History Of Planes

• History Of Planes In War

Working on ' wings. The origin of mankind's desire to fly is lost in the distant past. From the earliest legends there have been stories of men strapping birdlike wings, stiffened cloaks or other devices to themselves and attempting to fly, typically by jumping off a tower. The Greek legend of and is one of the earliest known; others originated from India, China and the European Middle Age.

The history of aviation brims with airplanes that have represented the pinnacle of design: swift fighters, long-range bombers and transports, exciting sport biplanes, experimental airplanes that used the sky as a laboratory. The 30 Most Important Airplanes of All Time. The planes that defined the aerospace age. To be the most important airplanes in the course of history. History of Aviation - First Flights. Glenn Curtiss had designed a plane that could take off and land on water and. History; History of Aviation - First Flights.

During this early period the issues of lift, stability and control were not understood, and most attempts ended in serious injury or death. In medieval Europe, the earliest recorded tower jump dates from 852 AD, when, also known as Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887 A.D.), made a jump in Cordoba, Spain, reportedly covering his body with vulture feathers and attaching two wings to his arms.

Soon followed and many others have continued to do so over the centuries. As late as 1811, constructed an and jumped into the Danube at Ulm. Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book. The may have been the first form of man-made aircraft. It was invented in China possibly as far back as the 5th century BC by (Mo Di) and (Gongshu Ban). Later designs often emulated flying insects, birds, and other beasts, both real and mythical. Some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying.

Ancient and medieval Chinese sources describe kites being used to measure distances, test the wind, lift men, signal, and communicate and send messages. Kites spread from China around the world. After its introduction into, the kite further evolved into the, where an abrasive line is used to cut down other kites. Man-carrying kites Man-carrying kites are believed to have been used extensively in ancient China, for both civil and military purposes and sometimes enforced as a punishment. An early recorded flight was that of the prisoner, a Chinese prince, in the 6th Century AD. Stories of man-carrying kites also occur in Japan, following the introduction of the kite from China around the seventh century AD. It is said that at one time there was a Japanese law against man-carrying kites.

Rotor wings. From ancient times the Chinese have understood that hot air rises and have applied the principle to a type of small called a. A sky lantern consists of a paper balloon under or just inside which a small lamp is placed. Sky lanterns are traditionally launched for pleasure and during festivals. According to, such lanterns were known in China from the 3rd century BC. Their military use is attributed to the general (180–234 AD, honorific title Kongming), who is said to have used them to scare the enemy troops.

There is evidence that the Chinese also 'solved the problem of aerial navigation' using balloons, hundreds of years before the 18th century. The Renaissance.

Santos-Dumont's 'Number 6' rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901. Airships were originally called 'dirigible balloons' and are still sometimes called dirigibles today. Work on developing a steerable (or dirigible) balloon continued sporadically throughout the 19th century. The first powered, controlled, sustained lighter-than-air flight is believed to have taken place in 1852 when flew 15 miles (24 km) in France, with a steam engine driven craft. Another advance was made in 1884, when the first fully controllable free-flight was made in a French Army electric-powered airship, by and. The 170-foot (52 m) long, 66,000-cubic-foot (1,900 m 3) airship covered 8 km (5.0 mi) in 23 minutes with the aid of an 8½ horsepower electric motor. However, these aircraft were generally short-lived and extremely frail.

Routine, controlled flights would not occur until the advent of the internal combustion engine (see below.) The first aircraft to make routine controlled flights were (sometimes called 'blimps'.) The most successful early pioneering pilot of this type of aircraft was the Brazilian who effectively combined a balloon with an internal combustion engine. On October 19, 1901 he flew his airship 'Number 6' over Paris from the around the and back in under 30 minutes to win the. Santos-Dumont went on to design and build several aircraft. Subsequent controversy surrounding his and others' competing claims with regard to aircraft overshadowed his great contribution to the development of airships. At the same time that non-rigid airships were starting to have some success, the first successful rigid airships were also being developed.

These would be far more capable than fixed-wing aircraft in terms of pure cargo carrying capacity for decades. Rigid airship design and advancement was pioneered by the German count. Construction of the first airship began in 1899 in a floating assembly hall on Lake Constance in the Bay of Manzell,.

This was intended to ease the starting procedure, as the hall could easily be aligned with the wind. The prototype airship (LZ for 'Luftschiff Zeppelin') had a length of 128 m (420 ft) was driven by two 10.6 kW (14.2 hp) engines and balanced by moving a weight between its two nacelles. Its first flight, on July 2, 1900, lasted for only 18 minutes, as LZ 1 was forced to land on the lake after the winding mechanism for the balancing weight had broken. Upon repair, the technology proved its potential in subsequent flights, bettering the 6 m/s speed attained by the French airship La France by 3 m/s, but could not yet convince possible investors. It would be several years before the Count was able to raise enough funds for another try. Although airships were used in both World War I and II, and continue on a limited basis to this day, their development has been largely overshadowed by heavier-than-air craft. Heavier than air.

Main article: The 17th and 18th centuries Italian inventor, invited by the King to his court in, built a model aircraft with four fixed wings in 1647. Described as 'four pairs of wings attached to an elaborate 'dragon', it was said to have successfully lifted a cat in 1648 but not Burattini himself. He promised that 'only the most minor injuries' would result from landing the craft. His 'Dragon Volant' is considered 'the most elaborate and sophisticated aeroplane to be built before the 19th Century'. The first published paper on aviation was by published in 1716. This flying machine consisted of a light frame covered with strong canvas and provided with two large oars or wings moving on a horizontal axis, arranged so that the upstroke met with no resistance while the downstroke provided lifting power. Swedenborg knew that the machine would not fly, but suggested it as a start and was confident that the problem would be solved.

He wrote: 'It seems easier to talk of such a machine than to put it into actuality, for it requires greater force and less weight than exists in a human body. The science of mechanics might perhaps suggest a means, namely, a strong spiral spring. If these advantages and requisites are observed, perhaps in time to come some one might know how better to utilize our sketch and cause some addition to be made so as to accomplish that which we can only suggest. Yet there are sufficient proofs and examples from nature that such flights can take place without danger, although when the first trials are made you may have to pay for the experience, and not mind an arm or leg.'

Swedenborg would prove prescient in his observation that a method of powering of an aircraft was one of the critical problems to be overcome. The 19th century Throughout the 19th century, tower jumping was replaced by the equally fatal but equally popular balloon jumping as a way to demonstrate the continued uselessness of man-power and flapping wings. Meanwhile, the scientific study of heavier-than-air flight began in earnest. Sir George Cayley and the first modern aircraft was first called the 'father of the aeroplane' in 1846.

During the last years of the previous century he had begun the first rigorous study of the and would later design the first modern heavier-than-air craft. Among his many achievements, his most important contributions to aeronautics include:. Clarifying our ideas and laying down the principles of heavier-than-air flight. Reaching a scientific understanding of the principles of bird flight.

Conducting scientific aerodynamic experiments demonstrating drag and streamlining, movement of the centre of pressure, and the increase in lift from curving the wing surface. Defining the modern aeroplane configuration comprising a fixed wing, fuselage and tail assembly. Demonstrations of manned, gliding flight. Setting out the principles of power-to-weight ratio in sustaining flight. Cayley's first innovation was to study the basic science of lift by adopting the whirling arm test rig for use in aircraft research and using simple aerodynamic models on the arm, rather than attempting to fly a model of a complete design. In 1799 he set down the concept of the modern aeroplane as a flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. In 1804 Cayley constructed a model glider which was the first modern heavier-than-air flying machine, having the layout of a conventional modern aircraft with an inclined wing towards the front and adjustable tail at the back with both tailplane and fin.

A movable weight allowed adjustment of the model's. 'Governable parachute' design of 1852 In 1809, goaded by the farcical antics of his contemporaries (see above), he began the publication of a landmark three-part treatise titled 'On Aerial Navigation' (1809–1810). In it he wrote the first scientific statement of the problem, 'The whole problem is confined within these limits, viz.

To make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air.' He identified the four vector forces that influence an aircraft:, and and distinguished stability and control in his designs. He also identified and described the importance of the, diagonal bracing and drag reduction, and contributed to the understanding and design of and.

In 1848 he had progressed far enough to construct a glider in the form of a large and safe enough to carry a child. A local boy was chosen but his name is not known. He went on to publish in 1852 the design for a full-size manned glider or 'governable parachute' to be launched from a balloon and then to construct a version capable of launching from the top of a hill, which carried the first adult aviator across Brompton Dale in 1853. Minor inventions includedwhich provided a reliable power source for. By 1808 he had even re-invented the wheel, devising the in which all compression loads are carried by the rim, allowing a lightweight undercarriage. The age of steam Drawing directly from Cayley's work, Henson's 1842 design for an broke new ground.

Although only a design, it was the first in history for a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft. 1866 saw the founding of the and two years later the world's first aeronautical exhibition was held at the, London, where was awarded a £100 prize for the steam engine with the best power-to-weight ratio. Presented the first paper to the newly formed Aeronautical Society (later the ), On Aerial Locomotion. He advanced Cayley's work on cambered wings, making important findings. To test his ideas, from 1858 he had constructed several gliders, both manned and unmanned, and with up to five stacked wings. He realised that long, thin wings are better than bat-like ones because they have more leading edge for their area. Today this relationship is known as the of a wing.

The latter part of the 19th century became a period of intense study, characterized by the ' who represented most research efforts until the 20th century. Among them was the British scientist-philosopher and inventor, who studied lateral flight control and was the first to patent an in 1868. In 1871 Wenham and Browning made the first.

Meanwhile, the British advances had galvanised French researchers. In 1857 proposed a monoplane with a tail plane and retractable undercarriage.

Developing his ideas with a model powered first by clockwork and later by steam, he eventually achieved a short hop with a full-size manned craft in 1874. It achieved lift-off under its own power after launching from a ramp, glided for a short time and returned safely to the ground, making it the first successful powered glide in history.

In 1865 published an influential book The Empire Of The Air ( l'Empire de l'Air). Maxim's flying machine Sir was an American engineer who had moved to England. He built his own whirling arm rig and wind tunnel, and constructed a large machine with a wingspan of 105 feet (32 m), a length of 145 feet (44 m), fore and aft horizontal surfaces and a crew of three. Twin propellers were powered by two lightweight compound each delivering 180 hp (130 kW).

Overall weight was 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg). It was intended as a test rig to investigate aerodynamic lift: lacking flight controls it ran on rails, with a second set of rails above the wheels to restrain it. Completed in 1894, on its third run it broke from the rail, became airborne for about 200 yards at two to three feet of altitude and was badly damaged upon falling back to the ground. It was subsequently repaired, but Maxim abandoned his experiments shortly afterwards. Learning to glide. The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air.

In the last decade or so of the 19th century, a number of key figures were refining and defining the modern aeroplane. Lacking a suitable engine, aircraft work focused on stability and control in gliding flight. In 1879 Biot constructed a bird-like glider with the help of Massia and flew in it briefly. It is preserved in the, France, and is claimed to be the earliest man-carrying flying machine still in existence. The Englishman made key contributions to aerodynamics. He conducted extensive wind tunnel research on sections, proving the principles of aerodynamic lift foreseen by Cayley and Wenham. His findings underpin all modern aerofoil design.

First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the, October 7, 1903 After a distinguished career in and shortly before becoming Secretary of the, started a serious investigation into aerodynamics at what is today the. In 1891 he published Experiments in Aerodynamics detailing his research, and then turned to building his designs. He hoped to achieve automatic aerodynamic stability, so he gave little consideration to in-flight control. On May 6, 1896, Langley's Aerodrome No.

5 made the first successful sustained flight of an unpiloted, engine-driven heavier-than-air craft of substantial size. It was launched from a spring-actuated catapult mounted on top of a houseboat on the Potomac River near Quantico, Virginia. Two flights were made that afternoon, one of 1,005 metres (3,297 ft) and a second of 700 metres (2,300 ft), at a speed of approximately 25 miles per hour (40 km/h). On both occasions the Aerodrome No. 5 landed in the water as planned, because in order to save weight, it was not equipped with landing gear. On November 28, 1896, another successful flight was made with the Aerodrome No. 6. This flight, of 1,460 metres (4,790 ft), was witnessed and photographed.

The Aerodrome No. 6 was actually Aerodrome No. 4 greatly modified. So little remained of the original aircraft that it was given a new designation. With the successes of the Aerodrome No. 5 and No. 6, Langley started looking for funding to build a full-scale man-carrying version of his designs.

Spurred by the, the U.S. Government granted him $50,000 to develop a man-carrying flying machine for aerial reconnaissance. Langley planned on building a scaled-up version known as the Aerodrome A, and started with the smaller Quarter-scale Aerodrome, which flew twice on June 18, 1901, and then again with a newer and more powerful engine in 1903. With the basic design apparently successfully tested, he then turned to the problem of a suitable engine.

He contracted Stephen Balzer to build one, but was disappointed when it delivered only 8 hp (6.0 kW) instead of 12 hp (8.9 kW) he expected. Langley's assistant, then reworked the design into a five-cylinder water-cooled radial that delivered 52 hp (39 kW) at 950 rpm, a feat that took years to duplicate.

Now with both power and a design, Langley put the two together with great hopes. To his dismay, the resulting aircraft proved to be too fragile. Simply scaling up the original small models resulted in a design that was too weak to hold itself together.

Two launches in late 1903 both ended with the Aerodrome immediately crashing into the water. The pilot, Manly, was rescued each time. Also, the aircraft's control system was inadequate to allow quick pilot responses, and it had no method of lateral control, and the Aerodrome 's aerial stability was marginal. Langley's attempts to gain further funding failed, and his efforts ended. Nine days after his second abortive launch on December 8, the successfully flew their Flyer. Made 93 modifications to the Aerodrome and flew this very different aircraft in 1914. Without acknowledging the modifications, the Smithsonian Institution asserted that Langley's Aerodrome was the first machine 'capable of flight'.

Whitehead. Main article: Using a methodological approach and concentrating on the controllability of the aircraft, the brothers built and tested a series of kite and glider designs from 1900 to 1902 before attempting to build a powered design. The gliders worked, but not as well as the Wrights had expected based on the experiments and writings of their 19th-century predecessors. Their first glider, launched in 1900, had only about half the lift they anticipated. Their second glider, built the following year, performed even more poorly.

Rather than giving up, the Wrights constructed their own and created a number of sophisticated devices to measure lift and drag on the 200 wing designs they tested. As a result, the Wrights corrected earlier mistakes in calculations regarding drag and lift.

Their testing and calculating produced a third glider with a higher and true three-axis control. They flew it successfully hundreds of times in 1902, and it performed far better than the previous models. By using a rigorous system of experimentation, involving wind-tunnel testing of airfoils and flight testing of full-size prototypes, the Wrights not only built a working aircraft, the, but also helped advance the science of aeronautical engineering. The: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft. The Wrights appear to be the first to make serious studied attempts to simultaneously solve the power and control problems.

Both problems proved difficult, but they never lost interest. They solved the control problem by inventing for control, combined with simultaneous control with a steerable rear rudder. Almost as an afterthought, they designed and built a low-powered internal combustion engine. They also designed and carved wooden propellers that were more efficient than any before, enabling them to gain adequate performance from their low engine power. Although wing-warping as a means of lateral control was used only briefly during the early history of aviation, the principle of combining lateral control in combination with a rudder was a key advance in aircraft control. While many aviation pioneers appeared to leave safety largely to chance, the Wrights' design was greatly influenced by the need to teach themselves to fly without unreasonable risk to life and limb, by surviving crashes.

This emphasis, as well as low engine power, was the reason for low flying speed and for taking off in a head wind. Performance, rather than safety, was the reason for the rear-heavy design, because the could not be highly loaded; wings were less affected by crosswinds and were consistent with the low yaw stability.

According to the and (FAI), the Wrights made the first sustained, controlled, powered heavier-than-air manned flight at, four miles (8 km) south of on December 17, 1903. The first flight by, of 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds, was recorded in a famous photograph. In the fourth flight of the same day, flew 852 feet (260 m) in 59 seconds. The flights were witnessed by three coastal lifesaving crewmen, a local businessman, and a boy from the village, making these the first public flights and the first well-documented ones. Orville described the final flight of the day: 'The first few hundred feet were up and down, as before, but by the time three hundred feet had been covered, the machine was under much better control. The course for the next four or five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began again, and, in one of its darts downward, struck the ground.

The distance over the ground was measured to be 852 feet (260 m); the time of the flight was 59 seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. We estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in about a day or two.' They flew only about ten feet above the ground as a safety precaution, so they had little room to maneuver, and all four flights in the gusty winds ended in a bumpy and unintended 'landing'. Modern analysis by Professor Fred E. Culick and Henry R.

Rex (1985) has demonstrated that the 1903 Wright Flyer was so unstable as to be almost unmanageable by anyone but the Wrights, who had trained themselves in the 1902 glider. The Wrights continued flying at Huffman Prairie near in 1904–05. In May 1904 they introduced the, a heavier and improved version of the original Flyer. On June 23, 1905 they first flew a third machine, the. After a severe crash on 14 July 1905, they rebuilt the Flyer III and made important design changes. They almost doubled the size of the and rudder and moved them about twice the distance from the wings.

They added two fixed vertical vanes (called 'blinkers') between the elevators, and gave the wings a very slight dihedral. They disconnected the rudder from the wing-warping control, and as in all future aircraft, placed it on a separate control handle. When flights resumed the results were immediate. The serious pitch instability that hampered Flyers I and II was significantly reduced, so repeated minor crashes were eliminated. Flights with the redesigned Flyer III started lasting over 10 minutes, then 20, then 30.

Flyer III became the first practical aircraft (though without wheels and needing a launching device), flying consistently under full control and bringing its pilot back to the starting point safely and landing without damage. On 5 October 1905, Wilbur flew 24 miles (39 km) in 39 minutes 23 seconds.' According to the April 1907 issue of the magazine, the Wright brothers seemed to have the most advanced knowledge of heavier-than-air navigation at the time. However, the same magazine issue also claimed that no public flight had been made in the United States before its April 1907 issue. Hence, they devised the Scientific American Aeronautic Trophy in order to encourage the development of a heavier-than-air flying machine. The Pioneer Era (1903–1914).

The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie. Although full details of the Wright Brothers' system of flight control had been published in in January 1906 the importance of this advance was not recognised, and European experimenters generally concentrated on attempting to produce inherently stable machines. Short powered flights were performed in France by Romanian engineer on March 18 and August 19, 1906 when he flew 12 and 24 meters, respectively, in a self-designed, fully self-propelled, fixed-wing aircraft, that possessed a fully wheeled undercarriage. He was followed by who built a monoplane which he tested with a tether in Denmark on September 12, 1906, flying 42 meters. On September 13, 1906, a day after Ellehammer's tethered flight and three years after the Wright Brothers' flight, the Brazilian made a public flight in Paris with the, also known as Oiseau de proie (French for 'bird of prey').

This was of with pronounced wing dihedral, and covered a distance of 60 m (200 ft) on the grounds of the in Paris' before a large crowd of witnesses. This well-documented event was the first flight verified by the of a powered heavier-than-air machine in Europe and won the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for the first officially observed flight greater than 25 m (82 ft). On November 12, 1906, Santos-Dumont set the first world record recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale by flying 220 m (720 ft) in 21.5 seconds. Only one more brief flight was made by the 14bis in March 1907, after which it was abandoned. Vlaicu III In March 1907 flew the first example of his.

On 13 January 1908 a second example of the type was flown by to win the Deutsch-Archdeacon Grand Prix d'Aviation prize for a flight in which the aircraft flew a distance of more than a kilometer and landed at the point where it had taken off. The flight lasted 1 minute and 28 seconds.

In 1914, just before the start of, Romania completed the world's first metal-built aircraft,. It was captured by the Germans in 1916 and last seen at a 1942 aviation exhibition in Berlin. Flight as an established technology. Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris Santos-Dumont later added, between the wings in an effort to gain more lateral stability. His final design, first flown in 1907, was the series of monoplanes (Nos. The Demoiselle No 19 could be constructed in only 15 days and became the world's first series production aircraft. The Demoiselle achieved 120 km/h.

The fuselage consisted of three specially reinforced bamboo booms: the pilot sat a seat between the main wheels of a whose pair of wire-spoked mainwheels were located at the lower front of the airframe, with a tailskid half-way back beneath the rear fuselage structure. The Demoiselle was controlled in flight by a unit hinged on a form of at the aft end of the fuselage structure to function as elevator and rudder, with roll control provided through wing warping (No.

20), with the wings only warping 'down'. In 1908 Wilbur Wright travelled to Europe, and starting in August gave a series of flight demonstrations at in France. The first demonstration, made on 8 August, attracted an audience including most of the major French aviation experimenters, who were astonished by the clear superiority of the Wright Brothers' aircraft, particularly its ability to make tight controlled turns. The importance of using roll control in making turns was recognised by almost all the European experimenters: Henri Farman fitted ailerons to his Voisin biplane and shortly afterwards set up his own aircraft construction business, whose first product was the influential biplane. The following year saw the widespread recognition of powered flight as something other than the preserve of dreamers and eccentrics. On 25 July won worldwide fame by winning a £1,000 prize offered by the British newspaper for a flight across the, and in August around half a million people, including the President of France and, attended one of the first aviation meetings, the. Rotorcraft In 1877, developed an unmanned powered by a steam engine.

It rose to a height of 13 meters, where it remained for some 20 seconds, after a vertical take-off from a park in Milan. Main article: Almost as soon as they were invented, airplanes were used for military purposes. The first country to use them for military purposes was Italy, whose aircraft made reconnaissance, bombing and artillery correction flights in Libya during the (September 1911 – October 1912).

The first mission (a reconnaissance) occurred on 23 October 1911. The first bombing mission was flown on 1 November 1911. Then followed this example. Its airplanes attacked and reconnoitered the positions during the. The first war to see major use of airplanes in offensive, defensive and reconnaissance capabilities was. The and both used airplanes and airships extensively. While the concept of using the airplane as an offensive weapon was generally discounted before World War I, the idea of using it for photography was one that was not lost on any of the major forces.

All of the major forces in Europe had light aircraft, typically derived from pre-war sporting designs, attached to their departments. Were also being explored on airplanes, notably the, as communication between pilots and ground commander grew more and more important. World War I (1914–1918).

See also:, and It was not long before aircraft were shooting at each other, but the lack of any sort of steady point for the gun was a problem. The French solved this problem when, in late 1914, attached a fixed machine gun to the front of his plane, but while would become known as the first ', getting credit for five victories, before also becoming the first ace to die in action, it was German Leutnant, who, on July 1, 1915, scored the very first aerial victory by a, with a. Aviators were styled as modern-day knights, doing individual combat with their enemies. Several pilots became famous for their air-to-air combat; the most well known is, better known as the Red Baron, who shot down 80 planes in with several different planes, the most celebrated of which was the.

On the Allied side, is credited with the most all-time victories at 75, even when later wars are considered. France, Britain, Germany and Italy were the leading manufacturers of fighter planes that saw action during the war, with German aviation technologist showing the way to the future through his from late 1915. Between the World Wars (1918–1939). Main article: The years between and saw great advancements in aircraft technology. Airplanes evolved from low-powered biplanes made from wood and fabric to sleek, high-powered monoplanes made of aluminum, based primarily on the founding work of during the World War I period and its adoption by American designer and Soviet designer.

The age of the great rigid airships came and went. The first successful rotorcraft appeared in the form of the, invented by Spanish engineer and first flown in 1919. In this design, the rotor is not powered but is spun like a windmill by its passage through the air.

A separate powerplant is used to propel the aircraft forwards. Flagg biplane from 1933. After World War I, experienced fighter pilots were eager to show off their skills. Many American pilots became, flying into small towns across the country and showing off their flying abilities, as well as taking paying passengers for rides. Eventually the barnstormers grouped into more organized displays. Air shows sprang up around the country, with air races, acrobatic stunts, and feats of air superiority. The air races drove engine and airframe development—the, for example, led to a series of ever faster and sleeker designs culminating in the.

With pilots competing for cash prizes, there was an incentive to go faster. Was perhaps the most famous of those on the barnstorming/air show circuit. She was also the first female pilot to achieve records such as crossing of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 Other prizes, for distance and speed records, also drove development forwards. For example, on June 14, 1919, Captain and Lieutenant co-piloted a non-stop from St. John's, to Clifden, Ireland, winning the £13,000 ($65,000). The first flight across the South Atlantic and the first aerial crossing using astronomical navigation, was made by the naval aviators and in 1922, from, to, with only internal means of navigation, in an aircraft specifically fitted for himself with an for aeronautical use, an invention that revolutionized air navigation at the time (Gago Coutinho invented a type of incorporating two spirit levels to provide an artificial horizon).

Five years later took the of $25,000 for the first solo non-stop crossing of the Atlantic. Months after Lindbergh, Paul Redfern was the first to solo the Caribbean Sea and was last seen flying over Venezuela.

Australian Sir was the first to fly across the larger Pacific Ocean in the Southern Cross. His crew left Oakland, California to make the first trans-Pacific flight to Australia in three stages. The first (from Oakland to Hawaii) was 2,400 miles, took 27 hours 25 minutes and was uneventful. They then flew to Suva, Fiji 3,100 miles away, taking 34 hours 30 minutes. This was the toughest part of the journey as they flew through a massive lightning storm near the equator. They then flew on to Brisbane in 20 hours, where they landed on 9 June 1928 after approximately 7,400 miles total flight. On arrival, Kingsford Smith was met by a huge crowd of 25,000 at Eagle Farm Airport in his hometown of Brisbane.

Accompanying him were Australian aviator as the relief pilot, and the Americans James Warner and Captain Harry Lyon (who were the radio operator, navigator and engineer). A week after they landed, Kingsford Smith and Ulm recorded a disc for Columbia talking about their trip. With Ulm, Kingsford Smith later continued his journey being the first in 1929 to, crossing the equator twice. The first lighter-than-air crossings of the Atlantic were made by airship in July 1919 by His Majesty's Airship and crew when they flew from, Scotland to, New York and then back to, England.

By 1929, airship technology had advanced to the point that the first round-the-world flight was completed by the in September and in October, the same aircraft inaugurated the first commercial transatlantic service. However, the age of the rigid airship ended following the destruction by fire of the zeppelin LZ 129 just before landing at on May 6, 1937, killing 35 of the 97 people aboard. Previous spectacular airship accidents, from the disaster (1919) to the loss of the (1930), the (1933) and the (1935) had already cast doubt on airship safety, but with the disasters of the U.S.

Navy's rigids showing the importance of solely using as the lifting medium; following the destruction of the Hindenburg, the remaining airship making, the was retired (June 1937). Its replacement, the rigid airship, made a number of flights, primarily over Germany, from 1938 to 1939, but was grounded when Germany began. Both remaining German zeppelins were scrapped in 1940 to supply metal for the German; the last American rigid airship, the, which had not flown since 1932, was dismantled in late 1939. Meanwhile, Germany, which was restricted by the in its development of powered aircraft, developed as a sport, especially at the, during the 1920s. In its various forms, in the 21st century sailplane aviation now has over 400,000 participants. In 1929 developed.

1929 also saw the first flight of by far the largest plane ever built until then: the with a wing span of 48 m. On its 70th test flight on October 21 there were 169 people on board, a record that was not broken for 20 years. Less than a decade after the development of the first practical rotorcraft of any type with the autogyro, in the Soviet Union, Boris N.

Yuriev and Alexei M. Cheremukhin, two aeronautical engineers working at the, constructed and flew the TsAGI 1-EA single rotor helicopter, which used an open tubing framework, a four blade main rotor, and twin sets of 1.8-meter (5.9 ft) diameter anti-torque rotors; one set of two at the nose and one set of two at the tail. Powered by two M-2 powerplants, up-rated copies of the rotary radial engine of World War I, the TsAGI 1-EA.

By 14 August 1932, Cheremukhin managed to get the 1-EA up to an unofficial altitude of 605 meters (1,985 feet) with what is likely to be the first successful single-lift rotor helicopter design ever tested and flown. Only five years after the German Dornier Do-X had flown, Tupolev designed the largest aircraft of the 1930s era, the in the Soviet Union by 1934, as the largest aircraft ever built using the Junkers methods of metal aircraft construction. In the 1930s development of the began in Germany and in Britain – both countries would go on to develop jet aircraft by the end of World War II. World War II (1939–1945). World first operational jet fighter The first jet aircraft to fly was the (Germany), flown by in 1939, followed by the world's first operational jet aircraft, the, in July 1942 and world's first jet-powered bomber, the, in June 1943. British developments, like the, followed afterwards, but saw only brief use in World War II.

The first cruise missile , the first ballistic missile , the first (and to date only) operational rocket-powered combat aircraft —with attained velocities of up to 1,130 km/h (700 mph) in test flights—and the first vertical take-off manned point-defense interceptor, the Natter, were also. However, jet and rocket aircraft had only limited impact due to their late introduction, fuel shortages, the lack of experienced pilots and the declining war industry of Germany.

Not only airplanes, but also helicopters saw rapid development in the Second World War, with the introduction of the, the in 1941 in Germany and the in 1942 in the USA. The postwar era (1945–1979). Main article: After World War II, grew rapidly, using mostly ex-military aircraft to transport people and cargo. This growth was accelerated by the glut of heavy and super-heavy bomber airframes like the B-29 and that could be converted into commercial aircraft. The also made for easier and longer commercial flights. The first commercial jet airliner to fly was the British. By 1952, the British state airline had introduced the Comet into scheduled service.

While a technical achievement, the plane suffered a series of highly public failures, as the shape of the windows led to cracks due to metal fatigue. The fatigue was caused by cycles of pressurization and depressurization of the cabin, and eventually led to catastrophic failure of the plane's fuselage. By the time the problems were overcome, other jet airliner designs had already taken to the skies.

USSR's became the first airline in the world to operate sustained regular jet services on September 15, 1956 with the. The and which established new levels of comfort, safety and passenger expectations, ushered in the age of mass commercial air travel, dubbed the. In October 1947 took the rocket-powered through the. Although anecdotal evidence exists that some fighter pilots may have done so while dive bombing ground targets during the warthis was the first controlled, level flight to exceed the speed of sound. Further barriers of distance fell in 1948 and 1952 with the first jet crossing of the Atlantic and the first nonstop flight to Australia. The 1945 invention of briefly increased the strategic importance of military aircraft in the between East and West. Even a moderate fleet of long-range could deliver a deadly blow to the enemy, so great efforts were made to develop countermeasures.

At first, the were produced in considerable numbers. By 1955 most development efforts shifted to guided.

However, the approach diametrically changed when a new type of nuclear-carrying platform appeared that could not be stopped in any feasible way:. The possibility of these was demonstrated in 1957 with the launch of by the. This action started the between the nations.

In 1961, the sky was no longer the limit for manned flight, as orbited once around the planet within 108 minutes, and then used the descent module of to safely the atmosphere and reduce speed from 25 using friction and converting the kinetic energy of the velocity into heat. The United States responded by launching into space on a suborbital flight in a space capsule. With the launch of the in 1963, Canada became the third country to send a satellite into space.

The space race between the United States and the would ultimately lead to the of men on the moon in 1969. In 1967, the set the air speed record for an aircraft at 4,534 mph (7,297 km/h) or 6.1. Aside from vehicles designed to fly in outer space, this record was renewed by in the 21st century. Deng, Yinke; Wang, Pingxing (2005). Ancient Chinese Inventions. China Intercontinental Press. Balloons and airships.

Fairlie, Gerard; Cayley, Elizabeth (1965). The life of a genius. Hodder and Stoughton.

Hallion, Richard P. New York: Oxford University Press. (Spring 1961). 'Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition'. Technology and Culture.

2 (2): 97–111. Wragg, D.W. Flight before flying.

Further reading., NASA Office of Aerospace Technology HQ, United States Air Force. (1944) Wings over America: The Story of American Aviation, Halcyon House, Garden City, New York. (1908), Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 145–159, retrieved 2009-08-07. Post, Augustus (September 1910), XX: 2, retrieved 2009-07-10 Includes photos, diagrams and specifications of many c. 1910 aircraft.

(1908), Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 117–144, retrieved 2009-08-07 Includes photos and specifics of many c. 1908 dirigibles and airplanes. Van Vleck, Jenifer (2013). Empire of the Air: Aviation and the American Ascendancy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. External links Wikivoyage has a travel guide for. Wikimedia Commons has media related to.

History Of Planes In War

Peter Whalley. Knowledge Media Institute. Julian Rubin. Following the Path of Discovery. Articles. Carroll F.

Gray (August 2002). WW1 AERO - The Journal of the Early Aeroplane.

Nature (421). Richard Harris (December 2003). In Flight USA.

Hallion (July 2008). Air & space magazine.

National Park Service. Digital Collections. University of Washington Libraries. In the Pacific Northwest region and Western United States during the first half of the 20th century. University of Houston Digital Library. Michael Maloney (2009). (Documentary on the first powered flight by a Briton in Britain, JTC Moore Brabazon, in 1909).

Countrywide Productions.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were the inventors of the first airplane. On December 17, 1903, the launched the era of human flight when they successfully tested a flying vehicle that took off by its own power, flew naturally at even speeds, and descended without damage. By definition, an airplane is simply any aircraft with a fixed wing and is powered by propellers or jets, which is an important thing to remember when considering the Wright brothers' invention as the father of modern airplanes—while many people are used to this form of as we've seen it today, it's important to keep in mind that airplanes have taken many forms throughout history. Even before the Wright brothers took their first flight in 1903, other inventors had made numerous attempts to make like the birds and fly. Among these earlier efforts were contraptions such as kites, hot air balloons, airships, gliders and other types of aircraft. While some progress was made, everything changed when the Wright brothers decided to tackle the problem of manned flight.

Early Tests and Unmanned Flights In 1899, after had written a letter of request to the Smithsonian Institution for information about flight experiments, he, along with his brother designed their first aircraft. It was a small, biplane glider flown as a kite to test their solution for controlling the craft by wing warping—a method of arching the wingtips slightly to control the aircraft's rolling motion and balance. The Wright Brothers spent a great deal of time observing birds in flight.

Over the next three years, Wilbur and his brother Orville would design a series of gliders that would be flown in both unmanned (as kites) and piloted flights. They read about the works of Cayley and Langley and the hang-gliding flights of Otto Lilienthal. They corresponded with Octave Chanute concerning some of their ideas.

They recognized that control of the flying aircraft would be the most crucial and hardest problem to solve. So following a successful glider test, the Wrights built and tested a full-size glider. They selected Kitty Hawk, North Carolina as their test site because of its wind, sand, hilly terrain and remote location.

In the year 1900, the Wright brothers successfully tested their new 50-pound biplane glider with its 17-foot wingspan and wing-warping mechanism at Kitty Hawk in both unmanned and piloted flights. Continued Testing on Manned Flights In fact, it was the first piloted glider. Based on the results, the Wright Brothers planned to refine the controls and landing gear, and build a bigger glider.

In 1901, at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, the Wright Brothers flew the largest glider ever flown. It had a 22-foot wingspan, a weight of nearly 100 pounds and skids for landing. However, many problems occurred.

The wings did not have enough lifting power, the forward elevator was not effective in controlling the pitch, and the wing-warping mechanism occasionally caused the airplane to spin out of control. In their disappointment, they predicted that man will probably not fly in their lifetime, but in spite of the problems with their last attempts at flight, the Wright brothers reviewed their test results and determined that the calculations they had used were not reliable. They then planned to design a new glider with a 32-foot wingspan and a tail to help stabilize it. The First Manned Flight In 1902, the Wright brothers flew numerous test glides using their new glider. Their studies showed that a movable tail would help balance the craft and so they connected a movable tail to the wing-warping wires to coordinate turns—with successful glides to verify their wind tunnel tests, the inventors planned to build a powered aircraft. After months of studying how propellers work, the Wright Brothers designed a motor and a new aircraft sturdy enough to accommodate the motor's weight and vibrations. The craft weighed 700 pounds and came to be known as the Flyer.

The Wright brothers then built a movable track to help launch the Flyer by giving it enough airspeed to take off and stay afloat. After two attempts to fly this machine, one of which resulted in a minor crash, Orville Wright took the Flyer for a 12-second, sustained flight on December 17, 1903—the first successfully-powered and piloted flight in history.

As part of the Wright Brothers' systematic practice of photographing every prototype and test of their various flying machines, they had persuaded an attendant from a nearby lifesaving station to snap in full flight. After making two longer flights that day, Orville and Wilbur Wright sent a telegram to their father, instructing him to inform the press that manned flight had taken place. This was the birth of the first real airplane. First Armed Flights: Another Wright Invention The U.S.

Government bought its first airplane, a Wright Brothers biplane, on July 30, 1909. The airplane sold for $25,000 plus a bonus of $5,000 because it exceeded 40 miles per hour. In 1912, an airplane designed by the Wright brothers was armed with a machine gun and flown at an airport in College Park, Maryland as the first armed flight in the world. The airport had existed since 1909 when the Wright Brothers took their government-purchased airplane there to teach Army officers to fly.

On July 18, 1914, an Aviation Section of the Signal Corps (part of the Army) was established, and its flying unit contained airplanes made by the Wright Brothers as well as some made by their chief competitor, Glenn Curtiss. That same year, the U.S. Court has decided in favor of the Wright Brothers in a patent suit against Glenn Curtiss. The issue concerned lateral control of aircraft, for which the Wrights maintained they held patents. Although Curtiss's invention, ailerons (French for 'little wing'), was far different from the Wrights' wing-warping mechanism, the Court determined that use of lateral controls by others was 'unauthorized' by patent law. Airplane Advancements After the Wright Brothers In 1911, the Wrights' Vin Fiz was the first airplane to cross the United States. The flight took 84 days, stopping 70 times.

It crash-landed so many times that little of its original building materials were still on the plane when it arrived in California. The Vin Fiz was named after a grape soda made by the Armour Packing Company. After the Wright Brothers, inventors continued to improve airplanes. This led to the invention of jets, which are used by both the military and commercial airlines. A jet is an airplane propelled.

Jets fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes, some as high as 10,000 to 15,000 meters (about 33,000 to 49,000 feet). Two engineers, Frank Whittle of the United Kingdom and Hans von Ohain of Germany, are credited with the development of the jet engine during the late 1930s. Since then, some firms have developed electric aircraft that run on electric motors rather than internal combustion engines. The electricity comes from alternative fuel sources such as fuel cells, solar cells, ultracapacitors, power beaming and batteries. While the technology is in its infancy, some production models are already on the market.

Another area of exploration is with rocket-powered aircraft. These airplanes use engines that run on rocket propellant for propulsion, allowing them to soar at higher speeds and achieve faster acceleration. For example, an early rocket-powered aircraft called the Me 163 Komet was deployed by the Germans during World War II. The Bell X-1 rocket plane was the first plane to break the sound barrier in 1947. Currently, the North American X-15 holds the world record for the highest speed ever recorded by a manned, powered aircraft. More adventurous firms have also begun experimenting with rocket-powered propulsion such as SpaceShipOne, designed by American aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo.