User:Cornflakes 09/History of Aviation

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The history of aviation spans over two millennia, from the earliest innovations like kites and daring attempts at tower jumping to supersonic and hypersonic flight in powered, heavier-than-air jet aircraft. Kite flying in China, dating back several hundred years BC, is considered the earliest example of man-made flight. Leonardo da Vinci's 15th-century dream of flight was expressed in several rational designs. Though hindered by the limitations of contemporary science, Da Vinci entertained his ideas and theories, laying the foundation for concepts of aeronautics founded years later. Conducting research on things such as the flight of birds, fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, and many more.

In the late 18th century, the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot-air balloon and began manned flights. At almost the same time, the discovery of hydrogen gas led to the invention of the hydrogen balloon. Various theories in mechanics by physicists during the same period, such as fluid dynamics and Newton's laws of motion, led to the foundation of modern aerodynamics, most notably by Sir George Cayley. Balloons, both free-flying and tethered, began to be used for military purposes from the end of the 18th century, with the French government establishing balloon companies during the French Revolution.

Experiments with gliders provided the groundwork for learning the dynamics of heavier-than-air craft, most notably by Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, and Octave Chanute. By the early 20th century, advances in engine technology and aerodynamics made controlled, powered flight possible for the first time. In 1903, following their pioneering research and experiments with wing design and aircraft control, the Wright brothers successfully incorporated all of the required elements to create and fly the first aeroplane. The basic configuration with its characteristic tail was established by 1909, followed by rapid design and performance improvements aided by the development of more powerful engines.

The first great ships of the air were the rigid dirigible balloons pioneered by Ferdinand von Zeppelin, which soon became synonymous with airships and dominated long-distance flight until the 1930s, when large flying boats became popular. After World War II, the flying boats were in their turn replaced by land planes, and the new and immensely powerful jet engine revolutionized both air travel and military aviation.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the development of digital electronics led to major advances in flight instrumentation and "fly-by-wire" systems. The 21st century has seen the widespread use of pilotless drones for military, civilian, and recreational purposes. With digital controls, inherently unstable aircraft designs, such as flying wings, have also become feasible.

Kites

The kite may have been the first form of man-made Heavier-than-aircraft. It was most likely invented in China possibly as far back as the 5th century BC.Evidence to support this finding stands with materials commonly found and ideal for kite building located in China.  These are materials such as “silk fabric for sail material, fine, high-tensile-strength silk for flying line, and resilient bamboo for…framework” The reason these materials were so perfect for building kites is largely due to the structure of the materials themselves.  Bamboo being a strong, hollow material, largely resembled the hollow bones in birds, which allows for less weight, making flight easier.  by Mozi (Mo Di) and Lu Ban (Gongshu Ban).Later designs often depicted images of flying insects, birds, and other beasts, both real and mythical. Some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying. Ancient and mediaeval Chinese sources describe kites being used to measure distances, test the wind, lift men, signal, and communicate and send messages.

Kites spread from China around the world. After being introduced into the rest of Asia, the kite further evolved into the fighter kite, which has an abrasive line used to cut down other kites. The most notable fighter kite designs originated in India and Japan.

Man-carrying kites

[edit] Man-carrying kites are believed to have been used extensively in ancient China for civil and military purposes and sometimes enforced as a punishment. An early recorded flight was that of the prisoner Yuan Huangtou, a Chinese prince, in the 6th century AD. Stories of man-carrying kites also occur in Japan, following the introduction of the kite from China around the seventh century AD. At one time, there was a Japanese law against man-carrying kites.

Sir George Cayley and the first modern aircraft

[edit] Sir George Cayley was first called the "father of the aeroplane" in 1846. During the last years of the 18th century, he began the first rigorous study of the physics of flight and would later design the first modern heavier-than-air craft. Among his many achievements, his most important contributions to aeronautics include:

• Clarifying our ideas and laying down the principles of heavier-than-air flight.
• Reaching a scientific understanding of the principles of bird flight.
• Scientific aerodynamic experiments were conducted to demonstrate drag and streamlining, movement of the center of pressure, and the increase in lift from curving the wing surface.
• Defining the modern aeroplane configuration comprising a fixed-wing, fuselage and tail assembly.
• Demonstrations of manned, gliding flight.
• Identified the crucial understanding that a lightweight, powerful engine would be necessary for sustained heavier-than-air flight, now known as the power-to-weight ratio
• Recognized for establishing the theoretical foundation for engine use in airplanes and modern aircraft design by identifying and explaining the four fundamental forces of flight: lift, thrust, drag, and weight.

Cayley's research on the aeroplane aimed to address the four fundamental areas that are essential to aeronautics: propulsion, structural design, aerodynamics, and stability and control. His work laid the groundwork for a comprehensive understanding of these critical components, which continue to be vital in the field today.

Cayley's first innovation was to study the basic science of lift by adopting the whirling arm test rig for use in aircraft research and using simple aerodynamic models on the arm, rather than attempting to fly a model of a complete design.

In 1799, he set down the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control.

In 1804, Cayley constructed a model glider, which was the first modern heavier-than-air flying machine. It had the layout of a conventional modern aircraft, with an inclined wing towards the front and an adjustable tail at the back with both tailplane and fin. A movable weight allowed adjustment of the model's centre of gravity.

In 1809, goaded by the farcical antics of his contemporaries (see above), he began the publication of a landmark three-part treatise titled "On Aerial Navigation" (1809–1810). In it he wrote the first scientific statement of the problem, "The whole problem is confined within these limits, viz. to make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air". He identified the four vector forces that influence an aircraft: thrust, lift, drag and weight and distinguished stability and control in his designs. He also identified and described the importance of the cambered aerofoil, dihedral, diagonal bracing and drag reduction, and contributed to the understanding and design of ornithopters and parachutes.

In 1848, he had progressed far enough to construct a glider in the form of a triplane large and safe enough to carry a child. A local boy was chosen but his name is not known.

He went on to publish in 1852 the design for a full-size manned glider or "governable parachute" to be launched from a balloon and then to construct a version capable of launching from the top of a hill, which carried the first adult aviator across Brompton Dale in 1853.

Between the World Wars (1918–1939)

The years between World War I and World War II saw great advancements in aircraft technology. Airplanes evolved from low-powered biplanes made from wood and fabric to sleek, high-powered monoplanes made of aluminum, based primarily on the founding work of Hugo Junkers during the World War I period and its adoption by American designer William Bushnell Stout and Soviet designer Andrei Tupolev.

After World War I, experienced fighter pilots were eager to show off their skills. Many American pilots became barnstormers, flying into small towns across the country and showing off their flying abilities, as well as taking paying passengers for rides. Eventually, the barnstormers grouped into more organized displays. Air shows sprang up around the country, with air races, acrobatic stunts, and feats of air superiority. 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. With pilots competing for cash prizes, there was an incentive to go faster. Amelia Earhart was perhaps the most famous of those on the barnstorming/air show circuit. She was also the first female pilot to achieve records such as the crossing of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Prizes for distance and speed records also drove development forwards. On 14 June 1919, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown co-piloted a Vickers Vimy non-stop from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland, winning the £13,000 ($65,000). Northcliffe prize. The first flight across the South Atlantic and the first aerial crossing using astronomical navigation, was made by the naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral in 1922, from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using an aircraft fitted with an artificial horizon for aeronautical use. In 1924, Major General Mason Patrick lead a group of U.S. Army Air Service members to complete the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. This flight around the world came with many logistical challenges, traveling 26,343 miles over the span of 175 days. This flight would lead to improved foreign relations through by promoting commercial collaboration, and greater public interest in aviation, prompting governments to put more resources into developing their aviation forces. On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh received the Orteig Prize of $25,000 for the first solo non-stop crossing of the Atlantic. This caused what was known in aviation at the time as the "Lindbergh boom", which increased public interest in aviation.

Australian Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was the first to fly across the larger Pacific Ocean in the Southern Cross. His crew left Oakland, California to make the first trans-Pacific flight to Australia, making three stops to complete the journey. Kingsford-Smith and his crew would make their first stop in Hawaii from Oakland, California, and from Hawaii to Suva, Fiji. During the last segment of their journey from Fiji to Brisbane, Australia, they would encounter severe thunderstorms, thrown nearly 140 miles off their course. The flight would conclude on June 9, 1928 after flying 7,230 miles, Kingsford-Smith and his crew landed in Brisbane, Australia, receiving $25,000 dollars from the Australian government for their achievement. Accompanying him were Australian aviator Charles Ulm as the relief pilot, and the Americans James Warner and Captain Harry Lyon (who were the radio operator, navigator and engineer). A week after they landed, Kingsford Smith and Ulm recorded a disc for Columbia talking about their trip. With Ulm, Kingsford Smith later continued his journey being the first in 1929 to circumnavigate the world, crossing the equator twice.

The first lighter-than-air 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 rigid airship ended following the destruction by fire of the zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg just before landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey on 6 May 1937, killing 35 of the 97 people aboard. Previous spectacular airship accidents, from the Wingfoot Express disaster (1919) to the loss of the R101 (1930), the Akron (1933) and the Macon (1935) had already cast doubt on airship safety. The disasters of the U.S. Navy's rigids showed the importance of solely using helium as the lifting medium. Following the destruction of the Hindenburg, the remaining airship making international flights, the Graf Zeppelin was retired (June 1937). Its replacement, the rigid airship Graf Zeppelin II, made a number of flights, primarily over Germany, from 1938 to 1939, but was grounded when Germany began World War II. Both remaining German zeppelins were scrapped in 1940 to supply metal for the German Luftwaffe air force.

Meanwhile, Germany, which was restricted by the Treaty of Versailles in its development of powered aircraft, developed gliding as a sport, especially at the Wasserkuppe, during the 1920s. In its various forms, in the 21st-century sailplane aviation now has over 400,000 participants.

In 1929, Jimmy Doolittle developed instrument flight.

1929 also saw the first flight of by far the largest plane ever built until then: the Dornier Do X with a wingspan of 48 m. On its 70th test flight on 21 October 1929, there were 169 people on board, a record that was not broken for 20 years.

In 1923, The first successful rotorcraft appeared in the form of the autogyro, invented by Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva and first flown in 1919. In this design, the rotor is not powered but spins freely as it moves through the air, while a separate engine powers the aircraft to move forward. This would be the basis of further development and prototypes that would lead to the creation of the helicopter. In 1930 Corradino D'Ascanio, an Italian engineer, would develop a coaxial helicopter with the important inclusion of three small propellers on the craft, which would control the pitch, roll, and yaw of the the aircraft. Later helicopters would see several adjustments to their rotors but the first modern helicopter would not be constructed until 1947 by Igor Sikorsky

Only five years after the German Dornier Do-X had flown, Tupolev designed the largest aircraft of the 1930s era, the Maksim Gorky in the Soviet Union by 1934, as the largest aircraft ever built using the Junkers methods of metal aircraft construction.

In the 1930s, development of the jet engine began in Germany and in Britain and they would begin testing in 1939 before World War II. The jet engine would see considerable development during the war, with a few jet powered aircraft being used in the war.

After enrolling in the Military Aviation Academy in Eskisehir in 1936 and undertaking training at the First Aircraft Regiment, Sabiha Gökçen, flew fighter and bomber planes becoming the first Turkish, female aviator and the world's first, female, combat pilot. During her flying career, she achieved some 8,000 hours, 32 of which were combat missions.

Tower jumping

Since ancient times, there have been stories of men strapping birdlike wings, stiffened cloaks, or other devices to themselves and attempting to fly, typically by jumping off a tower. The Greek legends of Daedalus and Icarus are some of the earliest known. Others originated in ancient Asia and the European Middle Ages. During this early period, the concepts of lift, stability, and control were not well understood, and most attempts resulted in serious injuries or death.

The Andalusian scientist Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887 AD) attempted to fly in Córdoba, Spain, by covering his body with vulture feathers and attached two wings to his arms. The 17th-century Algerian historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari, quoting a poem by Muhammad I of Córdoba's 9th-century court poet Mu'min ibn Said, recounts that Firnas flew some distance before landing with some injuries due to his lack of a tail (as birds use them to land). In the 12th century, William of Malmesbury wrote that Eilmer of Malmesbury, an 11th-century Benedictine monk, attached wings to his hands and feet and flew a short distance, but broke both legs while landing, also having neglected to make himself a tail.

Beginnings of modern theories

Francesco Lana de Terzi proposed in Prodromo dell'Arte Maestra (1670) that large vessels could float in the atmosphere by applying the principles of the vacuum. Lana designed an airship with four huge copper foil spheres connected to support a rider's basket, a tail, and a steering rudder. Critics argued that the thin copper spheres could not sustain ambient air pressure, and further experiments proved that his idea was impossible.

The technique of using a vacuum to create lift is called a vacuum airship, but it is still impossible to build with the materials available today.

In 1709, Bartolomeu de Gusmão approached King John V of Portugal and claimed to have discovered a way for airborne flight.

Due to the King's illness, Gusmão's experiment was rescheduled from its initial June 24, 1709, date to August 8. The experiment was carried out in front of the king and other nobles in the Casa da India yard, but the paper ship or device burned down before it could take flight.

Balloons

In France, five aviation firsts were accomplished between June 4 and December 1, 1983:

• On June 4, a crowd gathered in Annonay, France, to witness the unmanned hot air balloon display by the Montgolfier brothers. Their 500-pound balloon ascended to nearly 3,000 feet and traveled over a mile and a half. It stayed in the air for ten minutes before tipping over and catching fire.
• On August 27th, Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers unveiled the first unmanned hydrogen balloon from Paris' Champ de Mars. It landed almost an hour later in Gonesse, where terrified farmers mistook it for a monster and destroyed it.
• On October 19, in front of 2,000 spectators, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes boarded the Montgolfier aircraft as the first people. Later that day, Giroud de Villette, another pilot, took to the skies much higher.

Mars

On 19 April 2021, NASA successfully flew its diminutive unmanned helicopter Ingenuity on Mars, humanity's first controlled powered aircraft flight on another planet. The helicopter rose to a height of three metres and hovered in a stable holding position for 30 seconds; a video of the flight was made by its accompanying rover, Perseverance.

Ingenuity, which was initially designed for five demonstration flights, flew 72 times traveling 11 miles in nearly three years. As a homage to all of its aerial predecessors, it carries a postage stamp sized piece of wing fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer.

Ingenuity's last flight was 18 January 2024, a span of 2 years, 333 days since its first takeoff (the duration in Martian days, or sols, was 1035). Broken and damaged rotor blades suffered during its final landing forced the helicopter's retirement.

Postwar Era (1945- 1979)

Following World War II, commercial aviation expanded quickly, primarily relying on former military aircraft to carry passengers and cargo. There was an excess of large bombers, such as the B-29 and Lancaster, which were easily converted for commercial use. The DC-3 specifically played a key role, enabling longer and more efficient flights.

The British de Havilland Comet became the first commercial jet airliner and was introduced into scheduled service by 1952. The aircraft was a breakthrough in technical achievements, but had several intense failures. The square design of the windows caused stress cracks from metal fatigue, caused by cycles of cabin pressurization and depressurization. This eventually led to severe structural failures in the fuel area. These issues were resolved too late, since competing jet airliners were already flying.

On September 15, 1956, the USSR’s airline Aeroflot  became the first to offer continuous, regular jet services using the Tupolev Tu-104. Soon after, Boeing 707 and  DC-8 also set new standards in comfort, safety, and passenger experience. These were the beginning of the Jet Age, the introduction of large-scale commercial air travel.

In October 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first to fly faster than the speed of sound when he piloted the rocket-powered Bell X-1 past the sound barrier.

Military aircraft had a strategic advantage during the Cold War with the invention of nuclear bombs in 1945. Even just a small fleet of bombers  could inflict catastrophic damage, which caused for the development of effective defenses. One early development was supersonic interceptor aircraft. By 1955, the focus shifted toward guided surface-to-air missiles. This eventually led to the emergence of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which have nuclear capabilities. An early example of ICBMs occurred in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, beginning the Space Race.

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space when he completed a single orbit around Earth in 108 minutes aboard Vostok I. Following this, the United States sent Alan Shepard on a suborbital flight using a Mercury program capsule. In 1963, Canada became the third nation to enter space with the launch of its satellite, Alouette I. The race culminated in the landing on the moon in 1969.

The air speed record for an aircraft was set by the X-15 at 4,534 mph (7,297 km/h) or Mach 6.1 in 1967. This record would later be broken by the X-43 in 2004, excluding spacecraft.