Monday, 16 April 2012

Flying Machines

Before the Wright Brothers achieved the first successful controlled flight on December 17, 1903, hundreds of women and men attempted to fly, in airships, gliders and airplanes, and many could have become successful with a few minor adjustments.(1)Let us start off with the Wright brothers.

Wright Brothers - First Flight

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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

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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)
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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
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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  

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