Air Plane Photos 2013: Airplane History

Airplane History

Source(www.google.com.pk)

The history of aviation has extended over more than two thousand years from the earliest attempts in kites and gliders to powered heavier-than-air, supersonic, and hypersonic flight.
The first form of man-made flying objects were kites.[1] The earliest known record of kite flying is from around 200 BC in China, when a general flew a kite over enemy territory to calculate the length of tunnel required to enter the region.[2] Yuan Huangtou, a Chinese prince, survived by tying himself to the kite.[3]
Leonardo da Vinci's 15th-century dream of flight found expression in several designs, but he did not attempt to demonstrate his ideas by actually constructing them.
With the efforts to analyze the atmosphere from the 17th to 19th centuries, gases such as hydrogen were discovered which in turn led to the invention of hydrogen balloons.[1] Various theories in mechanics by physicists during the same period of time, notably fluid dynamics and Newton's laws of motion, led to the foundation of modern aerodynamics. Tethered balloons filled with hot air were used in the first half of the 19th century and saw considerable action in several mid-century wars, most notably the American Civil War, where balloons provided observation during the Battle of Petersburg.
Experiments with gliders provided the groundwork for heavier-than-air craft, and by the early 20th-century advances in engine technology and aerodynamics made controlled, powered flight possible for the first time.
Flight automaton in Greece
Around 400 BC, Archytas, the Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and strategist, designed and built a bird-shaped, apparently steam powered[4] model named "The Pigeon" (Greek: Περιστέρα "Peristera"), which is said to have flown some 200 meters.[5][6] According to Aulus Gellius, the mechanical bird was suspended on a string or pivot and was powered by a "concealed aura or spirit".[7][8]
Hot air balloons, glider and kites in China
In 1488 Leonardo da Vinci's drawing depict a hang glider design in which the inner parts of the wings are fixed, and some control surfaces are provided towards the tips (as in the gliding flight in birds). While his drawings exist and are deemed flightworthy in principle, he himself never flew in it. Based on his drawings, and using materials that would have been available to him, a prototype constructed in the late 20th century was shown to fly.[19] However, his sketchy design was interpreted with modern knowledge of aerodynamic principles, and whether his actual ideas would have flown is not known. A model he built for a test flight in 1496 did not fly, and some other designs, such as the four-person screw-type helicopter, have severe flaws.
Italian inventor, Tito Livio Burattini, invited by the Polish King Władysław IV to his court in Warsaw, built a model aircraft with four fixed glider wings in 1647.[20] Described as "four pairs of wings attached to an elaborate 'dragon'", it was said to have successfully lifted a cat in 1648 but not Burattini himself.[21] He promised that "only the most minor injuries" would result from landing the craft.[22] His "Dragon Volant" is considered "the most elaborate and sophisticated aeroplane to be built before the 19th Century".[23]
In 1670 Francesco Lana de Terzi published work that suggested lighter than air flight would be possible by having copper foil spheres that contained a vacuum that would be lighter than the displaced air, lift an airship (rather literal from his drawing). While not being completely off the mark, he did fail to realize that the pressure of the surrounding air would crush the spheres.
In 1709 Bartolomeu de Gusmão presented a petition to King John V of Portugal, begging for support for his invention of an airship, in which he expressed the greatest confidence. The public test of the machine, which was set for June 24, 1709, did not take place. According to contemporary reports, however, Gusmão appears to have made several less ambitious experiments with this machine, descending from eminences. It is certain that Gusmão was working on this principle at the public exhibition he gave before the Court on August 8, 1709, in the hall of the Casa da Índia in Lisbon, when he propelled a ball to the roof by combustion.[clarification needed]