The craft was designed and built by Sir George Cayley, and flown by his coachman

A powered heavier-than-air flight took place in 1890 (Clement Ader, France, steam engine on bat-winged monoplane, 60 yards). All flights ended in crashes.

A controlled heavier-than-air flight was accomplished on August 28, 1883 by John J. Montgomery. Others improved on Montgomery's flight in the 1890s (Otto Lilienthal, 400 yards). Since his flights were controlled, (and he is better-known than Montgomery) Lilienthal is sometimes called the first pilot although his craft were unpowered gliders. Lilienthal also performed the first photographed heavier-than-air flights, he made over 2000 flights in gliders of his design between 1891 and his death five years later. Lilienthal helped to prove that heavier-than-air flight was practical without flapping wings, laying the groundwork for the Wright brothers a few years later to build the first successful powered airplane.

On his 2500th flight, a gust of wind broke the wing of his glider, causing him to fall from a height of roughly 56 ft \ 17 m, fracturing his spine. He died the next day, with his last words being "sacrifices must be made" Based on the huge success of his gliders, it is theorized that if Lilienthal had had a sufficiently light and powerful engine, he would have beaten the Wright brothers. In fact Lilienthal was working on just such an engine at the time of his death. Unfortunately, no one took up his work on the engine and gliders until the Wright Brothers.

In the United Kingdom a close-run attempt at heavier-than-air flight was made by the aviation pioneer Percy Pilcher. Pilcher had built several working gliders, The Bat, The Beetle, The Gull and The Hawk, which he flew successfully during the mid to late 1890s. In 1899 he constructed a prototype powered aircraft, which recent research has shown, would have been capable of flight. However he died in a glider accident before he was able to test it, and his plans were for many years forgotten.

1900 to 1918

At the same time that fixed wing aircraft were advancing, rigid body dirigibles were also becoming more advanced. Indeed, rigid body dirigibles would be far more capable than fixed wing aircraft in terms of pure cargo carrying capacity for decades. Dirigible design and advancement came about due to the German count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Construction of the first Zeppelin airship began in 1899 in a floating assembly hall on Lake Constance in the Bay of Manzell, Friedrichshafen. This was intended to facilitate the difficult starting procedure, as the hall could easily be aligned with the wind. The prototype airship LZ 1 (LZ for "Luftschiff Zeppelin") had a length of 128 m, was driven by two 14.2ps Daimler engines and balanced by moving a weight between its two nacelles.

The first Zeppelin flight occurred on July 2, 1900. It lasted for only 18 minutes, as LZ 1 was forced to land on the lake after the winding mechanism for the balancing weight had broken. Upon repair, the technology proved potential in subsequent flights, beating the 6 m/s velocity record of French airship La France by 3 m/s, but could not yet convince possible investors. It would be several years before he was able to raise enough funds for another try. See the zeppelin page for more history.

In New Zealand, South Canterbury farmer and inventor Richard Pearse constructed a monoplane aircraft that he reputedly flew on March 31 1903. However, even Pearse himself admitted the flight was uncontrolled and ended in a crash-landing on a hedge. For lack of good contemporary documentary some even thought that Pearse's flight happened in 1904. More recent research, however, strongly indicates that the March 1903 date is correct. Pearse was unable to repeat his flights in a sustained manner.

Karl Jatho conducted motorized flight in August 1903, just a few months after Pearse. Jatho's wing design and airspeed did not allow his control surfaces to act properly.

Also some time in the summer of 1903, eyewitnesses claimed to have seen Preston Watson make his initial flights at Errol, near Dundee in the east of Scotland. However once again lack of photographic or documentary evidence makes the claim difficult to verify.

Cayley's and Lilienthal's work was known to the Wright brothers of the United States, who extended the technology of flight with certain principles of control still used today. The Wright brothers had researched and initially relied upon the aeronautical literature of the day, which mainly consisted of Otto Lilienthal's heritage. They found that Lilienthal's tables included errors so they became the first to use a wind tunnel in the design of an aeroplane.

The Wrights made the first controlled powered heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. The first flight by Orville Wright, of 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds, was recorded in a famous photograph. In the fourth flight of the same day, Wilbur Wright flew 852 feet (260 m) in 59 seconds. The flights were witnessed by 4 lifesavers and a boy from the village, making them arguably the first public flight and certainly the first well documented one.

At the time of the Wright brothers' flight, other people had built or work working on heavier-than-air machines capable of flying under their own power; for example, Clement Ader's used a steam engine on a monoplane. After the advent of lighter internal combustion engines (Karl Benz, Nikolaus Otto, Rudolf Diesel), other pioneers followed such as the aforementioned Englishman Percy Pilcher. Gustave Whitehead claimed to have flown a powered aircraft on August 14, 1901. He failed to document the flight, but a later replica of his Number 21 was flown successfully. Lyman Gilmore also claimed to have achieved success on May 15, 1902.

Samuel Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, attempted to fly his manned Aerodrome weeks before the Wrights flew. Although his attempts failed, the Smithsonian Institution continued to boast that the Aerodrome was the first machine "capable of flight", due to Glenn Curtiss making several modifications to the Aerodrome and successfully flying it in 1914. Langley's quarter scale model and other unmanned 'aerodrome's did make several successful flights in the 1890's, however.

Many claims of flight are complicated by the fact that many early flights were done at such low altitude that they did not clear the ground effect and the complexities involved in the differences between unpowered and powered aircraft.

The Wright Brothers conducted numerous additional public flights (over 80) in 1904 and 1905 from Huffman Prairie in Dayton, Ohio and invited friends, neighbors and newspaper reporters to them although few came.

Alberto Santos-Dumont made a public flight in Europe on September 13, 1906 in Paris. His design, like the Wright brothers', used a canard elevator and wing-warping, and covered a distance of 221 m (725 ft). Since the plane did not need headwinds or catapults to take off, this flight is considered by some as the first true powered flight. Also, since the earlier attempts of Pearse, Jatho, Watson, and the Wright brothers received less attention from the popular press then Santos-Dumont's flight its importance to society, especially in Europe, is often considered to be greater despite occurring some years later.

Two English inventors Henry Farman and John William Dunne were also working separately on powered flying machines. In January 1908, Farman won the Grand Prix d'Aviation with a machine which flew for 1 km, though by this time many longer flights had already been done. For example, the Wright Brothers had made flights over 39 km long by 1905.

On May 14, 1908 the Wright Brothers made what is accepted to be the first two-person aircraft flight with Charlie Furnas as a passenger.

Thomas Selfridge became the first person killed in a powered airplane on September 17, 1908 when Wilbur crashed his two-passenger plane during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia.

In late 1908, Madame Hart O. Berg became the first woman to fly when she flew with Wilbur Wright in Le Mans, France.

Dunne's early work was sponsored by the British military, and tested in great secrecy in Glen Tilt in the Scottish Highlands. His best early design, the D4, flew in December 1908 near Blair Atholl in Perthshire. Dunne's main contribution to early aviation was stability, which was a key problem with the planes designed by the Wright brothers and Samuel Cody.

Controversy in the credit for invention of the airplane has been fuelled by Pearse's and Jatho's essentially non-existent efforts to inform the popular press, by the Wrights' secrecy while their patent was prepared, by the pride of nations, and by the number of firsts made possible by the basic invention. For example, the Romanian engineer Traian Vuia (1872 - 1950) also has been claimed to have been first self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft, able to take off autonomously, without a headwind, and entirely driven by its on-board installations, throughout its evolution. Vuia piloted the airplane he designed and built on March 18, 1906, at Montesson, near Paris. None of his flights were longer then 100 feet (30 m) in length. In comparison, by the end of 1904, the Wright brothers had sustained flights up to 39 minutes and 24.5 miles (39 km) in 1905, circling over Huffman Prairie.

The use of energy other than that which comes from an on-board engine for take-off or flight is sometimes considered a disqualification for some aviation pioneers. Notably the Wright brothers' claims are sometimes considered weaker because, during the development of their aircraft, they used a catapult take-off system to compensate for the absence of a head wind in many of their flights. In fact, the lack of a head wind has been cited to explain the failure of a reconstruction of the Wright flyer at the Wright centennial in 2003. As one observer put it: "but in a storm anything could fly". Winds can allow any number of things to take flight, but those objects cannot sustain travel forward into the wind. In the case of the Wrights, the amount of energy supplied by the catapult would be minute compared to the total expended during longer flights. With the lack of wind in Ohio, the power came from the aircraft engine.

The first helicopter known to have risen off the ground took place in 1907 (Cornu, France) though the first practical helicopter was the Focke FA-61 (Germany, 1936).

The early history of flight and credit for various accomplishments is often highly contested. see Early flying machines

1918 - 1939

The years between World War I and World War II saw a large advancement in aircraft technology.

Airplanes went from being constructed of mostly wood and canvas to being constructed almost entirely of aluminium. Engine development proceeded apace, with engines moving from in-line water cooled gasoline engines to rotary air cooled engines, with a commensurate increase in propulsive power. Pushing all of this forward were a series of prizes for various distance and speed records. For example Charles Lindbergh took the Orteig Prize of $25,000 for his solo non-stop crossing of the Atlantic, the first person to achieve this, although not the first to carry out a non-stop crossing. That was achieved eight years earlier when Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown co-piloted a Vickers Vimy nonstop from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland on June 14, 1919, winning the £10,000 ($50,000) Northcliffe prize in the process.

After WWI there were many experienced fighter pilots who were eager to show off their new skills. Many American pilots became barnstormers, flying into small towns across the country and showing off their flying skills, as well as taking paying passengers for rides. Eventually the barnstormers grouped into more organized displays of their prowess. A series of air shows sprang up around the country, with air races, acrobatic stunts, and feats of air superiority being the main attraction. The air races drove engine and airframe development - the Schneider Trophy for example led to a series of ever faster and sleeker monoplane designs culminating in the Supermarine S.6B, a direct forerunner of the Spitfire. With pilots competing for cash prizes, there was more incentive to go faster than just personal prestige. Amelia Earhart was perhaps the most famous of those on the barnstorming/air show circuit. She was also the first female pilot to achieve many records such as crossing of the Atlantic, English channel, etc.

On the lighter-than-air front, the first crossings of the Atlantic were made by airship in July 1919 by His Majesty's Airship R34 and crew when they flew from East Lothian, Scotland to Long Island, New York and then back to Pulham, England. By 1929, airship technology had advanced to the point that the first round-the-world flight was completed by the Graf Zeppelin in September and in October, the same aircraft inaugurated the first commercial transatlantic service. However the age of the dirigible ended in 1937 with the terrible fire aboard the Zeppelin Hindenburg. After the now famous footage of the Hindenburg crashing and burning on the Lakehurst, New Jersey, landing field, people simply stopped using airships, despite the fact that most people on board survived, and the Hindenburg disaster was the only such disaster with a lighter-than-air ship to claim civilian lives.

In the 1930s development of the jet engine began in Germany and in England. In England Frank Whittle patented a design for a jet engine in 1930 and began developing a workable engine towards the end of the decade. In Germany Hans von Ohain patented his version of a jet engine in 1936 and began developing a similar engine. The two men were unaware of each others work, and both Germany and Britain had developed jet aircraft by the end of World War II.

WWII 1939-1945

World War Two saw a drastic increase in the pace of aircraft development and production. All countries involved in the war stepped up production and development of aircraft and flight based weapon delivery systems, such as the German V-2 missile, and World War two saw the development of the first long range bomber, and the first jet fighter. The first functional jetplane which was the Heinkel He 178 (Germany), flown by Erich Warsitz in 1939. An earlier prototype was the Coanda-1910 that did a short flight in December 16, 1910. The first cruise missile (V-1), and the first ballistic missile (V-2) were also developed by Germany. Long range bombers made the bigger difference in the war of those technologies. Jet fighters did not have significant impact, nor cruise and ballistic missiles in part because the V-1 was not very effective and the V-2 was never produced in useful numbers. The P-51 Mustang was critical to the success of the heavy bomber, allowing much lower losses then otherwise. The following table shows Aircraft production in the United States, and how it drastically increased over the course of the war.

1945 - present

Commercial Aviation really took hold after World War II using mostly ex-military aircraft in the business of transporting people and goods. Within a few years, many companies existed with routes that criss-crossed North America, Europe and other parts of the world. This was accelerated due to the glut of Heavy and super heavy bomber chasis like the B-29 that could easily be converted into commercial aircraft. The DC-3 also made for easier and longer commercial flights. By 1952, the British state airline BOAC introduced into service the first jet airliner the De Havilland Comet. While a technical achievement, the plane ended up being a flop, as the shape of the windows led to cracks due to metal fatige. The metal fatigue was caused by pressurization and depressurization of the cabin, and eventually led to catastrophic depressurization of the planes. By the time the problems were fixed several years later, other jet airliner competition had already begun, including the Boeing 707.

Even with the end of World War II, there was still a need for advancement in airplane and rocket technology. Not long after the war ended, in October of 1947, Chuck Yeager took the rocket powered Bell X-1 past the speed of sound. Although anecdotal evidence exists that some fighter pilots may have done so while divebombing ground targets during the war, this is the first controlled, level flight to cross the sound barrier. Further barriers of distance were eliminated in 1948 and 1952 as the first jet crossoing of the Atlantic occurred and the first nonstop flight to Australia occurred.

In 1961, ths sky was literally no longer the limit for manned flight, as Yuri Gagarin, orbited once around the planet within 108 minutes. This action further heated up the space race that had started in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union. The United States responded by launching Alan Shepard into space on a suborbital flight in a Mercury space capsule. The Space race would ultimately lead to the current pinacle of human flight, the landing of men on the moon in 1969.

This historic achievement in space was not the only progress made in aviation at this time however. In 1967, the X-15 set the air speed record for an airplane at 4,534 mph or Mach 6.1 (7,297 km/h). Aside from vehicles designed to fly in outer space, this record still stands as the air speed record for powered flight.

The same year that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon, 1969, Boeing came out with its vision for the future of air travel, unveiling the Boeing 747 for the first time. This plane is still one of the largest aircraft to ever fly, and it carries millions of passengers each year. Commercial aviation progressed evn further in 1976 as British Airways inagurated supersonic service across the atlantic, courtesy of the Concorde. A few years earlier the SR-71 Blackbird had set the record for crossing the Atlantic in under 2 hours, and Concorde followed in its footsteps with passengers in tow.

The last quarter of the 20th century saw a slowing of the pace of advancement seen in the first three quarters of the century. No longer was revoloutionary progress made in flight speeds, distances and technology. This part of the century saw the steady improvement of flight avionics, and a few minor milestones in flight progress.

For example, in 1979 the Gossamer albatross became the first human powered airplane to cross the english channel. This achievement finally saw the realization of centuries of dreams of human flight, but it ultimately did not have an impact on either commercial or military aviation. In 1986 Burt Rutan flew an airplane around the world unrefuelled, and without landing. In 1999? Bertrand Piccard became the first person to circle the earth in a baloon. By the end of the 20th Century there were no major or minor accomplishments left to be made in subsonic aviation. Focus was turning to the ultimate conquest of space and flight at faster than the speed of sound. The ANSARI X PRIZE inspired entrepreneurs and space enthusiasts to build their own rocket ships to fly faster than sound and climb into the lowest reaches of space.

In the beginning of the 21st century, subsonic aviation focused on eliminating the pilot in favor of remotely operated or completely autonomous vehicles. Several Unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs have been developed In April 2001 the unmanned aircraft Global Hawk flew from Edwards AFB in the US to Australia non-stop and unrefuelled. This is the longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, and took 23 hours and 23 minutes. In October 2003 the first totally autonomous flight across the Atlantic by a computer-controlled model aircraft occurred.

In commercial aviation, the early 21st century saw the end of an era with the retirement of the Concorde. Supersonic flight was not very commercial, as the planes were required to fly over the oceans if they wanted to break the sound barier. The Concorde also was fuel hungry and could carry a limited amount of passengers due to its highly streamlined design.

Despite this setback, and the general slowing of progress, it is generally agreed that the 21st century will be a bright one for aviation. Planes and rockets offer unique capabilities in terms of speed and carrying capacity that cannot be underestimated. As long as there is a need for people to get to places quickly, there will be a need for aviation.

See also

• List of years in aviation
• List of aircraft
• Incidents in Aviation
• Early flying machines

External links

• http://www.flyingmachines.org/
• http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html
• Time line of greatest breakthroughs in manned flight
• Prehistory of Flight