Steam Engine is discovered

Drawing directly from Cayley's work, Henson designed an aerial steam engine which broke new ground. Although only a design, it was the first in history for a propeller driven aircraft.

-> 1866 - Aeronautical Society of Great Britain is formed

-> 1868 - World's First Aeronautical Exhibition at Crystal Palace, London

-> John Stringfellow awarded 100 euro prize for steam engine with best power to weight ratio

-> Francis Herbert Wenham presented his findings to the Aeronautical society on Aerial Locomotion. It dealt mainly with the features of various types of wings and concluded that long thin wings are better than bat like ones because of greater leading edge for their area. This is now known as aspect ratio of a wing.

-> 1868 - Matthew Piers Watt Boulton patents aileron control system

-> 1871 - Wenham and Browning made the first wind tunnel

-> Rapid Development of Gliders begin

-> 1896- Langley's Aerodrome No. 5 made the first successful, sustained, unmanned, heavier than air craft of substantial size

THE WRIGHT BROTHERS

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 power design. Their first few attempts were discouraging with poor lift (less than half of what they anticipated). Inspite of their failures, they tested 200 wing design in a wind tunnel they had built specifically for that purpose. Their testing and calculating produced a third glider with a higher aspect ratio and true three-axis control. They flew it successfully hundreds of times in 1902, and it performed far better than the previous models. Through their experiments, they not only built a working aircraft, but also helped advance the science of aeronautical engineering.

I'll start with the modern aircraft from my next post. So read and enjoy.

17th CENTURY - EMERGENCE OF TWO CONCEPTS

During the 17th century, two approaches were used to try and build air crafts: Lighter than air and Heavier than air.

Lighter Than Air

As the name suggests, lighter than air are those air crafts which work on the principle that lighter air (such as hot air) rises providing the lift necessary. Hot Air Balloons and later Airships were designed based on this. The first free manned flight was on 21st November 1783 carrying Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, along with François d'Arlandes. They drifted 8 km (5.0 mi) in a balloon powered by a wood fire. On 1 December, Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert launched their manned hydrogen balloon from the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, amid a crowd of 400,000. They ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) and landed at sunset in Nesles-la-Vallée after a flight of 2 hours and 5 minutes, covering 36 km.

Heavier Than Air

Italian inventor, Tito Livio Burattini, invited by the Polish King Władysław IV to his court in Warsaw, built a model aircraft with four fixed glider 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 "Sketch of a Machine for Flying in the Air" by Emanuel Swedenborg 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. 

During the Early 19th century the scientific study of heavier-than-air flight began in earnest.

Sir George Cayley 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 physics of flight and would later design the first modern heavier-than-air craft. Among his many achievements, his most important contributions to aeronautics include:

1. Clarifying our ideas and laying down the principles of heavier-than-air flight.
2. Reaching a scientific understanding of the principles of bird flight.
3. Conducting scientific aerodynamic experiments demonstrating drag and streamlining, movement of the center of pressure, and the increase in lift from curving the wing surface.
4. Defining the modern aeroplane configuration comprising a fixed wing, fuselage and tail assembly.
5. Demonstrations of manned, gliding flight.
6. Setting out the principles of power-to-weight ratio in sustaining flight.

To find out how his observations came in handy for man's first heavier than air flight, wait for my next post.

WE CONTINUE ON OUR JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

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. 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. In 1282, the European explorer Marco Polo described the Chinese techniques then current and commented on the hazards and cruelty involved. To foretell whether a ship should sail, a man would be strapped to a kite having a rectangular grid framework and the subsequent flight pattern used to divine the outlook.

The next major breakthrough was made by Leonardo da Vinci (yes the painter). He studied bird flight for many years, analyzing it rationally and anticipating many principles of aerodynamics. He understood that "An object offers as much resistance to the air as the air does to the object". Newton would not publish the Third law of motion until 1687. From the last years of the 15th century on he wrote about and sketched many designs for flying machines and mechanisms, including ornithopters, fixed-wing gliders, rotorcraft and parachutes. 

His early designs were man-powered types including ornithopters and rotorcraft, however, he came to realise the impracticality of this and later turned to controlled gliding flight, also sketching some designs powered by a spring. In 1488, he drew a hang glider design in which the inner parts of the wings are fixed, and some control surfaces are provided towards the tips (as in the gliding flight in birds). While his drawings exist and are deemed flight-worthy in principle, he himself never flew in it. Da Vinci's work remained unknown until 1797, and so had no influence on developments over the next three hundred years.

What happened after that??? How did the situation change in the 17th century??? For answers to those questions, wait for my next post!!

HOW IT ALL STARTED A.K.A EARLY ATTEMPT

(Early Man gazing at bird: rough translation of expression of man 😉)

What wonderful creatures these are!! They are not bound to the earth and can roam about so freely. I wonder how they do it!! I wish I could fly like them!! (Sigh)

This was probably how the dream of flying started; by watching birds fly. From the earliest times there have been legends of men mounting flying devices or strapping birdlike wings, stiffened cloaks or other devices to themselves and attempting to fly, typically by jumping off a tower. The Greek legend of Daedalus and Icarus is one of the earliest to come down to us. According to Ovid, Daedalus tied feathers together to mimic the wings of a bird. Other ancient legends include the Indian Vimana flying palace or chariot, Ezekiel's Chariot, various stories about Magic carpets, and mythical British King Bladud, who conjured up flying wings.

The earliest kites were built in China during 5th century. This spread to India, New Zealand, and finally to the West. Then came the time when human kites came into being (in China). To know more about human kites, and what happened after that, wait for my next post. 

JUST AN INTRO

Hi guys,

I am Adithya... I love aeronautics and I would like to share my knowledge with all of you through this blog... I will try to update the site as frequently as possible and will start from the past and slowly come to the latest technological advancements made by humans in this field... I hope this blog will be helpful for those of you who aspire to be Aeronautical Engineers and those of you who have a passion for the subject.

Regards
AdithyaV