1.
Flight
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Flight is the process by which an object moves, through an atmosphere or beyond it, as in the case of spaceflight. This can be achieved by generating lift, propulsive thrust, aerostatically using buoyancy. Many things fly, from natural aviators such as birds, bats and insects to human inventions such as missiles, aircraft such as airplanes, helicopters and balloons, to rockets such as spacecraft. Humans have managed to construct lighter than air vehicles that raise off the ground and fly, an aerostat is a system that remains aloft primarily through the use of buoyancy to give an aircraft the same overall density as air. Aerostats include free balloons, airships, and moored balloons, an aerostats main structural component is its envelope, a lightweight skin that encloses a volume of lifting gas to provide buoyancy, to which other components are attached. Aerostats are so named because they use aerostatic lift, a buoyant force that does not require movement through the surrounding air mass to effect a lifting force. By contrast, aerodynes primarily use aerodynamic lift, which requires the movement of at least some part of the aircraft through the surrounding air mass. Some things that fly do not generate propulsive thrust through the air, for example, some other things can exploit rising air to climb such as raptors and man-made sailplane gliders. However most other birds and all powered aircraft need a source of propulsion to climb, the only groups of living things that use powered flight are birds, insects, and bats, while many groups have evolved gliding. The extinct Pterosaurs, an order of reptiles contemporaneous with the dinosaurs, were very successful flying animals. Each of these groups wings evolved independently, bats are the only mammals capable of sustaining level flight. Flying frogs use greatly enlarged webbed feet for a similar purpose, flying snakes also use mobile ribs to flatten their body into an aerodynamic shape, with a back and forth motion much the same as they use on the ground. Flying fish can glide using enlarged wing-like fins, and have been observed soaring for hundreds of meters and it is thought that this ability was chosen by natural selection because it was an effective means of escape from underwater predators. The longest recorded flight of a fish was 45 seconds. Most birds fly, with some exceptions, the largest birds, the ostrich and the emu, are earthbound, as were the now-extinct dodos and the Phorusrhacids, which were the dominant predators of South America in the Cenozoic era. The non-flying penguins have wings adapted for use under water and use the same wing movements for swimming that most other birds use for flight, most small flightless birds are native to small islands, and lead a lifestyle where flight would offer little advantage. Among living animals that fly, the wandering albatross has the greatest wingspan, up to 3.5 meters, most species of insects can fly as adults. Insect flight makes use of either of two basic models, creating a leading edge vortex, found in most insects, and using clap and fling
2.
Airplane
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An airplane or aeroplane is a powered, fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine or propeller. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations, the broad spectrum of uses for airplanes includes recreation, transportation of goods and people, military, and research. Commercial aviation is a massive industry involving the flying of tens of thousands of daily on airliners. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, the Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903, recognized as the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight. They built on the works of George Cayley dating from 1799, between 1867 and 1896, the German pioneer of human aviation Otto Lilienthal also studied heavier-than-air flight. Following its limited use in World War I, aircraft continued to develop. Airplanes had a presence in all the battles of World War II. The first jet aircraft was the German Heinkel He 178 in 1939, the first jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet, was introduced in 1952. The Boeing 707, the first widely successful commercial jet, was in service for more than 50 years. Aéroplane originally referred just to the wing, as it is a plane moving through the air, in an example of synecdoche, the word for the wing came to refer to the entire aircraft. In the United States and Canada, the airplane is used for powered fixed-wing aircraft. In the United Kingdom and most of the Commonwealth, the aeroplane is usually applied to these aircraft. Many stories from antiquity involve flight, such as the Greek legend of Icarus and Daedalus, and this machine may have been suspended for its flight. Some of the earliest recorded attempts with gliders were those by the 9th-century poet Abbas ibn Firnas, leonardo da Vinci researched the wing design of birds and designed a man-powered aircraft in his Codex on the Flight of Birds. In 1799, George Cayley set forth the concept of the airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion. Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, in 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first powered flight, by having his glider LAlbatros artificiel pulled by a horse on a beach. Then Alexander F. Mozhaisky also made some innovative designs, in 1883, the American John J. Montgomery made a controlled flight in a glider. Other aviators who made similar flights at that time were Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher, sir Hiram Maxim built a craft that weighed 3.5 tons, with a 110-foot wingspan that was powered by two 360-horsepower steam engines driving two propellers
3.
Glider (sailplane)
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A sailplane or glider is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Sailplanes are aerodynamically streamlined and are capable of soaring in rising air, sailplanes benefit from producing the least drag for any given amount of lift, and this is best achieved with long, thin wings, a fully faired narrow cockpit and a slender fuselage. Aircraft with these features are able to climb efficiently in rising air produced by thermals or hills, sailplanes can glide long distances at high speed with a minimum loss of height in between. Gliders have rigid wings and either skids or undercarriage, in contrast hang gliders and paragliders use the pilots feet for the start of the launch and for the landing. These latter types are described in articles, though their differences from sailplanes are covered below. Gliders are usually launched by winch or aerotow, though other methods, auto tow, all sailplanes soar, but some gliders do not soar and are simply engineless aircraft towed by another aircraft to a desired destination and then cast off for landing. Military gliders are only, and are abandoned after landing, having served their purpose. Motor gliders are gliders with engines which can be used for extending a flight and even, in some cases, Some high-performance motor gliders may have an engine-driven retractable propeller which can be used to sustain flight. Other motor gliders have enough thrust to launch themselves before the engine is retracted and are known as self-launching gliders, another type is the self-launching touring motor glider, where the pilot can switch the engine on and off in flight without retracting their propellers. Sir George Cayleys gliders achieved brief wing-borne hops from around 1849, in the 1890s Otto Lilienthal built gliders using weight shift for control. In the early 1900s the Wright Brothers built gliders using movable surfaces for control, in 1903 they successfully added an engine. After World War I gliders were built for sporting purposes in Germany, the sporting use of gliders rapidly evolved in the 1930s and is now their main application. As their performance improved, gliders began to be used for cross-country flying, in 1930, pilot Frank Hawks flew the Texaco Eaglet with tow plane from San Diego to New York over eight days, helping to popularize the activity in the United States. Early gliders had no cockpit and the pilot sat on a seat located just ahead of the wing. These were known as gliders and they were usually launched from the tops of hills. To enable gliders to soar more effectively than primary gliders, the designs minimized drag, gliders now have very smooth, narrow fuselages and very long, narrow wings with a high aspect ratio and winglets. The early gliders were mainly of wood with metal fastenings, stays. Later fuselages made of fabric-covered steel tube were married to wood and fabric wings for lightness, New materials such as carbon-fiber, fiber glass and Kevlar have since been used with computer-aided design to increase performance
4.
Recreation
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Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The need to do something for recreation is an element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be fun. The term recreation appears to have used in English first in the late 14th century, first in the sense of refreshment or curing of a sick person. Other factors that account for a role of recreation are affluence, population trends. This direction of thought has even extended to the view that leisure is the purpose of work, and a reward in itself. Leisure is considered a right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Recreation is difficult to separate from the concept of play. Children may playfully imitate activities that reflect the realities of adult life, a traditional view holds that work is supported by recreation, recreation being useful to recharge the battery so that work performance is improved. Many activities may be work for one person and recreation for another, or, at a level, over time recreational activity may become work. Thus, for a musician, playing an instrument may be at one time a profession, similarly, it may be difficult to separate education from recreation as in the case of recreational mathematics. Recreation is an part of human life and finds many different forms which are shaped naturally by individual interests. Recreational activities can be communal or solitary, active or passive, outdoors or indoors, healthy or harmful, a significant section of recreational activities are designated as hobbies which are activities done for pleasure on a regular basis. Some recreational activities - such as gambling, recreational use, or delinquent activities - may violate societal norms. Public space such as parks and beaches are venues for many recreational activities. Tourism has recognized that many visitors are attracted by recreational offerings. In support of recreational activities government has taken an important role in their creation, maintenance, and organization, many recreational activities are organized, typically by public institutions, voluntary group-work agencies, private groups supported by membership fees, and commercial enterprises. Examples of each of these are the National Park Service, the YMCA, the Kiwanis, Recreation has many health benefits, and, accordingly, Therapeutic Recreation has been developed to take advantage of this effect
5.
Sport
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Usually the contest or game is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other. Some sports allow a tie game, others provide tie-breaking methods, to one winner. A number of such two-sided contests may be arranged in a tournament producing a champion, many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs. Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of participants, either in teams or competing as individuals. In certain sports such as racing, many contestants may compete, each against each other, however, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first. It can also be determined by judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. Sport is also a source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sport drawing large crowds to sport venues. Sports betting is in some cases severely regulated, and in some cases is central to the sport, kearney, a consultancy, the global sporting industry is worth up to $620 billion as of 2013. The worlds most accessible and practised sport is running, while football is the most popular spectator sport. The word Sport comes from the Old French desport meaning leisure, other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling, hunting, and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise. Rogets defines the noun sport as an activity engaged in for relaxation, the singular term sport is used in most English dialects to describe the overall concept, with sports used to describe multiple activities. American English uses sports for both terms, the precise definition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources. They also recognise that sport can be physical, primarily mind, predominantly motorised, primarily co-ordination. The inclusion of sports within sport definitions has not been universally accepted. Whilst SportAccord recognises a number of mind sports, it is not open to admitting any further mind sports. According to Council of Europe, European Sports Charter, article 2, other bodies advocate widening the definition of sport to include all physical activity. For instance, the Council of Europe include all forms of physical exercise, in competitive events, participants are graded or classified based on their result and often divided into groups of comparable performance
6.
Helicopter
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A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and these attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of VTOL aircraft cannot perform. English language nicknames for helicopter include chopper, copter, helo, heli, Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 being the first operational helicopter in 1936. Some helicopters reached limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built. Though most earlier designs used more than one rotor, it is the single main rotor with anti-torque tail rotor configuration that has become the most common helicopter configuration. Tandem rotor helicopters are also in use due to their greater payload capacity. Coaxial helicopters, tiltrotor aircraft, and compound helicopters are all flying today, quadcopter helicopters pioneered as early as 1907 in France, and other types of multicopter have been developed for specialized applications such as unmanned drones. The earliest references for vertical flight came from China, since around 400 BC, Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys. This bamboo-copter is spun by rolling a stick attached to a rotor, the spinning creates lift, and the toy flies when released. The 4th-century AD Daoist book Baopuzi by Ge Hong reportedly describes some of the ideas inherent to rotary wing aircraft, designs similar to the Chinese helicopter toy appeared in Renaissance paintings and other works. In the 18th and early 19th centuries Western scientists developed flying machines based on the Chinese toy. It was not until the early 1480s, when Leonardo da Vinci created a design for a machine that could be described as an aerial screw, that any recorded advancement was made towards vertical flight. His notes suggested that he built flying models, but there were no indications for any provision to stop the rotor from making the craft rotate. As scientific knowledge increased and became accepted, people continued to pursue the idea of vertical flight. In July 1754, Russian Mikhail Lomonosov had developed a small coaxial modeled after the Chinese top but powered by a spring device. It was powered by a spring, and was suggested as a method to lift meteorological instruments. Sir George Cayley, influenced by a fascination with the Chinese flying top, developed a model of feathers, similar to that of Launoy and Bienvenu. By the end of the century, he had progressed to using sheets of tin for rotor blades and his writings on his experiments and models would become influential on future aviation pioneers
7.
MBB Bo 105
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The Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105 is a light, twin-engine, multi-purpose helicopter developed by Bölkow of Ottobrunn, Germany. It holds the distinction of being the first light helicopter in the world. The Bo 105 features a revolutionary hingeless rotor system, at time a pioneering innovation in helicopters when it was introduced into service in 1970. Production of the Bo 105 began at the then-recently merged Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, MBB became a part of Eurocopter in 1991, who continued production of the type until 2001. The Bo 105 was formally replaced in Eurocopters product range by the newer Eurocopter EC135, in 1964, development work began at Bölkow upon the helicopter that would become the Bo 105, although work on the hingeless rotor it would use had begun earlier. On 16 February 1967, the second Bo 105A prototype conducted its maiden flight at Ottobrunn in Germany, sud Aviation worked with Bölkow on developing the rotorcraft, an Alouette II helicopter was modified with the Bo 105s rotor and used to test its performance envelope. The third Bo 105 prototype was equipped with the production standard MAN Turbo 6022 turboshaft engines. On 13 October 1970, the German Civil Aviation Authority certified the Bo 105, initial deliveries for the first customers, ADAC Air Rescue and the Bavarian State Police, took place shortly thereafter. In 1972, a version of the rotorcraft with more powerful engines, the Bo 105C, was developed. However, nothing came of the Bo 106 project. In 1976, the Bo 105CB, equipped with more powerful Allison 250-C20B engines, was introduced, US aerospace firm Boeing-Vertol served as a partner in the types production and further development, and marketed the BO105 in the US market. Improvements and modifications to the Bo 105 LS continued until 1995, production of the Bo 105 by Eurocopter formally ended in 2001, principally due to the type having been superseded by the more modern Eurocopter EC135, itself a direct development from the Bo 105. By the end of production, a total of 1,406 rotorcraft had been manufactured and delivered to operators in 55 nations worldwide, during the 1970s, the Bo 105 was known for having a great useful load capacity and higher cruise speed than the majority of its competitors. While not being considered a visually attractive helicopter by some pilots, the Bo 105 was known for possessing steady, responsive controls and a good flight attitude. Most models could perform steep dives, rolls, loops, turnovers, perhaps the most significant feature of the Bo 105 is its rotor blades and rotor head. The reliability of the rotor system is such that, in over six million operating hours across the fleet. When outfitted with optional fuel tanks, a basic model Bo 105 had a flight endurance of roughly five hours under load. In the event of an engine failure, the Bo 105 could typically continue its flight, albeit with a reduction in cruise speed
8.
Westland Lynx
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The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to the development of both battlefield and naval variants, the Lynx has the distinction of being the worlds first fully aerobatic helicopter with the ability to perform loops and rolls. In 1986, a specially modified Lynx set the current Fédération Aéronautique Internationales official airspeed record for helicopters at 400.87 km/h, in addition to a wide number of land and naval variants of the Lynx, several major derivatives have been produced. The Westland 30 was produced as a utility helicopter, it did not become a commercial success. The Lynx remains in production by AgustaWestland, the successor to Westland Helicopters, the initial design was started in the mid-1960s as a replacement for the Westland Scout and Wasp, and a more advanced alternative to the UH-1 Iroquois. The design was to be powered by a pair of Bristol Siddeley BS.360 turboshaft engines, in October 1969, the French Army cancelled its requirement for the Lynx, thus development work of the dedicated armed attack variant was terminated early on. The first Lynx prototype took its flight on 21 March 1971. In 1972, a Lynx broke the speed record over 15 and 25 km by flying at 321.74 km/h. It also set a new 100 km closed circuit record shortly afterwards, in 1986, the former company demonstrator Lynx, registered G-LYNX, was specially modified with Gem 60 engines and British Experimental Rotor Programme rotor blades. At this speed, it had a ratio of 2. Deliveries of production began in 1977. An improved Lynx AH.1 with Gem 41-1 or Gem 42 engines, the AH.5 led to the Lynx AH.7, which added a new tail rotor derived from the Westland 30, a reinforced airframe, improved avionics and defensive aids. An improved Lynx for the Royal Navy, the Lynx HAS.3, had Gem 42-1 Mark 204 engines, a transmission, a new flotation system. The Lynx HAS.3 also received various updates in service. A similar upgrade to the French Lynx was known as the Lynx Mk.4, in September 1974, the British and Egyptian governments initiated talks to establish a new Egyptian helicopter manufacturer. A separate agreement was formalised with Rolls-Royce to license manufacture the Lynxs Gem engines at the Helwan facility, however, this plan was ultimately aborted due to a lack of funds that had resulted from the collapse of the Arab Organization for Industrialization. Both Army and Naval variants were proposed, however, the project was ended in 1987 due to insufficient orders being placed. Only one Army Lynx-3 prototype was built, a development of the Lynx AH.7 with the wheeled undercarriage of the Lynx-3 was marketed by Westland as the Battlefield Lynx in the late 1980s
9.
Wing walking
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Starting in airshows and barnstorming during the 1920s, wing walking is the act of moving on the wings of an airplane during flight. The earliest known instance of a wing-walking on an aircraft was an experimental flight in England involving a biplane built by Colonel Samuel Franklin Cody in 1911. At Laffans Plain Cody wished to demonstrate how his Flying Cathedral biplanes had the greatest lateral stability even with a passenger 10 feet 6 inches away from the center of gravity. The first wing walker to perform daring stunts was 26-year-old Ormer Locklear, legend has it that he first climbed out onto the lower wings during his pilot training in the Army Air Service during World War I. Undaunted, Ormer just climbed out of the cockpit onto the wings in flight whenever there was a mechanical issue, on November 8,1918, Locklear wowed the crowd at Barron Field, Texas, with his daredevil wing-walking stunts. Wing walking was seen as a form of barnstorming. They themselves admitted that the point of their trade was to make money on the prospect of possibly watching someone die. After this first demonstration, wing walkers continued to play an important part in the Army Air Corps and they were instrumental in the first air-to-air refuelling, as well as long-distance flight records. In 1921, Wesley May strapped a fuel tank on his back, additional tests were undertaken, and a hose with aid of a wing walker was the next exploration into aerial refuelling. Ormer Locklear led the charge with his transfer, and many followed. His female equivalent, the first woman to switch planes in the air, was Ethal Dare, eight wing walkers died in a relatively short period during the infancy of wing walking and even the great Ormer Locklear himself perished in 1920 while performing a stunt for a film. Variations on wing walking became common, with such stunts as doing handstands, hanging by ones teeth, a 1931 article on wingwalking on inverted aircraft touted the practical aspect of performing inflight landing-gear inspection or maintenance. Eventually wing walkers began making transfers between a vehicle, such as a car, a boat, or a train. Other variations included free-falls ending with a parachute opening. Charles Lindbergh, whose career in flight began with wing walking, was known for stunts involving parachutes. Virginia Angel was instrumental in teaching Lindbergh how to wingwalk, which he did in exchange for flying lessons and he was a boy that wanted to fly, Virginia remembered, and he was doing everything he could. Work and money were scarce and any little job that he could do—mechanic, the boys would trade work for teaching and he used to do that quite a lot. Jim had him walk his wings and naturally I had to teach him and it was on the West Coast, mostly in Los Angeles
10.
Boeing-Stearman Model 75
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The Stearman Model 75 is a biplane used as a military trainer aircraft, of which at least 10,626 were built in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Stearman Aircraft became a subsidiary of Boeing in 1934, after the conflict was over, thousands of surplus aircraft were sold on the civilian market. In the immediate postwar years they became popular as crop dusters, sports planes, the Kaydet was a conventional biplane of rugged construction with large, fixed tailwheel undercarriage, and accommodation for the student and instructor in open cockpits in tandem. The radial engine was usually uncowled, although some Stearman operators choose to cowl the engine, after World War II, the thousands of primary trainer PT-17 Stearman planes were auctioned off to civilians and former pilots. Many were modified for cropdusting use, with a hopper for pesticide or fertilizer fitted in place of the front cockpit, additional equipment included pumps, spray bars, and nozzles mounted below the lower wings. A popular approved modification to increase the maximum weight and climb performance involved fitting a larger Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior engine. An iconic movie image is a Stearman cropduster chasing Cary Grant across a field in North by Northwest, christopher Reeve and Scott Wilson are shown flying 1936 variants in the 1985 movie The Aviator. The U. S. Army Air Forces Kaydet had three different designations based on its power plant, PT-13 with a Lycoming R-680 engine, pT-13C Six PT-13Bs modified for instrument flying. PT-13D PT-13As equipped with the R-680-17 engine, PT-17 With a Continental R-670-5 engine. 3,519 delivered PT-17A18 PT-17s were equipped with blind-flying instrumentation, pT-17B Three PT-17s were equipped with agricultural spraying equipment for pest-control. PT-18 PT-13 with a Jacobs R-755 engine,150 built, pT-18A Six PT-18s fitted with blind-flying instrumentation. This designation was given to 300 aircraft supplied under Lend-Lease to the RCAF, the U. S. Navy had several versions including, NS Up to 61 delivered. Powered by surplus 220 hp Wright J-5 Whirlwind, N2S Known colloquially as the Yellow Peril from its overall-yellow paint scheme. 250 delivered to the U. S. Navy,125 delivered to the U. S. Navy. 1,875 delivered to the U. S. Navy, n2S-499 US Army aircraft diverted to the U. S. Navy, plus 577 new-build aircraft. 1,450 delivered to the U. S. Navy, Stearman 70 Original prototype, powered by 215 hp Lycoming radial engine. 61 built for U. S. Navy as NS plus export variants, Model 73L3 Version for Philippines, powered by 200 hp R-680-4 or R-680C1 engines. Model A73B1 Seven aircraft for Cuban Air Force powered by 235 hp Wright R-790 Whirlwind, Model A73L3 Improved version for Philippines
11.
Aircraft
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An aircraft is a machine that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the lift of an airfoil. The human activity that surrounds aircraft is called aviation, crewed aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot, but unmanned aerial vehicles may be remotely controlled or self-controlled by onboard computers. Aircraft may be classified by different criteria, such as type, aircraft propulsion, usage. Each of the two World Wars led to technical advances. Consequently, the history of aircraft can be divided into five eras, Pioneers of flight, first World War,1914 to 1918. Aviation between the World Wars,1918 to 1939, Second World War,1939 to 1945. Postwar era, also called the jet age,1945 to the present day, aerostats use buoyancy to float in the air in much the same way that ships float on the water. They are characterized by one or more large gasbags or canopies, filled with a relatively low-density gas such as helium, hydrogen, or hot air, which is less dense than the surrounding air. When the weight of this is added to the weight of the aircraft structure, a balloon was originally any aerostat, while the term airship was used for large, powered aircraft designs – usually fixed-wing. In 1919 Frederick Handley Page was reported as referring to ships of the air, in the 1930s, large intercontinental flying boats were also sometimes referred to as ships of the air or flying-ships. – though none had yet been built, the advent of powered balloons, called dirigible balloons, and later of rigid hulls allowing a great increase in size, began to change the way these words were used. Huge powered aerostats, characterized by an outer framework and separate aerodynamic skin surrounding the gas bags, were produced. There were still no fixed-wing aircraft or non-rigid balloons large enough to be called airships, then several accidents, such as the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, led to the demise of these airships. Nowadays a balloon is an aerostat and an airship is a powered one. A powered, steerable aerostat is called a dirigible, sometimes this term is applied only to non-rigid balloons, and sometimes dirigible balloon is regarded as the definition of an airship. Non-rigid dirigibles are characterized by a moderately aerodynamic gasbag with stabilizing fins at the back and these soon became known as blimps. During the Second World War, this shape was adopted for tethered balloons, in windy weather
12.
Dogfight
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A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft, conducted at close range. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane, until at least 1992, it was a component in every major war, despite beliefs after World War II that increasingly greater speeds and longer range weapons would make dogfighting obsolete. This differs from aerial warfare, which deals with the involved in planning and executing various missions. The term dogfight has been used for centuries to describe a melee, the term gained popularity during World War II although its origin in air combat can be traced to the latter years of World War I. Both men had orders to kill but neither wanted to harm the other so they exchanged multiple volleys of pistol fire. Dogfighting first emerged in World War I, ever since heavier than air flights became a reality in 1903, people had been trying to figure out how to use this new technology for warfare. Aircraft were initially used as observation vehicles, and early pilots gave little thought to aerial combat. The new airplanes proved their worth by spotting the hidden German advance on Paris in the month of the war. Enemy pilots at first simply exchanged waves, or shook their fists at each other, due to weight restrictions, only small weapons could be carried on board. Intrepid pilots decided to interfere with enemy reconnaissance by improvised means, including throwing bricks, grenades and sometimes rope, pilots quickly began firing hand-held guns at enemy planes, such as pistols and carbines. The Austro-Hungarian pilot initially waved, and Tomić reciprocated, the Austro-Hungarian pilot then fired at Tomić with his revolver. Tomić managed to escape, and within weeks, all Serbian and Austro-Hungarian planes were fitted with machine-guns. In August 1914, Staff-Captain Pyotr Nesterov, from Russia, became the first pilot to ram his plane into an enemy spotter aircraft, in October 1914, an airplane was shot down by a hand gun from another plane for the first time over Rheims, France. Once machine guns were mounted to the airplane, either on a mounting or higher on the wings of early biplanes. The biggest problem was mounting a gun onto an aircraft so that it could be fired forward, through the propeller. Roland Garros solved this problem by mounting steel deflector wedges to the propeller of a Morane Saulnier monoplane and he achieved three kills, but was forced down due to engine failure down behind enemy lines, and captured before he could destroy his plane by burning it. The wreckage was brought to Anthony Fokker, a Dutch designer who built aircraft for the Germans, Fokker decided that the wedges were much too risky, and improved the design by connecting the trigger of an MG08 Maxim machine gun to the timing of the engine. On the evening of July 1,1915, the very first aerial engagement by a plane armed with a synchronized, forward-firing machine gun occurred just to the east of Luneville
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