Earwy fwying machines
Earwy fwying machines incwude aww forms of aircraft studied or constructed before de devewopment of de modern aeropwane by 1910. The story of modern fwight begins more dan a century before de first successfuw manned aeropwane, and de earwiest aircraft dousands of years before.
- 1 Primitive beginnings
- 2 Lighter dan air
- 3 Heavier dan air: parachutes and kites
- 4 Heavier dan air: sustained fwight
- 4.1 The 17f and 18f centuries
- 4.2 The 19f Century
- 4.3 Powered, controwwed fwight
- 4.4 The first practicaw aircraft
- 4.5 Miwitary use
- 4.6 Hewicopters
- 5 See awso
- 6 Notes
- 7 References
- 8 Externaw winks
From de earwiest times dere have been wegends of men mounting fwying devices or strapping birdwike wings, stiffened cwoaks or oder devices to demsewves and attempting to fwy, typicawwy by jumping off a tower. The Greek wegend of Daedawus and Icarus is one of de earwiest to come down to us. According to Ovid, Daedawus tied feaders togeder to mimic de wings of a bird. Oder ancient wegends incwude de Indian Vimana fwying pawace or chariot, Ezekiew's Chariot, various stories about Magic carpets, and mydicaw British King Bwadud, who conjured up fwying wings.
Eventuawwy some tried to buiwd reaw fwying devices, typicawwy birdwike wings, and attempted to fwy by jumping off a tower, hiww, or cwiff. During dis earwy period physicaw issues of wift, stabiwity, and controw were not understood, and most attempts ended in serious injury or deaf when de apparatus wacked an effective horizontaw taiw, or de wings were simpwy too smaww.
In de 1st century AD, Chinese Emperor Wang Mang recruited a speciawist scout to be bound wif bird feaders; he is cwaimed to have gwided about 100 meters. In 559 AD, Yuan Huangtou is said to have wanded safewy fowwowing an enforced tower jump.
In medievaw Europe, de earwiest recorded tower jump dates from 852 AD, when Abbas ibn Firnas made a jump in Cordoba, Spain, reportedwy covering his body wif vuwture feaders and attaching two wings to his arms; on wanding he is said to have crashed and sustained a back injury which some critics attributed to a wack of a taiw. In 1010 AD, Engwish monk Eiwmer of Mawmesbury fwew from de tower of Mawmesbury Abbey in a primitive gwider. Eiwmer was said to have fwown over 200 yards (180 m) before wanding, breaking bof his wegs. Eiwmer water remarked dat de onwy reason he did not fwy furder was dat he forgot to give his machine a taiw. This burst of activity was fowwowed by a wuww of severaw centuries.
Jumping revived in 1496 wif Seccio breaking bof arms in Nuremberg. In 1507, John Damian strapped on wings covered wif chicken feaders and jumped from de wawws of Stirwing Castwe in Scotwand, breaking his digh, water bwaming it on not using eagwe feaders.
Simiwar attempts continued untiw de earwy 19f century, wif never more dan partiaw success. Francis Wiwwughby's suggestion, pubwished in 1676, dat human wegs were more comparabwe to birds' wings in strengf dan arms, had onwy occasionaw infwuence. On May 15, 1793, de spanish inventor Diego Marín Aguiwera, jumped wif his gwider from de highest part of de castwe of Coruña dew Conde, reaching an height of approximatewy 5 or 6 m, and gwiding for approximatewy 360 metres. As wate as 1811, Awbrecht Berbwinger constructed an ornidopter and jumped into de Danube at Uwm.
The kite was invented in China, possibwy as far back as de 5f century BC by Mozi (awso Mo Di) and Lu Ban (awso Gongshu Ban). These weaf kites were constructed by stretching siwk over a spwit bamboo framework. The earwiest known Chinese kites were fwat (not bowed) and often rectanguwar. Later, taiwwess kites incorporated a stabiwizing bowwine. Designs often emuwated fwying insects, birds, and oder beasts, bof reaw and mydicaw. Some were fitted wif strings and whistwes to make musicaw sounds whiwe fwying.
In 549 AD, a kite made of paper was used as a message for a rescue mission, uh-hah-hah-hah. Ancient and medievaw Chinese sources wist oder uses of kites for measuring distances, testing de wind, wifting men, signawwing, and communication for miwitary operations.
After its introduction into India, de kite furder evowved into de fighter kite. Traditionawwy dese are smaww, unstabwe singwe wine fwat kites where wine tension awone is used for controw, and an abrasive wine is used to cut down oder kites.
By 1634 kites had reached de West, wif an iwwustration of a diamond kite wif a taiw appearing in Bate's Mysteries of nature and art.
Man-carrying kites are bewieved to have been used extensivewy in ancient China, for bof civiw and miwitary purposes and sometimes enforced as a punishment.
Stories of man-carrying kites awso occur in Japan, fowwowing de introduction of de kite from China around de sevenf century AD. It is said dat at one time dere was a Japanese waw against man-carrying kites.
In 1282, de European expworer Marco Powo described de Chinese techniqwes den current and commented on de hazards and cruewty invowved. To foreteww wheder a ship shouwd saiw, a man wouwd be strapped to a kite having a rectanguwar grid framework and de subseqwent fwight pattern used to divine de outwook.
The use of a rotor for verticaw fwight has existed since 400 BC in de form of de bamboo-copter, an ancient Chinese toy. The bamboo-copter is spun by rowwing a stick attached to a rotor. The spinning creates wift, and de toy fwies when reweased. The phiwosopher Ge Hong's book de Baopuzi (Master Who Embraces Simpwicity), written around 317, describes de apocryphaw use of a possibwe rotor in aircraft: "Some have made fwying cars [feiche 飛車] wif wood from de inner part of de jujube tree, using ox-weader (straps) fastened to returning bwades so as to set de machine in motion".
The simiwar "mouwinet à noix" (rotor on a nut) appeared in Europe in de 14f century AD.
Hot air bawwoons
From ancient times de Chinese have understood dat hot air rises and have appwied de principwe to a type of smaww hot air bawwoon cawwed a sky wantern. A sky wantern consists of a paper bawwoon under or just inside which a smaww wamp is pwaced. Sky wanterns are traditionawwy waunched for pweasure and during festivaws. According to Joseph Needham, such wanterns were known in China from de 3rd century BC. Their miwitary use is attributed to de generaw Zhuge Liang, who is said to have used dem to scare de enemy troops.
There is evidence de Chinese awso "sowved de probwem of aeriaw navigation" using bawwoons, hundreds of years before de 18f century.
Eventuawwy some investigators began to discover and define some of de basics of scientific aircraft design, uh-hah-hah-hah. Powered designs were eider stiww driven by man-power or used a metaw spring. The Engwishman Roger Bacon predicted future designs for a bawwoon fiwwed wif an unspecified aeder and a man-powered ornidopter in his book De mirabiwi potestate carto et naturae (Secrets of Art and Nature), 1250.
- Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci studied bird fwight for many years, anawyzing it rationawwy and anticipating many principwes of aerodynamics. He understood dat "An object offers as much resistance to de air as de air does to de object". Newton wouwd not pubwish de Third waw of motion untiw 1687.
From de wast years of de 15f century on he wrote about and sketched many designs for fwying machines and mechanisms, incwuding ornidopters, fixed-wing gwiders, rotorcraft and parachutes. His earwy designs were man-powered types incwuding ornidopters and rotorcraft, however he came to reawise de impracticawity of dis and water turned to controwwed gwiding fwight, awso sketching some designs powered by a spring.
In 1488, he drew a hang gwider design in which de inner parts of de wings are fixed, and some controw surfaces are provided towards de tips (as in de gwiding fwight in birds). Whiwe his drawings exist and are deemed fwight-wordy in principwe, he himsewf never fwew in it. A modew he buiwt for a test fwight in 1496 did not fwy, and some oder designs, such as de four-person screw-type hewicopter, have severe fwaws. He drew and wrote about a design for an ornidopter in c. 1490.
Da Vinci's work remained unknown untiw 1797, and so had no infwuence on devewopments over de next dree hundred years. Nor were his designs based on particuwarwy good science.
Lighter dan air
The modern era of wighter-dan-air fwight began earwy in de 17f century wif Gawiweo's experiments in which he showed dat air has weight. Around 1650, Cyrano de Bergerac wrote some fantasy novews in which he described de principwe of ascent using a substance (dew) he supposed to be wighter dan air, and descending by reweasing a controwwed amount of de substance. Francesco Lana de Terzi measured de pressure of air at sea wevew and in 1670 proposed de first scientificawwy credibwe wifting medium in de form of howwow metaw spheres from which aww de air had been pumped out. These wouwd be wighter dan de dispwaced air and abwe to wift an airship. His proposed medods of controwwing height are stiww in use today; by carrying bawwast which may be dropped overboard to gain height, and by venting de wifting containers to wose height. In practice de Terzi's spheres wouwd have cowwapsed under air pressure, and furder devewopments had to wait for more practicabwe wifting gases.
The first documented bawwoon fwight in Europe was of a modew made by de Braziwian priest Bartowomeu de Gusmão. On 8 August 1709, in Lisbon, he made a smaww hot-air bawwoon of paper wif a fire burning beneaf it, wifting it about 4 metres (13 ft) in front of king John V and de Portuguese court.
In de mid-18f century de Montgowfier broders began experimenting wif parachutes and bawwoons in France. Their bawwoons were made of paper, and earwy experiments using steam as de wifting gas were short-wived due to its effect on de paper as it condensed. Mistaking smoke for a kind of steam, dey began fiwwing deir bawwoons wif hot smoky air which dey cawwed "ewectric smoke". Despite not fuwwy understanding de principwes at work dey made some successfuw waunches and in December 1782 fwew a 20 m3 (710 cu ft) bawwoon to a height of 300 m (980 ft). The French Académie des Sciences soon invited dem to Paris to give a demonstration, uh-hah-hah-hah.
Meanwhiwe, de discovery of hydrogen wed Joseph Bwack to propose its use as a wifting gas in about 1780, dough practicaw demonstration awaited a gastight bawwoon materiaw. On hearing of de Montgowfier Broders' invitation, de French Academy member Jacqwes Charwes offered a simiwar demonstration of a hydrogen bawwoon and dis was accepted. Charwes and two craftsmen, de Robert broders, devewoped a gastight materiaw of rubberised siwk and set to work.
1783 was a watershed year for bawwooning. Between June 4 and December 1 five separate French bawwoons achieved important aviation firsts:
- 4 June: The Montgowfier broders' unmanned hot air bawwoon wifted a sheep, a duck and a chicken in a basket hanging beneaf at Annonay.
- 27 August: Professor Jacqwes Charwes and de Robert broders fwew an unmanned hydrogen bawwoon. The hydrogen gas was generated by chemicaw reaction during de fiwwing process.
- 19 October: The Montgowfiers waunched de first manned fwight, a tedered bawwoon wif humans on board, at de Fowie Titon in Paris. The aviators were de scientist Jean-François Piwâtre de Rozier, de manufacture manager Jean-Baptiste Réveiwwon, and Giroud de Viwwette.
- 21 November: The Montgowfiers waunched de first free fwight bawwoon wif human passengers. King Louis XVI had originawwy decreed dat condemned criminaws wouwd be de first piwots, but Jean-François Piwâtre de Rozier, awong wif de Marqwis François d'Arwandes, successfuwwy petitioned for de honor. They drifted 8 km (5.0 mi) in a bawwoon powered by a wood fire. 9 kiwometres (5.6 mi) covered in 25 minutes,
- 1 December: Jacqwes Charwes and Nicowas-Louis Robert waunched a manned hydrogen bawwoon from de Jardin des Tuiweries in Paris. They ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) and wanded at sunset in Neswes-wa-Vawwée after a fwight of 2 hours and 5 minutes, covering 22 miwes (35 km). After Robert awighted Charwes decided to ascend awone. This time he ascended rapidwy to an awtitude of about 3,000 metres (9,800 ft), where he saw de sun again but awso suffered extreme pain in his ears.
The Montgowfier designs had severaw shortcomings, not weast de need for dry weader and a tendency for sparks from de fire to set wight to de paper bawwoon, uh-hah-hah-hah. The manned design had a gawwery around de base of de bawwoon rader dan de hanging basket of de first, unmanned design, which brought de paper cwoser to de fire. On deir free fwight, De Rozier and d'Arwandes took buckets of water and sponges to douse dese fires as dey arose. On de oder hand, de manned design of Charwes was essentiawwy modern, uh-hah-hah-hah. As a resuwt of dese expwoits, de hot-air bawwoon became known as de Montgowfière type and de hydrogen bawwoon de Charwière.
Charwes and de Robert broders' next bawwoon, La Carowine, was a Charwière dat fowwowed Jean Baptiste Meusnier's proposaws for an ewongated dirigibwe bawwoon, and was notabwe for having an outer envewope wif de gas contained in a second, inner bawwonet. On 19 September 1784, it compweted de first fwight of over 100 kiwometres (62 mi), between Paris and Beuvry, despite de man-powered propuwsive devices proving usewess.
In January de next year Jean Pierre Bwanchard and John Jeffries crossed de Engwish Channew from Dover to de Bois de Fewmores in a Charwière. But a simiwar attempt de oder way ended in tragedy. In an attempt to provide bof endurance and controwwabiwity, de Rozier devewoped a bawwoon wif bof hot air and hydrogen gas bags, a design which was soon named after him as de Rozière. His idea was to use de hydrogen section for constant wift and to navigate verticawwy by heating and awwowing to coow de hot air section, in order to catch de most favourabwe wind at whatever awtitude it was bwowing. The bawwoon envewope was made of gowdbeaters skin. Shortwy after de fwight began, de Rozier was seen to be venting hydrogen when it was ignited by a spark and de bawwoon went up in fwames, kiwwing dose on board. The source of de spark is not known, but suggestions incwude static ewectricity or de brazier for de hot air section, uh-hah-hah-hah.
Bawwooning qwickwy became a major "rage" in Europe in de wate 18f century, providing de first detaiwed understanding of de rewationship between awtitude and de atmosphere. By de earwy 1900s, bawwooning was a popuwar sport in Britain, uh-hah-hah-hah. These privatewy owned bawwoons usuawwy used coaw gas as de wifting gas. This has about hawf de wifting power of hydrogen, so de bawwoons had to be warger; however, coaw gas was far more readiwy avaiwabwe, and de wocaw gas works sometimes provided a speciaw wightweight formuwa for bawwooning events.
Tedered bawwoons were used during de American Civiw War by de Union Army Bawwoon Corps. In 1863, de young Ferdinand von Zeppewin, who was acting as a miwitary observer wif de Union Army of de Potomac, first fwew as a bawwoon passenger in a bawwoon dat had been in service wif de Union army. Later dat century, de British Army wouwd make use of observation bawwoons during de Boer War.
Dirigibwes or airships
Work on devewoping a dirigibwe (steerabwe) bawwoon, nowadays cawwed an airship, continued sporadicawwy droughout de 19f century.
The first sustained powered, controwwed fwight in history is bewieved to have taken pwace on 24 September 1852 when Henri Giffard fwew 15 miwes (24 km) in France from Paris to Trappes wif de Giffard dirigibwe, a non-rigid airship fiwwed wif hydrogen and powered by a 3 horsepower (2.2 kW) steam engine driving a 3 bwaded propewwer.
In 1863, Sowomon Andrews fwew his aereon design, an unpowered, controwwabwe dirigibwe in Perf Amboy, New Jersey. He fwew a water design in 1866 around New York City and as far as Oyster Bay, New York. His techniqwe of gwiding under gravity works by changing de wift to provide propuwsive force as de airship awternatewy rises and sinks, and so does not need a powerpwant.
A furder advance was made on 9 August 1884, when de first fuwwy controwwabwe free fwight was made by Charwes Renard and Ardur Constantin Krebs in a French Army ewectric-powered airship, La France. The 170-foot (52 m) wong, 66,000-cubic-foot (1,900 m3) airship covered 8 km (5.0 mi) in 23 minutes wif de aid of an 8.5 horsepower (6.3 kW) ewectric motor, returning to its starting point. This was de first fwight over a cwosed circuit.
These aircraft were not practicaw. Besides being generawwy fraiw and short-wived, dey were non-rigid or at best semi-rigid. Conseqwentwy, it was difficuwt to make dem warge enough to carry a commerciaw woad.
Count Ferdinand von Zeppewin reawised dat a rigid outer frame wouwd awwow a much bigger airship. He founded de Zeppewin firm, whose rigid Luftschiff Zeppewin 1 (LZ 1) first fwew from de Bodensee on de Swiss border on 2 Juwy 1900. The fwight wasted 18 minutes. The second and dird fwights, in October 1900 and on 24 October 1900 respectivewy, beat de 6 m/s (13 mph) speed record of de French airship La France by 3 m/s (6.7 mph).
The Braziwian Awberto Santos-Dumont became famous by designing, buiwding, and fwying dirigibwes. He buiwt and fwew de first fuwwy practicaw dirigibwe capabwe of routine, controwwed fwight. Wif his dirigibwe No.6 he won de Deutsch de wa Meurde prize on 19 October 1901 wif a fwight dat took off from Saint-Cwoud, rounded de Eiffew Tower and returned to its starting point.
By now, de airship was estabwished as de first practicabwe form of air travew.
Heavier dan air: parachutes and kites
Da Vinci's design for a pyramid-shaped parachute remained unpubwished for centuries. The first pubwished design was de Croatian Fausto Veranzio's homo vowans (fwying man) which appeared in his book Machinae novae (New machines) in 1595. Based on a ship's saiw, it comprised a sqware of materiaw stretched across a sqware frame and retained by ropes. The parachutist was suspended by ropes from each of de four corners.
Louis-Sébastien Lenormand is considered de first human to make a witnessed descent wif a parachute. On 26 December 1783, he jumped from de tower of de Montpewwier observatory in France, in front of a crowd dat incwuded Joseph Montgowfier, using a 14 feet (4.3 m) parachute wif a rigid wooden frame.
Between 1853 and 1854, Louis Charwes Letur devewoped a parachute-gwider comprising an umbrewwa-wike parachute wif smawwer, trianguwar wings and verticaw taiw beneaf. Letur died after it crashed in 1854.[a]
Kites are most notabwe in de recent history of aviation primariwy for deir man-carrying or man-wifting capabiwities, awdough dey have awso been important in oder areas such as meteorowogy.
The Frenchman Gaston Biot devewoped a man-wifting kite in 1868. Later, in 1880, Biot demonstrated to de French Society for Aeriaw Navigation a kite based on an open-ended cone, simiwar to a windsock but attached to a fwat surface. The man-carrying kite was devewoped a stage furder in 1894 by Captain Baden Baden-Poweww, broder of Lord Baden-Poweww, who strung a chain of hexagonaw kites on a singwe wine. A significant devewopment came in 1893 when de Austrawian Lawrence Hargrave invented de box kite and some man-carrying experiments were carried out bof in Austrawia and in de United States. In 1905, Neiw MacDermid was carried awoft in Canada by a warge box kite named The Siamese Twins designed by Awexander Graham Beww.
Bawwoons were by den in use for bof meteorowogy and miwitary observation, uh-hah-hah-hah. Bawwoons can onwy be used in wight winds, whiwe kites can onwy be used in stronger winds. The American Samuew Frankwin Cody, working in Engwand, reawised dat de two types of craft between dem awwowed operation over a wide range of weader conditions. He devewoped Hargrave's basic design, adding additionaw wifting surfaces to create powerfuw man-wifting systems using muwtipwe kites on a singwe wine. Cody made many demonstrations of his system and wouwd water seww four of his "war kite" systems to de Royaw Navy. His kites awso found use in carrying meteorowogicaw instruments awoft and he was made a fewwow of de Royaw Meteorowogicaw Society. In 1905, Sapper Moreton of de British Army's bawwoon section was wifted 2,600 feet (790 m) by a kite at Awdershot under Cody's supervision, uh-hah-hah-hah. In 1906, Cody was appointed Chief Instructor in Kiting at de Army Schoow of Bawwooning in Awdershot. He soon awso joined de newwy estabwished Army Bawwoon Factory at Farnborough and continued devewoping his war kites for de British Army. In his own time, he devewoped a manned "gwider-kite" which was waunched on a teder wike a kite and den reweased to gwide freewy. In 1907, Cody next fitted an aircraft engine to a modified unmanned "power-kite", de precursor to his water aeropwanes, and fwew it inside de Bawwoon Shed, awong a wire suspended from powes, before de Prince and Princess of Wawes. The British Army officiawwy adopted his war kites for deir Bawwoon Companies in 1908.
Heavier dan air: sustained fwight
The 17f and 18f centuries
Leonardo da Vinci's reawisation dat manpower awone was not sufficient for sustained fwight was rediscovered independentwy in de 17f century by Giovanni Awfonso Borewwi and Robert Hooke. Hooke reawised dat some form of engine wouwd be necessary and in 1655 made a spring-powered ornidopter modew which was apparentwy abwe to fwy.
Attempts to design or construct a true fwying machine began, typicawwy comprising a gondowa wif a supporting canopy and spring- or man-powered fwappers for propuwsion, uh-hah-hah-hah. Among de first were Hautsch and Burattini (1648). Oders incwuded de Gusmão's "Passarowa" (1709 on), Swedenborg (1716), Desforges (1772), Bauer (1764), Meerwein (1781), and Bwanchard (1781) who wouwd water have more success wif bawwoons. Rotary-winged hewicopters wikewise appeared, notabwy from Lomonosov (1754) and Paucton, uh-hah-hah-hah. A few modew gwiders fwew successfuwwy awdough some cwaims are contested, but in any event no fuww-size craft succeeded.
Itawian inventor, Tito Livio Burattini, invited by de Powish King Władysław IV to his court in Warsaw, buiwt a modew aircraft wif four fixed gwider wings in 1647. Described as "four pairs of wings attached to an ewaborate 'dragon'", it was said to have successfuwwy wifted a cat in 1648 but not Burattini himsewf. He promised dat "onwy de most minor injuries" wouwd resuwt from wanding de craft. His "Dragon Vowant" is considered "de most ewaborate and sophisticated aeropwane to be buiwt before de 19f Century".
Bartowomeu de Gusmão's "Passarowa" was a howwow, vaguewy bird-shaped gwider of simiwar concept but wif two wings. In 1709, he presented a petition to King John V of Portugaw, begging for support for his invention of an "airship", in which he expressed de greatest confidence. The pubwic test of de machine, which was set for 24 June 1709, did not take pwace. According to contemporary reports, however, Gusmão appears to have made severaw wess ambitious experiments wif dis machine, descending from eminences. It is certain dat Gusmão was working on dis principwe at de pubwic exhibition he gave before de Court on 8 August 1709, in de haww of de Casa da Índia in Lisbon, when he propewwed a baww to de roof by combustion, uh-hah-hah-hah.[cwarification needed] He awso demonstrated a smaww airship modew before de Portuguese court, but never succeeded wif a fuww-scawe modew.
However, bof understanding and a power source were stiww wacking. This was recognised by Emanuew Swedenborg in his "Sketch of a Machine for Fwying in de Air" pubwished in 1716. His fwying machine consisted of a wight frame covered wif strong canvas and provided wif two warge oars or wings moving on a horizontaw axis, arranged so dat de upstroke met wif no resistance whiwe de downstroke provided wifting power. Swedenborg knew dat de machine wouwd not fwy, but suggested it as a start and was confident dat de probwem wouwd be sowved. He wrote: "It seems easier to tawk of such a machine dan to put it into actuawity, for it reqwires greater force and wess weight dan exists in a human body. The science of mechanics might perhaps suggest a means, namewy, a strong spiraw spring. If dese advantages and reqwisites are observed, perhaps in time to come some one might know how better to utiwize our sketch and cause some addition to be made so as to accompwish dat which we can onwy suggest". The Editor of de Royaw Aeronauticaw Society journaw wrote in 1910 dat Swedenborg's design was "…de first rationaw proposaw for a fwying machine of de aeropwance [heavier-dan-air] type…"
Meanwhiwe, rotorcraft were not whowwy forgotten, uh-hah-hah-hah. In Juwy 1754, Mikhaiw Lomonosov demonstrated a smaww coaxiaw twin-rotor system, powered by a spring, to de Russian Academy of Sciences. The rotors were arranged one above de oder and spun in opposite directions, principwes stiww used in modern twin-rotor designs. In his 1768 Théorie de wa vis d'Archimède, Awexis-Jean-Pierre Paucton suggested de use of one airscrew for wift and a second for propuwsion, nowadays cawwed a gyrodyne. In 1784, Launoy and Bienvenu demonstrated a fwying modew wif coaxiaw, contra-rotating rotors powered by a simpwe spring simiwar to a bow saw, now accepted as de first powered hewicopter.
Attempts at man-powered fwight stiww persisted. Paucton's rotorcraft was man-powered, whiwe anoder approach, awso originawwy studied by da Vinci, was de use of fwap vawves. The fwap vawve is a simpwe hinged fwap over a howe in de wing. In one direction it opens to awwow air drough and in de oder it cwoses to awwow an increased pressure difference. An earwy exampwe was designed by Bauer in 1764. Later in 1808, Jacob Degen buiwt an ornidopter wif fwap vawves, in which de piwot stood on a rigid frame and worked de wings wif a movabwe horizontaw bar. His 1809 attempt at fwight faiwed, so he den added a smaww hydrogen bawwoon and de combination achieved some short hops. Popuwar iwwustrations of de day depicted his machine widout de bawwoon, weading to confusion as to what had actuawwy fwown, uh-hah-hah-hah. In 1811, Awbrecht Berbwinger buiwt an ornidopter based on Degen's design but omitted de bawwoon, pwunging instead into de Danube. The fiasco did have an upside: George Caywey, awso taken in by de iwwustrations, was spurred to pubwish his findings to date "for de sake of giving a wittwe more dignity to a subject bordering upon de wudicrous in pubwic estimation", and de modern era of aviation was born, uh-hah-hah-hah.
The 19f Century
Throughout de 19f century, tower jumping was repwaced by de eqwawwy fataw but eqwawwy popuwar bawwoon jumping as a way to demonstrate de continued usewessness of man-power and fwapping wings. Meanwhiwe, de scientific study of heavier-dan-air fwight began in earnest.
Sir George Caywey and de first modern aircraft
Sir George Caywey was first cawwed de "fader of de aeropwane" in 1846. During de wast years of de previous century he had begun de first rigorous study of de physics of fwight and wouwd water design de first modern heavier-dan-air craft. Among his many achievements, his most important contributions to aeronautics incwude:
- Cwarifying our ideas and waying down de principwes of heavier-dan-air fwight.
- Reaching a scientific understanding of de principwes of bird fwight.
- Conducting scientific aerodynamic experiments demonstrating drag and streamwining, movement of de centre of pressure, and de increase in wift from curving de wing surface.
- Defining de modern aeropwane configuration comprising a fixed wing, fusewage and taiw assembwy.
- Demonstrations of manned, gwiding fwight.
- Setting out de principwes of power-to-weight ratio in sustaining fwight.
From de age of ten Caywey began studying de physics of bird fwight and his schoow notebooks contained sketches in which he was devewoping his ideas on de deories of fwight. It has been cwaimed dat dese sketches show dat Caywey modewed de principwes of a wift-generating incwined pwane as earwy as 1792 or 1793.
In 1796 Caywey made a modew hewicopter of de form commonwy known as a Chinese fwying top, unaware of Launoy and Bienvenu's modew of simiwar design, uh-hah-hah-hah. He regarded de hewicopter as de best design for simpwe verticaw fwight, and water in his wife in 1854 he made an improved modew. He gave a Mr. Cooper credit for being de first person to improve on "de cwumsy structure of de toy" and reports Cooper's modew as ascending twenty or dirty feet. Caywey made one and a Mr. Couwson made a copy, described by Caywey as "a very beautifuw specimen of de screw propewwor in de air" and capabwe of fwying over ninety feet high.
Caywey's next innovations were twofowd: de adoption of de whirwing arm test rig, invented in de previous century by Benjamin Robbins to investigate aerodynamic drag and used soon after by John Smeaton to measure de forces on rotating windmiww bwades, for use in aircraft research togeder wif de use of aerodynamic modews on de arm, rader dan attempting to fwy a modew of a compwete design, uh-hah-hah-hah. He initiawwy used a simpwe fwat pwane fixed to de arm and incwined at an angwe to de airfwow.
In 1799, he set down de concept of de modern aeropwane as a fixed-wing fwying machine wif separate systems for wift, propuwsion, and controw. On a smaww siwver disc dated dat year, he engraved on one side de forces acting on an aircraft and on de oder a sketch of an aircraft design incorporating such modern features as a cambered wing, separate taiw comprising a horizontaw taiwpwane and verticaw fin, and fusewage for de piwot suspended bewow de center of gravity to provide stabiwity. The design is not yet whowwy modern, incorporating as it does two piwot-operated paddwes or oars which appear to work as fwap vawves.
He continued his researches and in 1804 constructed a modew gwider which was de first modern heavier-dan-air fwying machine, having de wayout of a conventionaw modern aircraft wif an incwined wing towards de front and adjustabwe taiw at de back wif bof taiwpwane and fin, uh-hah-hah-hah. The wing was just a toy paper kite, fwat and uncambered. A movabwe weight awwowed adjustment of de modew's centre of gravity. It was "very pretty to see" when fwying down a hiwwside, and sensitive to smaww adjustments of de taiw.
By de end of 1809, he had constructed de worwd's first fuww-size gwider and fwown it as an unmanned tedered kite. In de same year, goaded by de farcicaw antics of his contemporaries (see above), he began de pubwication of a wandmark dree-part treatise titwed "On Aeriaw Navigation" (1809–1810). In it he wrote de first scientific statement of de probwem, "The whowe probwem is confined widin dese wimits, viz. to make a surface support a given weight by de appwication of power to de resistance of air". He identified de four vector forces dat infwuence an aircraft: drust, wift, drag and weight and distinguished stabiwity and controw in his designs. He argued dat manpower awone was insufficient, and whiwe no suitabwe power source was yet avaiwabwe he discussed de possibiwities and even described de operating principwe of de internaw combustion engine using a gas and air mixture. However he was never abwe to make a working engine and confined his fwying experiments to gwiding fwight. He awso identified and described de importance of de cambered aerofoiw, dihedraw, diagonaw bracing and drag reduction, and contributed to de understanding and design of ornidopters and parachutes.
He went on to pubwish de design for a fuww-size manned gwider or "governabwe parachute" to be waunched from a bawwoon in 1852 and den to construct a version capabwe of waunching from de top of a hiww, which carried de first aduwt aviator across Brompton Dawe in 1853. The identity of de aviator is not known, uh-hah-hah-hah. It has been suggested variouswy as Caywey's coachman, footman or butwer, John Appweby who may have been de coachman or anoder empwoyee, or even Caywey's grandson George John Caywey. What is known is dat he was de first to fwy in a gwider wif distinct wings, fusewage and taiw, and featuring inherent stabiwity and piwot-operated controws: de first fuwwy modern and functionaw heavier-dan-air craft.
Minor inventions incwuded de rubber-powered motor, which provided a rewiabwe power source for research modews. By 1808, he had even re-invented de wheew, devising de tension-spoked wheew in which aww compression woads are carried by de rim, awwowing a wightweight undercarriage.
The age of steam
Drawing directwy from Caywey's work, Henson's 1842 design for an aeriaw steam carriage broke new ground. Henson proposed a 150 feet (46 m) span high-winged monopwane, wif a steam engine driving two pusher configuration propewwers. Awdough onwy a design, (scawe modews were buiwt in 1843 or 1848 and fwew 10 or 130 feet) it was de first in history for a propewwer-driven fixed-wing aircraft. Henson and his cowwaborator John Stringfewwow even dreamed of de first Aeriaw Transit Company.
In 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made de first fwight higher dan his point of departure, by having his gwider "L'Awbatros artificiew" puwwed by a horse on a beach. He reportedwy achieved a height of 100 meters, over a distance of 200 meters.
The British advances had gawvanised French researchers. In 1857, Féwix du Tempwe buiwt severaw warge modews togeder wif his broder Luis. One of dem was abwe to fwy, first using a cwockwork mechanism as an engine, and den using a miniature steam engine. The two broders managed to make de modews take off under deir own power, fwy a short distance and wand safewy
Francis Herbert Wenham presented de first paper to de newwy formed Aeronauticaw Society (water de Royaw Aeronauticaw Society), On Aeriaw Locomotion. He took Caywey's work on cambered wings furder, making important findings about bof de wing aerofoiw section and wift distribution, uh-hah-hah-hah. To test his ideas, from 1858 he constructed severaw gwiders, bof manned and unmanned, and wif up to five stacked wings. He concwuded correctwy dat wong, din wings wouwd be better dan de bat-wike ones suggested by many, because dey wouwd have more weading edge for deir area. Today dis rewationship is known as de aspect ratio of a wing.
The watter part of de 19f century became a period of intense study, characterized by de "gentweman scientists" who represented most research efforts untiw de 20f century. Among dem was de British scientist-phiwosopher and inventor Matdew Piers Watt Bouwton, who wrote an important paper in 1864, On Aëriaw Locomotion, which awso described wateraw fwight controw. He was de first to patent an aiweron controw system in 1868.
In 1864, Le Comte Ferdinand Charwes Honore Phiwwipe d'Esterno pubwished a study On The Fwight Of Birds (Du Vow des Oiseaux, and de next year Louis Pierre Mouiwward pubwished an infwuentiaw book The Empire Of The Air (w'Empire de w'Air).
1866 saw de founding of de Aeronauticaw Society of Great Britain and two years water de worwd's first aeronauticaw exhibition was hewd at de Crystaw Pawace, London, where Stringfewwow was awarded a £100 prize for de steam engine wif de best power-to-weight ratio.
In 1871, Wenham and Browning made de first wind tunnew. Members of de Society used de tunnew and wearned dat cambered wings generated considerabwy more wift dan expected by Caywey's Newtonian reasoning, wif wift-to-drag ratios of about 5:1 at 15 degrees. This cwearwy demonstrated de possibiwity of buiwding practicaw heavier-dan-air fwying machines: what remained were de probwems of controwwing and powering de craft.
Awphonse Pénaud, a Frenchman wiving from 1850 to 1880, made significant contributions to aeronautics. He advanced de deory of wing contours and aerodynamics and constructed successfuw modews of aeropwanes, hewicopters and ornidopters. In 1871, he fwew de first aerodynamicawwy stabwe fixed-wing aeropwane, a modew monopwane he cawwed de "Pwanophore", a distance of 40 metres (130 ft). Pénaud's modew incorporated severaw of Caywey's discoveries, incwuding de use of a taiw, wing dihedraw for inherent stabiwity, and rubber power. The pwanophore awso had wongitudinaw stabiwity, being trimmed such dat de taiwpwane was set at a smawwer angwe of incidence dan de wings, an originaw and important contribution to de deory of aeronautics.
By de 1870s, wightweight steam engines had devewoped sufficientwy for deir experimentaw use in aircraft.
Féwix du Tempwe eventuawwy achieved a short hop wif a fuww-size manned craft in 1874. His "Monopwane" was a warge aircraft made of awuminium, wif a wingspan of 42 ft 8 in (13 m) and a weight of onwy 176 pounds (80 kg) widout de piwot. Severaw triaws were made wif de aircraft, and it achieved wift-off under its own power after waunching from a ramp, gwided for a short time and returned safewy to de ground, making it de first successfuw powered hop in history, a year ahead of Moy's fwight.
The Aeriaw Steamer, made by Thomas Moy, sometimes cawwed de Moy-Shiww Aeriaw Steamer, was an unmanned tandem wing aircraft driven by a 3 hp (2.25 kW) steam engine using medywated spirits as fuew. It was 14 ft (4.27 m) wong and weighed about 216 wb, (98 kg) of which de engine accounted for 80 wb (36 kg), and ran on dree wheews. It was tested in June 1875 on a circuwar rowwed gravew track of nearwy 300 ft (90 m) diameter. It did not reach a speed of above 12 mph (19 kph), but a speed of around 35 mph (56 kph) wouwd be necessary to wift off. However it is credited wif being de first steam-powered aircraft to have weft de ground under its own power by de historian Charwes Gibbs-Smif.
Pénaud's water project for an amphibian aeropwane, awdough never buiwt, incorporated oder modern features. A taiwwess monopwane wif a singwe verticaw fin and twin tractor airscrews, it awso featured hinged rear ewevator and rudder surfaces, retractabwe undercarriage and a fuwwy encwosed, instrumented cockpit.
Eqwawwy audoritative as a deorist was Pénaud's fewwow countryman Victor Tatin. In 1879, he fwew a modew which, wike Pénaud's project, was a monopwane wif twin tractor propewwers but awso had a separate horizontaw taiw. It was powered by compressed air, wif de air tank forming de fusewage.
In Russia Awexander Mozhaiski constructed a steam-powered monopwane driven by one warge tractor and two smawwer pusher propewwers. In 1884, it was waunched from a ramp and remained airborne for 98 feet (30 m).
That same year in France, Awexandre Goupiw pubwished his work La Locomotion Aérienne (Aeriaw Locomotion), awdough de fwying machine he water constructed faiwed to fwy.
Sir Hiram Maxim was an American who moved to Engwand and changed his nationawity. He chose to wargewy ignore his contemporaries and buiwt his own whirwing arm rig and wind tunnew. From de wate 1890s he made many experiments and devewoped a bipwane design which he patented in 1891 and compweted as a test rig dree years water. It was an enormous machine for its day wif a wingspan of 105 feet (32 m), a wengf of 145 feet (44 m), fore and aft horizontaw surfaces and a crew of dree. Twin propewwers were powered by two wightweight compound steam engines each dewivering 180 horsepower (130 kW). Overaww weight was 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg). Later modifications wouwd add more wing surfaces as shown in de iwwustration, uh-hah-hah-hah. Its purpose was for research and it was neider aerodynamicawwy stabwe nor controwwabwe, so it ran on a 1,800 feet (550 m) track wif a second set of restraining raiws to prevent it from wifting off, somewhat in de manner of a rowwer coaster. In 1894, de machine devewoped enough wift to take off, breaking one of de restraining raiws and being damaged in de process. Maxim den abandoned work on it, but wouwd return to aeronautics in de 20f century to test a number of smawwer designs powered by internaw combustion engines.
One of de wast of de steam-powered pioneers, wike Maxim ignoring his contemporaries who had moved on (see next section), was Cwément Ader. His Éowe of 1890 was a bat-winged tractor monopwane which achieved a brief, uncontrowwed hop, dus becoming de first heavier-dan-air machine to take off under its own power. However his simiwar but warger Avion III of 1897, notabwe onwy for having twin steam engines, faiwed to fwy at aww: Ader wouwd water cwaim success and was not debunked untiw 1910 when de French Army pubwished its report on his attempt.
Learning to gwide
The gwider constructed wif de hewp of Massia and fwown briefwy by Biot in 1879 was based on de work of Mouiwward and was stiww bird-wike in form. It is preserved de Musee de w'Air, France, and is cwaimed to be de earwiest man-carrying fwying machine stiww in existence.
In de wast decade or so of de 19f century a number of key figures were refining and defining de modern aeropwane. The Engwishman Horatio Phiwwips made key contributions to aerodynamics. The German Otto Liwiendaw and de American Octave Chanute worked independentwy on gwiding fwight. Liwwiendaw pubwished a book on bird fwight and went on, from 1891 to 1896, to construct a series of gwiders, of various monopwane, bipwane and tripwane configurations, to test his deories. He made dousands of fwights and at de time of his deaf was working on motor-powered gwiders.
Phiwwips conducted extensive wind tunnew research on aerofoiw sections, using steam as de working fwuid. He proved de principwes of aerodynamic wift foreseen by Caywey and Wenham and, from 1884, took out severaw patents on aerofoiws. His findings underpin aww modern aerofoiw design, uh-hah-hah-hah. Phiwwips wouwd water devewop deories on de design of muwtipwanes, which he went on to show were unfounded.
Starting in de 1880s, advances were made in construction dat wed to de first truwy practicaw gwiders. Four peopwe in particuwar were active: John J. Montgomery, Otto Liwiendaw, Percy Piwcher and Octave Chanute. One of de first modern gwiders was buiwt by John J. Montgomery in 1883; Montgomery water cwaimed to have made a singwe successfuw fwight wif it in 1884 near San Diego and Montgomery's activities were documented by Chanute in his book Progress in Fwying Machines. Montgomery discussed his fwying during de 1893 Aeronauticaw Conference in Chicago and Chanute pubwished Montgomery's comments in December 1893 in de American Engineer & Raiwroad Journaw. Short hops wif Montgomery's second and dird gwiders in 1885 and 1886 were awso described by Montgomery. Between 1886 and 1896 Montgomery focused on understanding de physics of aerodynamics rader dan experiment wif fwying machines. Anoder hang-gwider had been constructed by Wiwhewm Kress as earwy as 1877 near Vienna.
Otto Liwiendaw was known as de "Gwider King" or "Fwying Man" of Germany. He dupwicated Wenham's work and greatwy expanded on it in 1884, pubwishing his research in 1889 as Birdfwight as de Basis of Aviation (Der Vogewfwug aws Grundwage der Fwiegekunst). He awso produced a series of gwiders of a type now known as de hang gwider, incwuding bat-wing, monopwane and bipwane forms, such as de Derwitzer Gwider and Normaw soaring apparatus. Starting in 1891 he became de first person to make controwwed untedered gwides routinewy, and de first to be photographed fwying a heavier-dan-air machine, stimuwating interest around de worwd. He rigorouswy documented his work, incwuding photographs, and for dis reason is one of de best known of de earwy pioneers. He awso promoted de idea of "jumping before you fwy", suggesting dat researchers shouwd start wif gwiders and work deir way up, instead of simpwy designing a powered machine on paper and hoping it wouwd work. Liwiendaw made over 2,000 gwides untiw his deaf in 1896 from injuries sustained in a gwider crash. Liwiendaw had awso been working on smaww engines suitabwe for powering his designs at de time of his deaf.
Picking up where Liwiendaw weft off, Octave Chanute took up aircraft design after an earwy retirement, and funded de devewopment of severaw gwiders. In de summer of 1896, his team fwew severaw of deir designs many times at Miwwer Beach, Indiana, eventuawwy deciding dat de best was a bipwane design, uh-hah-hah-hah. Like Liwiendaw, he documented his work and awso photographed it, and was busy corresponding wif wike-minded researchers around de worwd. Chanute was particuwarwy interested in sowving de probwem of aerodynamic instabiwity of de aircraft in fwight, which birds compensate for by instant corrections, but which humans wouwd have to address eider wif stabiwizing and controw surfaces or by moving de center of gravity of de aircraft, as Liwiendaw did. The most disconcerting probwem was wongitudinaw instabiwity (divergence), because as de angwe of attack of a wing increases, de center of pressure moves forward and makes de angwe increase yet more. Widout immediate correction, de craft wiww pitch up and staww. Much more difficuwt to understand was de rewationship between wateraw and directionaw controw.
In Britain, Percy Piwcher, who had worked for Maxim and had buiwt and successfuwwy fwown severaw gwiders during de mid to wate 1890s, constructed a prototype powered aircraft in 1899 which, recent research has shown, wouwd have been capabwe of fwight. However, wike Liwiendaw he died in a gwider accident before he was abwe to test it.
Pubwications, particuwarwy Octave Chanute's Progress in Fwying Machines of 1894 and James Means' The Probwem of Manfwight (1894) and Aeronauticaw Annuaws (1895–1897) hewped bring current research and events to a wider audience.
The invention of de box kite during dis period by de Austrawian Lawrence Hargrave wed to de devewopment of de practicaw bipwane. In 1894, Hargrave winked four of his kites togeder, added a swing seat, and fwew 16 feet (4.9 m). By demonstrating to a scepticaw pubwic dat it was possibwe to buiwd a safe and stabwe fwying machine, Hargrave opened de door to oder inventors and pioneers. Hargrave devoted most of his wife to constructing a machine dat wouwd fwy. He bewieved passionatewy in open communication widin de scientific community and wouwd not patent his inventions. Instead, he scrupuwouswy pubwished de resuwts of his experiments in order dat a mutuaw interchange of ideas may take pwace wif oder inventors working in de same fiewd, so as to expedite joint progress. Octave Chanute became convinced dat muwtipwe wing pwanes were more effective dan a monopwane and introduced de "strut-wire" braced wing structure which, wif its combination of rigidity and wightness, wouwd in de form of de bipwane come to dominate aircraft design for decades to come. The inventor of de box kite Lawrence Hargrave awso experimented in de 1880s wif monopwane modews and by 1889 had constructed a rotary engine driven by compressed air.
Even bawwoon-jumping began to succeed. In 1905, Daniew Mawoney was carried by bawwoon in a tandem-wing gwider designed by John Montgomery to an awtitude of 4,000 feet (1,200 m) before being reweased, gwiding down and wanding at a predetermined wocation as part of a warge pubwic demonstration of aeriaw fwight at Santa Cwara, Cawifornia. However, after severaw successfuw fwights, during an ascension in Juwy 1905, a rope from de bawwoon struck de gwider, and de gwider suffered structuraw faiwure after rewease, resuwting in Mawoney's deaf.
Powered, controwwed fwight
Powered, controwwed fwight was finawwy achieved around de turn of de century.
Gustave Weißkopf was a German who emigrated to de U.S., where he soon changed his name to Whitehead. From 1897 to 1915, he designed and buiwt fwying machines and engines. On 14 August 1901, Whitehead cwaimed to have carried out a controwwed, powered fwight in his Number 21 monopwane at Fairfiewd, Connecticut. An account of de fwight appeared in de Bridgeport Sunday Herawd and was repeated in newspapers droughout de worwd. Whitehead cwaimed two more fwights on 17 January 1902, using his Number 22 monopwane. He described it as having a 40 horsepower (30 kW) motor wif twin tractor propewwers and controwwed by differentiaw propewwer speed and rudder. He cwaimed to have fwown a 10 kiwometres (6.2 mi) circwe.
For many years de Whitehead cwaims were ignored or dismissed by mainstream aviation historians. In March 2013, Jane's Aww de Worwd's Aircraft pubwished an editoriaw which accepted Whitehead's fwight as de first manned, powered, controwwed fwight of a heavier-dan-air craft. The Smidsonian Institution is among dose who do not accept dat Whitehead fwew as reported.
After a distinguished career in astronomy and shortwy before becoming Secretary of de Smidsonian Institution, Samuew Pierpont Langwey started a serious investigation into aerodynamics at what is today de University of Pittsburgh. In 1891, he pubwished Experiments in Aerodynamics detaiwing his research, and den turned to buiwding his designs. He hoped to achieve automatic aerodynamic stabiwity, so he gave wittwe consideration to in-fwight controw. On 6 May 1896, Langwey's Aerodrome No. 5 made de first successfuw sustained fwight of an unpiwoted, engine-driven heavier-dan-air craft of substantiaw size. It was waunched from a spring-actuated catapuwt mounted on top of a houseboat on de Potomac River near Quantico, Virginia. Two fwights were made dat afternoon, one of 1,005 metres (3,297 ft) and a second of 700 metres (2,300 ft), at a speed of approximatewy 25 miwes per hour (40 km/h). On bof occasions de Aerodrome No. 5 wanded in de water as pwanned, because in order to save weight, it was not eqwipped wif wanding gear. On 28 November 1896, anoder successfuw fwight was made wif de Aerodrome No. 6. This fwight, of 1,460 metres (4,790 ft), was witnessed and photographed by Awexander Graham Beww. The Aerodrome No. 6 was actuawwy Aerodrome No. 4 greatwy modified. So wittwe remained of de originaw aircraft dat it was given a new designation, uh-hah-hah-hah.
Wif de successes of de Aerodrome No. 5 and No. 6, Langwey started wooking for funding to buiwd a fuww-scawe man-carrying version of his designs. Spurred by de Spanish–American War, de U.S. government granted him $50,000 to devewop a man-carrying fwying machine for aeriaw reconnaissance. Langwey pwanned on buiwding a scawed-up version known as de Aerodrome A, and started wif de smawwer Quarter-scawe Aerodrome, which fwew twice on 18 June 1901, and den again wif a newer and more powerfuw engine in 1903.
Wif de basic design apparentwy successfuwwy tested, he den turned to de probwem of a suitabwe engine. He contracted Stephen Bawzer to buiwd one, but was disappointed when it dewivered onwy 8 horsepower (6.0 kW) instead of 12 horsepower (8.9 kW) he expected. Langwey's assistant, Charwes M. Manwy, den reworked de design into a five-cywinder water-coowed radiaw dat dewivered 52 horsepower (39 kW) at 950 rpm, a feat dat took years to dupwicate. Now wif bof power and a design, Langwey put de two togeder wif great hopes.
To his dismay, de resuwting aircraft proved to be too fragiwe. Simpwy scawing up de originaw smaww modews resuwted in a design dat was too weak to howd itsewf togeder. Two waunches in wate 1903 bof ended wif de Aerodrome immediatewy crashing into de water. The piwot, Manwy, was rescued each time. Awso, de aircraft's controw system was inadeqwate to awwow qwick piwot responses, and it had no medod of wateraw controw, and de Aerodrome's aeriaw stabiwity was marginaw.
Langwey's attempts to gain furder funding faiwed, and his efforts ended. Nine days after his second abortive waunch on 8 December, de Wright broders successfuwwy fwew deir Fwyer. Gwenn Curtiss made 93 modifications to de Aerodrome and fwew dis very different aircraft in 1914. Widout acknowwedging de modifications, de Smidsonian Institution asserted dat Langwey's Aerodrome was de first machine "capabwe of fwight".
The Wright broders
The Wrights sowved bof de controw and power probwems dat confronted aeronauticaw pioneers. They invented roww controw using wing warping and combined roww wif simuwtaneous yaw controw using a steerabwe rear rudder. Awdough wing-warping as a means of roww controw was used onwy briefwy during de earwy history of aviation, de innovation of combining roww and yaw controw was a fundamentaw advance in fwight controw. For pitch controw, de Wrights used a forward ewevator (canard), anoder design ewement dat water became outmoded.
The Wrights made rigorous wind-tunnew tests of airfoiws and fwight tests of fuww-size gwiders. They not onwy buiwt a working powered aircraft, de Wright Fwyer, but awso significantwy advanced de science of aeronauticaw engineering.
They concentrated on de controwwabiwity of unpowered aircraft before attempting to fwy a powered design, uh-hah-hah-hah. From 1900 to 1902, dey buiwt and fwew a series of dree gwiders. The first two were much wess efficient dan de Wrights expected, based on experiments and writings of deir 19f-century predecessors. Their 1900 gwider had onwy about hawf de wift dey anticipated, and de 1901 gwider performed even more poorwy, untiw makeshift modifications made it serviceabwe.
Seeking answers, de Wrights constructed deir own wind tunnew and eqwipped it wif a sophisticated measuring device to cawcuwate wift and drag of 200 different modew-size wing designs dey created. As a resuwt, de Wrights corrected earwier mistakes in cawcuwations of wift and drag and used dis knowwedge to construct deir 1902 gwider, dird in de series. It became de first manned, heavier-dan-air fwying machine dat was mechanicawwy controwwabwe in aww dree axes: pitch, roww and yaw. Its pioneering design awso incwuded wings wif a higher aspect ratio dan de previous gwiders. The broders successfuwwy fwew de 1902 gwider hundreds of times, and it performed far better dan deir earwier two versions.
To obtain adeqwate power for deir engine-driven Fwyer, de Wrights designed and buiwt a wow-powered internaw combustion engine. Using deir wind tunnew data, dey designed and carved wooden propewwers dat were more efficient dan any before, enabwing dem to gain adeqwate performance from deir wow engine power. The Fwyer's design was awso infwuenced by de desire of de Wrights to teach demsewves to fwy safewy widout unreasonabwe risk to wife and wimb, and to make crashes survivabwe. The wimited engine power resuwted in wow fwying speeds and de need to take off into a headwind.
According to de Smidsonian Institution and Fédération Aéronautiqwe Internationawe (FAI), de Wrights made de first sustained, controwwed, powered heavier-dan-air manned fwight at Kiww Deviw Hiwws, Norf Carowina, 4 miwes (6.4 km) souf of Kitty Hawk, Norf Carowina on 17 December 1903. The first fwight by Orviwwe Wright, of 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds, was recorded in a famous photograph. In de fourf fwight of de same day, Wiwbur Wright fwew 852 feet (260 m) in 59 seconds. Modern anawysis by Professor Fred E. C. Cuwick and Henry R. Rex (1985) has demonstrated dat de 1903 Wright Fwyer was so unstabwe as to be awmost unmanageabwe by anyone but de Wrights, who had trained demsewves in de 1902 gwider.
The Wrights continued devewoping deir fwying machines and fwying at Huffman Prairie near Dayton, Ohio in 1904–05. After a crash in 1905, dey rebuiwt de Fwyer III and made important design changes. They awmost doubwed de size of de ewevator and rudder and moved dem about twice de distance from de wings. They added two fixed verticaw vanes (cawwed "bwinkers") between de ewevators, and gave de wings a very swight dihedraw. They disconnected de rudder from de wing-warping controw, and as in aww future aircraft, pwaced it on a separate controw handwe. The Fwyer III became de first practicaw aircraft (dough widout wheews and using a waunching device), fwying consistentwy under fuww controw and bringing its piwot back to de starting point safewy and wanding widout damage. On 5 October 1905, Wiwbur fwew 24 miwes (39 km) in 39 minutes 23 seconds".
Eventuawwy de Wrights wouwd abandon de forepwane awtogeder, wif de Modew B of 1910 instead having a taiw pwane in de manner which was by den becoming conventionaw.
According to de Apriw 1907 issue of de Scientific American magazine, de Wright broders seemed to have de most advanced knowwedge of heavier-dan-air navigation at de time. However, de same magazine issue awso cwaimed dat no pubwic fwight had been made in de United States before its Apriw 1907 issue. Hence, dey devised de Scientific American Aeronautic Trophy in order to encourage de devewopment of a heavier-dan-air fwying machine.
The first practicaw aircraft
Once powered, controwwed fwight had been achieved, progress was stiww needed to create a practicaw fwying machine for generaw use. This period weading up to Worwd War I is sometimes cawwed de pioneer era of aviation, uh-hah-hah-hah.
The history of earwy powered fwight is very much de history of earwy engine construction, uh-hah-hah-hah. The Wrights designed deir own engines. They used a singwe fwight engine, a 12 horsepower (8.9 kW) water-coowed four-cywinder inwine type wif five main bearings and fuew injection, uh-hah-hah-hah. Whitehead's craft was powered by two engines of his design: a ground engine of 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) which drove de front wheews in an effort to reach takeoff speed and a 20 horsepower (15 kW) acetywene engine powering de propewwers. Whitehead was an experienced machinist, and he is reported to have raised funds for his aircraft by making and sewwing engines to oder aviators. Most earwy engines were neider powerfuw nor rewiabwe enough for practicaw use, and de devewopment of improved engines went hand-in-hand wif improvements in de airframes demsewves.
In Europe, Léon Levavasseur's Antoinette 8V pioneering exampwe of de V-8 engine format, first patented in 1902, dominated fwight for severaw years after it was introduced in 1906, powering many notabwe craft of dat era. Incorporating direct fuew injection, evaporative water coowing and oder advanced features, it generated around 50 horsepower (37 kW).
The British Green C.4 of 1908 fowwowed de Wright's pattern of a four-cywinder inwine water-coowed design but produced 52 horsepower (39 kW). It powered many successfuw pioneer aircraft incwuding dose of A.V. Roe.
Horizontawwy opposed designs were awso produced. The four-cywinder water-coowed de Haviwwand Iris achieved 45 horsepower (34 kW) but was wittwe used, whiwe de successfuw two-cywinder Nieuport design achieved 28 hp (21 kW) in 1910.
1909 saw radiaw engine forms rise to significance. The Anzani 3-cywinder semi-radiaw or fan engine of 1909 (awso buiwt in a true, 120° cywinder angwe radiaw form) devewoped onwy 25 horsepower (19 kW) but was much wighter dan de Antoinette, and was chosen by Louis Bwériot for his cross-Channew fwight. More radicaw was de Seguin broders' series of Gnôme rotary radiaw engines, starring wif de Gnome Omega 50 horsepower (37 kW) air-coowed seven-cywinder rotary engine in 1906. In a rotary engine, de crankshaft is fixed to de airframe and de whowe engine casing and cywinders rotate wif de propewwer. Awdough dis type had been introduced as wong ago as 1887 by Lawrence Hargrave, improvements made to de Gnome created a robust, rewativewy rewiabwe and wightweight design which revowutionised aviation and wouwd see continuous devewopment over de next ten years. Fuew was introduced into each cywinder direct from de crankcase meaning dat onwy an exhaust vawve was reqwired. The warger and more powerfuw nine-cywinder, 80 horsepower Le Rhône 9C rotary was introduced in 1913 and was widewy adopted for miwitary use.
Inwine and vee types remained popuwar, wif de German company Mercedes producing a series of water-coowed six-cywinder modews. In 1913, dey introduced de highwy successfuw 75 kiwowatts (101 hp) D.I series.
Lift and efficiency
The wightness and strengf of de bipwane is offset by de inefficiency inherent in pwacing two wings so cwose togeder. Bipwane and monopwane designs vied wif each oder, wif bof stiww in production by de outbreak of war in 1914.
A notabwe devewopment, awdough a faiwure, was de first cantiwever monopwane ever buiwt. The Antoinette Monobwoc of 1911 had a fuwwy encwosed cockpit and faired undercarriage but its V-8 engine's 50 horsepower (37 kW) output was not enough for it to fwy for more dan a few feet at most. More successfuw was de Deperdussin braced monopwane, which won de inauguraw 1913 Schneider Trophy race fwown by Maurice Prévost, compweting 28 circuits of de 10 km (6.2 mi) course wif an average speed of 73.63 kiwometres per hour (45.75 mph).
Tripwanes too were experimented wif, notabwy a series buiwt between 1909 and 1910 by de British pioneer A.V. Roe. Going one better wif four wings de qwadrupwane too made rare appearances. The Muwtipwane, having warge numbers of very din wings, was awso experimented wif, most successfuwwy by Horatio Phiwwips. His finaw prototype confirmed de inefficiency and poor performance of de idea.
Oder radicaw approaches to wing design were awso being tried. The Scottish-born inventor Awexander Graham Beww devised a cewwuwar octahedraw wing form which, wike de muwtipwane, proved disappointingwy inefficient. Oder wackwustre performers incwuded de Edwards Rhomboidaw, de Lee-Richards annuwar wing and varying numbers of wings one after de oder in tandem.
Many of dese earwy experimentaw forms were in principwe qwite practicaw and have since reappeared.
Stabiwity and controw
Earwy work had focused primary on making a craft stabwe enough to fwy but faiwed to offer fuww controwwabiwity, whiwe de Wrights had sacrificed stabiwity in order to make deir Fwyer fuwwy controwwabwe. A practicaw aircraft reqwires bof. Awdough stabiwity had been achieved by severaw designs, de principwes were not fuwwy understood and progress was erratic. The aiweron swowwy repwaced wing warping for wateraw controw awdough designers sometimes, as wif de Bwériot XI, returned briefwy to wing warping. Simiwarwy, aww-fwying taiw surfaces gave way to fixed stabiwizers wif hinged controw surfaces attached. The canard pusher configuration of de earwy Wright Fwyers was suppwanted by tractor propewwer aircraft designs.
In France, progress was rewativewy rapid.
In 1906, de Braziwian Awberto Santos-Dumont made pubwic fwights in France wif his 14-bis. A canard pusher bipwane wif pronounced wing dihedraw, it had a Hargrave-stywe box-ceww wing wif a forward-mounted "boxkite" assembwy which was movabwe to act as bof ewevator and rudder. He water added auxiwiary surfaces between de wings as primitive aiwerons to provide wateraw controw. His fwight was de first made by a powered heavier-dan-air machine to be verified by de Aéro-Cwub de France, and won de Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for de first officiawwy observed fwight of more dan 25 metres (82 ft). It water set de first worwd record recognized by de Federation Aeronautiqwe Internationawe by fwying 220 metres (720 ft) in 21.5 seconds.
The next year Louis Bwériot fwew de Bwériot VII, a tractor monopwane wif fuww dree-axis controw using de horizontaw taiw surfaces as combined ewevators and aiwerons. Its immediate descendant, de Bwériot VIII, was de very first airframe to bring togeder de recognizabwe ewements of de modern aircraft fwight controw system in Apriw 1908. Where Horatio Phiwwips and Traian Vuia had faiwed, Bwériot's was de first practicaw tractor monopwane and marked de start of a trend in French aviation, uh-hah-hah-hah. By 1909, he had devewoped dis configuration to de point where de Bwériot XI was abwe to cross de Engwish Channew, among oder refinements using de taiw surfaces onwy as ewevators and using wing warping for wateraw controw. Anoder design dat appeared in 1907 was de Voisin bipwane. This wacked any provision for wateraw controw, and couwd onwy make shawwow turns using onwy rudder controw, but was fwown wif increasing success during de year by Henri Farman, and on 13 January 1908 he won de 50,000 francs Deutsch de wa Meurde-Archdeacon Grand Prix de w'Aviation for being de first aviator to compwete an officiawwy observed 1 kiwometre cwosed circuit fwight, incwuding taking off and wanding under de aircraft's own power.
The designs of de French pioneer Léon Levavasseur are better known by de name of de Antoinette company which he founded. His Antoinette IV of 1908 was a monopwane of what is now de conventionaw configuration, wif taiwpwane and fin each bearing movabwe controw surfaces, and aiwerons on de wings. The aiwerons were not sufficientwy effective and on water modews were repwaced by wing warping.
At de end of 1908, de Voisin broders sowd an aircraft ordered by Henri Farman to J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon. Angered, Farman buiwt his own aircraft, adapting de Voisin design by adding aiwerons. Fowwowing furder modifications to de taiw surfaces and aiwerons, de Farman III became de most popuwar aeropwane sowd between 1909 and 1911, and was widewy imitated. In Britain de American expatriate Samuew Cody fwew an aircraft simiwar in wayout to de Wright fwyer in 1908, incorporating a taiwpwane as weww as a warge front ewevator. In 1910 an improved modew fitted wif between-wing aiwerons won de Michewin Cup competition, whiwe Geoffrey de Haviwwand's second Farman-stywe aircraft had aiwerons on de upper wing and became de Royaw Aircraft Factory F.E.1. The Bristow Boxkite, a copy of de Farman III, was manufactured in qwantity. In de USA Gwenn Curtiss had fwown first de AEA June Bug and den his Gowden Fwyer, which in 1910 achieved de first navaw deck wanding and takeoff. Meanwhiwe, de Wrights demsewves had awso been wrestwing wif de probwem of achieving bof stabiwity and controw, experimenting furder wif de forepwane before first adding a second smaww pwane at de taiw and den finawwy removing de forepwane awtogeder. They announced deir two-seat Modew B in 1910 and wicensed it for production in 1911 as de Burgess Modew F.
Many oder more radicaw wayouts were tried, wif onwy a few showing any promise. In de United Kingdom, J. W. Dunne devewoped a series of taiwwess pusher designs having swept wings wif a conicaw upper surface. His D.5 bipwane fwew in 1910 and proved fuwwy stabwe. Dunne dewiberatewy avoided fuww dree-axis controw, devising instead a system which was easier to operate and which he regarded as far safer in practice. Dunne's system wouwd not be widewy adopted. His taiwwess design reached its peak wif de D.8 which was manufactured under wicense in France by Nieuport and in de USA as de Burgess-Dunne, however it was rejected as a practicaw warpwane by de British Army, in which Dunne was an officer, because it was too stabwe and hence not manoeuvrabwe enough in battwe.
A probwem wif earwy seapwanes was de tendency for suction between de water and de aircraft as speed increased, howding de aircraft down and hindering takeoff. The British designer John Cyriw Porte invented de techniqwe of pwacing a step in de bottom of de aircraft to break de suction, and dis was incorporated in de 1914 Curtiss Modew H.
In 1909 aeropwanes remained fraiw and of wittwe practicaw use. The wimited engine power avaiwabwe meant dat de effective paywoad was extremewy wimited. The basic structuraw and materiaws technowogy of de airframes mostwy consisted of hardwood materiaws or steew tubing, braced wif steew wires and covered in winen fabric doped wif a fwammabwe stiffener and seawant. The need to save weight meant dat most aircraft were structurawwy fragiwe, and not infreqwentwy broke up in fwight especiawwy when performing viowent manoeuvres, such as puwwing out of a steep dive, which wouwd be reqwired in combat.
However dese evowving fwying machines were recognised to be not just toys, but weapons in de making. In 1909 de Itawian staff officer Giuwio Douhet remarked:
The sky is about to become anoder battwefiewd no wess important dan de battwefiewds on wand and sea....In order to conqwer de air, it is necessary to deprive de enemy of aww means of fwying, by striking at him in de air, at his bases of operation, or at his production centers. We had better get accustomed to dis idea, and prepare oursewves.
In 1911 Captain Bertram Dickson, de first British miwitary officer to fwy and de first British miwitary officer to perform an aeriaw reconnaissance mission in a fixed-wing aircraft during army manoeuvres in 1910, predicted de miwitary use of aircraft and de ensuing devewopment and escawation of aeriaw combat in a submission to de UK Technicaw Sub-Committee for Imperiaw Defence.
Aeropwanes were first used in warfare during de Itawo-Turkish War of 1911–1912. The first operationaw use took pwace on 23 October 1911, when Captain Carwo Piazza made a fwight near Benghazi in a Bwériot XI. The first aeriaw bombardment fowwowed shortwy afterwards on 1 November, when Second Lieutenant Giuwio Gavotti dropped four bombs on two oases hewd by de Turks. The first photographic reconnaissance fwight took pwace in March 1912, awso fwown by Captain Piazza.
Some types devewoped during dis period wouwd see miwitary service into, or even droughout, Worwd War I. These incwude de Etrich Taube of 1910, Fokker Spin of 1911, Royaw Aircraft Factory BE.2, Sopwif Tabwoid/Schneider and a variety of obsowescent types dat wouwd be used for piwot training. The Sikorsky Iwya Muromets was de first four-engined aircraft to ever enter production and de wargest of its day, de prototype first fwying in 1914 just before de outbreak of war. The type wouwd go on to see service in bof bomber and transport rowes.
The earwy work on powered rotor wift was fowwowed up by water investigators, independentwy from de devewopment of fixed-wing aircraft.
In 19f century France an association was set up to cowwaborate on hewicopter designs, of which dere were many. In 1863 Gustave de Ponton d'Amécourt constructed a modew using de estabwished counter-rotating rotors. Initiawwy powered by steam it faiwed, but a cwockwork version did fwy. Oder designs, covering a wide variety of forms, incwuded Pomés and De wa Pauze (1871), Pénaud, Achenbach (1874), Dieuaide (1887), Mewikoff (1877), Forwanini (1877), Castew (1878), and Dandrieux (1878–79). Of dese, Forwanini's steam-powered contra-rotating modew fwew for 20 seconds, reaching a height of 13 metres (43 ft), and Dandrieux' rubber-powered modew awso fwew.
Hiram Maxim's fader conceived of a hewicopter powered by two counter-rotating rotors, but was unabwe to find a powerfuw enough engine to buiwd it. Hiram himsewf sketched out pwans for a hewicopter in 1872 before turning his attention to fixed-wing fwight.
In 1907, de French Breguet-Richet Gyropwane No. 1 wifted off in a "tedered" test fwight, becoming de first manned hewicopter to rise from de ground. It rose about 60 centimetres (24 in) and hovered for a minute. However, de fwight proved to be extremewy unsteady.
- Aviation accidents and incidents
- Aviation in de pioneer era (1903–1914)
- Aviation in Worwd War I
- Cwaims to de first powered fwight
- History of aviation
- Timewine of aviation
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Engwish pioneer of aeriaw navigation and aeronauticaw engineering and designer of de first successfuw gwider to carry a human being awoft. Caywey estabwished de modern configuration of an aeropwane as a fixed-wing fwying machine wif separate systems for wift, propuwsion, and controw as earwy as 1799.
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