Developing Aircraft
Overview
 Key individuals involved in early
aircraft development
 The names and anatomy of period
aircraft
 The significance of other American
pioneers in aviation following the
Wright brothers
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Quick Write
Both the Wright Brothers and Glenn
Curtiss were heavily involved with
bicycles before taking up flight.
What similarities do you see between
bicycles, early motorcycles, and early
airplanes?
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Key Individuals Involved in
Early Aircraft Development
In the first decade of
the 1900s the Wright
brothers were making
aviation history
But other people were
also becoming aviation
pioneers
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute(Dumont)
Taken from wikipedia.com (Bierot and Rogers)
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Calbraith Perry Rodgers
Louis Blériot
Alberto Santos-Dumont
Glenn Curtiss
 Thomas Baldwin was looking for a
lightweight engine for his dirigible
 He saw how well Curtiss’s bike
engine performed and asked if he
could buy one
 Curtiss agreed and tweaked one of
his engines for use in an aircraft
 Baldwin’s aircraft, with a Curtiss
engine, was the first powered
dirigible in America
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Courtesy of Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
The Aerial Experiment
Association
 Curtiss joined the Aerial Experiment
Association
 Alexander Graham Bell—best known as
inventor of the telephone—formed this group
 The group made some important design
breakthroughs
 First, they built the first American plane
equipped with ailerons
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
The Aerial Experiment
Association
Glen H. Curtiss (left), director of experriments; John A.D. McCurdy, treasurer; Alexander Graham Bell, chairman;
Frederick W. Baldwin, chief engineer; and Thomas Selfridge, secretary of the Aerial Experiment Associatioin
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Ailerons
 An aileron is a small flap on the wing for
controlling turns
 Ailerons replaced the Wright brothers’ wingwarping technique
 The aileron was a more effective means to
move an aircraft left or right
 It also provided lateral balance
 The association introduced ailerons to
America but the idea originated in England
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
First Seaplane
 Members of the
group also built and
flew the country’s first
seaplane
 Curtiss would later
win the first
government contract
with the US Navy for
seaplanes
Video
Blériot XI
 Blériot built and flew the first powered monoplane
Video
Rotary Engines
 The earliest engines were relatively
heavy and inefficient
 One reason was that these early
engines used water as a coolant
 Rotary engines reduced the motor
weight
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Rotary Engines
 Rotary engines used circulating air, rather
than water, as a coolant
 The Seguins placed the engine’s cylinders
in a radial, or round, pattern
 They fitted each cylinder with a fin to draw
out the heat as the plane flew
Video
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Helicopters
Helicopters are different in
two important ways:
 rotating vs. fixed wing

Rotors versus propellers
 take off and land
vertically
 also known as rotary-wing
aircraft
 Today’s Drones use the
Basic design of Rotors
Courtesy of Branger/Getty Images
American Aviation Pioneers
 Aviation Goal to fly across the United States in 30
days?
 Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst was
offering a $50,000 prize
 A soft drink manufacturer Vin Fiz provided financial
support in exchange for nationwide publicity
 Needing countless repairs & many stops along the
way, took 49 days
Quick Write
Early inventors were heavily involved
with bicycles before taking up flight.
Write brief explanation of the similarities
you see between bicycles, motorcycles &
early airplanes?
Next….
Done—developing
aircraft
Next—air power in
World War I
Chapter 2, Lesson 2
Courtesy of the EAA/Jim Koepnick