1、History of aviation#1 The discovery of the kite that could fly in the air by the Chinese started humans thinking about flying. Kites were used by the Chinese in religious ceremonies. They built many colorful kites for fun. More sophisticated kites were used to test weather conditions. Kites have bee
2、n important to the invention of flight as they were the forerunner to balloons and gliders.#2 For centuries man has dreamed to soar with the birds. Famous inventors such as Leonardo da Vinci, John Stringfellow, and Lawrence Hargrave have conjured up ideas of how to get some of the strangest machines
3、 to fly long before the Wright brothers9 famous first flight at Kitty Hawk.#3 The first form of an aircraft was the kite, designed in the 5th century BC. Later on in the 13th century. Roger Bacon, an English monk, performed studies which later gave him the idea that air could support a craft just li
4、ke water supports boats. In the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci studied birds flight, and later produced the airscrew and the parachute. The airscrew, leading to the propeller later on, and the parachute were tremendously important contributions to aviation. He envisioned three different types of he
5、avier-than-air craft:# the helicopter, glider, and omithopter ( a machine with mechanical wings which flap to mimic a bird). Although Leonardo#s designs were impractical, seeing they required human muscular power which was insufficient to generate flight with the aircraft he envisioned, he was vital
6、 to aviation because he was the first to make scientific suggestions.#4 Some of the more credible developments in actual flight and stability occurred in the 19th century. British Sir George Cayley designed a combined helicopter and horizontally propelled aircraft, and British Francis Herbert Wenham
7、 used wind tunnels in his studies and predicted the application of multiple wings placed above each other. Another famous inventor was John Stringfellow, who designed a steam engine powered aircraft which was launched from a wire. This model demonstrated lift but failed to actually climb. Lawrence H
8、argrave, a British-born Australian inventor, created a rigid-wing aircraft with flapping blades operated by a compressed-air motor, it flew 312 fit (95m) in 1891. A famous glider developer in the 19th century was Jean Marie Le Bris, a Frenchman who tested a glider with movable wings.#5 Some of the m
9、ost important full-scale model flight attempts were made by Samuel Langley, who created the first heavier-than-air, gasoline-powered engine which actually flew. The #aerodrome#, which he called it, was powered by a 53 horsepower 5-cylinder radial engine and later crashed into the Potomac river on De
10、cember 1903-days before the Wright#s historic flight.#6 Throughout the last century, major developments would give inventors a sound basis in experimental aerodynamics, although stability and control required for sustained flight had not been acquired. Mast importantly, inventors noticed that succes
11、sful powered flight required light gasoline engines instead of the cumbersome steam engines previously used.#7 From 1903 to today, its remarkable how far aviation has come. On December 17, 1903, at 10:#35 am, the Wright Brothers# made the first heavier-than-air, machine powered flight which lasted 1
12、2 seconds and spanned 120 feet.#8 Their first flight was 102 feet short of the wingspan of the C-5 Galaxy today, yet they did what every man and woman has dreamed for centuries. they flew. Yet, not all flights were victorious, on September 17, their aircraft crashed, injuring Orville and his passeng
13、er (Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge). Selfridge later died of a concussion and was the first person to be killed in a powered airplane. Yet the show went on and Wilbur went to France in August 1908, and on December 31, 1908, he completed a 2 hour 20 minute flight which demonstrated full control over
14、his Flyer. The Flyer was purchased on August 2 and became the first successful military airplane. It remained in service for around two years and was retired to the Smithsonian Institution where it rests today.#9 Before World War I, airplane design greatly improved. Pusher biplanes (two-winged airpl
15、anes with the engine and propeller behind the wing) were succeeded by tractor biplanes ( two-winged airplanes with the engine and propeller in front of the wing). Monoplane designs were rare, and when World War I began, huge biplane bombers with two to four engines were developed. Airmail was also s
16、tarted, although it only lasted a week. The first airmail officially approved by the US Post Office Department began on September 23, 1911, and the pilot would carry the mail on his legs and tossed the bag overboard when he reached his destination. Also in 1911, the first transcontinental flight across the US was completed by Calbraith P. Rodgers. His flight from New York to California took 3 days, 10 hours, and 14 minutes, and was by a Wright aircraft.#10 During Wo
copyright@ 2008-2022 冰豆网网站版权所有
经营许可证编号:鄂ICP备2022015515号-1