Early Experiments - First Attempts - Second Attempts - Glider Flight - Powered Flight
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Early Experiments
As early as 400 B.C. Archytas, a Greek scholar, built a wooden pigeon that moved through the air.
It is unknown exactly how this was done, bu most believe that the Greek coected it to a steam powered
arm that made it go in circles. About 300 B.C, the Chinese developed kites, which are a form of gliders,
which much later in history allowed humans to fly in them.
During Greek times a great mathematician, Archimedes discovered the principle of
buoyancy in about 200 BC. He discovered how and why some objects float in liquids
This fact helped in the progress of true flight. When the great
libraries in Alexandria, Egypt were destroyed in 500 A.D. the discoveries of
Archimedes and many others were lost for a thousand years. 2000 years later men
used Archimedes' principle to help them with the hot-air-balloon.
Later in 1290 A.D Roger Bacon thoerized that
air, like water, has something solid around it, and something built correctly could be supported by the air.
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First Attempts
Early attempts to defy gravity involved the invention of
ingenuous machines, such as ornithopters. These were based upon designs written in 1500 by
Leonardo da Vinci. This type of flying machine utilizes the flapping of the wings in order to
achieve flight. Needless, is to say that all attempts to fly using this type
of machine failed. n 1680, Giovanni Borelli stated
that people's muscles are too weak to flap the large surfaces needed to obtain flight.
Later, aditional reasons were found. Since the
remarkable physiological capabilities of birds can never be matched by human
beings. In other words our heart beat rate must have to go up to 800 heart
beats per minute in order to be able to achieve flight.
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2nd Attempts at Flight
The first free flight in a artifical device was done by two Frenchmen, Jean F. Pilatre de Rozier,
and Marquis d'Arlandes. They achieved this with large linen ballon, and floated for more
than five miles over Paris, France.
The idea of filling a closed container with a substance that normally rises
through the atmosphere was as early as the thirteen century. Over a five
hundred year span, different substances came to be known as being
lighter-than-air. Between 1650 and 1900 this approach was used to flight.
The most common gases proposed was water vapor, helium and
hydrogen. The first successful attempts at achieving flight using his type
of crafts were made by the Montgolfier brothers in France. Their most
successful attempt was in 1783 when in a public demonstration, they achieved
6000 ft in a balloon with a diameter of more than 100 ft. As time went by,
it was soon recognized that balloons although able to achieve flight, were
basically handicapped by a total lack of directional control. This problem
was solved with the introduction of power plants or engines in
elongated-like balloons. This elongated shape helped reduce drag in order to
decrease the power size. The most successful builder of this type of
lighter-than-air craft was Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose
name is synonymous with large rigid dirigibles. The term "dirigible" really
means controllable. In the early 1930's the German Graf Zeppelin machine was
able to make a Trans-Atlantic flight to the United States.
They flew 18 mph and had a rigid metal frame that kept it in
flight even if gas or power was lost. The Zeppelin design was copied and
improved by others throughout the world. One such airship was 3 times larger
than a Boeing 747 and cruised at 68 mph. It made regular flights from Europe to
South America in which 24 people had their own suites and dined from menus
prepared by famous chefs.The large
Hindenburg was equally successful until it was destroyed by fire while
attempting a landing in 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The Hindenburg marked
the end of large scale Zeppelin travel. Nowadays, the blimp
has become ubiquitous, appearing over the skies of ballgames and large
ouTDoor events.
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Glider Flight
In 1804, a British inventor, George Cayley, built the first successful glider. His original
craft was a small model. A later full-sized glider carried his coachman, going unwillingly,
across a valley. He founded the study of aerodynamics, and was the first to suggest a fixed
wing aircraft with a propeller.
Otto Lilienthal, a German, developed the first gliders in which the glider could be piloted.
His work (1891-1896) inspired other inventors to take up the work of gliders. They included:
Percy Pilcher of Great Britian, and Octave Chanute of the United States. These early gliders
were hard to control, but could carry the pilot hundreds of feet into the air.
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Powered Flight
In 1843, William S. Henderson, patented plans for the first plane with a engine, fixed wings,
and propellers. After one unsucessful try the inventor gave up. Then in 1848, John Stringfellow
built a small model which worked, but could only stay up a short period of time.
In 1890, a French engineer by the name of Clement Ader attemped flight in his steam powered
plane. His plane failed, he could not control, or keep the plane in the air. A another steam powered
plane, built by Sir Hiram Maxim, lifted off briefly, but did not fly. It was a gigantic steam
powered machinw with two wings, two engines, and two propellers.
In the 1890's a American by the name of Samuel P. Langley, a scientist, attemped piloted flight.
His early experiments involved a small steam powered plane called the aerodrome. In 1896 it flew
half a mile in ninety seconds. Later he created a full-sized aerodrome with a gas engine which
was designed for piloted flight. Two attempts were made, on October 7, 1903, and December
8, 1903, and both failed.
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