The Evolution of Flight
For centuries, humans have been fascinated with the philosophy of flight, watching the birds soar above us effortlessly, and questioning why we couldn’t fly as high or as fast ourselves. Countless attempts at creating an airborne vehicle for people ultimately failed due to faulty engineering. Innovators initially built avian-inspired contraptions equipped with giant flapping wings, yet discovered that this form could not support human flight. After rejecting this first idea, many inventors created balloons, but these were only successful during favorable winds. Finally, in the beginning of the 19th century, human aviation took a large step forward when Sir George Cayley discovered the four forces of flight: lift, thrust, drag, and weight. Using these four principles, Cayley penned the beginnings of the first viable airplane by using cambered airfoils, and multiple curve-surfaced wings (both of which appear in today’s modern airplanes). Of course there were more scientists and inventors who created airplane-like designs, yet none were quite as successful as Sir George Cayley. Despite Cayley’s incredible engineering accomplishments, true flying—flying, as we know it today—did not begin until the Wright brothers.
Beginning their careers as owners of a family bicycle company, the Wright brothers did not foresee their futures as aviation legends. It was only after a call for young engineers that the Wright brothers moved to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to explore the burgeoning field of aviation. Through their trial-and-error period in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the Wright brothers worked out the key element of flight that all the previous engineers had been lacking: control. Equipped with this epiphany, the Wrights revolutionized flying with the idea of “wing-warping,” a process which morphed the wings of their biplane during flight so that the pilot could control the four forces of flight more easily. On the day of December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers accomplished the first manned flight. Flying for a mere 12 seconds and 120 feet, the flight was enough to launch a revolution that would change the world.
After that fateful December day, the Wright brothers continued with their work transforming the “flying machine.” In 1905, the brothers created their Flyer III aircraft, the first practical airplane, which flew for an astonishing 38 minutes (a distance of 24 miles) and only stopped because the gas tank ran dry. In 1909, the Wright brothers engineered, built, and delivered the world’s first war aircraft to the US War Department. The flights of Orville and Wilbur continued to sustain longer flights with higher altitudes; and in late 1909, Orville soared above 1000 feet for the first time.
Though the Wright brothers both died of sudden illnesses, their legacy inspired other engineers to push the limits of aviation. Bit by bit, innovators tweaked the original design of the Wright brothers’ plane, adding seats, increasing passenger capabilities, and enclosing the entire passenger/pilot portion of the plane. However, the most drastic changes of the plane came with war. When World War I broke out, a new battlefield emerged: the skies. Airplane technology sped up dramatically during the war and was a key determinant of the wartime economy. Suddenly, planes were required to carry more payloads, fly faster, and become stealthier. While these more militaristic changes were occurring, the commercial outlook on planes increased as well. In the 1920’s, the US Postal Service employed airplanes to transport what is now called air mail; by the 1930’s, commercial airlines were carrying passengers across the Atlantic, and shortly thereafter, to locations all across the globe.
The aviation industry continues to be a bustling hubbub for engineers today. The dawn of the jet aircraft not only allowed faster speeds, but was easily manufactured, thus bringing down airfares to enable more of the common hoi polloi to fly. Perhaps the most important jet manufacturer was the Boeing Company, who created the 707. Once modified with extra fuel tanks and turbofan engines, 707s could fly nonstop across the Atlantic. Later, Boeing produced the 727 to take shorter routes, and the 747 “Jumbo Jet” liner. It could carry twice as many passengers and fly just as long of distances as the 707.
From the Sir George Cayley’s principles of flight to the Wright brothers’ first manned flight to modern commercial and military planes, the field of aviation has brought us a new sense of the universe. The newest flight frontier shoots upwards, in to outer space, our new sky. Aviation and aerospace engineers work hard to make our aircraft more powerful, faster, and technological as time goes on, and perhaps with the aid of our own mechanical robots. The Wright brothers set our lofty path, and now we are climbing farther and farther up it, making our way to the tip of the atmosphere…and beyond.
References
Clark, Michael A. “The Evolution of Military Aviation”. National Academy of
Engineering. Spring 2004. http://www.nae.edu/nae/bridgecom.nsf/weblinks/MKEZ-5X8SA6?OpenDocument
Taylor, Michael J.H., "Aviators: A Photographic History of Flight," New York, Harper Collins Publishers, 2005
Wright, Stephen. “First Airplane Flight”. Wright Brothers history. May 9, 2008. http://www.wright-house.com/wright-brothers/wrights/1903.html
“History of the Airplane”. Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company. August 28, 2006. http://www.first-to-fly.com/History/History%20of%20Airplane/history.htm