Aeroplane

A.The first model of aeroplane

The first airplane -- a kite on a stick -- built by Sir George Cayley in 1804.

Sir George Cayley, an English baronet, first conceived the idea of a fixed wing aircraft in 1799, then built the first successful glider in 1804. A conscientious scholar, he conducted the first controlled experiments in aviation, proposed aeronautical theories, and raised the quest for flight from a fool’s hope to a true science. Sir George Cayley, England, builds a miniature glider with a single wing and a movable tail mounted on a universal joint. It also has a movable weight to adjust the center of gravity. It is the first recorded fixed-wing aircraft of any size capable of flight. Important: Control: Initially glider were controlled by moving the entire body or warping the wings.

B.

Evolutionary of the Airplane

1. Early Flight i.

ornithopters.

An ornithopter -- it's every bit as impractical as it looks. The dream of flying is as old as mankind itself. However, the concept of the airplane has only been around for two centuries. Before that time, men and women tried to navigate the air by imitating the birds. They built machines with flapping wings called ornithopters. On the surface, it seemed like a good plan. After all, there are plenty of birds in the air to show that the concept does work.

ii. Balloon

An early balloon. Made of paper and cloth. The first generally recognized human flight took place in Paris in 1783. Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d' Arlandes went 8 km (5 miles) in a hot air balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers. In 1783,two French brothers named Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier sent a rooster, a duck, and a sheep up in a hot-air balloon. The animals survived the flight, and a few months later a French chemist and an army officer rose 90 m over Paris in a Montgolfier balloon. They were the first people to fly freely above the Earth.

iii. Airplane

Sir George Cayley's 1799 design for an airplane -- fixed wings for lift, a movable tail for control, and rows of "flappers" beneath the wings for thrust.

It wasn’t until the turn of the nineteenth century that an English baronet from the gloomy moors of Yorkshire conceived a flying machine with fixed wings, a propulsion system, and movable control surfaces. This was the fundamental concept of the airplane. Sir George Cayley also built the first true airplane — a kite mounted on a stick with a movable tail. It was crude, but it proved his idea worked, and from that first humble glider evolved the amazing machines that have taken us to the edge of space at speeds faster than sound.

2. Modern Flight i.

Lighter than air

Airships are large, steerable balloons with engines. The first airship was built in 1852 by Frenchman Henri Giffard. By the 1920s, huge airships were carrying passengers across the Atlantic Ocean. These airships were filled with hydrogen, a lighter-than-air gas. Unlike hot air, hydrogen burns easily, so airships were always at risk of fire. Airships became less popular after terrible accident on board the Hindenburg in 1937.

ii. Heavier-than-air Sustaining the aircraft

Sir George Cayley's governable parachute

During the last years of the 18th century, Sir George Cayley started the first rigorous study of the physics of flight. In 1799 he exhibited a plan for a glider, which except for planform was completely modern in having a separate tail for control and having the pilot suspended below the center of gravity to provide stability, and flew it as a model in 1804. Over the next five decades Cayley worked on and off on the problem, during which he invented most of basic aerodynamics and introduced such terms as lift and drag. He used both internal and external combustion engines, fueled by gunpowder, but it was left to Alphonse Penaud to make powering models simple, with rubber power. Later Cayley turned his research to building a

full-scale version of his design, first flying it unmanned in 1849, and in 1853 his coachman made a short flight at Brompton, near Scarborough in Yorkshire.

Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868. In 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first flight higher than his point of departure, by having his glider "L'Albatros artificiel" pulled by a horse on a beach. He reportedly achieved a height of 100 meters, over a distance of 200 meters.

Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane. In 1874, Félix du Temple built the "Monoplane", a large plane made of aluminium in Brest, France, with a wingspan of 13 meters and a weight of only 80 kilograms (without the driver). Several trials were made with the plane, and it is generally recognized that it achieved lift off under its own power after a ski-jump run, glided for a short time and returned safely to the

ground, making it the first successful powered flight in history, although the flight was only a short distance and a short time.

Powering the aircraft

Clément Ader 'Avion III (1897 photograph).

In France Clément Ader successfully launched his steam powered Eole for a short 50 meter flight near Paris in 1890, making it the first self-propelled "long distance" flight in history. After this test he immediately turned to a larger design, which took five years to build. However, this design, the Avion III, was able to leave the ground but suffered lack of efficient controls. The plane reportedly managed to lift off the ground a distance of 300 meters, at a small height, and crashed out of control.

3. The "Pioneer Era" (1900 to 1914) 1. Lighter than air

Santos-Dumont #6 rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch Prize. The first aircraft to make routine controlled flights were non-rigid airships (later called "blimps".) The most successful early pioneering pilot of this type of aircraft was the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont who effectively combined a balloon with an internal combustion engine. On October 19, 1901 he flew his airship "Number 6" over Paris from the Parc Saint Cloud around the Eiffel Tower and back in under 30 minutes to win the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize. Santos-Dumont went on to design and build several aircraft. Subsequent controversy surrounding his and others' competing claims with regard to aircraft overshadowed his unparalleled contributions to the development of airships.

2. Heavier than air The Wright brothers

The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft.

On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the 1903 Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. It flew forward without losing speed and landed at a point as high as that from which it started. With Orville Wright as pilot, the airplane took off from a launching rail and flew for 12 seconds and a distance of 37 meters (120 feet). The airplane was flown three more times that day, with Orville and his brother Wilbur alternating as pilot. The longest flight, with Wilbur at the controls, was 260 meters (852 feet) and lasted 59 seconds. The Flyer, designed and built by the Wright brothers, was one step in a broad experimental program that began in 1899 with their first kite and concluded in 1905, when they built the first truly practical airplane. The basic problems of mechanical flight, lift, propulsion, and control were solved in the Wright design. Helicopter

Paul Cornu's helicopter, built in 1907, was the first flying machine to have risen from the ground using rotating wings instead of fixed wings. In 1877 Enrico Forlanini developed an unmanned helicopter powered by a steam engine. It rose to a height of 13 meters, where it remained for some 20 seconds, after a vertical takeoff from a park in Milan. Paul Cornu's helicopter, built in 1907, was the first flying machine to have risen from the ground using rotating wings instead of fixed wings. The first time a manned helicopter is known to have risen off the ground was in 1907 at Cornu, France. The first successful rotorcraft, however, wasn't a true helicopter, but an autogyro invented by Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva in 1919. These kind of rotorcrafts were mainly used until the development of modern helicopters, when, for some reason, they became largely neglected, although the idea has since been resurrected several times. Since the first practical helicopter was the Focke Achgelis Fw 61 (Germany, 1936), the autogyros golden age only lasted around 20 years.

Seaplane

Early seaplane The first powered seaplane was invented in March 1910 by the French engineer Henri Fabre. Its name was Le Canard ('the duck'), and took off from the water and flew 800 meters on its first flight on March 28, 1910. These experiments were closely followed by the aircraft pioneers Gabriel and Charles Voisin, who purchased several of the Fabre floats and fitted them to their Canard Voisin airplane. In October 1910, the Canard Voisin became the first seaplane to fly over the river Seine, and in March 1912, the first seaplane to be used militarily from a seaplane carrier, La Foudre ('the lightning').

4. First performances steps under World War I (1914 - 1918) i.

Biplanes

British Sopwith Camel

The Fokker Triplane flown by German

Most early planes were biplanes(double-winger) or even triplanes (triple-winger). Biplane wings were strong because struts and wires linked the small, light wings to combine their strength. Famous World War | fighters included the British Sopwith Camel and Bristol Fighter.With their network of struts and wires, biplanes were affectionately known as ‘sting bags’. In the years after World War |, huge biplane airliners were built including the Handley Page Heracles of the 1930s.

5. Technology and Performance "Golden Age" (1918 - 1939) i.

Autogiros

Autogiro in 1923 The autogiro was invented by the Spanish inventor Juan de la Cierva 1923. An autogiro is lifted, not by wings, but by turning motor blades. A helicopter uses a powerful motor to turn the rotors, an autogiro’ s rotors are turned round by the pressure of air as the plane flies forward. The autogiro is pulled forward by propeller blades on the front like an ordinary small plane. The autogiro can fly at up to 225 km/h, but cannot hover like a helicopter.

ii. Jet engines

In the 1930s development of the jet engine began in Germany and in England. In England Frank Whittle patented a design for a jet engine in 1930 and towards the end of the decade began developing an engine. In Germany Hans von Ohain patented his version of a jet engine in 1936 and began developing a similar engine. The two men were unaware of the other's work, and both Germany and Britain would go on to develop jet aircraft by the end of World War II.

6. Progress goes on and massive production, World War II (1939

- 1945) i.

Bombers

B-29 Superfortress, a Heavy Bomber In the 1930s Boeing built the B-17 ‘Flying Fortress’, with gun turrets to battle its way through to targets even by day. The 1929, Curtis F8c Helldiver was the first ‘dive-bombs’ – designed to drop its bombs at the end of a long dive on targets like aircraft carriers. German ‘Stuka’ dive-bombers gained a fearsome name in the German invasions of 1939 .In December 1939 the heavy of British Wellingtons showed that lightly armed bombers could not sustain daylight raids, so the British switched to night raids. The ultra-light De Havilland Mosqito wasfast enough to fly daylight raids. The dambusters were the Lancasters of 617 squadron of 1943 that attacked German dams with ‘bouncing bombs’. These were around bombs designed by Barnes Wallis that bounced over the water surface towards the target dams.Kamikaze (Japanese for ‘divine wind’) were fighters loaded with bombs and gasoline which their pilots armed. The biggest bomber was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress which could fly over 10,000 m up. In the 1945, B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

ii. Fighters

In the dogfights of the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire’s 650 km/h top speed and amazing agility proved decisive.

World War || fighter planes were sleek monoplanes(singed-winged aircraft) very different from the biplanes of World War |. Many were developed from racing machines of the 1920s and 1930s.The most famous British pane was the Supermarine Spitfire. This was developed from the S.6B seaplane which won the coveted Schneider trophy in the late 1920s. The German Focke-Wulf 190 had a big BMW radial engine that enabled it to climb over 1100 km a minute. The most famous Soviet fighter was the MiG LaGG-3 Interceptor, flown by Soviet air ace Ivan Kozhedub who shot down 62 German planes. The British Hawker Hurricane was more old-fashioned, slower and less famous than the Spitfire, but its reliability made it highly effective. Hurricanes actually destroyed more enemy aircraft than Spitfires.

7. 1945 - 1991: The Cold War i.

Airliners

Long-distance passenger aircraft, called airliners, began flying in the 1930s. The first streamlined metal airliner, the Boeing 247, carried only 10 passengers, but planes soon became bigger and more comfortable. They became faster, too, when jet engines were installed in the 1950s. Then, in 1970, the first “jumbo” jet, the Boeing 747, was built. This huge, wide-bodied plane can carry more than 500 people and is still the most popular airliner for long-distance flights. Boeing 247

Boeing 247 in 1930s.

The new model of Boeing 247

The Boeing 247 was a small, all metal airliner that had two propeller engines. It first took off in 1933, flying passengers across the U.S in less than a day. The Boeing company went on to become the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. Comet

De Havilland Comet, 1952 The world’s first jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet, started flying in 1952, but it was grounded for four years after a series of crashes. Investigators discovered that cracks were appearing in the plane’s metal body, a problem known as metal fatigue. A safer Comet was then built.

Jumbo Jets

Boeing 747

The second world’s largest airliner, the Boeing 747, is just over 70 m (232 ft) long and has a wingspan of 65 m (213 ft). It can fly 566 passengers more than 13,000 km (8000 miles) without stopping to refuel. During long flights, passengers are given hot meals from the aircraft ‘s galleys, or kitchens.

8. 2001-Future Global Hawk

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

Airbus

Airbus is an aircraft manufacturingsubsidiary of a European aerospace company. Based in Toulouse, France, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners. Airbus began as a consortium of aerospace manufacturers. Consolidation of European defence and aerospace companies around the turn of the century allowed the establishment of a simplified joint stock company in 2001, owned by EADS (80%) and BAE Systems (20%). After a protracted sales process BAE sold its shareholding to EADS on 13 October 2006.[3] Airbus employs around 57,000 people at sixteen sites in four European Union countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Final assembly production is at Toulouse(France), Hamburg (Germany), Seville (Spain) and, since 1999, Tianjin (China).[4] Airbus has subsidiaries in the United States, Japan and China.The company is known for producing and marketing the first commercially viable fly by wire airliner.

Picture of future aeroplane.

C.

The advantages of the evolution.

The advantages of evolution an airplane are: Control: Initially glider were controlled by moving the entire body (Otto Lilienthal) or warping the wings (Wright brothers). Modern airplanes use control surfaces such as ailerons and elevators. On some military aircraft these control surfaces are stabilized by a computer system to the extent that stable flight is not possible without the computer. Power: Aircraft engines have become lighter and more efficient, from Clement Ader's steam engine to piston, jet and rocket engines. Material: Initially made of canvas and wood, aircraft materials moved to doped fabric and steel tubing, all-metal monocoque construction as early as 1915, with similar all aluminum construction pioneered in 1918, and widely used (around WWII), and increasingly today, composites.

REFERENCES i.

Web Address http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_history http://www.first-to-fly.com/History/History%20of%20Airplane/history.htm http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blairplane.htm

ii. Books 1000 Things You Should Know About, Buildings And Transport,2003, Miles Kelly Publishing Ltd. iii. Encyclopedia Disney Children’s Encyclopedia, Transport, 2003, Neil Morris