Wind Tunnel (1923)

 - Munk invents realistic wind simulation

Wind Tunnel

Early airplane engineers based their flying machines on the flight of birds. It soon became clear, however, that this method was limited. When a bird is in flight, air flows over its wings, and engineers realized that the flow of air over an airplane's wings would need to be simulated in order to uncover the secrets of flight.

Whirling Apparatus for aircraft wing analysis

Early simulation methods included the whirling arm in which a wing was attached to a pole and rotated. 

Mr.Frank Wenham

Shortly after, Frank Wenham (1824 -1908) designed a crude wind tunnel in which a fan channeled air down a tube. This produced a controlled airflow and harnessing this led to the first variable - a density wind tunnel of Max Munk (1890 - 1986).

Mr.Max M. Munk

"Technical Progress is made by integration, not differentiation" - Max M.Munk, Physicist and Mathematician

Variable Density closed-circuit wind tunnel

Munk moved from Germany to the United States in 1920 to work for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. He decided to improve the modeling of airflow in early wind tunnel designs so they could recreate the conditions experienced by a full-sized plane at high altitudes. The breakthrough came with his idea of increasing the density of the air in the tunnel by comprising it. This laid the groundwork for the first variable - density closed-circuit wind tunnel which went into operation in 1923 and revolutionized aircraft and automobile design.

Autogyro (1923)

  - De la Cierva paves the way for vertical flight.

            Juan de la Cierva                                                        Auto Guro - Model            

In 1923 Juan de la Cierva (1895 - 1936) Pioneered the first autogyro. These machines appear superficially similar to helicopters, but with a single unpowered rotor. Early autogyros were less maneuverable than helicopters and were unable to take off or descend. The invention of the autogyro Predated the helicopter and so paved the way for vertical flight. 

Box elder Tree - Acer negundo_Seeds

Autogyro rotors are not powered, unlike those of a helicopter, and thus work in a similar way to spinning "helicopter" seedpods such as those of the box elder tree, Acer negundo. These seeds are aerodynamically shaped to spin as they fall, allowing the seed to disperse much further; autogyro rotors autorotate in the same way.

Autogyro

The power or thrust of the autogyro comes from a powered propeller (or in later design a jet engine) meaning that most do require some takeoff runway, but normally only tens of feet. As they can land in an equally small space, the autogyro had distinct advantages over airplanes as they are much more maneuverable and stable flying at low speeds, but can also fly faster than helicopters. The autogyro is also unable to "stall" in mid-air, making it considerably safer than other aircraft.

Autogyro - C4 Machine

De la Cierva started developing his ideas for the autogyro around 1920, motivated partially by the frequent crashes that fixed-wing aircraft often suffered - especially at low speeds. The first successful autogyro flight was in 1923, in a machine called the C4. This was not a perfect machine by any means, but each time it stalled or there was a problem in mid-air, it was able to glide slowly back to earth on its autorotating blades.

- People inspect F.T. Courtney's autogyro at Farnborough Airfield, England, in 1925.

Powered Airplane (1903)

 - The Wright brothers build the first winged aircraft capable of sustained flight

"For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man."

- Wilbur Wright in 1900 

- Between 1907 and 1909, this was the general arrangement of wright airplanes.

- In 1909 the wright brothers demonstrated their airplane to the U.S. Army at Fort Myer, Virginia.

On the morning of December 17, 1903, amid the sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, Orville Wright (1871 - 1948) took off into a gale-force wind aboard the gasoline - Powered biplane, Wright Flyer. Orville flew for only twelve seconds, but later, in the fourth flight attempt of the day, his brother Wilbur (1867 - 1912) stayed aloft for fifty-nine seconds, traveling a distance of 852 feet (260 m). It was enough to constitute the holy grail of flight experimenters - sustained, controlled, powered, heavier than air flight.

Bicycle manufacturers from Dayton, Ohio, the Wright brothers had approached the problem of flight with a combination of practical hands-on experimentation and scientific rigor. After absorbing all published information on previous flight experiments, in 1900 they built the first of a series of gliders that they tested each summer in North Carolina. Each winter, back in Dayton, they refined their design, building their own crude wind tunnel to test different wing shapes and angles. They created an ingenious control system with a front elevator for pitch, a rudder for horizontal yaw, and wing-warping - the bending of the wingtips - to control roll. Through their glider experiments, they taught themselves to fly, lying prone to reduce drag. When they felt ready for powered flight, they designed and built their own engine and their own propellers.

The Wright Flyer was underpowered. For further flight experiments in Dayton in 1904 and 1905, without the aid of a strong headwind, the Wrights built a catapult to help the aircraft off the ground. with this assistance, they made flights of up to thirty-eight minutes at a time when no other flight experimenter even claimed to have achieved more than a brief hop in a straight line.

Wright Brothers

 

                                Orville Wright                                                Wilbur Wright

Born: 

        Orville: August 19, 1871, Dayton, Ohio 

        Wilbur: April 16, 1867, Millville, Indiana

Died: 

        Orville: January 30, 1948 (aged 76), Dayton

        Wilbur: May 30, 1912 (aged 45), Dayton

Ethnicity:

                    German, Dutch, English, Swiss

Education:

                  Orville 3 Years high school; Wilbur 4 Years

Occupation:

                 Orville:  Printer/Publisher, bicycle retailer/manufacturer,  the airplane inventor/manufacturer, airplane

                                Wilbur: Editor, bicycle retailer/manufacturer,  the airplane inventor/manufacturer, pilot trainer.

The Wright brothers, Orville (August 19, 1871 - January 30,1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912), were two American brothers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are credited with inventing and building the world's the first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. From 1905 to 1907, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made the fixed-wing powered flight possible

The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method became and remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds. From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving "the flying problem." This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put more emphasis on developing powerful engines. Using a small homebuilt wind tunnel, the Wrights also collected more accurate data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers that were more efficient than any before. Their first U.S. patent, 821, 393, did not claim the invention of the flying machine, but rather, the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated the flying machine's surfaces.

Airship (1852)

 

Henri Giffard

 - Henri Giffard invents the first navigable full-sized airship.

More than fifty years before the wright brothers flew almost an entire minute in the world's first airplane, French engineer Henri Giffard (1825 -1882) traveled 17 miles (27 kilometers) from Paris to Trappes in a lighter - than - air aircraft.

 Inspired by the streamlined model airship unveiled by his compatriot Pierre Jullien in 1850, Giffard built his 143 feet (44 meters) long, cigar-shaped dirigible and got it off the ground two years later. with its three-bladed propeller driven by a 3-horsepower (2.2 Kilowatt) steam engine, it was the first passenger-carrying, powered, and steerable airship in history.

 Zeppelin NT by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik

The worlds' most famous airship, the twentieth-century zeppelin, was rigid with a shape Determined by a skeletal structure. Giffard's design was non-rigid. Like a balloon, the envelope's shape depended on the pressure of the hydrogen inside that lifted the airship.

Gondola

The dirigible's maiden flight took place on September 24, 1852, when Giffard - sitting in a gondola hanging from a net surrounding the ballon - used a rudimentary, sail-like rudder to steer the airship in the intended direction. He accelerated to a speed of 6 miles (10 km) per hour. But unfortunately, the wind was too strong to allow for an immediate return journey, as the combined weight of the engine and boiler (350 pounds/158 kg) only permitted travel in calm weather conditions.

In 1884, Giffard's fellow Frenchmen, Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs made the first full round-trip flight in their airship La France. 

Hindenburg on fire

Airship travel reached its peak in the first half of the twentieth century until the disastrous last flight of the Hindenburg on May 3, 1937, shattered public confidence in airship travel.

- This dirigible was used in the first successful application of mechanical power to flight on September 24,1852.

Glider (1804)

 

- Cayley boosts the quests for a flying machine

Born into a wealthy family in Yorkshire, northern England, George Cayley (1773 - 1857) was a prolific inventor with an interest in human flight. He devised a heavier-than-air flying machine, with a wing to provide lift, a fuselage in which a pilot could sit, and a cruciform tail for balance and control. In 1804 he built a glider based on this design with a kite for a wing and a pole some 5 feet (1.5m) long as the fuselage. This seems to have flown down slopes unmanned, with varying weights of ballast onboard, although Cayley recorded that in later experiments with similar but larger gliders a man running into "a gentle breeze" had found himself lifted off the ground "for several yards."

George Cayley flying Machines

"We shall be able to transport ourselves and families . . . More securely by air than by water." - George Cayley, "On Aerial Navigation 1809 - 10"

The originality of Cayley's design lay in abandoning flapping as a means of propulsion. It had previously been assumed that a human would fly like a bird. But Cayley, having defined flight in terms of lift, drag, and thrust, confined the wing to providing lift. But having given up flapping, Cayley lacked an alternative power source to provide thrust. He later built a glider, which, in 1853, led to the first sustained manned glider flight. The powered flight, however, had to wait for another half-century for the petrol engine and the Wright Brothers.

- This reconstruction of the man-carrying glider Cayley flew in 1853 was built in 1973 by Anglia TV in England

Parachute (1783)

 

Lenormand Makes the first descent slowed by a fabric canopy

Parachute  - Wooden Frame

On December 26, 1783, before a large public gathering at the base of the Montpellier Observatory in Paris, the French scientist, and physicist Louis-Sebastien Leonormand jumped from the observatory's tower clinging to a 14-foot (4.2 m) Parachute attached to an improvised wooden frame. Lenormand's leap of faith was the first-ever documented use of a parachute and followed on from an earlier attempt at a slowed descent when he leaped from a tree holding on to nothing more than two modified parasols.

Earlier Chinese invention

Lenormand's inspiration likely came from the popular writings of a former French ambassador to China whose memoirs included an account of Chinese acrobats floating to earth using umbrellas. Chinese legends dating to 90 B.C.E also tell of a group of prisoners who cheated death by leaping from a tower and slowing their descent with the aid of conical straw hats.

Straw Hats

Leonardo da Vinci & sealed linen Parachute

Leonardo da Vinci sketched his famous pyramid-shaped sealed linen parachute in 1485, but there is no evidence that his idea ever progressed beyond a sketch. Recently uncovered Renaissance manuscripts from 1470 depict a parachute, not unlike Da Vinci's version, and yet predate his drawings by fifteen years 

Andre-Jacques Garnerin & his frameless Parachute

The first descent from a great height was performed by the French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who in 1797 leaped from the basket of a hot air balloon beneath a silk parachute designed, like Da Vinci's, without an aperture, descending 2,230 feet (680 m) to Parc Monceau in Paris and Landing entirely without injury before a large crowd. Garnier later adapted his design by adding an aperture to reduce the parachute's oscillations during descent.

- Carried upward by a balloon, Garnerin released his parachute and descended safely to the ground.