Wright Brothers - First Flight
(3)
The brothers
built a movable track to help launch the Flyer. This downhill track would help
the aircraft gain enough airspeed to fly. After two attempts to fly this
machine, one of which resulted in a minor crash, Orville Wright took the Flyer
for a 12-second, persistent flight on December 17, 1903. This was the first
successful, powered, piloted flight in history. In 1904, the first flight
lasting more than five minutes took place on November 9. The Flyer II was flown
by Wilbur Wright. (2)
Leonardo Vinci
(1)
Leonardo was
born in Vinci, Italy. He was first European interested in a sensible solution
to flight. Leonardo designed a large amount of mechanical devices, including
parachutes, and studied the flight of birds as well as their structure. About
1485 he drew detailed plans for a human-powered wing-flapping device planned to
fly. There is no evidence that he actually attempted to build such a device,
although the image he presented was a powerful one. (1)
(1)
D'Esterno designed a flying machine to reproduce the various motions he
thought were necessary for flight. Not surprisingly, his machine was quite
bird-like; the outer and rear portions of the wings were to be flapped, while
the front inner parts of the wings were fixed. The major horizontal tail
surface was mounted on a general joint and the operator was able to move the
machine's seat to change the center of gravity. While it seems clear that
d'Esterno never attempted to build his machine. (1)
Joseph
Michel Montgolfier
(4)
In 1782 in
France, Joseph Michel Montgolfier filled a silk bag with hot air which, being
less dense than the air around, it lifted the bag to the high ceiling of his
house. On April 25, 1783, Joseph and his brother Jacques Etienne built a
larger, circular bag, filled it with hot air from a fire and sent several farm
animals in the air in a basket hung beneath it. After this success, they
created an even larger envelope, and on November 21, 1783 in the Bois de
Boulogne in Paris the brothers launched a 70-foot high balloon carrying Jean
Francois Piltre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Artandes. (4)
As you can
see many people in many different societies were able to think of an invention
to help others to reach from point A to point B. Even though their plans were
quite unique and largely different from one another, they all had the same goal
in mind. They all wanted to produce a machine for man to fly.
Bibliography
1. PRESS, L. L., Ltd.., &
Including.... (n.d.). The FLYING MACHINES Web Site. The FLYING MACHINES Web
Site. Retrieved April 16, 2012, from http://www.flyingmachines.org/
2. Bellis, M. (n.d.). The Wright
Brothers - First Flight of an Airplane. Inventors. Retrieved April 16,
2012, from http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventors/a/TheWrightBrother.htm
3. Houghton-mifflin, W. O. (n.d.).
Wilbur and Orville Wright. Garden of Praise. [Print Photo]Retrieved from
April 16, 2012, from http://www.gardenofpraise.com/ibdwrigh.htm
4. Yenne, B., & Morton. (n.d.). Hot
Air Balloon History - Invention of the Hot Air Balloon. The Great Idea
Finder - Celebrating the Spirit of Innovation . Retrieved April 16, 2012,
from http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/haballoon.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment