How the Airplane Was Invented
A German engineer Otto Lilienthal said, "To invent an airplane is nothing.
To build one is something.
But to fly is everything."
Indeed, the forefathers of aviation did not believe the skies would be mankind's limit.
HOW THE AIRPLANE DESIGN STARTED
By definition, an airplane is a fixed-wing, "heavier-than-air" vehicle powered for flight.
Unlike blimps, hot-air balloons and other "lighter-than-air" aircraft that depend on
buoyant gases, heavier-than-air aircraft achieve their lift through their propelling engines
and the interaction of other aerodynamic forces.
History is rife with speculations and claims over the true inventor of the airplane.
But it cannot be denied that there are notable people who participated in its evolution and
progress.
In the beginning, Leonardo Da Vinci, an Italian inventor whose interest in birds' flight and
flying machines prompted his writing about the "Flight of Birds" Codex in the 16th century.
His subsequent development of these flying machines included the human-powered flapping
ornithopter and the helical rotor which inspired the invention of the modern helicopter.
Where Da Vinci's flying machines left most wonderstruck, others investigated, like one
English engineer Sir George Cayley, known as the "Great Aeronautic Investigator."
It was Sir Cayley who provided the blueprints for the modern airplane in the 19th-century.
Through his successful flight of the first manned hang-glider in 1804, Sir Cayley discovered
the concept of four aerodynamic forces, which are used until today, namely: thrust, drag,
lift and weight.
German engineer Otto Lilienthal improved upon Sir Cayley's hang-glider.
Lilienthal started flying in 1891.
His record of 2,000 experimental flights enhanced the possibility of manned flight and earned
him the nickname "the Flying Man" until 1896 when Lilienthal lost control of his glider
during one of his flights and plunged to his death.
American civil engineer Octave Chanute spent a near-decade collecting data from flight
experimenters, including Lilienthal's glider design and his flight experiments.
The data proved invaluable for Chanute's hang-glider experiments during the 1890s as he figured
the best way of achieving lift is the "double-decker strut-wire" braced wing structure; a structure
that would eventually be of great use to the Wright Brothers.
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS
The Wright Brothers invented what was the first successful, controlled and sustained
flight of a powered heavier-than-air aircraft that heavily impacted the history of aviation.
Before their aviation venture, the Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville started a printing
business out of a print press Wilbur himself designed in 1889.
In 1892, the Wright Brothers opened a bicycle repair and sales shop, the Wright Cycle Company,
where they advanced their self-taught pursuits in mechanics, and soon manufactured their
own brand of safety bicycles in 1896.
The brothers were influenced by the rampant news of flight experiments in the media to
the extent that Wilbur in 1899 wrote a letter requesting aeronautic information and flight
experimental data from the Smithsonian Institute.
The brothers got to work later that year.
From the knowledge of their biplane kite experiments and Sir Cayley's published work on aerodynamic
forces, the Wright Brothers discovered a fault in Lilienthal's gliding design.
His steering method of shifting one's center-of-mass did not guarantee absolute control through
gusts of wind.
Later on, Wilbur Wright figured out a fix to this fault.
Like Leonardo Da Vinci, Wilbur Wright observed bird flights and how their wingtips twisted
as their bodies "banked" or "rolled" left or right.
However, the matter of reproducing this phenomenon in a flying machine stumped the Wright Brothers
for a while.
Until Wilbur Wright discovered "wing-warping" when he found himself twisting the geometry
of a long inner-tube box.
In 1901, the Wright Brothers tested their biplane kite for "wing warping".
By warping or twisting the end of its wings, they discovered that one side of the wings
produced more lift than the other.
The difference in lift force made the biplane kite bank in the intended direction.
Success on the small-scale took the Wright Brothers to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in
1900, where its wind speeds and soft sand dunes provided ideal flight conditions for
their Wright Gliders.
The "double-decking" wing structure of their experimental glider was based on Octave Chanute's
hang-gliding flight experiments in 1896.
Chanute himself became a mentor of some sorts towards the Brothers.
The glider's "wing-warping" worked as intended.
But the discovery of two major faults threatened the Wright Brothers' success.
First, the glider was not gaining sufficient or consistent lift.
Second, even if the glider did achieve lift, gusts of wind would push the glider into an
unstable "left-or-right' spin.
The Wright Brothers traced the fault to their "wing-warping."
However, by adding a moving rudder to their glider's tail, the Wright Brothers understood
that whenever the end of the glider's wings "warped", they could at the same time operate
the rudder too, which balanced the glider's "bank": a principle that most modern airplanes
would follow.
The Wright Brothers also discovered an error in Lilienthal's wing design calculations.
Several recalculations revealed the required lift was not possible with their current wing
design.
After testing different kinds of wing designs, the Wright Brothers settled for a camber airfoil
shape, such that the double-decker wings of their glider were curved.
As the glider moved forward through the air, the curved surface of its camber shaped wings
pushed air downward for lift.
But the Wright Brothers' obsession with controlling the lift force resulted in the addition of
a forward elevator, which dictated the glider's "nose-up, nose-down" motions.
In the process of addressing their glider's flaws, the Wright Brothers developed a three-axis
steering system: pitch, roll, and yaw.
Finally, in 1902, the Wright Brothers achieved true control.
Their glider gained sufficient lift with a workable three-axis control.
Their longest glider flight reached 622 feet for 26 seconds.
The Wright Brothers acquired a patent for their Wright Glider in March 1903.
Seven months later, they made history, developing a motorized version of their glider: The Wright
Flyer I.
It reached 120 feet for 12 seconds on its first flight.
After three trials that day, their final flight reached 852 feet for almost a full minute.
In 1908, the Wright Brothers developed the Wright Model A. Unlike its predecessors the
Wright Flyer II and III, the Model A became the first to last an hour in flight.
EVOLUTION
Wilbur Wright's public demonstrations in Europe impressed French aviator pioneer Louis Blériot.
Within the same year, Blériot managed to create a working monoplane the Blériot VIII.
He also became the first to have a plane controlled through a hand-operated joystick and foot-operated
rudder control.
Later in 1909, the Blériot XI would cross the English Channel.
In 1919, British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown with their First World War-1
modified aircraft became the first to transverse the Atlantic Ocean in a non-stop flight from
Newfoundland to Ireland in less than 72 hours.
Their flight proved the possibility for airplane use in commercial flights.
The World War I laid the foundation for airplanes as war machines for scouting or attacking
enemy targets from above.
Although aerial warfare was limited in World War I, its tactics reigned supreme in World
War II and became a trump card to victory for most participating countries.
During this intense period, German aircraft manufacturing company Heinkel tested their
first jet plane the Heinkel He 178.
The Germans released the fighter-bomber jet version the Messerschmitt Me 262 in 1943.
Not wanting to be outdone, United States soon followed the "jet trend".
In 1947, the Bell Aircraft manufactured the Bell X-1, the first airplane whose speed exceeded
the speed of sound.
By 1952, the de Havilland Comet became the world's first commercial jet airliner.
The Boeing 707 became the most successful of all commercial jet airliners since 1958
and operated for 50 years.
Its 1969 successor the Boeing 747 carried the record for largest passenger capacity
until Airbus A340 surpassed it in 2005.
Today everyone flies.
Thank God for those heroes who were willing to make sacrifices to conquer the Sky.
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