The History Of Aviation
Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519
Well known throughout the art world Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist, mathematician and inventor. Although non of his flying machines ever made it past the stage of drawings or models many of his theories where sound and laid the groundwork for future inventors. Sir George Cayley research led to the realization of correctly defining aerodynamic forces and his glider successfully sustain flight in 1853, 334 years after da Vinci passed.
da Vinci was a renaissance man starting early in life with a love of science and nature, contemplating the way things worked around him and drawing ideas to put these things to use to help mankind. His airscrew and his ornithopter, although with human power would never have left mother earth, had shown just how ahead of his time he was. Add to this some of his other ideas, like the tank and the water lift using an Archimedes screw, along with the hundreds of other drawings shows just how brilliant he was.
In 1783 the Montgolfier brothers ( Joseph and Jacques) invented the first hot air balloon. It was made of silk and they used smoke from a fire to fill the silk bladder and make it lighter than the surrounding air, The first passengers where farm animals and after a successful flight manned flights where performed.
Samuel Langley, an astronomer with the dream of flight realized that man did not have the power from his own body to accomplish flight. A flying machine would need to powered by mechanical means. In 1891 he developed a flying model run by steam that flew 3/4 of a mile before running out of fuel, but when scaled up to carry a human it failed, being to heavy to fly.
In 1894 Octave Chunute, an engineer researched the flight attempts up to that point and published the Progress of Flying Machines. He is now refereed to as the Patron Saint of Flight. And his research was used by Orville and Wilbur Wright as a basis for much of there experiments.
In 1901 The Write brothers used a purpose made wind tunnel to test the aerodynamics of their glider. In 1902 they started to search for a power plant to supply the propulsion for a flying machine of their design. Realizing that an engine of sufficient power and low weight was not to be had they went to work developing their own. A light weight 12 horse power power plant was developed and propelled the first flight lasting 12 seconds and traveled 120 feet with Orville at the controls. Taking turns at the helm the brothers manages an 89 second flight for 850 feet that day. Hard to control and unstable the brothers spent the next few years working on solutions to these shortcomings and in 1905 on October 5th Wilbur piloted the Write Flyer III for 39 minutes and covered about 24 miles around Huffman Field until he ran out of fuel.
The Brothers designs led to stable propeller driven aircraft that would carry people, cargo, mail and explorers and push the development of airframes and engines to super sonic speeds by the mid century.
Well known throughout the art world Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist, mathematician and inventor. Although non of his flying machines ever made it past the stage of drawings or models many of his theories where sound and laid the groundwork for future inventors. Sir George Cayley research led to the realization of correctly defining aerodynamic forces and his glider successfully sustain flight in 1853, 334 years after da Vinci passed.
da Vinci was a renaissance man starting early in life with a love of science and nature, contemplating the way things worked around him and drawing ideas to put these things to use to help mankind. His airscrew and his ornithopter, although with human power would never have left mother earth, had shown just how ahead of his time he was. Add to this some of his other ideas, like the tank and the water lift using an Archimedes screw, along with the hundreds of other drawings shows just how brilliant he was.
In 1783 the Montgolfier brothers ( Joseph and Jacques) invented the first hot air balloon. It was made of silk and they used smoke from a fire to fill the silk bladder and make it lighter than the surrounding air, The first passengers where farm animals and after a successful flight manned flights where performed.
Samuel Langley, an astronomer with the dream of flight realized that man did not have the power from his own body to accomplish flight. A flying machine would need to powered by mechanical means. In 1891 he developed a flying model run by steam that flew 3/4 of a mile before running out of fuel, but when scaled up to carry a human it failed, being to heavy to fly.
In 1894 Octave Chunute, an engineer researched the flight attempts up to that point and published the Progress of Flying Machines. He is now refereed to as the Patron Saint of Flight. And his research was used by Orville and Wilbur Wright as a basis for much of there experiments.
In 1901 The Write brothers used a purpose made wind tunnel to test the aerodynamics of their glider. In 1902 they started to search for a power plant to supply the propulsion for a flying machine of their design. Realizing that an engine of sufficient power and low weight was not to be had they went to work developing their own. A light weight 12 horse power power plant was developed and propelled the first flight lasting 12 seconds and traveled 120 feet with Orville at the controls. Taking turns at the helm the brothers manages an 89 second flight for 850 feet that day. Hard to control and unstable the brothers spent the next few years working on solutions to these shortcomings and in 1905 on October 5th Wilbur piloted the Write Flyer III for 39 minutes and covered about 24 miles around Huffman Field until he ran out of fuel.
The Brothers designs led to stable propeller driven aircraft that would carry people, cargo, mail and explorers and push the development of airframes and engines to super sonic speeds by the mid century.
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