I.E.S. Gil de Junterón
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar”.
Helen Adams Keller
Is it imposible to fly?
Marc Chagall
The history of aviation is a story of man’s desire to fly through the sky like a bird. His dream was always ‘to imitate this’.
Almost all old cultures contain myths about flying creatures, but undoubtedly, the Greek legend of Daedalus and Icarus is the most well known.
<<… “...finding, father and son, prisoners on the island of Minos, they constructed wings of feathers and wax to escape. Icarus, drunk on the excitement of flying, flew too close to the sun and the wax on the wings began to melt, causing him to fall in the sea and die...” >>
The first person to write in a serious and scientific manner about the possibility of flying.
He suggested methods of making the air thinner,
500 years before it would be implemented.
He designed gliders that used the same mechanisms as birds to fly, through a constant movement of the wings upwards and downwards, creating the ability to fly supported by the air flow.
The first successful flight of a hot air balloon was encouraged by the priest
who achieved to raise an aerostat in 1709. It was called ‘passarola’ and it reached 3 meters above the ground.
However, in 1833 the
French
was the one who invented the first hot balloon with hydrogen which was consolidated for the next two hundred years after its invention.
by
The dirigible was invented
Henri Giffard in 1852.
It was an aerostat steered and propelled to be used as an aircraft. It was the first flying machine that could be controlled for a long flight.
The first one in France could fly 24 kilometers using a small steam engine.
The construction of the first dirigible
Zeppelin started in
Germany in 1899.
After the invention of the hot air balloon and the dirigible, inventors moved to create a machine heavier than the air that could fly in the air by its own means.
Gliders are able to support controlled flight for a time.
In 1799, George Cayley designed a glider with a tail and a space where the pilot could be placed behind the center of gravity of the machine giving stability to the aircraft.
In 1890, Climent Ader built a plane he called equipped with a steam-powered engine. It took off but he could not control it and the plane only flew 50 meters.
Etole ,
In the same decade, the Wright brothers became the first designer team that did serious attempt in order to solve aerodynamics, control and power problems that affected all the planes that were made on those times.
They made a biplane and called it
Flyer.
In 1910 they make their first commercial flight in the world and it lasted one hour and two minutes.
Henri Fabre flew for the first time in a hydroplane (a plane that is able to take off and ditch on water) that he named Le Canard.
1914–1918: WORLD WAR I
During World War I planes were used on in offensive, defensive and reconnaissance missions. They discovered how useful planes were to spy the enemy. It was a safe way to locate the enemy army and bases.
1914–1918: WORLD WAR I
When using planes to spy the enemy a problem aroused: planes usually came across other planes so they equipped planes with weapons on board.
1918–1939: BETWEEN THE WARS,
AVIATION GOLDEN AGE
During this period there were great advancements in aircraft technology.
The first airlines companies started to operate. Aeroplanes evolved from wood to aluminium and from lowpowered to highpowered engines.
1939–1945: WORLD WAR II
Thus, World War II was characterised by a growth in the production of aeroplanes, and a great development in the technology related to aviation.
Also, during the conflict the first long-distance bombers were developed, as well as the first practical jet aeroplanes and the first jet-engined fighters.
Besides, the use of flying boats became more widespread, especially for exploration, rescue and attack works.
In the decade of the 1920s, Juan de la Cierva y Codorniú, born in Murcia, started to develop a rotary wing (rotor blade) aircraft which can be considered as a hybrid between an aeroplane and a helicopter, which came to be called autogyro, gyroplane, gyrocopter or rotaplane.
After his death, the research concerning the autogyro was virtually paralysed, and all the efforts were focused on the development of the helicopter.
Turbo-propeller planes
Once World War II was over, aircraft-building companies began to create models specially designed for passenger transport.
Boeing 377 Stratocruiser:
It was the first aeroplane in history with a doubledecker sitting arrangement.
It could take between 75 and 100 passengers from
New York to Paris non-stop, at a cruise speed of over
500km/h.
The age of jet aeroplanes
De Havilland Comet was the first jet –engine business aircraft.
Boeing 707, the first successful jet engine passenger aircraft.
Wide- body airliners
These are business aircrafts with three rows of seats separated by two corridors.
Boeing 747, known as Jumbo jet, able to transport over 500 passengers.
It was the largest business and passenger aircraft until the appearance of Airbus A380, already in the 21st century.
Tupolev
Tu-144 was the first business and passenger soviet plane in the world.
Supersonic airliners
Supersonic airliners
Concorde came from the collaboration between France and the United Kingdom both in the development and the making of the aircraft. Only 20 of them were built.
Up to the present time, these have been the only two business supersonic airliners developed.
FROM THE EARTH TO SPACE
Sputnik (1957)
Soviet satellite was the first one which orbited the
Earth and in 1961, a Soviet cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin was the first human to journey into outer space.
FROM THE EARTH TO SPACE
Some months later, Alan Shepard was chosen for the first American manned mission into space and some years later, he was also chosen for the first Apollo mission on the Moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong , became the first to step onto the lunar surface.
Alan Shepard
Neil Armstrong
NOWADAYS
The original Boeing 777 first entered in service in 1994.
Furthermore, it is the first entirely computer-designed commercial aircraft. At present, it is the largest twinjet in the world.
WHAT WILL THE FUTURE BRING?
We still continue our investigations with new ‘cleaner’ energy sources such as ethanol, electricity or even solar energy with the aim of achieving improvements, higher security standards and efficiency in planes building process.
In fact, NASA launched
Helios , an aircraft which was a proof-of-concept solar electricpowered flying wing, designed to operate at high altitudes for long duration flight. Helios reached an official world record altitude for a non-rocket powered aircraft.
NASA sees great potential for the use of high-altitude, longendurance solar aircrafts as lower cost satellites.
“Learning to fly is not an impossible task.
Just starting for thinking, the limit is in your mind”
Carolina Dilo
http://www.xatakaciencia.com/tecnologia/videola-historia-de-la-aviacion-en-3-minutos-y-pico