1.
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
2.
Aluminium alloy
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Aluminium alloys are alloys in which aluminium is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin, there are two principal classifications, namely casting alloys and wrought alloys, both of which are further subdivided into the categories heat-treatable and non-heat-treatable. About 85% of aluminium is used for products, for example rolled plate, foils. Cast aluminium alloys yield cost-effective products due to the low melting point, the most important cast aluminium alloy system is Al–Si, where the high levels of silicon contribute to give good casting characteristics. Aluminium alloys are used in engineering structures and components where light weight or corrosion resistance is required. Alloys composed mostly of aluminium have been important in aerospace manufacturing since the introduction of metal-skinned aircraft. Aluminium-magnesium alloys are both lighter than aluminium alloys and much less flammable than alloys that contain a very high percentage of magnesium. Aluminium alloy surfaces will develop a white, protective layer of aluminium oxide if left unprotected by anodizing and/or correct painting procedures, referred to as dissimilar-metal corrosion, this process can occur as exfoliation or as intergranular corrosion. Aluminium alloys can be heat treated. This causes internal element separation, and the metal then corrodes from the inside out, Aluminium alloy compositions are registered with The Aluminum Association. Aluminium alloys with a range of properties are used in engineering structures. Alloy systems are classified by a system or by names indicating their main alloying constituents. Selecting the right alloy for a given application entails considerations of its strength, density, ductility, formability, workability, weldability. A brief historical overview of alloys and manufacturing technologies is given in Ref. Aluminium alloys are used extensively in aircraft due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. On the other hand, pure aluminium metal is too soft for such uses. Aluminium alloys typically have an elastic modulus of about 70 GPa, therefore, for a given load, a component or unit made of an aluminium alloy will experience a greater deformation in the elastic regime than a steel part of identical size and shape. Though there are aluminium alloys with somewhat-higher tensile strengths than the commonly used kinds of steel, with completely new metal products, the design choices are often governed by the choice of manufacturing technology. Extrusions are particularly important in regard, owing to the ease with which aluminium alloys, particularly the Al–Mg–Si series
3.
Composite material
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The individual components remain separate and distinct within the finished structure. The new material may be preferred for reasons, common examples include materials which are stronger, lighter. More recently, researchers have begun to actively include sensing, actuation, computation and communication into composites. The most advanced examples perform routinely on spacecraft and aircraft in demanding environments, the earliest man-made composite materials were straw and mud combined to form bricks for building construction. Ancient brick-making was documented by Egyptian tomb paintings, wattle and daub is one of the oldest man-made composite materials, at over 6000 years old. Concrete is also a material, and is used more than any other man-made material in the world. As of 2006, about 7.5 billion cubic metres of concrete are made each year—more than one metre for every person on Earth. 2181–2055 BC and was used for death masks Cob Mud Bricks, concrete was described by Vitruvius, writing around 25 BC in his Ten Books on Architecture, distinguished types of aggregate appropriate for the preparation of lime mortars. For structural mortars, he recommended pozzolana, which were volcanic sands from the beds of Pozzuoli brownish-yellow-gray in colour near Naples. Natural cement-stones, after burning, produced cements used in concretes from post-Roman times into the 20th century, the glass fiber is relatively strong and stiff, whereas the polymer is ductile. Thus the resulting fiberglass is relatively stiff, strong, flexible, concrete is the most common artificial composite material of all and typically consists of loose stones held with a matrix of cement. Concrete is a material, and will not compress or shatter even under quite a large compressive force. However, concrete cannot survive tensile loading, therefore, to give concrete the ability to resist being stretched, steel bars, which can resist high stretching forces, are often added to concrete to form reinforced concrete. Fibre-reinforced polymers or FRPs include carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer or CFRP, and glass-reinforced plastic or GRP, if classified by matrix then there are thermoplastic composites, short fiber thermoplastics, long fibre thermoplastics or long fibre-reinforced thermoplastics. There are numerous thermoset composites, including paper composite panels, many advanced thermoset polymer matrix systems usually incorporate aramid fibre and carbon fibre in an epoxy resin matrix. Shape memory polymer composites are high-performance composites, formulated using fibre or fabric reinforcement and they can also be reheated and reshaped repeatedly without losing their material properties. These composites are ideal for such as lightweight, rigid, deployable structures, rapid manufacturing. Although high strain composites exhibit many similarities to shape memory polymers, Composites can also use metal fibres reinforcing other metals, as in metal matrix composites or ceramic matrix composites, which includes bone, cermet and concrete
4.
Sailcloth
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Doek is Dutch for cloth, which was evolved into the English word duck in reference to sail canvas. Duck was typically made from cotton or linen, with use of hemp. These natural fibers have poor resistance to rot, UV light, linen is stronger, but cotton is lighter. Linen was the traditional fiber of sails until it was supplanted by cotton during the 19th century, as sail size grew linen was too heavy to be practical so cotton became more popular. Cotton did not substantially replace linen worldwide until the end of the age of sail, however and it was not until the late 20th century that natural fibers were replaced by synthetics in mainstream use. Cotton sailcloth is still used for sportswear, upholstery and draperies, the traditional width for carded cotton sailcloth in the US was 23 inches while the British standard was 24 inches. The wa proa of the Caroline Islands traditionally used pandanus matting as sailcloth, the characteristics of a sail are due to design, construction and the attributes of the fibers, which are woven together to make the sail cloth. The following sections discuss the attributes of fibers assuming a good design, according to Mahr, there are six key factors in evaluating a fiber for suitability in weaving a sail-cloth, Initial modulus – The ability to resist stretching. Higher resistance is better for upwind sails, breaking strength – Measured as a force per cross sectional area of fiber. Creep – Describes the long stretch of a fiber or fabric. A material with creep may have a superior modulus, but lose its shape over time, resistance to ultraviolet light – Strength loss from exposure to the Sun’s UV rays measured by a standardized exposure test. Flex strength – Strength lost due to bending, folding, or flogging, cost-effectiveness –Both the initial cost and its durability of the material define its cost-effectiveness over time. There is no perfect solution since in most cases the increase of one attribute generally results in the attractiveness of another. Reduced stretch generally also reduces the flexibility causing a trade-off of performance for durability, solving both problems generally sends the price out of range for most sailors. Nylon is used in spinnakers because of its weight, high tensile strength, superior abrasion resistance. However, it has a low modulus allowing too much stretch to be suitable for upwind sails, nylon is more susceptible to UV and chemical degradation than polyesters and its physical properties can change due to moisture absorption. Polyethylene terephthalate, the most common type of polyester, is the most common used in sailcloth. PET has excellent resiliency, high resistance, high UV resistance, high flex strength
5.
Wing
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A wing is a type of fin that produces lift, while moving through air or some other fluid. As such, wings have a shape, a streamlined cross-sectional shape. A wings aerodynamic efficiency is expressed as its lift-to-drag ratio, the lift a wing generates at a given speed and angle of attack can be one to two orders of magnitude greater than the total drag on the wing. A high lift-to-drag ratio requires a significantly smaller thrust to propel the wings through the air at sufficient lift, lifting structures used in water, include various foils, including hydrofoils. Hydrodynamics is the science, rather than aerodynamics. Applications of underwater foils occur in hydroplanes, sailboats and submarines, the word wing from the Old Norse vængr for many centuries referred mainly to the foremost limbs of birds. In nature wings have evolved in dinosaurs, birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, Wing forms in nature The design and analysis of the wings of aircraft is one of the principal applications of the science of aerodynamics, which is a branch of fluid mechanics. The properties of the airflow around any moving object can - in principle - be found by solving the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid dynamics, however, except for simple geometries these equations are notoriously difficult to solve. Fortunately, simpler explanations can be described, for a wing to produce lift, it must be oriented at a suitable angle of attack relative to the flow of air past the wing. When this occurs the wing deflects the airflow downwards, turning the air as it passes the wing, since the wing exerts a force on the air to change its direction, the air must exert a force on the wing, equal in size but opposite in direction. This force manifests itself as differing air pressures at different points on the surface of the wing, a region of lower-than-normal air pressure is generated over the top surface of the wing, with a higher pressure on the bottom of the wing. The lower air pressure on the top of the wing generates a smaller force on the top of the wing than the upward force generated by the higher air pressure on the bottom of the wing. Hence, a net force acts on the wing. This force is called the lift generated by the wing, the different velocities of the air passing by the wing, the air pressure differences, the change in direction of the airflow, and the lift on the wing are intrinsically one phenomenon. It is, therefore, possible to lift from any of the other three. For example, the lift can be calculated from the differences, or from different velocities of the air above and below the wing. Fluid dynamics offers other approaches to solving these problems—and all produce the same answers if done correctly, air velocity on the bottom of a wing is higher than that on the top, while the wing is generating lift. Wings with a cross section are the norm in subsonic flight
6.
Airframe
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The airframe of an aircraft is its mechanical structure. It is typically considered to include fuselage, wings and undercarriage, airframe design is a field of aerospace engineering that combines aerodynamics, materials technology and manufacturing methods to achieve balances of performance, reliability and cost. Modern airframe history began in the United States when a 1903 wood biplane made by Orville, in 1912 the Deperdussin Monocoque pioneered the light, strong and streamlined monocoque fuselage formed of thin plywood layers over a circular frame, achieving 210 km/h. Many early developments were spurred by military needs during World War I and these used hybrid wood and metal structures. In 1916 the German Albatros D. German engineer Hugo Junkers first flew all-metal airframes in 1915 with the all-metal, cantilever-wing, commercial aircraft development during the 1920s and 1930s focused on monoplane designs using Radial engines. Some were produced as single copies or in small quantity such as the Spirit of St. Louis flown across the Atlantic by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, william Stout designed the all-metal Ford Trimotors in 1926. They were among the most successful designs to emerge from the era through the use of all-metal airframes, during World War II, military needs again dominated airframe designs. The first jets were produced during the war but not made in large quantity, postwar commercial airframe design focused on airliners, on turboprop engines, and then on Jet engines, turbojets and later turbofans. The generally higher speeds and tensile stresses of turboprops and jets were major challenges, Airbus and Boeing are the dominant assemblers of large jet airliners while ATR, Bombardier and Embraer lead the regional airliner market, many manufacturers produce airframe components. It has a carbon fiber fuselage, said to replace 1,200 sheets of aluminum and 40,000 rivets. In February 2017, Airbus installed a 3D printing machine for titanium aircraft structural parts using electron beam additive manufacturing from Sciaky, airframe production has become an exacting process. Manufacturers operate under strict quality control and government regulations, departures from established standards become objects of major concern. A landmark in aeronautical design, the worlds first jet airliner, early models suffered from catastrophic airframe metal fatigue, causing a series of widely publicised accidents. The Royal Aircraft Establishment investigation at Farnborough Airport founded the science of aircraft crash reconstruction, after 3000 pressurisation cycles in a specially constructed pressure chamber, airframe failure was found to be due to stress concentration, a consequence of the square shaped windows. The windows had been engineered to be glued and riveted, but had been punch riveted only, unlike drill riveting, the imperfect nature of the hole created by punch riveting may cause the start of fatigue cracks around the rivet. The Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop, first flown in 1957 became a lesson in controlling oscillation. Its 1959 crash of Braniff Flight 542 showed the difficulties that the airframe industry, the A300 had experienced other structural problems but none of this magnitude. Longeron Former Chord Aircraft fairing Vertical stabilizer
7.
Lift-to-drag ratio
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In aerodynamics, the lift-to-drag ratio, or L/D ratio, is the amount of lift generated by a wing or vehicle, divided by the aerodynamic drag it creates by moving through the air. The term is calculated for any particular airspeed by measuring the lift generated and these vary with speed, so the results are typically plotted on a 2D graph. In almost all cases the forms a U-shape, due to the two main components of drag. Lift-to-drag ratios can be determined by flight test, by calculation or by testing in a wind tunnel, lift-induced drag is a component of total drag that arises whenever a finite span wing generates lift. At low speeds an aircraft has to lift with a higher angle of attack. This term dominates the low-speed side of the lift versus velocity graph, form drag is caused by movement of the aircraft through the air. This type of drag, also known as air resistance or profile drag varies with the square of speed, for this reason profile drag is more pronounced at higher speeds, forming the right side of the lift/velocity graphs U shape. Profile drag is lowered primarily by streamlining and reducing cross section, lift, like drag, increases as the square of the velocity and the ratio of lift to drag is often plotted in terms of the lift and drag coefficients CL and CD. Such graphs are referred to as drag polars, speed increases from left to right. The lift/drag ratio is given by the slope from the origin to point on this curve and so the peak L/D ratio does not occur at the point of least drag. Instead it occurs at a higher speed. Designers will typically select a design which produces an L/D peak at the chosen cruising speed for a powered fixed-wing aircraft. Like all things in aeronautical engineering, the ratio is not the only consideration for wing design. Performance at high angle of attack and a gentle stall are also important, as the aircraft fuselage and control surfaces will also add drag and possibly some lift, it is fair to consider the L/D of the aircraft as a whole. As it turns out, the ratio, which is the ratio of an aircrafts forward motion to its descent, is numerically equal to the aircrafts L/D. Achieving a gliders best L/D in practice requires precise control of airspeed and smooth, in zero wind conditions, L/D will equal distance traveled divided by altitude lost. Achieving the maximum distance for altitude lost in wind conditions requires further modification of the best airspeed, as noted below, the maximum L/D is not dependent on weight or wing loading, but with higher wing loading the maximum L/D occurs at a faster airspeed. Also, the faster airspeed means the aircraft fly at higher Reynolds number
8.
Gliding
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The word soaring is also used for the sport. Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s, initially the objective was to increase the duration of flights but soon pilots attempted cross-country flights away from the place of launch. Improvements in aerodynamics and in the understanding of phenomena have allowed greater distances at higher average speeds. Long distances are now flown using any of the sources of rising air, ridge lift, thermals. When conditions are favourable, experienced pilots can now fly hundreds of kilometres before returning to their home airfields, some competitive pilots fly in races around pre-defined courses. These gliding competitions test pilots abilities to make best use of weather conditions as well as their flying skills. Local and national competitions are organized in countries, and there are biennial World Gliding Championships. Techniques to maximize a gliders speed around the task in a competition have been developed, including the optimum speed to fly, navigation using GPS. If the weather deteriorates pilots are unable to complete a cross-country flight. Consequently, they may need to land elsewhere, perhaps in a field, powered-aircraft and winches are the two most common means of launching gliders. These and other methods require assistance and facilities such as airfields, tugs. These are usually provided by gliding clubs who also train new pilots, the development of heavier-than-air flight in the half century between Sir George Cayleys coachman in 1853 and the Wright brothers in 1903 mainly involved gliders. With the active support of the German government, there were 50,000 glider pilots by 1937, the first German gliding competition was held at the Wasserkuppe in 1920, organized by Oskar Ursinus. The best flight lasted two minutes and set a distance record of 2 kilometres. Within ten years, it had become an event in which the achieved durations. In 1931, Gunther Grönhoff flew 272 kilometres on the front of a storm from Munich to Kadaň in Western Czechoslovakia, in the 1930s, gliding spread to many other countries. In the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin gliding was a demonstration sport, a glider, the Olympia, was developed in Germany for the event, but World War II intervened. By 1939 the major gliding records were held by Russians, including a record of 748 kilometres
9.
Lift (soaring)
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Lift is a meteorological phenomenon used as an energy source by soaring aircraft and soaring birds. The most common application of lift is in sport and recreation. The three air sports that use soaring flight are, gliding, hang gliding and paragliding, thermals are columns of rising air that are formed on the ground through the warming of the surface by sunlight. If the air contains enough moisture, the water will condense from the rising air, thermal lift is often used by birds, such as raptors, vultures and storks. Although thermal lift was known to the Wright Brothers in 1901 and it was not until about 1930 that the use of thermals for soaring in gliders became commonplace. Once a thermal is encountered, the flies in circles to keep within the thermal, so gaining altitude before flying off to the next thermal. Climb rates depend on conditions, but rates of several meters per second are common, thermals can also be formed in a line usually because of the wind or the terrain, creating cloud streets. These can allow flying straight while climbing in continuous lift, when the air has little moisture or when an inversion stops the warm air from rising high enough for the moisture to condense, thermals do not create cumulus clouds. Typical locations to find thermals are over towns, freshly ploughed fields and asphalt roads, occasionally thermals are caused by the exhaust gases from power stations or by fires. As it requires rising heated air, thermalling is only effective in mid-latitudes from spring into late summer, during winter the solar heat can only create weak thermals, but ridge and wave lift can still be used during this period. Ridge lift, or Orographic lift, is caused by rising air on the side of a slope. Ridge lift is used extensively by sea birds and by aircraft, in places where a steady wind blows, a ridge may allow virtually unlimited time aloft. With winds of 20 to 25 knots, it is possible for aircraft to soar at an altitude up to twice the height of the obstacle, ridge lift can also be augmented by thermals when the slopes also face the sun. Lee waves occur when a wind of 25 knots blows over a mountain, provided that there is a steady increase in wind strength with altitude without a significant change in direction, standing waves may be created. They were discovered by a pilot, Wolf Hirth, in 1933. These waves reach heights much greater than the original obstruction and so can permit gliders to climb to the stratosphere, pilots use supplementary oxygen to avoid hypoxia because gliders do not have pressurized cockpits. This lift is often marked by long, stationary lenticular clouds lying perpendicular to the wind, the current world distance record of 3,008 km by Klaus Ohlmann was also flown using mountain waves in South America. A rare wave phenomenon is known as Morning Glory, a roll cloud producing strong lift, pilots near Australias Gulf of Carpentaria make use of it in springtime
10.
Thermal
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A thermal column is a column of rising air in the lower altitudes of Earths atmosphere, a form of atmospheric updraft. Thermals are created by the heating of Earths surface from solar radiation. The Sun warms the ground, which in turn warms the air directly above it, the warmer air nearer to the surface expands, becoming less dense than the surrounding air. The lighter air rises and cools due to its expansion in the pressure at higher altitudes. It stops rising when it has cooled to the temperature as the surrounding air. Dark earth, urban areas, and roadways are good sources of thermals, associated with a thermal is a downward flow surrounding the thermal column. The downward-moving exterior is caused by air being displaced at the top of the thermal. The size and strength of thermals are influenced by the properties of the lower atmosphere, generally, when the air is cold, bubbles of warm air are formed by the ground heating the air above it and can rise like a hot air balloon. The air is referred to as unstable. If there is a layer of air higher up, an inversion can prevent thermals from rising high. Thermals are often indicated by the presence of visible cumulus clouds at the apex of the thermal, when a steady wind is present, thermals and their respective cumulus clouds can align in rows oriented with wind direction, sometimes referred to as cloud streets by soaring and glider pilots. Cumulus clouds are formed by the air in a thermal as it ascends and cools. The condensing water releases latent heat energy allowing the air to rise higher, very unstable air can reach the level of free convection and thus rise to great heights condensing large quantities of water and so forming showers or even thunderstorms. The latter are dangerous to any aircraft, thermals are one of the many sources of lift used by soaring birds and gliders to soar. Thermals are seen elsewhere in the solar system, on Mars, for example, thermals are often seen in the form of dust devils, viewed from the Martian rovers and orbiters. Thermals are also seen on the surface, typically forming hexagonal prisms. Air current Atmospheric thermodynamics Cumulus Cloud Thermal Energy What do thermals look like, - Thermal Structure and Behavior by Wayne M. Angevine Time-lapse video of clouds caused by thermals forming and decaying
11.
History of hang gliding
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Hang gliding is an air sport employing a foot-launchable aircraft known as a hang glider. Typically, a glider is constructed of an aluminium alloy or composite-framed fabric wing. The pilot is ensconced in a suspended from the airframe. Early hang glider designs did not reliably achieve safe flight, their builders lacking an understanding of the underlying principles of flight. The first recorded controlled flights were by German engineer Otto Lilienthal, whose research, published in 1889, the type of aircraft employed by Lilienthal is now referred to as a hang glider. Further hang glider research was undertaken during the 1920s in Europe, Australia and the US, where designers tested several wing concepts, the earliest forms of gliding had existed in China. By the end of the sixth century A. D. the Chinese had managed to build kites large and it was only a matter of time before someone decided to simply remove the kite strings and see what happened. Through the 1880s several aviation pioneers emerged in different countries around the world all perusing glider designs with varying degrees of success, Otto Lilienthal duplicated some of his contemporaries work and greatly expanded on it from 1874, publishing all of his research in 1889. He also produced a series of gliders, and in 1891 was able to make flights of 25 metres or more routinely and he rigorously documented his work, influencing later designers, for this reason he is one of the best known and most influential of the early aviation pioneers. His type of aircraft is now known as a hang glider, by 1896 he had made about 2000 flights of 250 metres with a number of his designs when he crashed from a height of about 15 metres, fracturing his spine. Percy Pilcher took a growing interest in aviation and built a glider called The Bat which he flew for the first time in 1895. Later that year Pilcher met and consulted with Otto Lilienthal, who was the expert in gliding. Based on the work of his mentor Otto Lilienthal, in 1897 Pilcher built a hang glider called The Hawk with which he broke the world distance record when he flew 250 metres. The hang glider lost some importance from the introduction of wing warping in 1902 by the Wright brothers and these activities on Wasserkuppe promoted a renaissance of gliding aviation. Many of these gliders flown in 1920 were hang gliders in that they were controlled by the pilots weight shift alone, the first Wasserkuppe glider competition was held in 1920, and from 1924 they were organised by Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft. Over the next decade, the contest grew in popularity, as many as 60,000 spectators dotted the mountain slopes to watch these events. Virtually every European aeronautical engineer of the tested and modified their aircraft there. In 1904 Jan Lavezzari demonstrated a stiffened flexible-wing hang glider in flight at Berck-sur-Mer, in 1908, a glider with a triangular control frame and the pilot tethered behind it, was demonstrated in the territory of Breslau
12.
Otto Lilienthal
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Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the flying man. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with unpowered airplanes, newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favorably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical. On August 9,1896, his glider stalled and he was unable to regain control, falling from about 15 m, he broke his neck and died the next day,10 August 1896. Lilienthal was born on 23 May 1848 in Anklam, Pomerania Province, according to his birth certificate, his parents were Carl Gustav, a merchant, and Caroline Wilhemina née Pohle. They belonged to the St. Nikolai evangelical church community in Anklam, where he attended grammar school. Fascinated by the idea of manned flight, Lilienthal and his brother made strap-on wings and he then attended the regional technical school in Potsdam for two years and trained at the Schwarzkopf Company before becoming a professional design engineer. He would later attend the Royal Technical Academy in Berlin, in 1867, Lilienthal began his experiments on the force of air in earnest, interrupted when he served in the Franco-Prussian War. As a staff engineer in various engineering companies, Lilienthal received his first patent for a mining machine, five years later he founded his own company to make boilers and steam engines. Lilienthal published his famous book Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation in 1889, Lilienthal was born to middle-class parents. They had eight children, but only three of them survived infancy, Otto, Gustav, and Marie, the brothers worked together all their lives on technical, social and cultural projects. On 6 June 1878, Lilienthal married Agnes Fischer, daughter of a deputy, music brought them together, she was trained in piano and voice while Lilienthal played the French horn and had a good tenor voice. After marriage, they took up residence in Berlin and had four children, Otto, Anna, Fritz, Lilienthals greatest contribution was in the development of heavier-than-air flight. He made his flights from a hill he built near Berlin and from natural hills. Patent in 1894 by Lilienthal directed pilots to grip the bar for carrying and flying the hang glider, the A-frame of Percy Pilcher and Lilienthal echoes in todays control frame for hang gliders and ultralight aircraft. His total flying time was five hours, at the beginning, in 1891, Lilienthal succeeded with jumps and flights covering a distance of about 25 metres. He could use the updraft of a 10 m/s wind against a hill to remain stationary with respect to the ground, in 1893, in the Rhinow Hills, he was able to achieve flight distances as long as 250 metres. This record remained unbeaten for him or anyone else at the time of his death, Lilienthal did research in accurately describing the flight of birds, especially storks, and used polar diagrams for describing the aerodynamics of their wings. He made many experiments in an attempt to gather reliable aeronautical data, during his short flying career, Lilienthal developed a dozen models of monoplanes, wing flapping aircraft and two biplanes
13.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
14.
Glider (aircraft)
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A glider is a heavier-than-air aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have small engines for extending their flight when necessary, there is a wide variety of types differing in the construction of their wings, aerodynamic efficiency, location of the pilot, controls and intended purpose. Most exploit meteorological phenomena to maintain or even gain height, gliders are principally used for the air sports of gliding, hang gliding and paragliding. However some spacecraft have been designed to descend as gliders and in the past military gliders have been used in warfare, perhaps the simplest and most familiar types are toys such as the paper plane and balsa wood glider. Glider is the agent noun form of the verb to glide and it derives from Middle English gliden, which in turn derived from Old English glīdan. The oldest meaning of glide may have denoted a precipitous running or jumping, scholars are uncertain as to its original derivation, with possible connections to slide, and light having been advanced. Early pre-modern accounts of flight are in most cases difficult to verify and it is whether each craft was a glider, kite or parachute. Often the event is recorded a long time after it allegedly took place. A 17th-century account reports an attempt at flight by the 9th-century poet Abbas Ibn Firnas near Cordoba, according to these reports, both used a set of wings, and both blamed their crash on the lack of a tail. Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi is alleged to have flown a glider with eagle-like wings over the Bosphorus strait from the Galata Tower to Üsküdar district in Istanbul around 1630–1632. The first heavier-than-air man-carrying aircraft that were based on published scientific principles were Sir George Cayleys series of gliders which achieved brief wing-borne hops from around 1849. Thereafter gliders were built by such as Jean Marie Le Bris, John J. Montgomery, Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher, Octave Chanute. Lilienthal was the first to make repeated successful flights and was the first to use rising air to prolong his flight, using a Montgomery tandem-wing glider, Daniel Maloney was the first to demonstrate high-altitude controlled flight using a balloon-launched glider launched from 4,000 feet in 1905. The Wright Brothers developed a series of three manned gliders after preliminary tests with a kite as they worked towards achieving powered flight and they returned to glider testing in 1911 by removing the motor from one of their later designs. In the inter-war years, recreational gliding flourished in Germany under the auspices of Rhön-Rossitten, in the United States, the Schweizer brothers of Elmira, New York, manufactured sport sailplanes to meet the new demand. Sailplanes continued to evolve in the 1930s, and sport gliding has become the main application of gliders, as their performance improved, gliders began to be used to fly cross-country and now regularly fly hundreds or even thousands of kilometers in a day, if the weather is suitable. Military gliders were developed during World War II by a number of countries for landing troops, a glider – the Colditz Cock – was even built secretly by POWs as a potential escape method at Oflag IV-C near the end of the war in 1944. Foot-launched aircraft had flown by Lilienthal and at the meetings at Wasserkuppe in the 1920s
15.
Ridge lift
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Ridge lift is created when a wind strikes an obstacle, usually a mountain ridge or cliff, that is large and steep enough to deflect the wind upward. Although unpowered aircraft are usually descending through the air, they will if the surrounding air is rising faster than their sink rates. Model glider enthusiasts refer to this technique as slope gliding or sloping, orville Wright used ridge lift, setting a duration record of 11 minutes in 1911. However the sport of soaring started in Germany after the First World War, in 1921, Dr. Wolfgang Klemperer broke the Wright Brothers’1911 soaring duration record with a flight of 13 minutes. In 1922, Arthur Martens became the first glider pilot to use an updraft rising along a slope to stay aloft for a lengthy period. Ridge lift is generated when the wind blows against a hill, ridge, escarpment or ocean wave, in meteorology this is known as orographic lift. The wind creates a region of rising air directly above the slope, however, at near vertical cliffs, there is usually an area of turbulence with descending air near the base of the cliff. Downwind of the hill, lee waves can form, these are used by glider pilots to gain height. Near slopes rather than vertical cliffs, the strongest lift is often to be found in a path that intersects with an imaginary line emerging at right angles from the slope. Birds, such as seabirds and raptors, also use slopes in this way
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Aviation pioneers
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Science, Contributions to aerodynamic theory, aviation principles, discoveries advancing aircraft development, etc. A dagger following the name indicates they died in or as a result of an aircraft accident. When available, the aircraft type/model and the place of the accident are included in the text, the table is organized by pioneer name in alphabetical order. Columns for Name, Date of birth/Date of death, Country, if two pioneers are paired together, sorting by DOB or Country uses the information for the first of the pair. The Achievement column will sort according to the date of the pioneer’s earliest significant contribution to aviation, History of aviation Timeline of women in aviation Brewer, Griffith, Alexander, Patrick Y. Aeronautics, An Abridgment of Aeronautical Specifications filed at the Patent Office, red Lion Court, Fleet Street, Taylor and Francis. Casey, Louis S. Curtiss, The Hammondsport Era, 1907-1915, the Bishops Boys, A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, wings – A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age. The Aeroplane – An Historical Survey of its Origins and Development, Aviation – An Historical Survey of its Origins to the end of the Second World War. Gossamer Odyssey, The Triumph of Human-Powered Flight, headland, Robert K. Chronological List of Antarctic Expeditions and Related Historical Events. Steam in the Air, The Application of Steam Power in Aviation During the 19th Century, longyard, William H. Who’s Who in Aviation,500 Biographies History. Major, R. Storer, J. D. Thompson, guide to the Aircraft Collection, Museum of Flight, East Fortune Airfield. East Lothian, Scotland, National Museums of Scotland, mason, Francis K. Windrow, Martin C. Aviation in Canada, The Pioneer Decades, Vol.1, the Lives of Celebrated Architects, Ancient and Modern. Molson, Ken M. Taylor, Harold A, wragg, David W. Flight Before Flying. New York, D. Appleton and Company
17.
Jan Lavezzari
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Jan Lavezzari was a gifted painter, born in Paris, France from a well known architect, Emile Lavezzari. Jan studied engineering and then moved to Berck-sur-Mer, northern France in 1900, where he decided to become a painter instead. Jan Lavezzari produced several oil paintings that are valuable today. He also painted murals in a few public buildings such as Le Casino de la Forêt in Touquet-Paris-Plage, the local hospital LHôpital Maritime -built by his father-. Biographers record that Jan Lavezzari liked the outdoor, adventure, and that he preferred the company of fishermen, Jan Lavezzari is best known for his paintings, which generally portray sailboats. G. Dilly, Curator of the Musée de Berck
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Berck
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Berck, sometimes referred to as Berck-sur-Mer, is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It lies within the Marquenterre regional park, a nature reserve. Situated just to the north of the estuary of the river Authie, Berck has an expanse of sandy beach. The town comprises two parts – to the east, the old fishing town of Berck-Ville and to the west the seaside area, Berck is attested along the centuries with various forms, datum Bergis and/or Berc in 1215, Bierk in 1282. Its origin has been conjectured to come either from Germanic berg hill, mount or birkja place of the birch trees, the Modern Dutch word for birch is berk. The old town was formerly a fishing harbour which in 1301 was recorded to have 150 homesteads with 800 inhabitants, a mediaeval wooden lighthouse, known locally as a foïer, was built on a dune and lit by charcoal and faggots but this burned down several times. On one occasion at least it was as a result of the conflict between the English and the French in the Hundred Years War. The chronicler Enguerrand de Monstrelet mentions that during 1414 the English garrison in Calais raided south, eventually the lighthouse was replaced by a stone tower at the side of which a chapel was built in the 15th century, but this did not save it from further mishap. During the second siege of Montreuil in 1544, the English advanced from the south and burned 200 houses, the church, what was left of the place was then burned by the French on their way to relieve the siege. It is for this reason that the present division between the village and the sea-front area exists. As a result, boats were designed with flat bottoms so that they could be drawn up on the beach. In the mid-19th century, Berck took on a role in the treatment of tuberculosis. The Maritime hospital was inaugurated in 1869 by Empress Eugenie, other hospitals and benevolent institutes were soon created to cater for the sick and those in need of rest and recuperation. At first one had to alight at the town of Verton on the main line to Calais. As well as carrying passengers, there was goods traffic from the brick-works at Berck Ville. Known locally as le Tortillard for its route, it was closed in 1955. There was a later narrow-gauge line running northwards through the dunes from Berck Plage to Paris-Plage and it was built in stages via Merlimont between 1909-12 but gradually sanded over and closed in 1929. During World War II the sea front was disrupted by the installation of the Nazi Atlantic Wall and this contributed to the diminishing of the ancient fishing industry, which numbered some 150 boats at the turn of the century, and had all but disappeared by the 1960s
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
20.
Hang gliding
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Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorized foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered with synthetic sailcloth to form a wing, typically the pilot is in a harness suspended from the airframe, and controls the aircraft by shifting body weight in opposition to a control frame. Early hang gliders had a low ratio, so pilots were restricted to gliding down small hills. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and national airspace governing organizations control some aspects of hang gliding. Obtaining the safety benefits of being instructed is highly recommended, the earliest forms of gliding had existed in China. By the end of the sixth century A. D. the Chinese had managed to build kites large and it was only a matter of time before someone decided to simply remove the kite strings and see what happened. Most early glider designs did not ensure safe flight, the problem was that early pioneers did not sufficiently understand the underlying principles that made a birds wing work. Starting in the 1880s technical and scientific advancements were made that led to the first truly practical gliders, otto Lilienthal built controllable gliders in the 1890s, with which he could ridge soar. His rigorously documented work influenced later designers, making Lilienthal one of the most influential early aviation pioneers and his aircraft was controlled by weight shift and is similar to a modern hang glider. Hang gliding saw a stiffened flexible wing hang glider in 1904, in 1910 in Breslau, the triangle control frame with hang glider pilot hung behind the triangle in a hang glider, was evident in a gliding clubs activity. In April 1909, a article by Carl S. Volmer Jensen with a biplane hang glider in 1940 called VJ-11 allowed safe three-axis control of a foot-launched hang glider. In 1960-1962 Barry Hill Palmer adapted the flexible wing concept to make foot-launched hang gliders with four different control arrangements, in 1963 Mike Burns adapted the flexible wing to build a towable kite-hang glider he called Skiplane. Since then, the Rogallo wing has been the most used airfoil of hang gliders, there are basically two types of sail materials used in hang glider sails, Woven Polyester Fabrics, and Composite Laminated Fabrics made of some combination of polyester film and polyester fibers. Woven polyester sailcloth is a tight weave of small diameter polyester fibers that has been stabilized by the hot-press impregnation of a polyester resin. The resin impregnation is required to provide resistance to distortion and stretch and this resistance is important in maintaining the aerodynamic shape of the sail. Woven polyester provides the best combination of weight and durability in a sail with the best overall handling qualities. Laminated sail materials using polyester film achieve superior performance by using a stretch material that is better at maintaining sail shape but is still relatively light in weight. In most hang gliders, the control is and has achieved using a horizontal bar held by the pilot, also known as triangle control frame
21.
Octave Chanute
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Octave Chanute was an American civil engineer and aviation pioneer, born in France. He provided many budding enthusiasts, including the Wright brothers, with help and advice, at his death he was hailed as the father of aviation and the heavier-than-air flying machine. Octave Chanute was the son of Elise and Joseph Chanut, professor at the Collège de France and he emigrated with his father to the United States of America in 1838, when the former was named Vice-President at Jefferson College in Louisiana. Octave attended private schools in New York, Octave Chanute began his training as a budding civil engineer in 1848. He was widely considered brilliant and innovative in the engineering profession, during his career he designed and constructed the United States two biggest stock yards, Chicago Stock Yards and Kansas City Stockyards. He designed and built the Hannibal Bridge which was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1869, Chanute also established a procedure for pressure-treating wooden railroad ties with an antiseptic that increased the wood’s lifespan in the tracks. As a way to track the age and longevity of railroad ties and other wooden structures, Chanute retired from the Erie Railway in 1883 to become an independent engineering consultant. Chanute first became interested in watching a balloon take off in Peoria, IL. When he retired from his career in 1883, he decided to devote some leisure time to furthering the new science of aviation. Applying his engineering background, Chanute collected all available data from flight experimenters around the world and he published his findings in a series of articles in The Railroad and Engineering Journal from 1891 to 1893, which were then re-published in the influential book Progress in Flying Machines in 1894. This was the most systematic global survey of fixed-wing heavier-than-air aviation research published up to that time, at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Chanute organized in collaboration with Albert Zahm a highly successful International Conference on Aerial Navigation. Chanute was too old to fly himself, so he partnered with younger experimenters, including Augustus M. Herring, Chanute based his interplane strut concept on the Pratt truss, which was familiar to him from his bridge-building work. The Wright brothers based their designs on the Chanute double-decker. A new design of a glider was developed and flown in 1897. In 1897 he started a correspondence with British aviator Percy Pilcher, following Chanutes ideas, Pilcher built a triplane, but he was killed in a glider crash in October 1899 before he could attempt to fly it. Chanute was in contact with the Wright brothers starting in 1900, Chanute helped to publicize the Wright brothers work, and provided consistent encouragement, visiting their camp near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1901,1902, and 1903. The Wrights and Chanute exchanged hundreds of letters between 1900 and 1910, Chanute freely shared his knowledge about aviation with anyone who was interested and expected others to do the same, although he did encourage colleagues to patent their inventions. His open approach led to friction with the Wright brothers, who believed their ideas about aircraft control were unique and refused to share them
22.
NASA Paresev
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The Paresev was an experimental NASA glider aircraft based upon the kite-parachute studies by NASA engineer Francis Rogallo. Between 1961 and 1965 the ability of the Rogallo wing to descend a payload such as the Gemini space capsule safely from high altitude to ground was studied, the Paresev was a test vehicle used to learn how to control this parachute-wing for a safe landing at a normal airfield. Under a directive by Paul Bikle, NASA engineer Charles Richards in 1961–1962 designed the collapsible four-tube Rogallo wing used in the Paresev. The Paresev series included wing configurations that were tightly foldable from the plate for easy transport, using initially a cloth sail. Data developed by NASA in the late 1950s fed both the Charles Richards team and a different Ryan Aeronautical team that produced the Fleep, the Paresev used a cantilevered cross-beam but did not use a kingpost. Note that the involved in the early 1960s experiments is a different airfoil concept used today in paragliding. The Paresev 1A and 1B were unpowered, the fuselage was an open framework fabricated of welded SAE4130 steel tubing, the keel and leading edges of the wing were constructed of 2. 5-inch-diameter aluminium tubing. The leading edge sweepback angle was held at 50 degrees by a spreader bar. Additional wing structure fabricated from steel tubing ensured structural integrity, the basic vehicle was slightly more than 11 ft high from the top of the paragliders wing to the ground, while the length of the center keel was 15 ft. Total weight was about 600 lb On August 24,1962, seven weeks after the project was initiated, the Paresev was controlled by moving the tensionally hung pilots and fuselages mass relative to the position of the wing. This mass-shifting was effected by tilting the wing from side to side and fore, another version translated the same weight-shift control via cables. As the Paresev was towed in a mode, it usually rose from the ground at about 46 mph and had a maximum air speed of about 65 mph. Paresev 1 - first flight on January 25,1962, crashed on March 14,1962, frame fitted with a linen membrane wing and the control stick coming from overhead in front of the pilots seat. Paresev 1A - first flight May 18,1962, last flight was on June 28,1962, used a rebuilt frame from the Paresev 1, but had a control stick and a Dacron membrane wing. Paresev 1B - first flight on July 27,1962, last flight on Feb 20,1963. Paresev 1C - first flight March 4,1963, last flight on April 14,1964. It had a frame with a half-scale version of an inflatable parawing. Paresev flight log, Paresev Flight Log * The Paresev vehicle was flown 341 times, thompson made numerous ground-tow flights and claimed about 60 air-tow flights
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Francis Rogallo
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His patents were ranged over mechanical utility patents and ornamental design patents for wing controls, airfoils, target kite, flexible wing, and advanced configurations for flexible wing vehicles. Francis Rogallo earned an engineering degree at Stanford University in 1935. Since 1936, Rogallo worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics as a project engineer at the wind tunnels. During 1948, he and his wife, Gertrude Rogallo, invented and patented a flexible kite. They called this kite the flexible wing, Rogallo had originally invented the wing with the idea to create an aircraft which would be simple enough and inexpensive enough that anyone could have one. The wing was flown by Rogallo as a glider with small payloads hung beneath the wing. The Rogallo wing is one of the simplest airfoils ever created, a wing using the airfoil could be used to carry payloads, undercarriage devices, pilot-control assemblies, etc. The Rogallos found themselves traveling to kiting events around the Northeast to fly and promote the toy, on October 4,1957, the Russian Sputnik began beeping its message from orbit, and everything changed. The space race caught the imagination of the newly formed NASA, in 1967, projects focused on the Parasev were stopped by NASA in favor of round parachutes. As of 2003, Rogallo had new designs for kites, Gertrude died on January 28,2008. Members of the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, are called Rogallo members, mr. Rogallo was frequently seen at the park flying his own hang glider in the 1970s and 1980s. Francis Rogallo died at home on September 1,2009, in Southern Shores, North Carolina, near Kitty Hawk, lateral Control of Aircraft US Pat. Co-inventors, John M. Riebe and John G. Lowry, Flexible Wing Vehicle Configurations US Pat. And another of same date of filing, US Pat,3185412 Control for Flexible Parawing US Pat
24.
Gertrude Rogallo
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Gertrude S. Rogallo was one of the co-inventors of the flexible wing. These wings are now known as Rogallo wings and she and her husband, Francis Rogallo, invented the wing and obtained two United States patents on different versions of it in the early 1950s. Rogallo wings are used today in kites, hang gliders. “Flexible Kite”, US patent 2,546,078, Filed November 23,1948 Rogallo, “Flexible Kite”, US patent 2,751,172, Filed November 17,1952
25.
Kite
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A kite is traditionally a tethered heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag. A kite consists of wings, tethers, pulleys, and anchors, Kites often have a bridle to guide the face of the kite at the correct angle so the wind can lift it. A kites wing also may be so designed so a bridle is not needed, when kiting a sailplane for launch, a kite may have fixed or moving anchors. Untraditionally in technical kiting, a kite consists of tether-set-coupled wing sets, even in technical kiting, though, the lift that sustains the kite in flight is generated when air moves around the kites surface, producing low pressure above and high pressure below the wings. The interaction with the wind also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind, the resultant force vector from the lift and drag force components is opposed by the tension of one or more of the lines or tethers to which the kite is attached. The anchor point of the line may be static or moving. The same principles of fluid flow apply in liquids and kites are used under water. A hybrid tethered craft comprising both a lighter-than-air balloon as well as a lifting surface is called a kytoon. Kites have a long and varied history and many different types are flown individually, Kites may be flown for recreation, art or other practical uses. Sport kites can be flown in aerial ballet, sometimes as part of a competition, even Man-lifting kites have been made. The kite has been claimed as the invention of the 5th-century BC Chinese philosophers Mozi, by 549 AD paper kites were certainly being flown, as it was recorded that in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources describe kites being used for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, the earliest known Chinese kites were flat and often rectangular. Later, tailless kites incorporated a stabilizing bowline, Kites were decorated with mythological motifs and legendary figures, some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying. From China, kites were introduced to Cambodia, Thailand, India, Japan, Korea, after its introduction into India, the kite further evolved into the fighter kite, known as the patang in India, where thousands are flown every year on festivals such as Makar Sankranti. Kites were known throughout Polynesia, as far as New Zealand, anthropomorphic kites made from cloth and wood were used in religious ceremonies to send prayers to the gods. Polynesian kite traditions are used by anthropologists get an idea of early primitive Asian traditions that are believed to have at one time existed in Asia, Kites were late to arrive in Europe, although windsock-like banners were known and used by the Romans. Stories of kites were first brought to Europe by Marco Polo towards the end of the 13th century, although they were initially regarded as mere curiosities, by the 18th and 19th centuries kites were being used as vehicles for scientific research. In 1750 Benjamin Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning was caused by electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm
26.
Rogallo wing
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The Rogallo wing is a flexible type of airfoil. Rogallo had been interested in the wing since 1945. By the end of 1948 they had two working designs using a flexible wing — a kite they called Flexi-Kite and a parachute they later referred to as a paraglider. Rogallo and his received a patent on a flexible square wing in March 1951. Selling the Flexi-kite as a toy helped to finance their work, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, U. S. aerospace manufacturers worked on parachute designs for space capsule recovery. NASA briefely considered the Rogallo wing to replace the round parachute for the Project Mercury capsule during temporary development problems. Later, the Rogallo wing was the choice for the Project Gemini capsule. Nowadays the term Rogallo wing is synonymous with one composed of two partial conic surfaces with both cones pointing forward, slow Rogallo wings have wide, shallow cones. Fast subsonic and supersonic Rogallo wings have long, narrow cones, the Rogallo wing is a simple and inexpensive flying wing with remarkable properties. The wing itself is not a kite, neither is it a glider nor a powered aircraft, in other words, how it is attached and manipulated determines what type of aircraft it becomes. The Rogallo wing is most often seen in toy kites, but has used to construct spacecraft parachutes, sport parachutes, ultralight powered aircraft like the trike. Rogallo had more than one patent concerning his finding, the expansion of his invention involved cylindrical formats, multiple lobes, various stiffenings, various nose angles. Beyond that, the wing is designed to bend and flex in the wind, flexibility allows the wing to be less susceptible to turbulence and provides a gentler flying experience than a similarly-sized rigid-winged aircraft. The trailing edge of the wing – which is not stiffened – allows the wing to twist, in 1961–1962, aeronautical engineer Barry Palmer foot-launched several versions of a framed Rogallo wing hang glider to continue the recreational and sporting spirit of hang gliding. Later in Australia John Dickenson in mid-1963, set out to build a controllable waterskiing kite/glider as he admitted adapting from a Ryan Aeronautical flex-wing aircraft, thomas Purcell and Mike Burns would use the triangle control frame. Much later Dickenson would do similarly as he fashioned an airframe to fit on the standard four boom stiffened Rogallo airfoil. Weight-shift was also used to control the glider, the flexible wing – called Ski Wing – was first flown in public at the Grafton Jacaranda Festival in September 1963 by Rod Fuller while towed behind a motorboat. The Australian Self-Soar Association states that the first foot-launch of a glider in Australia was in 1972
27.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
28.
Space capsule
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A space capsule is an often manned spacecraft which has a simple shape for the main section, without any wings or other features to create lift during atmospheric reentry. A capsule is the form for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. A manned space capsule must have everything necessary for life, including air, water. The space capsule must also protect astronauts from the cold and radiation of space, a capsule must be well insulated and have a system that controls the inside temperature and environment. It also must have a way that the astronauts would not be knocked around during launch or reentry, additionally, since the inside will be weightless, there must be a way for the astronauts to stay in their seats during the flight. For this each seat has a system of straps and buckles, one of the most important things that a space capsule must have is a way to communicate with people back on Earth, or mission control. Space capsules have typically been smaller than 5 meters in diameter and this has been especially pronounced in the case of the Soyuz manned spacecraft. Most space capsules have used a heat shield for reentry. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle appears likely, as of December 2005, there is no limit, save for lack of engineering experience, on using high-temperature ceramic tiles or ultra-high temperature ceramic sheets on space capsules. Materials for the capsule are designed in different ways, like the Apollo Command Module’s aluminum honeycomb structure. Aluminum is very light, and the gives the space capsule extra strength. The early space craft had a coating of glass embedded with synthetic resin, carbon fiber, reinforced plastics and ceramic are new materials that are constantly being made better for use in space exploration. Space capsules are well-suited to high-temperature and dynamic loading reentries, the current RKK Energia design for the Kliper, being capable of flights to Mars, is an exception. Engineers building a space capsule must take such as gravity. The space capsule must be enough to slow down quickly, must endure extremely high or low temperatures. When the space capsule comes close to a planet’s or moon’s surface, if it slows down too quickly, everything in the capsule will be crushed. If it doesn’t slow down enough, it will crash into the surface. There are additional requirements for atmospheric reentry, if the angle of attack is too shallow, the capsule may skip off the surface of the atmosphere
29.
Barry Hill Palmer
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Barry Hill Palmer is an American aeronautical engineer, inventor, builder and pilot of the first hang glider based on the Rogallo wing or flexible wing. Palmer also designed, built and flew the first weight-shift ultralight trike aircraft, in October 1961 he completed construction and flew the first flexible wing hang glider, this took place near Latrobe, east of Sacramento, California. He used polyethylene sheet, aluminum tubing and no wires for construction as he did fear kinking during assembly, Palmer, who built the first modern-age foot launched hang glider, is not yet mentioned by the FAI. Palmer experimented with about 8 different hang glider versions and their wings were mostly 90 degree swept back wings and his smallest glider weighed 24 lb, and had a surface area of 205 sq ft. The flexibility in the frame caused no performance problems and his first and largest hang glider was about 45 pounds and had a surface area of 342 sq ft. Spratt mechanism from 1929. NASA’s Paresev glider came to light after Palmer’s gliding flights, so it bore no influence on him, during the period from 1961 to 1963 Barry Palmer made tens of flights using the Rogallo wing concept. His flights were usually 110 metres long and his longest flight was about 180 metres and he flew at altitudes up to 24 metres. His best glider had a glide ratio of 4.5 to 1 at the speed of 29–32 km/h. That is why a single control stick could be used to replace the control frame, Palmer relates that he had a good paying aerospace job at the time and he was flying on a minimalist and inexpensive glider purely for curiosity and fun. He did not attempt to modernize or market the flexible wing glider, there was no attempt to publicize on the media. In March 1967 Palmer built and flew the first true weight-shift powered ultralight trike aircraft, the Paraplane used two West Bend-Chrysler 820 engines. Each engine had a drive to a 27in diameter two-blade propeller made of polyester & fiberglass. On March 24,1967 Palmer registered the trike at the American FAA as the Palmer Parawing D-6, serial 1A, N7144, No restrictions were noted. It was powered by a 17 hp at 5000 rpm single cylinder JLO L297 two stroke engine, driving a propeller designed and built by Palmer himself and driven by a 2. 1/1 reduction gearbox. The engine had electric start and the craft had fiberglass composite spring landing gear, the airframe consisted of bolted 6061-T6 aluminum tube, with 6061 T-6 extruded angle. The craft took off, flew, and landed at about 30 mph, Palmer’s trikes were not developed further and remained in obscurity. Rolland Magallon from France is sometimes thought to have invented the ultralight trike aircraft because it was Magallon who first marketed it from October 1979 through 1981, Palmer moved on to design a successful line of personal hovercraft. History of hang gliding History of ultralight trikes Fleep Print, ‘’Hang Gliding & Paragiding’’ magazine, published by the United States Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association
30.
John W. Dickenson
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John Wallace Dickenson AM is an Australian inventor, who developed some liquid flow measuring devices and designed a successful hang glider configuration. He is recipient of the Gold Air Medal, the highest award given by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, dickensons Ski Wing turned out to be stable and controllable, unlike the flat manned kites used at water ski shows. The Ski Wing was first flown in public at the Grafton Jacaranda Festival, New South Wales, Australia, Produced in 1963 Produced on 8 September 1963. V. Antenna, with a length of turned wood jammed into it to give it the required strength Leading edge attachment, D-section wood and nails Cable,1963 October - Flown at the Jacaranda Festival in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia. 1963 Oct 11 - Provisional patent filed, changes, All aluminium frame, leading edge and keel. Length,14 feet Produced on March 1964, changes, Back to wooden leading edge and keel. Leading edge and keel length <14 feet Produced on November 1964, diagrams of this sent to Francis Rogallo at NASA. On 1965, John leaves Grafton for Sydney, dickensons hang glider format was further developed by other builders and directly helped to build the popularity of hang gliding around the world in the 1970s and 1980s. In the aviation context of first flights and recreational vs. John Dickenson was a ski-kite pilot, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Gold Air Medal. Interview with Francis Rogallo on YouTube, NASA Destination- Tomorrow, segment explaining the history of the flexible wing and of the hang glider
31.
Airfoil
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An airfoil or aerofoil is the shape of a wing, blade, or sail. An airfoil-shaped body moved through a fluid produces an aerodynamic force, the component of this force perpendicular to the direction of motion is called lift. The component parallel to the direction of motion is called drag, subsonic flight airfoils have a characteristic shape with a rounded leading edge, followed by a sharp trailing edge, often with a symmetric curvature of upper and lower surfaces. Foils of similar function designed with water as the fluid are called hydrofoils. The lift on an airfoil is primarily the result of its angle of attack, when oriented at a suitable angle, the airfoil deflects the oncoming air, resulting in a force on the airfoil in the direction opposite to the deflection. This force is known as force and can be resolved into two components, lift and drag. Most foil shapes require an angle of attack to generate lift. This turning of the air in the vicinity of the airfoil creates curved streamlines, resulting in pressure on one side. The lift force can be related directly to the average top/bottom velocity difference without computing the pressure by using the concept of circulation, a fixed-wing aircrafts wings, horizontal, and vertical stabilizers are built with airfoil-shaped cross sections, as are helicopter rotor blades. Airfoils are also found in propellers, fans, compressors and turbines, sails are also airfoils, and the underwater surfaces of sailboats, such as the centerboard and keel, are similar in cross-section and operate on the same principles as airfoils. Swimming and flying creatures and even many plants and sessile organisms employ airfoils/hydrofoils, common examples being bird wings, the bodies of fish, an airfoil-shaped wing can create downforce on an automobile or other motor vehicle, improving traction. Any object with an angle of attack in a fluid, such as a flat plate. Airfoils are more efficient lifting shapes, able to more lift. A lift and drag curve obtained in wind tunnel testing is shown on the right, the curve represents an airfoil with a positive camber so some lift is produced at zero angle of attack. With increased angle of attack, lift increases in a linear relation. At about 18 degrees this airfoil stalls, and lift falls off quickly beyond that, the drop in lift can be explained by the action of the upper-surface boundary layer, which separates and greatly thickens over the upper surface at and past the stall angle. The thicker boundary layer also causes an increase in pressure drag, so that the overall drag increases sharply near. Airfoil design is a facet of aerodynamics
32.
Polyester
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Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate, polyesters include naturally occurring chemicals, such as in the cutin of plant cuticles, as well as synthetics through step-growth polymerization such as polybutyrate. Natural polyesters and a few synthetic ones are biodegradable, but most synthetic polyesters are not and this material is used very widely in clothing. Depending on the structure, polyester can be a thermoplastic or thermoset. There are also polyester resins cured by hardeners, however, the most common polyesters are thermoplastics, industrial polyester fibers, yarns and ropes are used in car tire reinforcements, fabrics for conveyor belts, safety belts, coated fabrics and plastic reinforcements with high-energy absorption. Polyester fiber is used as cushioning and insulating material in pillows, comforters, Polyester fabrics are highly stain-resistant— in fact, the only class of dyes which can be used to alter the color of polyester fabric are what are known as disperse dyes. Polyester fibers are spun together with natural fibers to produce a cloth with blended properties. Cotton-polyester blends can be strong, wrinkle and tear-resistant, and reduce shrinking, synthetic fibers in polyester also create materials with water, wind and environmental resistance compared to plant-derived fibers. Disadvantages of cotton and polyester blends include being less breathable than cotton and they are also less fire resistant and can melt when ignited. Polyester blends have been renamed so as to suggest their similarity or even superiority to natural fibers. Polyesters are also used to make bottles, films, tarpaulin, canoes, liquid crystal displays, holograms, filters, dielectric film for capacitors, film insulation for wire, polyesters are widely used as a finish on high-quality wood products such as guitars, pianos and vehicle/yacht interiors. Thixotropic properties of spray-applicable polyesters make them ideal for use on open-grain timbers, as they can quickly fill wood grain, cured polyesters can be sanded and polished to a high-gloss, durable finish. Liquid crystalline polyesters are among the first industrially used liquid crystal polymers and they are used for their mechanical properties and heat-resistance. These traits are important in their application as an abradable seal in jet engines. Polyesters as thermoplastics may change shape after the application of heat, while combustible at high temperatures, polyesters tend to shrink away from flames and self-extinguish upon ignition. Polyester fibers have high tenacity and E-modulus as well as low water absorption and they are used in the liquid state as casting materials, in sheet molding compounds, as fiberglass laminating resins and in non-metallic auto-body fillers. They are also used as the polymer matrix in pre-pregs. Fiberglass-reinforced unsaturated polyesters find wide application in bodies of yachts and as parts of cars
33.
British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
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The British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, based in Leicester, is the governing body in the UK for hang gliding and paragliding. The BHPA is recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the Royal Aero Club, the Association has registered schools across the country, where initial paragliding or hang gliding training must be undertaken. The BHPA was formed in 1992 by the merging of the British Hang Gliding Association, since then the sport has grown considerably, and now has over 60 affiliate clubs with a combined total of about 7,000 individual members. The Association exists primarily to safety within the sport. Each month the BHPA publishes a magazine, skywings, which is provided free to its members. The BHPA has an associated charity Flyability that aims to make hang gliding and paragliding accessible to disabled people, the BHPA club system runs on a badge competency system similar to that of the British Gliding Association. Ab initio training is a process, with each stage costing about £600. EP – Elementary Pilot badge Training and badge award takes a complete beginner and gives them ground-handling training, CP – Club Pilot badge This training and badge award takes the EP pilot to the final level of basic training. The CP training will take the EP pilot and give them experience in flying along the ridge among other more advanced areas of hang gliding or paragliding. The trainee pilot will also have to pass examinations in aviation law. Once the CP badge is gained, the pilot can join a recreational club, P – Pilot badge The next level is the Pilot badge. The club pilot will have to show, within a club environment, that they have gained a certain level of skill and ability. The aim of this badge is to allow the pilot to leave the hill. Flying cross country is not approved until the Pilot badge is gained, AP – Advanced Pilot badge This is the highest pilot badge and requires a high level of understanding and ability. Other badge levels Additionally, other badges can be earned, which include, the Club Coach badge, the Senior Club Coach badge, most flying sites in the UK have rules of operation, often agreed to after hard fought negotiations with the land-owners or tenant farmers. It is necessary to know a sites rules before flying there, the BHPA Club system in the UK is important, as it is these local clubs which negotiate with local landowners to open flying sites. As most land in the UK is privately owned and there are few public access flying sites. Many of these clubs are protective of their sites and do not allow non-members to fly them, some clubs associate with each other to widen the sites available to the clubs and their associate members
34.
Parachute
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A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag. Parachutes are usually out of light, strong cloth, originally silk. Parachutes often take the shape of a dome, but shapes may vary including some taking the shape of an inverted dome, depending on the situation, parachutes are used with a variety of loads, including people, food, equipment, space capsules, and bombs. Drogue chutes are used to aid horizontal deceleration of a vehicle, the earliest evidence for the parachute dates back to the Renaissance period. The oldest parachute design appears in a manuscript from 1470s Renaissance Italy. As a safety measure, four straps run from the ends of the rods to a waist belt, shortly after, a more sophisticated parachute was sketched by the polymath Leonardo da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus dated to ca. Here, the scale of the parachute is in a more favorable proportion to the weight of the jumper, Leonardos canopy was held open by a square wooden frame, which alters the shape of the parachute from conical to pyramidal. It is not known whether the Italian inventor was influenced by the earlier design, the feasibility of Leonardos pyramidal design was successfully tested in 2000 by Briton Adrian Nicholas and again in 2008 by the Swiss skydiver Olivier Vietti-Teppa. The Croatian polymath and inventor Faust Vrančić examined da Vincis parachute sketch and he kept the square frame, but replaced the canopy with a bulging sail-like piece of cloth that he came to realize decelerates the fall more effectively. However, in book, John Wilkins wrote about flying. The modern parachute was invented in the late 18th century by Louis-Sébastien Lenormand in France, Lenormand also sketched his device beforehand. Two years later, in 1785, Lenormand coined the word parachute by hybridizing a Latin prefix para, and chute, also in 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard demonstrated it as a means of safely disembarking from a hot-air balloon. Subsequent development of the focused on it becoming more compact. In 1797, André Garnerin made the first descent using such a parachute, Garnerin also invented the vented parachute, which improved the stability of the fall. In 1907 Charles Broadwick demonstrated two key advances in the parachute he used to jump from hot air balloons at fairs and he folded his parachute into a pack he wore on his back. And the parachute was pulled from the pack by a line attached to the balloon. When Broadwick jumped from the balloon, the line became taut, pulled the parachute from the pack. In 1911 a successful test took place with a dummy at the Eiffel tower in Paris, the puppets weight was 75 kg, the parachutes weight was 21 kg
35.
Cloud suck
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The vertical extent of a cumulus cloud is a good indicator of the strength of lift beneath it, and the potential for cloud suck. Cloud suck most commonly occurs in low pressure weather and in humid conditions, Cloud suck is typically associated with an increase in thermal updraft velocity near cloud base. As a parcel of air lifted in a thermal rises, it also cools, as the water vapour condenses, it releases its latent heat of vaporization, thereby increasing the buoyancy of the parcel. The updraft is amplified by this latent heat release, although the process that causes this amplification happens above cloud base height, the effect is often noticeable as much as 300 m below cloud base. In fact, it is this effect below cloud base, not the effect within the cloud, the telltale signs for a pilot climbing in the thermal under a sucking cloud are lift strengthening, lift getting smoother, and widening of the thermal. Paraglider pilots have reported being unable to descend in strong cloud suck, even bringing their canopies into deep spiral. She lost consciousness due to hypoxia, but regained consciousness after 30 minutes to an hour, chinese paraglider pilot He Zhongpin died after he was sucked into the same storm system and struck by lightning at 5900 m. His body was found the next day 15 km from his last known prior to entering the cloud. In 2014 Italian paraglider Paolo Antoniazzi,66 years old retired Army general, a sailplane also has the added benefit of the pilot being able to put the sailplane into a spin to descend rapidly without over speeding. Cloud suck is also a concern for powered aircraft but is not a lethal hazard. The USS Shenandoah, the first rigid airship built in the United States, at about 6,200 feet the ascent was checked, but the ship began to descend. When halfway to the ground it was hit by another updraft, ultimately the keel snapped, and the ship broke up while still more than a mile above the ground. Shenandoahs commanding officer and 13 other officers and men were killed, twenty-nine members of the crew survived the break-up, although some received serious injuries. Cumulonimbus and aviation How to Avoid Cloud Suck article on USHPA website, first published in Paragliding Magazine,2001
36.
Powered hang glider
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A foot-launched powered hang glider, also called powered harness, nanolight, or hangmotor, is a powered hang glider harness with a motor and propeller in pusher configuration. Inventors from Australia, France and England produced several successful microlight motor gliders in the early 1970s, surprisingly, what really launched the powered ultralight aviation movement in the United States was not the Rogallo flexible wing but a whole series of rigid-wing motorized hang gliders. The Icarus V flying wing appeared with its tip rudders and swept-back style wing was used as a base for some powered experiments. Hang gliding record holder Don Mitchell fitted his BF-10 with a motor, though he used the pilots legs as undercarriage. In 1963 and during his time, aeronautical engineer Barry Palmer built and experimented with a foot-launched powered hang glider at Bloomfield. However, the engine was underpowered and the craft could not achieve flight. It is now estimated that a modern flexible Rogallo wing hang glider requires at least 6 hp at the prop shaft, during 1967 Barry Palmer built what is likely the first weight-shift powered trike aircraft. On March 15,1975 John Moody successfully added a 12.5 hp West Bend engine with a 71 cm propeller to an UFM Easy Riser biplane hang glider designed by Larry Mauro. Moody opened the throttle and ran until he lifted from the surface of a lake west of Racine, Wisconsin. Later he added wheels to the aircraft and by the end of 1979, there were almost 100 competing companies selling powered ultralights, in 1979, a powered backpack called the Motolotnia - White Eagle, designed by Jerzy Kolecki, became available for sale. Other powered harnesses to reach the market in the 1980s were The Ranger, as of 2008, there are a few harness designs similar to the Swedish Aerosport Mosquito each sporting unique strengths, and produced by other FLPHG manufacturers. The latest generation of powered harnesses bear names such as Wasp, Flylight Doodle Bug, Raven, X1, Zenon, Airtime Explorer, Fillo, unofficial FLPHG World Records - Confirmed but not validated by the FAI. On 5 August 1978 French pioneer Bernard Danis mated a Soarmaster unit to this 168 square feet SK 2SS wing,1978, David Cook becomes the first pilot to cross the English Channel while flying on a foot-launched powered hang glider, he used a VJ 23F glider. The unit, including glider, was heavier than the Soarmaster and Olympus glider combination. The hang glider was a Hiway Super Scorpion with a 10 hp McCulloch 125 cc engine mounted on the keel just forward of the hang strap, the journey was plagued with mechanical failures but Breen overcame them and completed the trip. For the most part, he relied on the sun and wind for propulsion in order to teach the young cranes to soar long distances and this exhausting $250,000 USD experiment lasted for six months and finished in winter 2002. On May 24,2009, Irish pilot Patrick Laverty broke the foot-launched powered hang glider altitude world record. He used an Aeros Discus 15 hang glider coupled to a supine custom-made harness equipped with a 29 hp ROS125 engine with the Supa-Tuna tuning lights system on a WB32 carburettor
37.
Hot air balloon
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A hot air balloon is a lighter than air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket, which carries passengers, the heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant since it has a lower density than the colder air outside the envelope. As with all aircraft, hot air balloons cannot fly beyond the atmosphere, unlike gas balloons, the envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom, since the air near the bottom of the envelope is at the same pressure as the surrounding air. In modern sport balloons the envelope is made from nylon fabric. The hot air balloon is the first successful human-carrying flight technology, the first hot-air balloon flown in the Americas was launched from the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia on January 9,1793 by the French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard. Hot air balloons that can be propelled through the air rather than simply drifting with the wind are known as thermal airships, early unmanned hot air balloons were used in China. Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han kingdom, during the Three Kingdoms era and these lanterns are known as Kongming lanterns. Later that same day, Pilatre de Rozier became the human to ascend into the air, reaching an altitude of 26 m. The first free flight with passengers was made a few weeks later. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, the first military use of a hot air balloon happened in 1794 during the battle of Fleurus, when the French used the balloon lEntreprenant for observation. Modern hot air balloons, with a heat source, were developed by Ed Yost, beginning during the 1950s, his work resulted in his first successful flight. The first modern hot air balloon to be made in the United Kingdom was the Bristol Belle, presently, hot air balloons are used primarily for recreation. Hot air balloons are able to fly to extremely high altitudes, on November 26,2005 Vijaypat Singhania set the world altitude record for highest hot air balloon flight, reaching 21,027 m. He took off from downtown Mumbai, India, and landed 240 km south in Panchale, the previous record of 19,811 m had been set by Per Lindstrand on June 6,1988, in Plano, Texas. With a volume of 74 thousand cubic meters, the envelope was the largest ever built for a hot air craft. Designed to fly in the jet streams, the Pacific Flyer recorded the fastest ground speed for a manned balloon at 245 mph. The longest duration record was set by Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, Auguste Piccards grandson and it was the first nonstop trip around the world by balloon. The balloon left Château-dOex, Switzerland, on March 1,1999, the two men exceeded distance, endurance, and time records, traveling 19 days,21 hours, and 55 minutes
38.
Ultralight trike
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An ultralight trike is a type of powered hang glider where flight control is by weight-shift. These aircraft have a fabric flex-wing from which is suspended a tricycle fuselage pod driven by a pusher propeller, the pod accommodates either a solo pilot, or a pilot and a single passenger. Trikes grant affordable, accessible and exciting flying, and have been popular since the 1980s, trikes are referred to as microlights in Europe. On 1948, engineer Francis Rogallo invented a self-inflating wing which he patented on March 20,1951, F. Rogallos team adapted and extended the totally flexible principle into semi-rigid variants. This mainly involved stabilizing the leading edges with compressed air beams or rigid structures like aluminum tubes, by 1960 NASA had already made test flights of a powered heavily framed cargo aircraft called the Ryan XV-8 or Fleep and by March 1962, of a weight-shift experimental glider called Paresev. The challenge then, was to modify and fit a Rogallo flexible wing with a frame to allow it to be used as a hang glider. An Australian engineer Mike Burns developed and used the boat-towed Rogallo-airfoiled SkiPlane starting in 1962 through the 1960s, an influence through John Dickensons duplication of his device, who named his flexible-wing ski-kite the Ski Wing. Dickensons Ski Wing turned out to be stable and controllable under tow, the Ski Wing kite was first kited in public at the Grafton Jacaranda Festival in September 1963 by Rod Fuller while towed behind a motorboat. Australian manufacturers like Bill Bennett and Bill Moyes, actively developed and marketed Dickensons innovations to the world, in 1972, Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines published articles on hang gliding which further increased its popularity, as the Sky Raiders hang gliding movie released in 1975. Francis Rogallo, Barry Palmer, John Dickenson, and others never made any money out of their innovations, profit to manufacturers of hang gliders and Rogallo-winged hang gliders came once organized and insured sporting events grew in popularity. Dickensons adaptation and innovations eventually produced a foldable hang glider that dramatically reduced difficulty in control, storage, transport, assembly, in addition, the flexible wing lends itself to design changes for possible improvements. In 1961, Engineer Thomas Purcell built a towable Rogallo-wing glider with a frame, wheels. In 1964, Swiss inventor Pierre Aubert saw a photo of NASAs Fleep, as with the Fleep, his Rogallo wing was fixed and did not allow for pendulum weight-shift control. The Paraplane used two West Bend-Chrysler 820 engines of 8 hp at 6000 RPM, reduced to 4700 RPM for about 6.5 hp each, each engine had a direct drive to a 27-inch-diameter two-blade propeller made of polyester and fiberglass. On March 24,1967, Palmer registered the trike with the FAA as the Palmer Parawing D-6, serial number 1A, registration number N7144, no restrictions were noted. It was powered by a 17 hp at 5000 RPM single-cylinder JLO L297 two-stroke engine, driving a propeller designed and built by Palmer himself. The engine had electric start and the craft had fiberglass composite spring landing gear, airframe construction was bolted 6061-T6 aluminum thin-wall tube, with 6061 T-6 extruded angle. The craft took off, flew, and landed at around 30 mph, magallon is thus generally thought to have invented the trike because it was he who first marketed it
39.
Ultralight aircraft (United States)
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Ultralight aircraft in the United States are much smaller and lighter than ultralight aircraft in all other countries. In the USA ultralights are classified as vehicles and not aircraft and are not required to be registered nor is the pilot required to have a pilot license or certificate. S. S. Operators of ultralight vehicles are not required to meet any aeronautical knowledge, age, ultralight vehicles are not required to be registered or to have registration markings. Ultralight vehicle cannot be flown except between the hours of sunrise and sunset, weight allowances can be made for amphibious landing gear, and ballistic parachute systems. In the United States, while no license or training is required by law for ultralights, training is highly advisable
40.
Cumulus cloud
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Cumulo- means heap or pile in Latin. Cumulus clouds are often described as puffy, cotton-like or fluffy in appearance, Cumulus clouds, being low-level clouds, are generally less than 2,000 m in altitude unless they are the more vertical cumulus congestus form. Cumulus clouds may appear by themselves, in lines, or in clusters, Cumulus clouds are often precursors of other types of cloud, such as cumulonimbus, when influenced by weather factors such as instability, moisture, and temperature gradient. Normally, cumulus clouds produce little or no precipitation, but they can grow into the precipitation-bearing congestus or cumulonimbus clouds, Cumulus clouds can be formed from water vapor, supercooled water droplets, or ice crystals, depending upon the ambient temperature. They come in many distinct subforms, and generally cool the earth by reflecting the solar radiation. Cumulus clouds are part of the category of free-convective cumuliform clouds. The latter genus-type is sometimes categorized separately as cumulonimbiform due to its complex structure that often includes a cirriform or anvil top. There are also cumuliform clouds of limited convection that comprise stratocumulus, altocumulus and cirrocumulus and these last three genus-types are sometimes classified separately as stratocumuliform. Cumulus clouds form via atmospheric convection as air warmed by the surface begins to rise, as the air rises, the temperature drops, causing the relative humidity to rise. If convection reaches a level the RH reaches one hundred percent. At this point a positive feedback ensues, since the RH is above 100%, water condenses, releasing latent heat, warming the air. In this phase, water condenses on various nuclei present in the air. This creates the characteristic flat-bottomed puffy shape associated with cumulus clouds, the height of the cloud depends on the temperature profile of the atmosphere and the presence of any inversions. During the convection, surrounding air is entrained with the thermal, rain forms in a cumulus cloud via a process involving two non-discrete stages. The first stage occurs after the droplets coalesce onto the various nuclei, langmuir writes that surface tension in the water droplets provides a slightly higher pressure on the droplet, raising the vapor pressure by a small amount. The increased pressure results in those droplets evaporating and the water vapor condensing on the larger droplets. In the accretion phase, the raindrop begins to fall, and other droplets collide, langmuir was able to develop a formula which predicted that the droplet radius would grow unboundedly within a discrete time period. The liquid water density within a cumulus cloud has been found to change with height above the base rather than being approximately constant throughout the cloud
41.
Dust devil
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A dust devil is a strong, well-formed, and relatively long-lived whirlwind, ranging from small to large. The primary vertical motion is upward, Dust devils are usually harmless, but can on rare occasions grow large enough to pose a threat to both people and property. They are comparable to tornadoes in both are a weather phenomenon of a vertically oriented rotating column of wind. Most tornadoes are associated with a larger parent circulation, the mesocyclone on the back of a supercell thunderstorm, Dust devils form as a swirling updraft under sunny conditions during fair weather, rarely coming close to the intensity of a tornado. In the southwestern United States, a dust devil is called a dancing devil. In Death Valley, California, it may be called an auger or a dust whirl. The Navajo refer to them as chiindii, ghosts or spirits of dead Navajos, if a chindi spins clockwise, it is said to be a good spirit, if it spins counterclockwise, it is said to be a bad spirit. The Australian English term willy-willy or whirly-whirly is thought to derive from Yindjibarndi or a neighbouring language, in Aboriginal myths, willy-willies represent spirit forms. They are often quite scary spirits, and parents may warn their children if they misbehave. There is a story of the origin of the brolga in which a bad spirit descends from the sky and captures the young being, in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, and Jordan, they often reach hundreds of meters in height and are referred to as djin. Egypt has its fasset el afreet, or ghosts wind, in Iran, this kind of wind is usually called Gerd Baad, or round wind. Among the Kikuyu of Kenya, the dust devil is known as ngoma cia aka, in Brazil, a dust devil is called redemoinho after moinho de vento. In some traditions, it contains a dancing Saci, also, sometimes it is associated to local religion and beliefs. In Portugal it is known locally as remoinho, Dust devils form when hot air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler, low-pressure air above it. If conditions are just right, the air may begin to rotate, the secondary flow in the dust devil causes other hot air to speed horizontally inward to the bottom of the newly forming vortex. As more hot air rushes in toward the developing vortex to replace the air that is rising, a dust devil, fully formed, is a funnel-like chimney through which hot air moves, both upwards and in a circle. As the hot air rises, it cools, loses its buoyancy, as it rises, it displaces air which descends outside the core of the vortex. This cool air returning acts as a balance against the spinning hot-air outer wall, the spinning effect, along with surface friction, usually will produce a forward momentum
42.
Variometer
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It can be calibrated in feet per minute, knots or metres per second, depending on country and type of aircraft. In powered flight the pilot makes frequent use of the VSI to ascertain that level flight is being maintained, in gliding, the instrument is used almost continuously during normal flight, often with an audible output, to inform the pilot of rising or sinking air. It is usual for gliders to be equipped with more than one type of variometer, the simpler type does not need an external source of power and can therefore be relied upon to function regardless of whether a battery or power source has been fitted. The electronic type with audio needs a source to be operative during the flight. The instrument is of little interest during launching and landing, with the exception of aerotow, variometers measure the rate of change of altitude by detecting the change in air pressure as altitude changes. A simple variometer can be constructed by adding a large reservoir to augment the capacity of a common aircraft rate-of-climb instrument. In its simplest electronic form, the instrument consists of an air bottle connected to the atmosphere through a sensitive air flow meter. The faster the aircraft is ascending, the faster the air flows, air flowing out of the bottle indicates that the altitude of the aircraft is increasing. Air flowing into the bottle indicates that the aircraft is descending and these designs tend to be smaller as they do not need the air bottle. They are more reliable as there is no bottle to be affected by changes in temperature, the term vertical speed indicator or VSI is most often used for the instrument when it is installed in a powered aircraft. The term variometer is most often used when the instrument is installed in a glider or sailplane, an Inertial-lead or Instantaneous VSI uses accelerometers to provide a quicker response to changes in vertical speed. Human beings, unlike birds and other flying animals, are not able directly to sense climb, before the invention of the variometer, sailplane pilots found it very hard to soar. Although they could readily detect abrupt changes in speed, their senses did not allow them to distinguish lift from sink. The actual climb/sink rate could not even be guessed at, unless there was some clear fixed visual reference nearby, being near a fixed reference means being near to a hillside, or to the ground. Except when hill-soaring, these are generally very unprofitable positions for glider pilots to be in, the most useful forms of lift are found at higher altitudes and it is very hard for a pilot to detect or exploit them without the use of a variometer. After the variometer was invented in 1929 by Alexander Lippisch and Robert Kronfeld, variometers also became important in foot-launch hang gliding, where the open-to-air pilot hears the wind but needs the variometer to help him or her to detect regions of rising or sinking air. In early hang gliding, variometers were not needed for the short flights or flights close to ridge lift, but the variometer became key as pilots began making longer flights. The first portable variometer for use in hang gliders was the Colver Variometer by Colver Soaring Instruments which served to extend the sport into cross-country thermal flying, as the sport of gliding developed, however, it was found that these very simple uncompensated instruments had their limitations
43.
Windward
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Windward is the direction upwind from the point of reference. Leeward is the direction downwind from the point of reference, the side of a ship that is towards the leeward is its lee side. If the vessel is heeling under the pressure of the wind, during the age of sail, the term weather was used as a synonym for windward in some contexts, as in the weather gage. Windward and leeward directions are important factors to consider when sailing a sailing ship, other terms with broadly the same meaning are widely used, particularly upwind and downwind. The windward vessel is normally the more maneuverable vessel, for this reason, rule 12 of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea stipulates that the windward vessel gives way to the leeward vessel. The opposing warship to leeward could often do little but comply without exposing itself unduly and this was particularly important once artillery was introduced to naval warfare. The ships heeled away from the wind so that the vessel was exposing part of her bottom to shot. Leeward and windward refer respectively to what a game stalker would call downwind and upwind, the terms are used by seamen in relation to their ships but also in reference to islands in an archipelago and to the different sides of a single island. In the latter case, the side is that side of an island subject to the prevailing wind. The leeward side is the side protected by the elevation of the island from the prevailing wind, thus, leeward or windward siting is an important weather and climate factor on oceanic islands. In the case of an archipelago, windward islands are upwind and leeward islands are the downwind ones
44.
Lee wave
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In meteorology, lee waves are atmospheric stationary waves. The most common form is mountain waves, which are atmospheric internal gravity waves and these were discovered in 1933 by two German glider pilots, Hans Deutschmann and Wolf Hirth, above the Krkonoše. They can also be caused by the wind blowing over an escarpment or plateau. The vertical motion forces periodic changes in speed and direction of the air within this air current and they always occur in groups on the lee side of the terrain that triggers them. Usually a turbulent vortex, with its axis of rotation parallel to the range, is generated around the first trough. The strongest lee waves are produced when the lapse rate shows a layer above the obstruction, with an unstable layer above. Lee waves are a form of gravity waves produced when stably stratified flow is forced over an obstacle. This disturbance elevates air parcels above their level of neutral buoyancy, oscillations tilted off the vertical axis at an angle of ϕ will occur at a lower frequency of N cos ϕ. These air parcel oscillations occur in concert, parallel to the wave fronts and these wave fronts represent extrema in the perturbed pressure field, while the areas between wave fronts represent extrema in the perturbed buoyancy field. Energy is transmitted along the fronts, which is the direction of the wave group velocity. In contrast, the propagation of the waves points perpendicular to energy transmission. Waves may also form in dry air without cloud markers, Wave clouds do not move downwind as clouds usually do, but remain fixed in position relative to the obstruction that forms them. Around the crest of the wave, adiabatic expansion cooling can form a cloud in shape of a lens, multiple lenticular clouds can be stacked on top of each other if there are alternating layers of relatively dry and moist air aloft. The rotor may generate cumulus or cumulus fractus in its upwelling portion, the rotor cloud looks like a line of cumulus. It forms on the lee side and parallel to the ridge line and its base is near the height of the mountain peak, though the top can extend well above the peak and can merge with the lenticular clouds above. Rotor clouds have ragged edges and are dangerously turbulent. A foehn wall cloud may exist at the lee side of the mountains, a pileus or cap cloud, similar to a lenticular cloud, may form above the mountain or cumulus cloud generating the wave. Adiabatic compression heating in the trough of each wave oscillation may also evaporate cumulus or stratus clouds in the airmass, lee waves provide a possibility for gliders to gain altitude or fly long distances when soaring
