Lawrence Sperry demonstrates "automatic pilot"

Lawrence Burst Sperry (December 22, 1892 – December 23, 1923), was an aviation pioneer. Lawrence Sperry demonstrates an automatic gyrostabilizer at Lake Keuka, Hammond sport, New York. A gyroscope linked to sensors keeps the craft level and traveling in a straight line without aid from the human pilot. Two years later Sperry and his inventor father, Elmer, add a steering gyroscope to the stabilizer gyro and demonstrate the first "automatic pilot."

First take off from a ship

Eugene Ely pilots a Curtiss biplane on the first flight to take off from a ship. In November he departs from the deck of a cruiser anchored in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and lands onshore. In January 1911 he takes off from shore and lands on a ship anchored off the coast of California. Hooks attached to the plane's landing gear, a primitive version of the system of arresting gear and safety barriers used on modern aircraft carriers. 

Wright Brothers’ world's first practical airplane

Wright Brothers’ established the world's first test flight facilities at Huffman Prairie, northeast of Dayton (today, the site of Wright Patterson Air Force Base). For two years they made flight after flight, fine tuning the controls, engine, propellers, and configuration of their airplane. At first, they could only fly in a straight line for less than a minute. But by the end of 1905, they were flying figure-eight's over Huffman Prairie, staying aloft for over half an hour, or until their fuel ran out. The
1905 Wright Flyer was the world's first practical airplane. 

Concept of a fixed "boundary layer" by Ludwig

German professor Ludwig Prandtl presents one of the most important papers in the history of aerodynamics, an eight-page document describing the concept of a fixed "boundary layer," the molecular layer of air on the surface of an aircraft wing. Over the next 20 years Prandtl and his graduate students pioneer theoretical aerodynamics.

 In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is that layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface. In the Earth's atmosphere, the planetary boundary layer is the air layer near the ground affected by diurnal heat, moisture or momentum transfer to or from the surface. On an aircraft wing the boundary layer is the part of the flow close to the wing. The boundary layer effect occurs at the field region in which all changes occur in the flow pattern. The boundary layer distorts surrounding nonviscous flow. It is a phenomenon of viscous forces. This effect is related to the Reynolds number.

Wright’s complete first sustained flight

Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, complete the first four sustained flights with a powered, controlled airplane at Kill Devil Hills, 4 miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On their best flight of the day, Wilbur covers 852 feet over the ground in 59 seconds.

Wright Brothers’ Fully Controllable Aircraft

[Photo: Wright's first successful flying machine.]

During the winter of 1901-1902 Wilbur and Orville built a wind tunnel and conducted experiments to determine the best wing shape for an airplane. This enabled them to build a glider with sufficient lift, and concentrate on the problem of control. Toward the end of the 1902 flying season, their third glider became the first fully controllable aircraft, with roll, pitch, and yaw controls. 

First Successful Flying Model

Samuel Pierpont Langley builds a gasoline-powered version of his tandem-winged "Aerodromes." the first successful flying model to be propelled by an internal combustion engine. As early as 1896 he launches steam-propelled models with wingspans of up to 15 feet on flights of more than half a mile. 

Wright Brothers’ Gliders Fail To Perform

[Photo: The 1901 glider was
such a disappointment that Wilbur almost gave up.]

Wilbur & Orville made their first test flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on the shores of the Atlantic where the strong winds helped to launch the gliders and the soft sands helped to cushion the fall when they crashed. Their first two gliders, flown in 1900 and 1901, failed to perform as the Wrights had hoped. The gliders did not provide enough lift nor were they fully controllable

Wilbur Devises Twisted Wings of a Biplane

[Photo: Wilbur Wright built
this kite ]

In 1899, Wilbur devised a simple system that twisted or "warped" the wings of a biplane, causing it to roll right or left. They tested this system in a kite, then a series of gliders.

Langley’s Unpiloted Model Flew Half a Mile

[Photo:
Samuel Pierpont Langley - Quarterscale model]

Langley attempted to make the first working piloted heavier-than-air aircraft. His models flew, but his two attempts at piloted flight were not successful.

Langley began experimenting with rubber-band powered models and gliders in 1887. (According to one book, he was not able to reproduce Alphonse Pénaud's time aloft with rubber power but persisted anyway.) He built a rotating arm (functioning similar to a wind tunnel) and made larger flying models powered by miniature steam engines. His first success came on May 6, 1896 when his Number 5 unpiloted model flew half a mile after a catapult launch from a boat on the Potomac River. Though insufficiently controlled (a key requirement in the development of flight), aviation historians consider this to be the world's first sustained flight by a powered heavier-than-air craft. On November 11 that year his Number 6 model flew more than 5-thousand feet. These flights demonstrated that stability and sufficient lift could be achieved in such craft.{fact} In 1898, based on the success of his models, Langley was given a War Department grant of $50,000 and $20,000 from the
Smithsonian Institution to develop a piloted airplane, which he called an "Aerodrome" (coined from Greek words roughly translated as "air runner"). Langley hired Charles M. Manly (1876-1927) as engineer and test pilot. 

Primitive aircraft’s lack of suitable controls

In 1896, the newspapers were filled with accounts of flying machines.

Wilbur and Orville noticed that all these primitive aircraft lacked suitable controls. They began to

wonder how a pilot might balance an aircraft in the air, just as a cyclist

balances his bicycle on the road. 

S-42 FLYING CLIPPER SEAPLANE

This large seaplane had a range nearly three times that of Sikorsky's earlier planes and handled superlatively on its maiden flight. It was the first plane put into regular service by Pan American Airways in August 1934, and carried 42 passengers in unparalleled luxury. Sikorsky's majestic "flying boat" or seaplane was used by Pan American Airways between the world wars on many of its pioneering international routes across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Pan American used this aircraft to make its first Newfoundland to Ireland flight in 1937, and soon after linked America to Asia.

MARTIN LANDING AN AEROBOAT

Aviator Glenn L. Martin landing an aeroboat in Lake Michigan at Chicago, Illinois.

FIRST SEA PLANE

On March 28, 1910, the first successful seaplane take-off from water at Martinque, France, occurred. The seaplane or Hydravion was flown by its inventor, Henri Fabre. A fifty-horsepower rotary engine powered the first flight, a 1650-foot distance over water. The plane Fabre flew was nicknamed "Le Canard", meaning the duck. On Jan. 26, 1911, Glenn Curtiss made the first successful seaplane flight in America. Curtiss fitted floats to a biplane, then took off and landed from water. Curtiss' contributions to seaplane innovation included: flying boats and airplanes, which could take-off and land on a carrier ship. On March 27, 1919, a U.S. Navy seaplane completed the first transatlantic flight.  

FIRST AMERICAN PUBLIC FLIGHT

Postcard, April 14, 1908 photograph shows airplane, "Red Wing" on first American public flight.

AVIATION HISTORY IN 1909

In 1909, Glenn Curtiss and his Golden Flyer won the Gordon Bennett Trophy, plus a $5,000 prize, at the Rheims Air Meet in France. He had the best speed in a two-lap triangular 6.2-mile (10-kilometer) course, averaging 47 miles per hour (75.6 kilometers per hour). A Curtiss plane was used to make the first takeoff and landing on the deck of a ship in 1911. Another Curtiss plane, the NC-4, made the first transatlantic crossing in 1919. Curtiss also built the first U.S. Navy aircraft, called the Triad and trained the first two naval pilots. He received the prestigious Collier Trophy and the Aero Club Gold Medal in 1911. The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world during World War I. When it went public in 1916, it was the world's largest aviation company. During World War I, it produced 10,000 aircraft, more than 100 in a single week. The Curtiss-Wright Corporation was established on July 5, 1929, with the merger of twelve Wright and Curtiss-affiliated companies. The company still exists. Glenn Curtiss made his last flight as a pilot in May 1930 when he flew a Curtiss Condor over the Albany-New York route. He died two months later.

Aviation History

1799-1809

     Between 1799 and 1809 Sir George Cayley who was an English Baronet came up with the concept of the modern airplane. At this time Cayley had abandoned the ornithopter tradition. He designed airplanes with rigid wings to provide lift, and separate propelling devices to provide trust. Cayley laid the foundations of aerodynamics through his published works. He showed both with models and full-size flight control by means of a single rudder-elevator unit mounted on an universal joint. In 1853 Cayley sent his coachmen on the first gliding flight in History on his third full-size machine.

     In 1843 an English inventor by the name of William Samuel Henson published his patented design for an Aerial Steam Carriage. His design was a big step towards establishing the modern airplane. The design was a fixed wing monoplane with propellers, and fuselage, and wheeled landing gear, and flight control by means of rear elevator and rudder. The steam-powered models by Henson in 1847 were promising however unsuccessful.

Glenn Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, founded the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) in 1907, which designed and built several aircraft. One of the aircraft built by the AEA was the first American aircraft to be equipped with ailerons, the White Wing. The invention of the aileron led to a protracted patent fight between Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers. The AEA also built the first seaplane to be flown in the United States. In 1908, Glenn Curtiss won the Scientific American Trophy in the first plane that he built and flew, the June Bug, when it made the first public flight of more than one kilometer (0.6 mile) in the United States.