Aircraft Design and History
The notion that man could fly or someday would be able to achieve flight has long since been an idea of man for literally centuries. As early as 400 BC, a Greek scholar by the name of Archytas built a wooden pigeon that moved through the air. Approximately 100 years later the Chinese developed kites, which are a form of gliders, which much later in history, allowed humans to fly in them (1). Mans first attempts at flight later progressed with designs by Leonardo daVinci. DaVinci's design was based on a flapping type wing, Givanni Borelli stated that a human's muscles were far to weak to flap the large surfaces needed to obtain flight and that the physical make up of humans would not be that which could be used in flight with such inventions. Glider flights later came to be through the inventions of a British inventor by the name of George Cayley. Cayley founded the study of Aerodynamics and was the first to suggest a fixed wing aircraft with a propeller. Cayley's invention led Otto Lilienthal to gliders that could be piloted by men up to heights of 100 feet or more, consequently Lilienthal was killed by his own invention during a flight. He broke his spine, and he died a day later in a Berlin hospital. There is some feeling that
In December 1954 NACA High-Speed Flight Station added a larger vertical fin to the F-100A which gave 10 percent more surface area. William Henderson patented plans for the first plane with a engine, fixed wings and a propeller, coincidentally after one try he gave up. The first powered flight of the X-1-1 was made on April 11, 1946, at Muroc Army Air Field with Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin, a Bell test pilot, at the controls. This research project is designed to develop the technology for a prototype emergency crew return vehicle, or lifeboat, for the International Space Station. Voyager's takeoff weight was more than 10 times the structural weight, but its drag was lower than almost any other powered aircraft. 14, and traveled at an average speed of 115. North American already had an idea for a fix: enlarge the area of the aircraft's vertical fin and add more area to the airplane's wing tips. Voyager's wingtips sustained minor damage during its takeoff roll because of the massive amount of fuel it was carrying.
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