Aeroplane

A fixed-wing aircraft, typically called an airplane, aeroplane or simply plane, is an aircraft capable of flight using forward motion that generates lift as the wing moves through the air. Fixed-wing aircraft include planes, which are propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine or propeller, as well as unpowered aircraft (such as gliders), which use thermals, or warm-air pockets to inherit lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings and rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast.

Most fixed-wing aircraft are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer controlled.

History

The dream of flight goes back to the days of pre-history. Many stories from antiquity involve flight, such as the Greek legend of Icarus and Daedalus, and the Vimana in ancient Indian epics. Around 400 BC, Archytas, the Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and strategist, was reputed to have designed and built the first artificial, self-propelled flying device, a bird-shaped model propelled by a jet of what was probably steam, said to have actually flown some 200 m. This machine, which its inventor called The Pigeon , may have been suspended on a wire or pivot for its flight.[9][10] One of the first recorded – still dilettante – attempts with gliders were those by the 11th century monk Eilmer of Malmesbury (recorded in the 12th century) and the 9th century poet Abbas Ibn Firnas (recorded in the 17th century); both experiments ended with lasting injuries to their pilots.[11] Leonardo da Vinci researched the wing design of birds and designed a man-powered aircraft in his Codex on the Flight of Birds (1502). In the 18th century, Francois Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes flew in an aircraft lighter than air, a balloon. The biggest challenge became to create other craft, capable of controlled flight.

Le Bris and his glider, Albatros II, photographed by Nadar, 1868.

Sir George Cayley, the founder of the science of aerodynamics[citation needed], credited as the first person to separate the forces of lift and drag which are in effect on any flight vehicle, in 1799 he set forth the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control.[12][13] Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, and he built a successful passenger-carrying glider in 1853.[14] In 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first powered flight, by having his glider "L'Albatros artificiel" pulled by a horse on a beach.[citation needed] On 28 August 1883, the American John J. Montgomery made a controlled flight in a glider.[citation needed] Other aviators who made similar flights at that time were Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher and Octave Chanute.

Sir Hiram Maxim first sketched out plans for a helicopter in 1872, but when he built his first "flying machine" he chose to use wings. Commencing work in 1889, he built a 145 feet (44 m) long craft that weighed 3.5 tons, with a 110 feet (34 m) wingspan that was powered by two compound 360 horsepower (270 kW) steam engines driving two propellers. In trials at Bexley in 1894 his machine rode on 1,800 feet (550 m) of rails and was prevented from rising by outriggers underneath and wooden safety rails overhead, somewhat in the manner of a roller coaster. His apparent goal in building this machine was not to soar freely, but to test if it would lift off the ground. During its test run all of the outriggers were engaged, showing that it had developed enough lift to take off, but in so doing it damaged the track; the "flight" was aborted in time to prevent disaster. The craft was almost certainly aerodynamically unstable and uncontrollable, which Maxim probably realized, because he subsequently abandoned work on it.[15]

In the 1890s, Australian inventor and aviator Lawrence Hargrave conducted research on wing structures and developed a box kite that lifted the weight of a man. His box kite designs were widely adopted and became the prevalent type of aircraft until 1909.[verification needed] Although he also developed a type of rotary aircraft engine, he did not create and fly a powered fixed-wing aircraft.[16]

An article in the Bridgeport Sunday Herald claimed that on 14 August 1901, in Fairfield, Connecticut, Gustave Whitehead reportedly flew his engine-powered Number 21 aeroplane for half a mile at 15 m height. No photographs were taken, but a sketch of the plane in the air was published with the article.[citation needed][17][18]

The Wright brothers made their first successful test flights on 17 December 1903. Their flights are recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the standard setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics, as "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight".[19] By 1905, the Wright Flyer III was capable of fully controllable, stable flight for substantial periods.

On 12 November 1906, Alberto Santos Dumont made what Brazilians say was the first airplane flight unassisted by catapult[20] and set the first world record recognised by the Aéro-Club de France by flying 220 metres (720 ft) in less than 22 seconds.[21] This flight was also certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).[22][23]

As far as can be determined, the first aircraft design that brought together the modern monoplane tractor configuration of aircraft, with movable tail surfaces controlling both yaw and pitch, with a form of roll control supplied either by wing warping or ailerons and controlled by its pilot with a joystick for roll and pitch control, and rudder bar for yaw control, as the "user interface" to operate the flight controls, was Frenchman Louis Bleriot's Bleriot VIII design of 1908, an important predecessor of his later Bleriot XI Channel-crossing aircraft in the summer of 1909.[24]

World War I served as a testbed for the use of the aircraft as a weapon. Initially seen by the generals as a "toy", aircraft demonstrated their potential as mobile observation platforms, then proved themselves to be machines of war capable of causing casualties to the enemy. The earliest known aerial victory with a synchronised machine gun-armed fighter aircraft occurred on July 1, 1915, by German Luftstreitkräfte Leutnant Kurt Wintgens. "Fighter aces" appeared, described as "knights of the air"; the greatest (by number of air victories) was the German Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. On the side of the allies, the ace with the highest number of downed aircraft was René Fonck, of France. All-metal-structure aircraft took their first steps into reality during the World War I era, through the work of Hugo Junkers in the creation of the Junkers J 1 in 1915.[citation needed]

Following the war, aircraft technology continued to develop. Alcock and Brown crossed the Atlantic non-stop for the first time in 1919, a feat first performed solo by Charles Lindbergh in 1927. The first commercial flights took place between the United States and Canada in 1919. The turbine or the jet engine was in development in the 1930s; military jet aircraft began operating in the 1940s.

Aircraft played a primary role in the Second World War, having a presence in all the major battles of the war: Pearl Harbor, the battles of the Pacific, the Battle of Britain. They were an essential component of the military strategies of the period, such as the German Blitzkrieg or the American and Japanese aircraft carrier campaigns of the Pacific.

In October 1947, Chuck Yeager was the first person to exceed the speed of sound, flying the Bell X-1.[citation needed]

Aircraft in a civil military role continued to feed and supply Berlin in 1948, when access to rail roads and roads to the city, completely surrounded by Eastern Germany, were blocked, by order of the Soviet Union.[citation needed]

The Cold War played a large role in the production of new aircraft, such as the B-52.[citation needed]

The first commercial jet, the de Havilland Comet, was introduced in 1952. The Boeing 707, the first widely successful commercial jet, was in commercial service for more than 50 years, from October 26, 1958 to June 22, 2010. The Boeing 727 was another widely used passenger aircraft, and the Boeing 747 was the world's biggest commercial aircraft between 1970 and 2005,[citation needed] when it was surpassed by the Airbus A380.