Human beings have dreamed of flying in space like a bird since ancient times. Although the kite invented by the Chinese more than 2,000 years ago cannot carry people into space, it can indeed be called the originator of airplanes.
At the beginning of this century, there was a pair of brothers in the United States who made significant contributions to the history of aircraft development in the world. They were the Wright brothers. At that time, most people believed that it was completely impossible for an airplane to fly under its own power. However, the Wright brothers did not believe this conclusion. From 1900 to 1902, the brothers conducted more than 1,000 gliding test flights.
Finally, In 1903, the first aircraft "Aviator" 1 that relied on its own power for manned flight was built, and the test flight was successful. They received the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor in 1909. In the same year, they founded the "Wright Aircraft Company". This is a great success achieved by mankind in the history of aircraft development.
On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made the first sustained,
powered, controllable flight in the pilot they built.
1910 On December 10, at the Paris Exhibition in France, a plane crashed during a performance. The pilot was ejected from the burning cabin. However, this aircraft attracted a lot of attention. Because it uses a new engine. The designer is the pilot himself, a Romanian named Henri Coanda, who graduated from the French Ecole Polytechnique. The engine he designed used a 50-horsepower engine to make the fan push the air backward, and added an afterburner to fully expand the gas in the tail nozzle to increase reverse thrust. This is the earliest jet engine.
In the late 1930s, the maximum horizontal flight speed of piston-driven propeller aircraft had reached 700 kilometers per hour, and it was close to the speed of sound when diving. The problem of sound impairment is becoming increasingly prominent. The former Soviet Union, Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy and other countries vigorously carried out research on jet engines. A German designer, Oan was the first to achieve success in the development of new engines. In 1934, Oan obtained a patent for the centrifugal turbojet engine. On August 27, 1939, Oan used his engine to make the He-178 jet aircraft.
After the development of the jet engine, scientists further allowed the aircraft to fly beyond the sound barrier. After more than 10 years, this work was finally completed by the Americans.
On October 14, 1947, in the Sangerfield area of ??California, USA, Bell Company tested an aircraft that could break the sound barrier. At 10 a.m., a huge B-29 bomber took off with a strange-looking small plane hanging under the cabin. This small plane was named X-1 Rocket Plane. The X-1 aircraft is equipped with four rocket engines with a total thrust of 2,700 kilograms. The fuel used is dangerous liquid hydrogen and alcohol. When the B-29 bomber dropped it from the sky, its four rocket engines fired one after another, making a sound like thunder. One minute and 28 seconds after the aircraft engine started, the Mach number reached 1.0 and the aircraft reached the speed of sound. At this time, the X-1 aircraft's fuel was almost exhausted and its speed became faster, reaching Mach 1.06. The altitude at this time was 13,000 meters. Although the test flight was successful, the record was not recognized because the X-1 aircraft did not take off under its own power.
The invention of the airplane has caused new dissatisfaction among people while generally benefiting from it. Planes need to roll for takeoff, and corresponding runways and airports need to be built. This caused a lot of inconvenience, so some people began to explore aircraft that could take off and land vertically, commonly known as helicopters.
The world's first practical helicopter was born on September 14, 1939. It was the VS-300 helicopter successfully developed by American engineer Sikorsky. Sikorsky was originally from Russia and immigrated to the United States in 1930. The VS-300 helicopter he built had one main rotor and three tail rotors. After many test flights, he changed the three tail rotors into one. This practical helicopter The helicopter thus became the ancestor of the modern helicopter.
The world's first operational helicopter
After the birth of the VS-300 helicopter, it had a huge impact. Especially since the 1950s, helicopter manufacturing technology has developed rapidly. Before the mid-1950s, helicopter power units were in the piston engine era, and then entered the jet turbine shaft era.
Rotor material structure technology has also gone through several stages; from the 1940s to the 1950s, it was a metal-wood wing hybrid structure, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, it was a metal structure, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, it was a fiberglass structure, and from the mid-1970s onwards Developed into new composite structures.
Planes began to carry passengers in the 1920s. At the beginning of the Second World War, the United States began to convert a large number of transport aircraft into passenger aircraft. Since the 1960s, some large transport aircraft and supersonic transport aircraft have appeared in the world, and the use of turbofan engines has gradually been promoted. Famous ones include An-22 and IL-76 produced by the former Soviet Union; C-141, C-5A, and Boeing-747 produced by the United States; Airbus of France, etc. Supersonic transport aircraft include the "Concorde" jointly developed by Britain and France and the former Soviet Union's Tu-144. However, the development of supersonic passenger aircraft is not optimistic. The price of the "Concorde" aircraft was too high, which affected efficiency, so production was stopped in the 1980s. The Tu-144 of the former Soviet Union also stopped flying in the 1980s for the same reason.
The first civil aircraft
Since the invention of the airplane, the airplane has increasingly become an indispensable means of transportation for modern civilization. It profoundly changes and affects people's lives. Thanks to the invention of the airplane, the time for humans to travel around the world has been greatly shortened. The world's first round-the-world journey was completed in the 16th century. At that time, the Portuguese Magellan led a fleet from Spain. It took him three years to cross the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, circle the earth once, and return to Spain. At the end of the 19th century, a Frenchman traveled around the world by train for 43 days. After the invention of the airplane, people took another round-the-world trip in 1949. A B-50 bomber circled the earth and flew 37,700 kilometers in just 94 hours after four beautiful aerial refuelings. The strongest among the strongest. After the advent of supersonic aircraft, people can fly higher and faster. In 1979, the British man Pusbet flew 36,900 kilometers around the earth in only 14 hours and 6 minutes. You can fly to every corner of the earth in less than a day. Isn’t this a miracle on earth for humans who lived before the 20th century?
A330-200 Airbus
A330-200 Airbus
p>Intricate air routes connect countries around the world, providing people with convenient and fast passenger transportation. As early as the 1920s, air transport opened scheduled flights to transport passengers and mail. Nowadays, air routes are extending in all directions, and people can see silver airplanes, like a big bird, passing by in the blue sky at any time. It is very common for modern people to be in Beijing in the morning and appear in another city thousands of miles away without any fatigue in the afternoon. Before the 20th century, it was unthinkable. From then on, the steep mountains and the endless ocean will no longer be daunting. Silver swallows closely connect people of different races and skin colors in different regions. Through constant exchanges, people sow friendship, convey information, achieve mutual communication, mutual understanding and mutual promotion, and jointly advance human civilization.
The invention of the airplane also led to unprecedented development of the air transportation industry. Many raw materials needed for industrial development have new sources and channels, which greatly reduces people's dependence on local natural resources. Especially after the birth of supersonic aircraft, air transportation has become more prosperous. Livestock that are not suitable for long-term transportation and delicious food that is difficult to preserve for a long time can also be transported across the world by plane, giving people all over the world unlimited rewards and enjoyment. Lingnan lychees, which were not easy for even imperial concubines to taste in the past, are now appearing in the homes of ordinary people.
As humans march deeper into the earth, aircraft are also widely used in geological exploration. Aircraft equipped with cameras or an electronic device called a Shoreland system can quickly and accurately map vast areas, including rugged and hard-to-reach places. By stitching together aerial photos one by one, you can create an excellent topographic map. This is much simpler and easier than the old surveying method. Even the ice-covered and inaccessible Arctic and Antarctic, which were once only accessible to explorers, can now be reached without difficulty by plane.
U.S. F/A attack aircraft
Of course, the role of aircraft in modern warfare is even more amazing. Not only can it be used for reconnaissance and bombing, but it is also excellent in early warning, anti-submarine, and mine clearance.
In the Gulf War that broke out in the early 1990s, the tremendous power of aircraft was witnessed. Of course, the military application of aircraft has also brought heavy disasters to mankind and caused devastating damage to human civilization. But the peaceful use of airplanes is the original intention of mankind to invent airplanes.