History of Aircraft: They Highs and Lows

The development of the airplane and other heavier-than-air craft has had the most far-reaching effects of any 20th-century invention.  Although many scientific disciplines are involved in the rapid advances in aviation technology, none is as important as the aircraft itself.

The first powered, controllable aircraft, Orville and Wilbur Wright’s flying machine, demonstrated in its structure the same basic principles of flight as do today’s high-flying jets. The success of any one of the thousands of different craft made since the Wright brothers’ first flying machine depended on the quality of research, design, engineering, and manufacturing use to produce it.

 By the time World War II began, the aviation industry had accumulated enough experience in aerodynamics, materials, and structures to ensure uniformity in aircraft development. The wing is the most important lift-producing element of an aircraft.  Wing designs vary, depending on the aircraft type and purpose.

An aircraft flies when the lift, or upward force generated by the wing, increases to a value larger than the aircraft’s total weight.  The most critical element in a wing’s ability to produce lift is its cross-sectional shape. The tail, or empennage, provides stability and control for the aircraft and is mounted on the aft portion of the fuselage.  It consists of two main parts:  the vertical stabilizer, or fin, to which the rudder is attached;  and the horizontal stabilizer, to which the elevator is connected. The many aircraft propulsion systems include those which drive a propeller, primarily reciprocating and turbine (turboprop) engines;  and propeller less systems that use the energy of rapidly expanding gases as a propulsive force. Engine-propeller combinations on single-engine aircraft are usually located in the nose, or forward-most, section of the fuselage and pull the aircraft through the air.

Engine-propeller combinations on single-engine aircraft are usually located in the nose, or forward-most, section of the fuselage and pull the aircraft through the air.  When two or more engine-propeller combinations are used, they are mounted on the wing, but forward of the leading edge.  “Pusher”-type aircraft have the engine mounted in the rear section of the fuselage. 

Fixed gear consists of a simple design of struts, wheels, and brakes that is not retractable into the wings or fuselage.

The relatively simple controls on a light, general aviation airplane govern the speed of the craft and its direction, both on the ground and in the air.  The control wheel at which the pilot sits may be pushed forward or pulled back to move the tail elevators; pushing forward causes the plane to nose down.

Short takeoff and landing aircraft have gained popularity in recent years as air transportation has changed its emphasis from speed to efficiency.

Vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, which include helicopters, are still being developed for commercial and military use.  For many years the military has utilized helicopters with great success on a variety of missions: medical evacuation, supply, troop transport, reconnaissance, attack. 

Industrial helicopters transport materials and personnel to and from areas where no landing strip is available to accommodate a fixed-wing aircraft.

Supersonic transports, or SSTs, aircraft that can fly faster than the speed of sound, have been used by the military for many years.  Commercial supersonic flight has been limited to the Concorde, built by the British and French in 1976, which has proved to be a commercial failure in large part because of the vast amounts of fuel it consumes.

Small aircraft made from ultra light, super strong materials are increasing the range of present-day aeronautical technology. The current interest in ultra light planes began with the surge in popularity of the hang glider; a hang glider equipped with a small golf-cart engine and a propeller (1976) was the first member of this new generation of aircraft.  The enthusiasm for ultra lights came originally from a few engineers who manufactured make-it-yourself kits for homebuilders, and from the kit buyers who found that they could make their own planes for a cost as low as a few thousand dollars