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.
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