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 Humans have dreamed of taking flight for thousands of years
 Flight is the act of passing through the air on wings
 People told tales about flight around the fire at night and handed down these stories to their children
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

 A Moor named Armen Firman made the first known human attempt to fly
 He put on a huge cloak and jumped from a tower in Cordoba, Spain
 He hoped the cloak would open wide like a bat’s wings to slow him on the way down
 But it didn’t, and Firman fell to his death
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

 His unfortunate experiment might be described as an early attempt at a jump by parachute
 A parachute is a device intended to slow free fall from an aircraft or another high point
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

 The Chinese invented the kite around
1000 BC
 A kite is a light framework covered with paper or cloth, provided with a balancing tail, designed to be flown in the air
 Within a few hundred years, people were using kites in warfare
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

 In the eight hundreds, the Chinese made another important invention: gunpowder
 Gunpowder is an explosive powder made of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur, used to shoot projectiles from guns
 200 years later, the Chinese used gunpowder to make the first simple rockets
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

 There’s even a
Chinese legend about a rocket trip into space
 A legend is an unverified story handed down from earlier times
Wan Hoo

 The first person in the history of aviation who was also a real scientist was Leonardo da Vinci (1452 –1519)
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

 Da Vinci produced the first known designs for a parachute and a helicopter
 A helicopter is an aircraft that gets its lift from spinning blades
 Da Vinci’s drawing of an “aerial screw” looks a lot like a modern helicopter
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

 The Englishman
Sir Isaac Newton
(1643-1727) formulated three famous laws of motion
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
Taken from wikipedia.com

 The third law states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”
 For example, when a pilot angles the wing of the plane up against the oncoming wind, the action of the wind causes a reaction by the wing
 This reaction provides some additional lift, known as Newtonian or dynamic lift
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

The Early Days of Flight
Pages 14-25
 Team presentation evaluated against Rubric, possible 100 pts
 PowerPoint, Presi, or butcher paper graphics
 Presentation is to provide:
 Proper timeframe
 How individual got the idea for their invention or who they promoted it to
 What they built (provide illustration, graphic, or picture)
 Why significant to aviation (how contributes)
 Any battles or wars that were significant

 Montgolfier Brothers
 Alberto Santos Dumont
 Count von Zepplin
 Thaddeus Lowe
 Lt Col George Derby
 Sir George Cayley
 John Montgomery
 Otto Lilienthal
 John Stringfellow
 Samuel Langley

 A balloon operates on the principle of buoyancy
 If the air or gas inside a balloon is lighter than the air around it, it will float
 Hot air takes care of the first challenge of flight —getting up into the air
Chapter 1, Lesson 2
Courtesy of Clipart.com.

 The third problem of flight —control of the craft —was still a problem
 That is, until inventors came up with the dirigible
 A dirigible is a steerable airship
Chapter 1, Lesson 2

 The new dirigible airships had two things that helped pilots steer them
 First, they had rudders
 A rudder is a movable flap or blade attached to the rear of a craft
 Second, the new airships had power sources that drove propellers
Chapter 1, Lesson 2

 In July 1900 Count von Zeppelin, a German inventor, built and flew the first successful rigid dirigible , the LZ-1
 This led to the world’s first commercial airships
 The Zeppelins were luxurious:
 Roomy, wood-paneled cabins
 Carried 20 or more passengers
 They flew at speeds exceeding 40 miles an hour
Chapter 1, Lesson 2

 Cayley identified three important aviation forces:
 Lift
 Drag , which is the pull, or slowing effect, of air on an aircraft
 Thrust , which is the forward force driving an aircraft
 In 1850 Cayley built the first successful fullsize manned glider
Chapter 1, Lesson 2

 Otto Lilienthal of Germany is often called the “Father of Modern Aviation ”
 Between 1891 and 1896 he made more than 2,000 glides
 He also developed a powered biplane
 A biplane is an aircraft with two main supporting surfaces, usually placed one above the other
Chapter 1, Lesson 2

 On 7 October 1903 his aircraft, the
Aerodrome was ready for a test flight
 The plane’s engine worked well, but the aircraft caught on the launching car on takeoff and fell into the river
 Two months later, Langley tried —and failed —again
 Government officials withdrew their support, so Langley gave up his project
Chapter 1, Lesson 2

 Historians fault Langley for spending too much time on how to power his aircraft, and not enough on how to control it
 Even so, for his contributions to aviation,
Langley Air Force Base in southeastern
Virginia is named after him
Chapter 1, Lesson 2
Courtesy of Senior Master Sgt. Keith Reed/the U.S. Air Force

 The Wrights chose a glider as their starting point
 They could focus first on balancing and controlling the aircraft
 Power (an engine) could come later
 They applied what they learned at each step to make the next one go more smoothly
Chapter 2, Lesson 1

 They discovered that they didn’t need to tilt an entire wing to turn the craft:
 Needed to twist only the ends of the wings
 They called this process “wing warping ”
 In the summer of 1899, Wilbur Wright successfully tested the kite in a field
Chapter 2, Lesson 1

 Between 1900 and 1902, the brothers built three gliders
 Before putting a man aboard, they flew each glider like a kite
 They wanted to test it for control and lift
 Only after doing this would they put a man aboard
Chapter 2, Lesson 1

 In their experiments in 1900, the
Wrights placed an elevator at the front of the glider
 Earlier designers mounted elevators behind the wings
 But the Wrights found it easier to control climb and descent when the elevator was placed forward
Chapter 2, Lesson 1

 The first glider didn’t have nearly enough lift
 So for their 1901 glider, the brothers increased the wing area to 290 square feet
 This glider was also a big disappointment
 The brothers couldn’t control it well when they tested it at Kill Devil Hills
 It flew less than 300 feet —time to return to
Dayton!
Chapter 2, Lesson 1

 The brothers built a wind tunnel in their bicycle shop to test model-size wings
 Made them of sheet steel
 Cut more than 200 model wings of different shapes
Chapter 2, Lesson 1
Courtesy of Wright State University

 The third glider had:
 Forward elevator
 Elliptical shape
 Longer, skinnier wings
 Wing area of 305 feet
 Low angle of attack
 This design was a success
 The brothers took to the air in the North
Carolina dunes more than 700 times in the fall of 1902
Chapter 2, Lesson 1
Courtesy of NASA

 An engine and propellers gave Wilbur and Orville the ability to use not only lift but also thrust to propel their plane
 Vertically mounted propellers could provide the airflow for thrust
 They needed 90 pounds of thrust to propel the Wright Flyer
 Their 12-horsepower engine and the large propellers proved equal to the task
Chapter 2, Lesson 1

 The British and French governments were interested in buying the Flyer
 But the brothers wanted the US government to have the first crack at owning a Wright Flyer
 On 22 May 1906 they received a government patent for their invention
Chapter 2, Lesson 1

 On 23 December 1907, Gen James
Allen sent out a request for bids to build a plane for the government
 The Wright Flyer met the bid requirements
 Orville Wright signed a contract on 10
February 1908 selling the Flyer to the
US government
Chapter 2, Lesson 1

 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

 French pilot Louis Blériot was the first man to cross the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft
 Although Blériot encountered problems —he got lost and his engine overheated —he managed to land safely
 The flight took 37 minutes
Chapter 2, Lesson 2

 Bessie Coleman faced two obstacles to becoming a pilot —her race and her gender; she overcame both
 In 1921 Coleman became the first black woman to get a pilot’s license
 She had to go to France for training because no flight school in the United States would accept her
 She died in an airplane crash only four years after getting her license
Chapter 2, Lesson 2

 Because of alliances among different nations in Europe, one country after another soon declared war
The Allies The Central Powers
Russia
France
Serbia
Britain
Germany
Austria Hungary
Turkey
 Soon the Allies were at war against the
Central Powers http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/archduke-franz-ferdinand-assassinated

 US President Woodrow Wilson vowed that the United States would remain neutral
 But over time, that proved impossible
 German U-boats targeted all American ships headed toward Britain
 Germany also made a secret deal with
Mexico
 The United States declared war on
Germany and entered World War I in April
1917
Chapter 2, Lesson 3

 Some American pilots didn’t wait for the United
States to join the war
 The French Foreign Legion could sign up these volunteers
 In April 1916 seven American pilots formed a small fighting group called Escadrille Américaine
 They had to change the name to the Lafayette
Escadrille
 By the time the United States Air Service brought the unit under its supervision in 1918, its pilots had made 199 kills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcsdyyVsX-4

 America’s ace of aces started out as a professional racecar driver
 Col William (“Billy”) Mitchell helped
Rickenbacker become a pilot
 Rickenbacker rose from an enlisted
Soldier to the rank of captain and took command of the 94th Squadron https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Attk7tAgt8

 Bullard was the only African-
American to serve as a pilot during World War I
 Bullard signed up with the
French Foreign Legion in
October 1914
 He tried to join the US Air
Service, but the Army turned him down
 He shot down two German aircraft while in the French
Air Service
Chapter 2, Lesson 3

 By 1917, the war in Europe was at a stalemate
 A stalemate is a situation in which further action is blocked
 A force was needed to tip the balance one way or the other
 The Allies hoped that force would be the
United States, which joined the effort in April
Chapter 2, Lesson 3

 Until WWI, most people thought the role of aircraft in combat was limited to aerial reconnaissance
 Dropping bombs from the sky seemed an unlikely idea
 Conducting battles between squadrons of planes also seemed far-fetched
Chapter 2, Lesson 3

 Another WWI innovation was the airplanemounted machine gun
 French pilot Roland Garros was the first to bolt an automatic rifle to his plane
 The Germans asked Dutchman Anthony
Fokker to improve it —he built an interrupting gear
 But soon the Allies and the Central Powers were again on equal footing
 The famous dogfights commenced —a dogfight is a battle between fighter planes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5ubG3HRi8

 September 1918: Air power played a tremendous role in this offensive
 Billy Mitchell commanded nearly 1,500
Allied airplanes
 The Allied pilots had two goals:
 To destroy German planes in the air
 To destroy German aircraft in hangars on the ground
 The Battle of Saint Mihiel helped lead to
Allied victory two months later
Chapter 2, Lesson 3

 During WWI both sides sent up airplanes to shoot down observation aircraft
 Each side had to protect its observation aircraft
 Aerial combat was born
 Once machine guns were mounted on planes, pilots could use them to strafe soldiers on the ground
 To strafe is to attack with a machine gun from a low-flying aircraft
Chapter 2, Lesson 3

 The fighter came into its own with the birth of the dogfight
 These fighter aircraft needed three qualities: they had to be lightweight, fast, and maneuverable
 By early 1918 fighters zipped along at a cool 130 mph
Chapter 2, Lesson 3

 Army staff officers still had their eyes focused on the infantry
 They had no plans for their aviation section
 But Brig Gen Billy Mitchell believed strongly in the future of aviation as an instrument in warfare
 Today’s US Air Force still considers Mitchell one of its founding fathers
Chapter 2, Lesson 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvAG080spwk https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIfuss_IbBY
Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

 A barnstormer is a pilot who travels around the country giving exhibits of stunt flying and parachuting
 The term barnstorming comes from the time pilots would fly over a small rural town to attract attention, then land at a local farm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI6STwhPCuI

 In the 1920s the term became attached to stunt flying
 Historians give stunt pilots like Bessie
Coleman credit for sustaining the aviation industry during its early years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckEiKzCBqc

 On 14 November 1918, three days after the war ended, the US government canceled
$100 million worth of airplane contracts
 Within three months, 175,000 workers in the aircraft industry lost their jobs
 Aircraft production dropped by 85 percent
 The Army dumped its surplus warplanes onto the market
Chapter 3, Lesson 1

 Many of the barnstormers were former
Army pilots
 Since military aviation had been cut back, a large number lost their jobs
 They leaped at the opportunity to keep flying
 These pilots enjoyed showing off the skills they had mastered in combat
Chapter 3, Lesson 1

 Historians call the years between 1919 and 1939 the “golden age of aviation”
 Pilots set one record after another
 They flew faster and attained greater altitude —the height above Earth’s surface
 They served as test pilots
Chapter 3, Lesson 1

 Trained as a flier, Rear Adm Richard
E. Byrd advanced both aviation and polar exploration
Richard E. Byrd

 The barnstormers’ demonstrations didn’t do away with people’s fears about flying
 After all, spectators sometimes saw dreadful accidents
 But the barnstormers’ air shows certainly created an interest in flight, even in rural areas and small towns
 They publicized the airplane and brought romance to flying
Chapter 3, Lesson 1

Chapter 1, Lesson 1