The Evolution of Aircraft Performance
Aircraft is considered one of the most significant inventions ever made in human history. As a product of brilliant imagination, it proved the possibility of flying without wings is achievable. We argue that aircraft design primarily enhance and influence its total performance that meets its designer’s crave for airspeed and quicker transportation needs. Orville and Wilbur Wright were able to design and built the world’s first human-controllable airplane, which eventually evolved and became better, faster and more innovated aircraft in a form of scramjet. From Wright brothers’ creation to the supersonic ramjet design, aircrafts performance has been developed through continuous innovations that seek perfect design of well engineered speed of an aircraft that can be useful to humans.
Aircraft’s Performance Evolution
Everything started on a research. IT was between year 1899 and 1902 when Wilbur and Orville started a literature search that includes issues, challenges and technical problems when previous flyers attempted and developed some possible solutions as they observed how birds glide. The Wright brothers found out that controlling this flying object would be the most challenging part, which they were able to resolve (nasa.gov). In the year 1901, along with Wright brothers testing to be the first pilots of their aircrafts, the early glider and kite experiments were not successful as they did not meet the calculation the brother made to have a successful flight, but not until they produced their first successful 1902 aircraft out of their new calculations and data (nasa.gov). The Wright brothers did not stop until they have created their very first glider. So as for the successful design, these brothers were the first and most experienced pilots globally whose designs are still being pioneered by NASA.
The propulsion of self-propelled Wright aircraft has been developed between the years of 1903 and 1920s, which started from a 12 horse powered engine that has been increased to almost 75 horse power engine. This propulsion system design was created out of an automobile engine based on wind tunnel tests that the brothers conducted. The Wright brothers continued to develop their aircrafts through creating series of designs from 1903 to 1905 after the first successful flight on 17th December 1903. NASA still continues to expand new ideas from Wright brothers’ design.
An online magazine, airspacemag.com narrates that after the Wrights aircraft was developed, a new version was born and flew in year 1919. F13 was the first modern aircraft, a monoplane that is made out of metal and has a low wing as claimed by aviation historian Dick Hallion. This aircraft that has more powerful engine is intended to carry four passengers sitting in an enclosed cabin (airspacemag.com). This craft was not allowed to operate after World War I and flew last in 1948. F13, as first used in the Americas’ airline service was sold to manufacture and licensed to Hungary, Japan, Soviet Union and 27 other countries after it has been prohibited in Germany. The development of aircraft performance did not stop right at that moment. Another type of aircraft, this time bigger and more powerful than F13 has been created.
Boeing 314 was born, which established passenger and mail routes across the north and south Atlantic as well as the Pacific. This flying boat was the biggest civil aircraft in service during early 1930s. Boeing 314 transported passengers with a high safety, speed and comfort in transatlantic flights. This aircraft is bigger than its rivals as it doubled the Sikorsky S-42 and heavier than Martin M-130 by China. It has a 14-cylinder engine Wright cyclones and was the first to use fuel with 100-octane, which made it more powerful (aviation-history.com).
Some of the remarkable aircrafts that changed the history of its performance are: The Enola Gay, an aircraft bomber that attacked Hiroshima, Japan in 1945; The Mig-15 that was used in during the Korean War as the first jet-powered interceptor with an ejection seat and pressurized cabin, then there was the Sikorsky S-55 that is capable in performing troop and cargo transport, casualty evacuation and air assault. As the evolution continues, Cessna 172 was born in 1956 as a single-engine- tricycle gear plane was used for flight training. Followed by Learjet 23, a smaller, simpler yet fast aircraft that is normally used privately by some businessmen can carry two crews and up to seven passengers (airspacemag.com).
As time goes by, aircraft engine technology’s goal is to fly at high speeds, which integrates space operations. Scramjets or supersonic combustion jets was theoretically studied in early 1940s and was developed after a decade. This aircraft is a hydrocarbon and hydrogen-fueled engine, which helped its evolution to its present state. It flies in a high-speed without using any rotating parts, yet able to travel hundreds of miles in just a matter of minutes and made space travel a reality. Its integrated engine is a vehicle design for missiles and aircrafts, which made it perfect for reconnaissance missions and global strike. It has the capability to be a space-traveler vehicle that can take off as well as land like a normal airliner (Andreadis, N.D.).
Aircrafts was truly an amazing creation that helped human not just to prove that we can travel through air and space, but to achieve what we have today as it is being used for transporting passengers from one place to another, transport goods that we use in our daily lives like foods coming from different places. Aircraft performance also proved that an old impossible goal of flying can be a breakthrough for mankind as it helps in discovering facts beyond our planet that are impossible to reach if aircraft performance development was not conducted.
Aircraft That Changed the World | History of Flight | Air & Space Magazine. (2008, July). Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Aircraft_That_Changed_the_World.html?c=y&page=2
Andreadis, D. (n.d.). Scramjets integrate air and space - The Industrial Physicist. Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-10/iss-4/p24.html
Boeing 314 Clipper - USA. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://www.aviation-history.com/boeing/314.html
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (2010, April 26). Overview of the Wright Brothers' Invention Process. Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://wright.nasa.gov/overview.htm