1.
Three-surface aircraft
–
A three-surface aircraft or sometimes three-lifting-surface aircraft has a foreplane, a central wing and a tailplane. The central wing surface always provides lift and is usually the largest, while the functions of the fore, in civil aircraft the three surface configuration may be used to give safe stalling characteristics and short takeoff and landing performance. It is also claimed to allow minimizing the total wing surface area, in combat aircraft this configuration may also be used to enhance maneuverability both before and beyond the stall, often in conjunction with vectored thrust. An early designation used in 1911 was Three plane system, the Fernic designs of the 1920s were referred to as tandem. While there are indeed two lifting wing surfaces in tandem, the forms a third horizontal surface. During the pioneer years of aviation a number of aircraft were flown with both fore and aft auxiliary surfaces, the issue of horizontal stability was poorly understood and typically pitch control was on the front surface with the rear surface also lifting, leading to instability problems. The Kress Drachenflieger of 1901 and Dufaux triplane of 1908 had insufficient power to take off, more successful types included the Voisin-Farman I and Curtiss No.1. By the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the surface had become the conventional configuration. The Fokker V.8 of 1917 and Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano of 1921 were both failures, in 1920s George Fernic developed the idea of two lifting surfaces in tandem, together with a conventional tailplane. This soft stall provides a level of safety in the stall which is not usually present in conventional designs, the Fernic T-9, a three-surface monoplane, flew in 1929. Fernic was killed in an accident while flying its successor the FT-10 Cruisaire, in the three-surface design the third, tail surface does not stall and provides better controllability. In the 1950s James Robertson developed his experimental Skyshark and this was a broadly conventional design but with a variety of features, including a small canard foreplane, intended to give not only a safe stall but good Short takeoff and landing performance. The foreplane allowed STOL performance to be achieved without the angles of attack. The aircraft was evaluated by the US Army, robertsons system was commercialised as the Wren 460, a modified Cessna light aircraft. This in turn was later licensed and produced during the 1980s as the Peterson 260SE, in 2006 a ruggedised variant, the Peterson Katmai, entered production. A broadly similar approach is taken by the 1988 Eagle-XTS and its derivatives, in the United States the experimental Grumman X-29 flew in 1984 and a modified McDonnell Douglas F-15, the F-15 STOL/MTD, in 1988 but these designs were not followed up. In the Soviet Union a Sukhoi Su-27 modified with canard foreplanes flew in 1985, also in 1979, Piaggio began design studies on a three-surface civil twin turboprop which, in collaboration with Learjet, would emerge as the Piaggio P.180 Avanti. This type first flew in 1986 and entered service in 1990, in the Avanti, the three-surface configuration is claimed to significantly reduce wing size, weight and drag compared to the conventional equivalent
2.
Fixed-wing aircraft
–
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft, such as an aeroplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the vehicles forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft, in which the form a rotor mounted on a spinning shaft. Glider fixed-wing aircraft, including free-flying gliders of various kinds and tethered kites, powered fixed-wing aircraft that gain forward thrust from an engine include powered paragliders, powered hang gliders and some ground effect vehicles. The wings of an aircraft are not necessarily rigid, kites, hang-gliders, variable-sweep wing aircraft. Most fixed-wing aircraft are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, kites were used approximately 2,800 years ago in China, where materials ideal for kite building were readily available. Some authors hold that leaf kites were being flown much earlier in what is now Indonesia, by at least 549 AD paper kites were being flown, as it was recorded in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources list other uses of kites for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, and communication for military operations. Stories of kites were 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. This machine may have been suspended for its flight, some of the earliest recorded attempts with gliders were those by the 9th-century poet Abbas Ibn Firnas and the 11th-century monk Eilmer of Malmesbury, both experiments injured their pilots. In 1799, Sir George Cayley set forth the concept of the aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion. Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, in 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first powered flight, by having his glider LAlbatros artificiel pulled by a horse on a beach. In 1884, the American John J. Montgomery made controlled flights in a glider as a part of a series of gliders built between 1883-1886, other aviators who made similar flights at that time were Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher, and Octave Chanute. In the 1890s, Lawrence Hargrave conducted research on wing structures and his box kite designs were widely adopted. Although he also developed a type of aircraft engine, he did not create. Sir Hiram Maxim built a craft that weighed 3.5 tons, in 1894, his machine was tested with overhead rails to prevent it from rising. The test showed that it had enough lift to take off, the craft was uncontrollable, which Maxim, it is presumed, realized, because he subsequently abandoned work on it. By 1905, the Wright Flyer III was capable of fully controllable, stable flight for substantial periods, the flight was certified by the FAI. This was the first controlled flight, to be officially recognised, the Bleriot VIII design of 1908 was an early aircraft design that had the modern monoplane tractor configuration
3.
Tailplane
–
Not all fixed-wing aircraft have tailplanes. The function of the tailplane is to provide stability and control, in particular, the tailplane helps adjust for changes in the center of pressure or center of gravity caused by changes in speed and attitude, fuel consumption, or dropping cargo or payload. The tailplane comprises the fixed horizontal stabiliser and movable elevator. Besides its planform, it is characterised by, Number of tailplanes - from 0 to 3 Location of tailplane - mounted high, mid or low on the fuselage, fixed stabilizer and movable elevator surfaces, or a single combined stabilator or flying tail. This means that any disturbance which raises the nose produces a pitching moment which tends to raise the nose further. The longitudinal stability of an aircraft may change when it is flown hands-off, i. e. when the controls are subject to aerodynamic forces. In addition to giving a restoring force a tailplane gives damping and this is caused by the relative wind seen by the tail as the aircraft rotates around the center of mass. For example, when the aircraft is oscillating, but is aligned with the overall vehicles motion. Depending on the design and flight regime, its tailplane may create positive lift or negative lift. It is sometimes assumed that on an aircraft this will always be a net down force. On some pioneer designs, such as the Bleriot XI, the center of gravity was between the center of pressure from the wings and the tailplane, which provided positive lift. However this arrangement can be unstable and these often had severe handling issues. Later examples of aircraft from World War I and onwards into the years that had positive lift tailplanes include, chronologically. But with care a lifting tailplane can be made stable, an example is provided by the Bachem Ba 349 Natter VTOL rocket-powered interceptor, which had a lifting tail and was both stable and controllable in flight. In many modern aircraft, the center of gravity is placed ahead of the center of pressure of the main wing. The wing lift then exerts a pitch-down moment around the centre of gravity, a disadvantage is that it generates trim drag. Using a computer to control the elevator allows aerodynamically unstable aircraft to be flown in the same manner, aircraft such as the F-16 are flown with artificial stability. The advantage of this is a significant reduction drag caused by the tailplane, at transonic speeds, an aircraft can experience a shift rearwards in the center of pressure due to the buildup and movement of shockwaves
4.
Canard (aeronautics)
–
A canard is an aeronautical arrangement wherein a small forewing or foreplane is placed forward of the main wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. The term canard may be used to describe the aircraft itself, despite the use of a canard surface on the first powered aeroplane, the Wright Flyer of 1903, canard designs were not built in quantity until the appearance of the Saab Viggen jet fighter in 1967. The aerodynamics of the configuration are complex and require careful analysis. Canard foreplanes, whether used in a canard or three-surface configuration, have important consequences on the aircraft’s longitudinal equilibrium, the term “canard” arose from the appearance of the Santos-Dumont 14-bis of 1906, which was said to be reminiscent of a duck with its neck stretched out in flight. The Wright Brothers began experimenting with the foreplane configuration around 1900 and their first kite included a front surface for pitch control and they adopted this configuration for their first Flyer. They were suspicious of the aft tail because Otto Lilienthal had been killed in a glider with one, the Wrights realised that a foreplane would tend to destabilise an aeroplane but expected it to be a better control surface, in addition to being visible to the pilot in flight. They believed it impossible to provide control and stability in a single design, and opted for control. Many pioneers initially followed the Wrights lead, the Fabre Hydravion of 1910 was the first floatplane to fly and had a foreplane. But canard behaviour was not properly understood and other European pioneers—among them, Louis Blériot—were establishing the tailplane as the safer, some, including the Wrights, experimented with both fore and aft planes on the same aircraft, now known as the three surface configuration. After 1911, few canard types would be produced for many decades, in 1914 W. E. Evans commented that the Canard type model has practically received its death-blow so far as scientific models are concerned. Experiments continued sporadically for several decades, in 1917 de Bruyère constructed his C1 biplane fighter, having a canard foreplane and rear-mounted pusher propellor. First flown in 1927, the experimental Focke-Wulf F19 Ente was more successful, two examples were built and one of them continued flying until 1931. Immediately before and during World War II several experimental canard fighters were flown, including the Ambrosini SS.4, Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender and Kyūshū J7W1 Shinden. These were attempts at using the configuration to give advantages in areas such as performance, armament disposition or pilot view. The Shinden was ordered into production off the board but hostilities ceased before any other than prototypes had flown. But the stability and control problems encountered prevented widespread adoption, in 1963 the Swedish company Saab patented a delta-winged design which overcame the earlier problems, in what has become known as the close-coupled canard. It was built as the Saab 37 Viggen and in 1967 became the first modern aircraft to enter production. The success of this aircraft spurred many designers, and canard surfaces sprouted on a number of derived from the popular Dassault Mirage delta-winged jet fighter
5.
Biplane
–
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, while a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane, it produces more drag than a similar unbraced or cantilever monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and the quest for greater speed made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s. Biplanes offer several advantages over conventional cantilever monoplane designs, they permit lighter wing structures, low wing loading, however, interference between the airflow over each wing increases drag substantially, and biplanes generally need extensive bracing, which causes additional drag. Biplanes are distinguished from tandem wing arrangements, where the wings are placed forward and aft, instead of above, the term is also occasionally used in biology, to describe the wings of some flying animals. In a biplane aircraft, two wings are placed one above the other, either or both of the main wings can support ailerons, while flaps are more usually positioned on the lower wing. Bracing is nearly always added between the upper and lower wings, in the form of wires and/or slender interplane struts positioned symmetrically on either side of the fuselage. The primary advantage of the biplane over the traditional single plane or monoplane is to combine great stiffness with light weight. A braced monoplane wing must support itself fully, while the two wings of a help to stiffen each other. The biplane is therefore inherently stiffer than the monoplane, also, the structural forces in the spars of a biplane wing tend to be lower, so the wing can use less material to obtain the same overall strength and is therefore much lighter. A disadvantage of the biplane was the need for extra struts to space the wings apart, the low power supplied by the engines available in the first years of aviation meant that aeroplanes could only fly slowly. This required an even lower stalling speed, which in turn required a low wing loading, combining both large wing area with light weight. A biplane wing of a span and chord has twice the area of a monoplane the same size and so can fly more slowly. Alternatively, a wing of the same area as a monoplane has lower span and chord, reducing the structural forces. Biplanes suffer aerodynamic interference between the two planes and this means that a biplane does not in practice obtain twice the lift of the similarly-sized monoplane. The farther apart the wings are spaced the less the interference, given the slow speed and low power of early aircraft, the drag penalty of the wires and struts and the mutual interference of airflows were relatively minor and acceptable factors. The smaller biplane wing also allows greater maneuverability, during World War One, this further enhanced the dominance of the biplane and, despite the need for speed, military aircraft were among the last to abandon the biplane form. Specialist sports Aerobatic biplanes are still occasionally made, biplanes were originally designed with the wings positioned directly one above the other
6.
Chord (aeronautics)
–
In aeronautics, chord refers to the imaginary straight line joining the leading and trailing edges of an aerofoil. The chord length is the distance between the edge and the point on the leading edge where the chord intersects the leading edge. The point on the edge that is used to define the chord can be defined as either the surface point of minimum radius. The wing, horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer and propeller of an aircraft are all based on sections. The chord of a wing, stabilizer and propeller is determined by measuring the distance between leading and trailing edges in the direction of the airflow, the term chord is also applied to the width of wing flaps, ailerons and rudder on an aircraft. The term is applied to aerofoils in gas turbine engines such as turbojet, turboprop. Most wings are not rectangular so they have a different chord at different positions along their span, to give a characteristic figure that can be compared among various wing shapes, the mean aerodynamic chord, or MAC, is used. The MAC is somewhat complex to calculate, because most wings vary in chord over the span. This means that lift is generated on the wider inner portions. Standard mean chord is defined as wing area divided by wing span, SMC = S b, thus, the SMC is the chord of a rectangular wing with the same area and span as those of the given wing. This is a geometric figure and is rarely used in aerodynamics. Mean aerodynamic chord is defined as, MAC =2 S ∫0 b 2 c 2 d y, other terms are as for SMC. The MAC is a representation of the whole wing. The pressure distribution over the wing can be reduced to a single lift force on. Therefore, not only the length but also the position of MAC is often important. In particular, the position of center of mass of an aircraft is measured relative to the MAC. Note that the figure to the right implies that the MAC occurs at a point where leading or trailing edge sweep changes, in general, this is not the case. Any shape other than a simple trapezoid requires evaluation of the above integral, the ratio of the length of a rectangular-planform wing to its chord is known as the aspect ratio, an important indicator of the lift-induced drag the wing will create
7.
Aspect ratio
–
The aspect ratio of a geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side – the ratio of width to height. The aspect ratio is expressed as two separated by a colon. The values x and y do not represent actual widths and heights but, rather, as an example,8,5,16,10 and 1.6,1 are three ways of representing the same aspect ratio. In objects of more than two dimensions, such as hyperrectangles, the ratio can still be defined as the ratio of the longest side to the shortest side. The term is most commonly used reference to, Graphic / image Image aspect ratio Display aspect ratio. A square has the smallest possible ratio of 1,1. An ellipse with a ratio of 1,1 is a circle. A circle has the minimal DWAR which is 1, a square has a DWAR of sqrt. The Cube-Volume Aspect Ratio of a set is the d-th root of the ratio of the d-volume of the smallest enclosing axes-parallel d-cube. A square has the minimal CVAR which is 1, a circle has a CVAR of sqrt. An axis-parallel rectangle of width W and height H, where W>H, has a CVAR of sqrt = sqrt, if the dimension d is fixed, then all reasonable definitions of aspect ratio are equivalent to within constant factors. Aspect ratios are mathematically expressed as x, y, in digital images there is a subtle distinction between the Display Aspect Ratio and the Storage Aspect Ratio, see Distinctions. Ratio Equidimensional ratios in 3D List of film formats Squeeze mapping Vertical orientation
8.
Sopwith Triplane
–
The Sopwith Triplane was a British single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War. It was the first military triplane to see operational service, the Triplane joined Royal Naval Air Service squadrons in early 1917 and was immediately successful. It was nevertheless built in small numbers and was withdrawn from active service as Sopwith Camels arrived in the latter half of 1917. Surviving Triplanes continued to serve as trainers until the end of the war. The Triplane began as a venture by the Sopwith Aviation Company. Ailerons were fitted to all three wings, by using the variable incidence tailplane, the aircraft could be trimmed to fly hands-off. The introduction of a smaller 8 ft span tailplane in February 1917 improved elevator response, the Triplane was initially powered by the 110 hp Clerget 9Z nine-cylinder rotary engine, but most production examples were fitted with the 130 hp Clerget 9B rotary. At least one Triplane was tested with a 110 hp Le Rhône rotary engine, the initial prototype of what was to be referred to simply as the Triplane first flew on 28 May 1916, with Sopwith test pilot Harry Hawker at the controls. Within three minutes of takeoff, Hawker startled onlookers by looping the aircraft, serial N500, three times in succession, the Triplane was very agile, with effective, well-harmonised controls. When maneuvering, however, the Triplane presented an unusual appearance, one observer noted that the aircraft looked like a drunken flight of steps when rolling. In July 1916, N500 was sent to Dunkirk for evaluation with A Naval Squadron,1 Naval Wing, the second prototype, serial N504, was fitted with a 130 hp Clerget 9B. N504 first flew in August 1916 and was sent to France in December. This aircraft served as a trainer for several squadrons. Seeking modern aircraft for the Royal Flying Corps, the War Office also issued a contract to Clayton & Shuttleworth for 106 Triplanes, in February 1917, the War Office agreed to exchange its Triplane orders for the Admiraltys SPAD S. VII contracts. For unknown reasons, the RFC Triplane contract issued to Clayton & Shuttleworth was simply cancelled rather than being transferred to the RNAS, total production amounted to 147 aircraft. No.1 Naval Squadron became fully operational with the Triplane by December 1916, but the squadron did not see any significant action until February 1917, No.8 Naval Squadron received its Triplanes in February 1917. Nos.9 and 10 Naval Squadrons equipped with the type between April and May 1917, the only other major operator of the Triplane was a French naval squadron based at Dunkirk, which received 17 aircraft. The Triplanes combat debut was highly successful, the new fighters exceptional rate of climb and high service ceiling gave it a marked advantage over the Albatros D. III, though the Triplane was slower in a dive
9.
Sopwith Pup
–
The Sopwith Pup was a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It entered service with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in the autumn of 1916, with pleasant flying characteristics and good manoeuvrability, the aircraft proved very successful. The Pup was eventually outclassed by newer German fighters, but it was not completely replaced on the Western Front until the end of 1917, remaining Pups were relegated to Home Defence and training units. The Pups docile flying characteristics also made it ideal for use in aircraft carrier deck landing, in 1915, Sopwith produced a personal aircraft for the companys test pilot Harry Hawker, a single-seat, tractor biplane powered by a 50 hp Gnome rotary engine. This became known as Hawkers Runabout, another four aircraft have been tentatively identified as Sopwith Sparrows. Sopwith next developed a fighter that was heavily influenced by this design, though more powerful. The resulting aircraft was a single-bay, single-seat biplane with a fabric-covered, wooden framework and staggered, the cross-axle type main landing gear was supported by V-struts attached to the lower fuselage longerons. The prototype and most production Pups were powered by the 80 hp Le Rhône 9C rotary engine, armament was a single 0.303 inch Vickers machine gun synchronized with the Sopwith-Kauper synchronizer. A prototype was completed in February 1916 and sent to Upavon for testing in late March, the Royal Naval Air Service quickly ordered two more prototypes, then placed a production order. Sopwith was heavily engaged in production of the 1½ Strutter, the Royal Flying Corps also placed large orders for Pups. The RFC orders were undertaken by sub-contractors Standard Motor Co. deliveries did not commence until the beginning of 1917. A total of 1,770 Pups were built by Sopwith, Standard Motor Co. Whitehead Aircraft, in May 1916, the RNAS received its first Pups for operational trials with A Naval Squadron. The first RFC Squadron to re-equip with the Pup was No.54 Squadron, the Pup quickly proved its superiority over the early Fokker, Halberstadt and Albatros biplanes. After encountering the Pup in combat, Manfred von Richthofen said, the Pups light weight and generous wing area gave it a good rate of climb. Agility was enhanced by installing ailerons on both wings, the Pup had half the horsepower and armament of the German Albatros D. III, but was much more manoeuvrable, especially over 15,000 ft due to its low wing loading. Ace James McCudden stated that When it came to manoeuvring, the Sopwith would turn twice to an Albatros once and it was a remarkably fine machine for general all-round flying. It was so light and well surfaced that after a little practice one could almost land it on a tennis court. However, the Pup was also longitudinally unstable, at the peak of its operational deployment, the Pup equipped only four RNAS squadrons, and three RFC squadrons
10.
Fokker Dr.I
–
The Fokker Dr. I was a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The Dr. I saw widespread service in the spring of 1918 and it became famous as the aircraft in which Manfred von Richthofen gained his last 19 victories, and in which he was killed on 21 April 1918. In February 1917, the Sopwith Triplane began to appear over the Western Front, despite its single Vickers machine gun armament, the Sopwith swiftly proved itself superior to the more heavily armed Albatros fighters then in use by the Luftstreitkräfte. In April 1917, Anthony Fokker viewed a captured Sopwith Triplane while visiting Jasta 11, upon his return to the Schwerin factory, Fokker instructed Reinhold Platz to build a triplane, but gave him no further information about the Sopwith design. Initial tests revealed that the V.4 had unacceptably high control forces resulting from the use of unbalanced ailerons, instead of submitting the V.4 for a type test, Fokker produced a revised prototype designated V.5. The most notable changes were the introduction of horn-balanced ailerons and elevators, the V.5 also featured interplane struts, which were not necessary from a structural standpoint, but which minimized wing flexing. On 14 July 1917, Idflieg issued an order for 20 pre-production aircraft, the V.5 prototype, serial 101/17, was tested to destruction at Adlershof on 11 August 1917. The first two pre-production triplanes were designated F. I, in accord with Idfliegs early class prefix for triplanes, the two aircraft were sent to Jastas 10 and 11 for combat evaluation, arriving at Markebeeke, Belgium on 28 August 1917. Richthofen first flew 102/17 on 1 September 1917 and shot two enemy aircraft in the next two days. He reported to the Kogenluft that the F. I was superior to the Sopwith Triplane, Richthofen recommended that fighter squadrons be reequipped with the new aircraft as soon as possible. The remaining pre-production aircraft, designated Dr. I, were delivered to Jasta 11, Idflieg issued a production order for 100 triplanes in September, followed by an order for 200 in November. Apart from the leading edge of the tailplane, these aircraft were almost identical to the F. I. The primary distinguishing feature was the addition of wingtip skids, which proved necessary because the aircraft was tricky to land, in October, Fokker began delivering the Dr. I to squadrons within Richthofens Jagdgeschwader I. Compared to the Albatros and Pfalz fighters, the Dr. I offered exceptional maneuverability, though the ailerons were not very effective, the rudder and elevator controls were light and powerful. Rapid turns, especially to the right, were facilitated by the triplanes marked directional instability, vizefeldwebel Franz Hemer of Jasta 6 said, The triplane was my favorite fighting machine because it had such wonderful flying qualities. I could let myself stunt – looping and rolling – and could avoid an enemy by diving with perfect safety, the triplane had to be given up because although it was very maneuverable, it was no longer fast enough. As Hemer noted, the Dr. I was considerably slower than contemporary Allied fighters in level flight and in a dive. While initial rate of climb was excellent, performance fell off dramatically at higher altitudes because of the low compression of the Oberursel Ur. II, as the war continued, chronic shortages of castor oil made rotary operation increasingly difficult
11.
Fokker D.VI
–
The Fokker D. VI was a German fighter aircraft built in limited numbers at the end of World War I. The D. VI served in the German and Austro-Hungarian air services, in late 1917, Fokker-Flugzeugwerke built two small biplane prototypes designated V.13. These aircraft combined a set of scaled-down D. VII wings with a fuselage and empennage closely mirroring those of the earlier Dr. I. The first prototype utilized an 82 kW Oberursel Ur. II rotary engine, Fokker submitted both prototypes at the Adlershof fighter trials in late January 1918. At that time, Fokker reengined the first prototype with the 108 kW Oberursel Ur. III, pilots found the V. 13s to be maneuverable and easy to fly. Idflieg issued a contract after the V. 13s were ultimately judged to be the best rotary powered entries of the competition. The new aircraft, designated D. VI, passed its Typenprüfung on 15 March 1918, the production aircraft utilized the Oberursel Ur. II, which was the only readily available German rotary engine. Idflieg authorized low level production pending availability of the more powerful Goebel Goe. III, deliveries commenced in April and ceased in August, after only 59 aircraft had been completed. Seven aircraft were delivered to the Austro-Hungarian Air Service, in service, the D. VI was hampered by the low power of the Oberursel Ur. II. Moreover, the lack of oil and the poor quality of Voltol. The D. VI remained in service until September 1918
12.
Caproni Ca.4
–
The Caproni Ca.4 was an Italian heavy bomber of the World War I era. After designing the successful Ca.3, Gianni Caproni of the Caproni works designed a bigger aircraft. The twin booms carried a single elevator and three fins, the main landing gear was fixed and consisted of two sets of four wheels each. The most distinguishing feature of the new aircraft was that it was built in a rare triplane layout, the huge new bomber was accepted by the Italian Army under the military designation Ca.4, but it was produced in several variants, differing in factory designations. The Ca.4 was a three-engine, twin-fuselage triplane of wooden construction with a fabric-covered frame, an open central nacelle was attached to the undersurface of the center wing. It contained a single engine, pilot, and forward gunner. The remaining engines were mounted at the front of each fuselage. At least one variation of the central nacelle seated the crew in a two-seat tandem format with the position for a gunner/pilot. Others used a forward gunner with side-by-side pilot positions to the rear of the gunner, two rear gunners were positioned, one in each boom behind the center wing. An engineer or second pilot could also be accommodated there, armament consisted of four Revelli 6.5 mm or 7.7 mm machine guns in front ring mounts and two boom ring mounts. Bombs were suspended in a bay, which was a long. Photographs show at least four different arrangements with regard to the bombing nacelle, no nacelle - presumably not a combat configuration. A tall, narrow nacelle that housed approximately 12 internal bombs vertically, a shorter nacelle that may have been the lower half of the tall nacelle but with no external bombs. No nacelle but with a single long bomb/torpedo slung under the bottom wing, note, during the war, all these aircraft were designated Ca.4 by the Italian Army. At the time, Caproni referred to the designs by the total power of their engines. After the war, Caproni devised a new scheme for their own designs—these are used below. Caproni Ca.41 - production variant, essentially similar to the prototype, a few Ca. 41s were powered by 186 kW Isotta Fraschini engines instead. These were referred to internally by Caproni as the Caproni 750 hp, a total of 41 were built
13.
Caproni Ca.60
–
The Caproni Ca.60 Transaereo, often referred to as the Noviplano or Capronissimo, was the prototype of a large nine-wing flying boat intended to become a 100-passenger transatlantic airliner. It featured eight engines and three sets of triple wings, only one example of this aircraft, designed by Italian aviation pioneer Gianni Caproni, was built by the Caproni company. It was tested on Lake Maggiore in 1921, its maiden flight took place on February 12 or March 2. Its second flight was March 4, shortly after takeoff, the aircraft crashed on the water surface and broke up upon impact. The Ca.60 was further damaged when the wreck was towed to shore and, in spite of Capronis intention to rebuild the aircraft, the project was soon abandoned because of its excessive cost. The few surviving parts are on display at the Gianni Caproni Museum of Aeronautics and at the Volandia aviation museum in Italy.32, Ca.33, Ca.36 and Ca.40. The end of the conflict, however, caused a decrease in the demand for bombers in the Italian military. As a result, Caproni, like many other entrepreneurs of the time and it was after the war, however, that Caproni began designing a huge and ambitious passenger flying boat, he first took out a patent on a design of this kind on February 6,1919. The idea of a large multi-engined flying boat designed for carrying passengers on long-range flights was considered, at the time, Caproni believed that, to attain these objectives, rearranging wartime aircraft would not be sufficient. On the contrary, he thought that a new generation of airliners had to supersede the converted leftovers from the war, Caproni was aware of the safety problems connected to passenger flights, such concerns being the root of Douhets criticism. So, he concentrated on improving the aircrafts reliability and minimizing the damage that could be caused by possible accidents. First of all, he conceived his large seaplane as an aircraft featuring enough motors to allow it to keep flying even in case of the failure of one or more of them. He also considered the opportunity of providing the aircraft with engines that could be shut off once the cruise altitude had been reached. The seaplane configuration assured the capability of performing relatively safe and easy emergency water landings on virtually any water surface calm, moreover, Caproni intended to improve the comfort of the passengers by increasing the cruise altitude, which he meant to achieve with turbochargers and variable-pitch propellers. The construction of the model 3000, or Transaereo, began in the half of 1919. The earliest reference to this event is found in a French daily newspaper of August 10,1919, in September an air fair took place at the Caproni factory in Taliedo, not far from Milan, during which the new, ambitious project was heavily publicized. Later in September, Caproni experimented with a Caproni Ca.4 seaplane to improve his calculations for the Transaereo, in 1920, the huge hangar where most of the construction of the Transaereo was to take place was built in Sesto Calende, on the shore of Lake Maggiore. The several parts built by Capronis subcontractors, many of whom had collaborated with the company during the Great War, were assembled here
14.
Fuselage
–
The fuselage is an aircrafts main body section. It holds crew, passengers, and cargo, the fuselage also serves to position control and stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to lifting surfaces, which is required for aircraft stability and maneuverability. This type of structure is still in use in lightweight aircraft using welded steel tube trusses. A box truss fuselage structure can also be out of wood—often covered with plywood. Simple box structures may be rounded by the addition of supported lightweight stringers, allowing the fabric covering to form an aerodynamic shape. Geodesic structural elements were used by Barnes Wallis for British Vickers between the wars and into World War II to form the whole of the fuselage, including its aerodynamic shape. In this type of construction multiple flat strip stringers are wound about the formers in opposite spiral directions and this proved to be light, strong, and rigid and had the advantage of being made almost entirely of wood. A similar construction using aluminum alloy was used in the Vickers Warwick with less materials than would be required for other structural types, the geodesic structure is also redundant and so can survive localized damage without catastrophic failure. A fabric covering over the completed the aerodynamic shell. The logical evolution of this is the creation of fuselages using molded plywood, in this method, the exterior surface of the fuselage is also the primary structure. A typical early form of this was built using molded plywood, a later form of this structure uses fiberglass cloth impregnated with polyester or epoxy resin, instead of plywood, as the skin. An example of a larger molded plywood aircraft is the de Havilland Mosquito fighter/light bomber of World War II, no plywood-skin fuselage is truly monocoque, since stiffening elements are incorporated into the structure to carry concentrated loads that would otherwise buckle the thin skin. The use of molded fiberglass using negative molds is prevalent in the production of many modern sailplanes. The use of molded composites for fuselage structures is being extended to large aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This is the method of constructing an all-aluminum fuselage. First, a series of frames in the shape of the cross sections are held in position on a rigid fixture. These frames are then joined with lightweight longitudinal elements called stringers and these are in turn covered with a skin of sheet aluminum, attached by riveting or by bonding with special adhesives. The fixture is then disassembled and removed from the fuselage shell, which is then fitted out with wiring, controls
15.
Bracing (aeronautics)
–
In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in compression or tension as the need arises, and/or wires, which act only in tension. Another disadvantage of bracing wires is that they require routine checking and adjustment, or rigging, during the early years of aviation, bracing was a universal feature of all forms of aeroplane, including the monoplanes and biplanes which were then equally common. Today, bracing in the form of lift struts is still used for light commercial designs where a high wing. Bracing works by creating a triangulated truss structure which resists bending or twisting, by comparison, an unbraced cantilever structure bends easily unless it carries a lot of heavy reinforcement. Making the structure allows it to be much lighter and stiffer. To reduce weight and air resistance, the structure may be made hollow, for example, a high-wing monoplane may be given a diagonal lifting strut running from the bottom of the fuselage to a position far out towards the wingtip. This increases the depth of the wing root to the height of the fuselage. Typically, the ends of bracing struts are joined to the internal structural components such as a wing spar or a fuselage bulkhead. Bracing may be used to resist all the forces which occur in an airframe, including lift, weight, drag. A strut is a bracing component stiff enough to resist these forces whether they place it under compression or tension, a wire is a bracing component able only to resist tension, going slack under compression, and consequently is nearly always used in conjunction with struts. A square frame made of bars is not rigid but tends to bend at the corners. Bracing it with a diagonal bar would be heavy. A wire would be much lighter but would stop it collapsing only one way, to hold it rigid, two cross-bracing wires are needed. This method of cross-bracing can be clearly on early biplanes. Another way of arranging a rigid structure is to make the cross pieces solid enough to act in compression and this method was once common on monoplanes, where the wing and a central cabane or a pylon form the cross members while wire bracing forms the outer diamond. Most commonly found on biplane and other aircraft, wire bracing was also common on early monoplanes. Unlike struts, bracing wires always act in tension The thickness and profile of a wire affect the drag it causes, wires may be made of multi-stranded cable, a single strand of piano wire, or aerofoil sectioned steel
16.
Flying boat
–
A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water, that usually has no type of landing gear to allow operation on land. It differs from a floatplane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage. Flying boats were some of the largest aircraft of the first half of the 20th century and their advantage lay in using water instead of expensive land-based runways, making them the basis for international airlines in the interwar period. They were also used for maritime patrol and air-sea rescue. Their use gradually trailed off after World War II, partially because of the investments in airports during the war. In the 21st century, flying boats maintain a few uses, such as dropping water on forest fires, air transport around archipelagos. Many modern seaplane variants, whether float or flying boat types, are convertible amphibious aircraft where either landing gear or flotation modes may be used to land, on 6 June 1905 Gabriel Voisin took off and landed on the River Seine with a towed kite glider on floats. The first of his flights was 150 yards. He later built a powered floatplane in partnership with Louis Blériot, other pioneers also attempted to attach floats to aircraft in Britain, Australia, France and the USA. On 28 March 1910 Frenchman Henri Fabre successfully flew the first successful powered seaplane, the Gnome Omega-powered hydravion, fabres first successful take off and landing by a powered seaplane inspired other aviators and he designed floats for several other flyers. The first hydro-aeroplane competition was held in Monaco in March 1912, featuring aircraft using floats from Fabre, Curtiss, Tellier and this led to the first scheduled seaplane passenger services at Aix-les-Bains, using a five-seat Sanchez-Besa from 1 August 1912. The French Navy ordered its first floatplane in 1912, in 1911-12 François Denhaut constructed the first seaplane with a fuselage forming a hull, using various designs to give hydrodynamic lift at take-off. Its first successful flight was on 13 April 1912, throughout 1910 and 1911 American pioneering aviator Glenn Curtiss developed his floatplane into the successful Curtiss Model D land-plane, which used a larger central float and sponsons. Combining floats with wheels, he made the first amphibian flights in February 1911 and was awarded the first Collier Trophy for US flight achievement, from 1912 his experiments with a hulled seaplane resulted in the 1913 Model E and Model F, which he called flying-boats. In February 1911 the United States Navy took delivery of the Curtiss Model E, in Britain, Captain Edward Wakefield and Oscar Gnosspelius began to explore the feasibility of flight from water in 1908. They decided to use of Lake Windermere in the Lake District. Meanwhile, Wakefield ordered a similar to the design of the 1910 Fabre Hydravion. By November 1911, both Gnosspelier and Wakefield had aircraft capable of flight from water and awaited suitable weather conditions, gnosspeliers flight was short-lived as the aircraft crashed into the lake
17.
World War I
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
18.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
19.
Roe III Triplane
–
The Roe III Triplane was an early British aircraft. The five production machines differed from the prototype in having the ailerons fitted to the middle wing, Roe was able to quickly replace them with new aircraft built from spare parts. Taylor, Michael J. H. Janes Encyclopedia of Aviation
20.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
21.
Alliott Verdon Roe
–
Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe OBE, Hon. FRAeS, FIAS was a pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer, and founder in 1910 of the Avro company. Roe was born in Patricroft, Eccles, Lancashire in 1877, the son of a doctor, he left home when he was 14 to go to Canada where he had been offered training as a surveyor. When he arrived in British Columbia he discovered that a slump in the market meant that there was little demand for surveyors, so he spent a year doing odd jobs. There he served as an apprentice with the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, as well as doing dockyard work, Roe joined the ship SS Jebba of the British & South African Royal Mail Company as fifth engineer on the West African run. He went on to serve on other vessels, finishing his Merchant Navy career as third engineer aboard the SS Ichanga and it was during these voyages that he became interested in the possibility of building a flying machine, having observed the soaring flight of albatrosses. In 1906 he applied for the job of Secretary of the Royal Aero Club. L. O, davidson, who had devised a twin-rotored aircraft and had secured the financial backing of Sir William Armstrong of Armstrong-Whitworth. This machine was being built in Denver in the USA, after disagreements about the design of the machine and problems with his salary, Roe, who had been sent back to Britain to deal with patenting the design, resigned. He then began to build a series of flying models, with the prize money and the use of stables at his brothers house in West Hill, Putney, he then began to build a full-size aeroplane, the Roe I Biplane, based on his winning model. He tested this at Brooklands in 1907–08, recording his first successful flight on 8 June 1908, after encountering problems with the management of Brooklands he moved his flight experiments to Walthamstow Marshes, where he rented space under a railway arch at the western end of the viaduct. Despite many setbacks, Roe persisted with his experiments and there is now a plaque commemorating his first successful flight at the site. His aircraft, Avroplane, a triplane, is preserved in Londons Science Museum, in addition, a working replica was unveiled on 7 June 2008 at the Brooklands Museum in Surrey. With his brother Humphrey, Alliott founded the A. V, Roe Aircraft Co. on 1 January 1910, at Brownsfield Mill, Great Ancoats Street, Manchester. His most popular model, the 504, sold more than 8,300 units, mainly to the Royal Flying Corps, in 1928 he sold his shares and bought S. E. Saunders Co. and formed Saunders-Roe. In 1933 he changed his surname to Verdon-Roe by deed poll and he was a member of the British Union of Fascists and during the 1930s he was a supporter of Oswald Mosley. He was a believer in monetary reform and thought it was wrong that banks should be able to create money by book entry. In this respect he shared the enthusiasm for reform as the American poet Ezra Pound. During the Second World War, two of his sons were killed in action whilst serving with the Royal Air Force, Squadron Leader Eric Alliott Verdon-Roe aged 26, in 1941 and Squadron Leader Lighton Verdon-Roe DFC aged 22, in 1943. Between 1928 and 1940 Verdon-Roe lived at Hamble House, Hamble and he died on 4 January 1958 at St Marys Hospital in Portsmouth
22.
Cockpit
–
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft. Most modern cockpits are enclosed, except on small aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft flight instruments on an instrument panel. In most airliners, a separates the cockpit from the aircraft cabin. After the September 11,2001 attacks, all major airlines fortified their cockpits against access by hijackers, the word cockpit was originally a sailing term for the coxswains station in a Royal Navy ship, and later the location of the ships rudder controls. Cockpit first appeared in the English language in the 1580s, a pit for fighting cocks, used in nautical sense for midshipmens compartment below decks, transferred to airplanes and to cars. From about 1935, cockpit came to be used informally to refer to the seat of a car, especially a high performance one. In the US and many countries, however, the term cockpit is also used for airliners. Military biplanes and the first single-engined fighters and attack aircraft also had open cockpits, the largest impediment to having closed cabins was the material the windows were to be made of. Prior to Perspex becoming available in 1933, windows were either safety glass, which was heavy, or cellulose nitrate, in the mid-1920s many aircraft manufacturers began using enclosed cockpits for the first time. Open-cockpit airplanes were almost extinct by the mid-1950s, with the exception of training planes, crop-dusters, Cockpit windows may be equipped with a sun shield. Most cockpits have windows that can be opened when the aircraft is on the ground, nearly all glass windows in large aircraft have an anti-reflective coating, and an internal heating element to melt ice. Smaller aircraft may be equipped with a transparent aircraft canopy, in most cockpits the pilots control column or joystick is located centrally, although in some military fast jets the side-stick is located on the right hand side. In some commercial airliners both pilots use a side-stick located on the side, so Captains side-stick on the left. Except for some helicopters, the seat in the cockpit of an aircraft is the seat used by the co-pilot. The captain or pilot in command sits in the seat, so that he can operate the throttles. The tradition has maintained to this day, with the co-pilot on the right hand side. The layout of the cockpit, especially in the military fast jet, has undergone standardisation, One of the most important developments was the Basic Six pattern, later the Basic T, developed from 1937 onwards by the Royal Air Force, designed to optimise pilot instrument scanning
23.
George Cayley
–
Sir George Cayley, 6th Baronet was a prolific English engineer and is one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him to be the first true scientific aerial investigator, in 1799 he set forth the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. He was a pioneer of engineering and is sometimes referred to as the father of aviation. He discovered and identified the four forces which act on a flying vehicle, weight, lift, drag. Modern aeroplane design is based on discoveries and on the importance of cambered wings. He constructed the first flying model aeroplane and also diagrammed the elements of vertical flight and he designed the first glider reliably reported to carry a human aloft. He correctly predicted that sustained flight would not occur until an engine was developed to provide adequate thrust. The Wright brothers acknowledged his importance to the development of aviation and he was a founding member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and was a distant cousin of the mathematician Arthur Cayley. Cayley, from Brompton-by-Sawdon, near Scarborough in Yorkshire, inherited Brompton Hall and Wydale Hall and other estates on the death of his father, captured by the optimism of the times, he engaged in a wide variety of engineering projects. He suggested that a practical engine might be made using gaseous vapours rather than gunpowder. He is mainly remembered for his studies and experiments with flying machines, including the working, piloted glider that he designed. He wrote a landmark three-part treatise titled On Aerial Navigation, which was published in Nicholsons Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, the 2007 discovery of sketches in Cayleys school notebooks revealed that even at school Cayley was developing his ideas on the theories of flight. It has been claimed that these images indicate that Cayley identified the principle of an inclined plane as early as 1792. To measure the drag on objects at different speeds and angles of attack, he built a whirling-arm apparatus. He also experimented with rotating wing sections of various forms in the stairwells at Brompton Hall and these scientific experiments led him to develop an efficient cambered airfoil and to identify the four vector forces that influence an aircraft, thrust, lift, drag, and gravity. As a result of his investigations into many other aspects of flight. His emphasis on lightness led him to invent a new method of constructing lightweight wheels which is in use today. For his landing wheels, he shifted the forces from compression to tension by making them from tightly-stretched string
24.
Jacob Ellehammer
–
Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer was a Danish watchmaker and inventor born in Bakkebølle, Denmark. He is remembered chiefly for his contributions to powered flight, following the end of his apprenticeship as a watchmaker he moved to Copenhagen where he worked as an electronics mechanic before establishing his own company in 1898. In the beginning he produced cigarette machines, beverage machines and other electronic machinery, in 1904 he produced his first motorcycle, the Elleham motorcycle. This was installed in his triplane and made a number of short free-flight hops as mentioned below, in 1905, he constructed a monoplane, and in the following year a semi-biplane. In this latter machine, he made a flight on 12 September 1906. Ellehammers later inventions included a successful triplane and helicopter and his helicopter was a coaxial machine. A famous photo shows it hovering in 1914, though there is no evidence that it was successful in achieving translational flight, Ellehammer later studied a disc-rotor configuration - a compound helicopter with coaxial blades that extended from the hub for hover, and retracted for high speed vertical flight. Although a wind tunnel model was constructed, theres no evidence that more was studied. Ellehammer in 1904 - Today producing ejectors and pumpsystems for the maritime industry
25.
Goupy No.1
–
Goupy I bis was an experimental aircraft built in France during 1908, which on 5 September that year became the first French triplane to fly. It was designed by Ambroise Goupy and built by Aéroplanes Voisin, the undercarriage consisted of a single wheel mounted below the wing and a tailwheel. As originally constructed, the wing was mounted in a mid-wing position on the fuselage, with the top and bottom wings clear of the fuselage. The design was revised so that the bottom wing was mounted at the base of the fuselage, the middle wing to the top of the fuselage. At the same time, the engine was changed to an Anzani of similar power and the wings extended outboard of the curtains
26.
Voisin
–
Voisin was a French aircraft manufacturing company, one of the first in the world. It created Europes first manned, heavier-than-air powered aircraft capable of a sustained, circular, controlled flight, including take-off and landing, the Voisin-Farman I. On 28 December 1909, French aviator M. Albert Kimmerling made the first manned, during World War I, it was a major producer of military aircraft, notably the Voisin III. After the war Gabriel Voisin abandoned the aviation industry, and set up a company to design and produce luxury automobiles, Gabriel Voisin bought out Blériot and on 5 November 1906 established the Appareils dAviation Les Frères Voisin with his brother Charles. The company, based in the Parisian suburb of Billancourt, was the first commercial aircraft factory in the world, like many early aircraft companies, Voisin were prepared to build machines to the designs of customers, this work supporting their own design experiments. The latter was underpowered, having a Buchet engine of only 20 hp, however, Kapferer introduced them to Leon Delagrange, for whom they built a similar machine, powered by a 50 hp Antoinette engine. This was first successfully flown by Charles Voisin on 30 March 1907, in turn Delagrange introduced them to Henri Farman, who ordered an identical aircraft. These two aircraft are referred to by their owners names as the Voisin-Delagrange No.1 and the Voisin-Farman No.1. On 13 January 1908 Farman used his aircraft to win the Grand Prix de laviation offered by Ernest Archdeacon,1907 Voisin 1907 biplane 1909 Voisin Tractor Only one built. 1910 Voisin Type de Course 1910 Voisin Type Militaire 1910 Type Bordeaux 1911 Voisin Canard Initially flown as a landplane, examples were sold to the French Navy and to Russia. 1911 Type Tourism 1912 Type Monaco Smaller version of the Canard floatplane, two built to take part in the 1912 Monaco Aero Meeting. 1912 Voisin Icare Aero-Yacht Flying boat built for Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe 1912 Voisin Type L or Voisin Type I Developed for the French Armys 1912 trials, the Voisin III was followed by improved Type LB and Type LBS, or Voisin IV and Voisin V aircraft. The larger Type LC, Voisin VII, followed in 1916, soon after the outbreak of the First World War, it became apparent that the French aviation industry could not produce aircraft in sufficient numbers to meet military requirements. Manufacturers from various other fields became aviation subcontractors, and later license-builders, the earliest such partnership was between Louis Breguet and Michelin. Gabriel Voisin was late to this field, although his designs were produced in quantity by Russian licensees, by 1918, Voisin was involved with the Voisin-Lafresnaye company, a major constructor of airframes, and the Voisin-Lefebvre company, a major builder of aircraft engines. Following the Voisin VII came the powerful, and more successful, Type LAP and Type LBP. This was the French armys main night bomber in 1916–1917, with one thousand built. The Voisin IX, or Type LC, was a design for a reconnaissance aeroplane
27.
Roe I Triplane
–
The Roe I Triplane was an early aircraft designed and built by A. V. Roe which was the first all-British aircraft to fly and it was then transported to the new flying ground that Roe had found on Walthamstow Marshes, where he rented two railway arches under the LNER railway besides the river Lea. Pitch control was effected by altering the angle of incidence of the mainplaines, the control cables acted to warp the middle wing, the warping being transmitted to the top and bottom planes by the rear interplane struts. The fuselage was a triangular section wire-braced wooden structure, with the wing and tailplane mounted on the upper longerons. The engine was mounted below the edge of the wing. Both fuselage and wings were covered with brown paper backed by an open-weave fabric, Roe named the aircraft The Bullseye after the braces manufactured by his brothers firm, which had helped pay for it. Roe had originally intended to use an inline engine which J. A. Prestwich were developing but this failed when bench-tested by Prestwich, so Roe initially installed the 6 horsepower JAP engine from his previous aircraft, taxying trials with this engine were begun in April 1909. At the end of May a new 9 hp JAP engine was delivered, the flights made at Blackpool were the last made by the prototype, it was subsequently exhibited at an exhibition held in Manchester in 1914 and was later presented to the Science Museum in London. By this time Roe had been evicted from the arches in Walthamstow, he resumed his flying activities at Wembley. It was damaged in a crash on 24 December, in January 1910 Roe formed the firm of A. V. Roe and Company with the assistance of his brother Humphrey, and workshop space was provided in the factory of Humphreys company, Everard and Co, at Brownfield Mills, flying operations were transferred to Brooklands, where the aircraft was flown on 11 March 1910. By now Roes interest was focused on his aircraft, the Roe II Triplane. This was flown at Brooklands during the Aero Meeting on Easter Monday 1910, but the experiment was not pursued, a new historic marker was unveiled on the northern entrance to Roes former workshops in the railway arches. Data from Jackson 1990 General characteristics Crew, one Length,23 ft Wingspan,20 ft Height,9 ft Wing area,320 sq ft Total lifting area. Jacksons figure is 285 ft2, with the area given as 35 ft2. Empty weight,300 lb Gross weight,450 lb Powerplant,1 × JAP V-twin configuration air-cooled,9 hp Propellers, 4-bladed Performance Maximum speed,25 mph Range,0.3 mi The first example is preserved at the Science Museum in London. The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester has a replica on display
28.
Roe IV Triplane
–
The Roe IV Triplane was an early British aircraft designed by Alliott Verdon Roe and built by A. V. It was first flown in September 1910, the middle wing was mounted directly above the upper longerons, and there was a gap between the single lower longeron and the lower wing. Although the ailerons fitted to the design had been satisfactory. The lifting triplane tailplanes of the design were replaced by a non-lifting single triangular tailplane with a divided elevator. The undercarriage consisted of a pair of skids extending forward of the propeller, with a pair of wheels mounted on each skid, and it was powered by a 35 horsepower Green water-cooled four-cylinder inline engine, with the radiator mounted above the fuselage between the front inner interplane struts. During its service as a trainer it was crashed numerous times, after a crash on 14 February the aircraft was rebuilt with the fuselage lengthened by 4 ft. It continued to be used for training until August 1911, when it was scrapped, a full-scale flying replica was built for the 1960s film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and was afterwards donated to the Shuttleworth Collection, where it remains as of 2012. General characteristics Crew, one Length,30 ft Wingspan,32 ft Height,9 ft Wing area,294 ft2 Loaded weight,650 lb Performance Maximum speed,25 mph Jackson, avro Aircraft Since 1908 London, Putnam,1965. Janes Encyclopedia of Aviation London, Studio Editions,1989, p.91 World Aircraft Information Files London, Bright Star
29.
Alexander Graham Bell
–
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. Bells father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and his research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U. S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his work as a scientist. Many other inventions marked Bells later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Although Bell was not one of the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society, he had a influence on the magazine while serving as the second president from January 7,1898. Alexander Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3,1847, the family home was at 16 South Charlotte Street, and has a stone inscription marking it as Alexander Graham Bells birthplace. He had two brothers, Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell, both of whom would die of tuberculosis and his father was Professor Alexander Melville Bell, a phonetician, and his mother was Eliza Grace. Born as just Alexander Bell, at age 10, he made a plea to his father to have a name like his two brothers. To close relatives and friends he remained Aleck, as a child, young Bell displayed a natural curiosity about his world, resulting in gathering botanical specimens as well as experimenting even at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbour whose family operated a flour mill, young Bell asked what needed to be done at the mill. In return, Bens father John Herdman gave both boys the run of a workshop in which to invent. From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry, with no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the familys pianist. Despite being normally quiet and introspective, he revelled in mimicry and he also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mothers forehead wherein she would hear him with reasonable clarity. Bells preoccupation with his mothers deafness led him to study acoustics and his family was long associated with the teaching of elocution, his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are well known, especially his The Standard Elocutionist. The Standard Elocutionist appeared in 168 British editions and sold over a quarter of a million copies in the United States alone, in this treatise, his father explains his methods of how to instruct deaf-mutes to articulate words and read other peoples lip movements to decipher meaning. Bells father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to any symbol. Bell became so proficient that he became a part of his fathers public demonstrations, as a young child, Bell, like his brothers, received his early schooling at home from his father
30.
Bell Oionus I
–
The Oionus I was a tetrahedral triplane built for Alexander Graham Bell It was the culmination of Bells experiments with kites built at Baddeck, Nova Scotia. The aircrafts design combined those of the Aerial Experiment Association s AEA Silver Dart biplane and it was Bells final aviation pursuit and Canadas first and only triplane design. The aircraft attempted a test flight in March 1910, but failed to achieve flight. The Oionus I had its origins in March 1909 with the dissolution of the AEA, McCurdy as assistant engineer to build the last of Bells designs. The internal structure was based on tubular-steel with linen-covered wings and interior sections, a Curtiss pusher engine drove a propeller through a chain and sprocket arrangement, later a Kirkham engine from the Baddeck No.2 was substituted. After construction was complete in February 1910, and a new engine was installed, McCurdy readied the aircraft for flight, taking it out on some ground runs. Ballast was added to the tail and on 25 March 1910, McCurdy ended the flight in order for modification to be made for future testing, including adding more incidence to the wings. Shortly after, the ice melted and no attempts were made to fly the Oionus I
31.
Fighter aircraft
–
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dual-purpose fighter-bombers, often aircraft that do not fulfill the standard definition are called fighters. This may be for political or national security reasons, for advertising purposes, a fighters main purpose is to establish air superiority over a battlefield. Since World War I, achieving and maintaining air superiority has been considered essential for victory in conventional warfare, the word fighter did not become the official English-language term for such aircraft until after World War I. In the British Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force these aircraft were referred to as scouts into the early 1920s, the U. S. Army called their fighters pursuit aircraft from 1916 until the late 1940s. In most languages a fighter aircraft is known as a hunter, exceptions include Russian, where a fighter is an истребитель, meaning exterminator, and Hebrew where it is matose krav. As a part of nomenclature, a letter is often assigned to various types of aircraft to indicate their use. In Russia I was used, while the French continue to use C and this has always been the case, for instance the Sopwith Camel and other fighting scouts of World War I performed a great deal of ground-attack work. Several aircraft, such as the F-111 and F-117, have received fighter designations but had no fighter capability due to political or other reasons, the F-111B variant was originally intended for a fighter role with the U. S. Navy, but it was cancelled. This blurring follows the use of fighters from their earliest days for attack or strike operations against ground targets by means of strafing or dropping small bombs, versatile multirole fighter-bombers such as the F/A-18 Hornet are a less expensive option than having a range of specialized aircraft types. An interceptor is generally an aircraft intended to target bombers and so often trades maneuverability for climb rate, fighters were developed in World War I to deny enemy aircraft and dirigibles the ability to gather information by reconnaissance. Early fighters were very small and lightly armed by later standards, and most were built with a wooden frame, covered with fabric. As control of the airspace over armies became increasingly important all of the major powers developed fighters to support their military operations, between the wars, wood was largely replaced by steel tubing, then aluminium tubing, and finally aluminium stressed skin structures began to predominate. By World War II, most fighters were all-metal monoplanes armed with batteries of guns or cannons. By the end of the war, turbojet engines were replacing piston engines as the means of propulsion, further increasing aircraft speed. Since the weight of the engine was so less than on piston engined fighters. This in turn required the development of ejection seats so the pilot could escape, in the 1950s, radar was fitted to day fighters, since pilots could no longer see far enough ahead to prepare for any opposition. Since then, radar capabilities have grown enormously and are now the method of target acquisition
32.
Nieuport
–
Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars. During this time, their first aircraft were built, starting with a small single-seat monoplane, Nieuport had trouble obtaining suitable engines for their early designs and resorted to making their own. In 1910 a twin-cylinder horizontally-opposed type producing 28 hp was fitted to the Nieuport II, in 1911, the company was reformed specifically to build aircraft under the name Nieuport et Deplante. In 1911, Edouard Nieuport died after being thrown from his aircraft, and the company was taken over by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, Schneider left Nieuport in late 1913. With Schneiders departure, Gustave Delage took over as chief designer in January 1914 and he began work on a sesquiplane racer - a biplane whose lower wing was much narrower in chord than its top wing and relied on a single wing spar instead of the usual two. The performance of the Nieuport 10, and the more powerful Nieuport 12, Nieuport developed an improved design specifically intended as a fighter - the Nieuport 11, which was regarded as the baby of the 10, which it closely resembled, except in size. As horsepower increased, the V-strut Nieuports began to suffer from the limitations of the sesquiplane wing form, and required careful piloting to avoid the risk of wing failures. Even while still in service, Nieuports of all types were being used at French and American flight training facilities. Some pilots, notably Albert Ball and Charles Nungesser preferred the Nieuport due to its sensitive controls, Pilots Eddie Rickenbacker and Billy Bishop flew Nieuport aircraft to some of their first victories, with Bishop achieving his when the Nieuport 23 he flew was already obsolescent. Due to a shortage of SPAD S. XIIIs, the first fighter squadrons of the United States Army Air Service, used the Nieuport 28 on operations. While only in service with the USAAS for a short time. Nieuports were widely used by the Allied air arms, and various models were built under licence in Italy and Russia, in Italy, the modern firm of Aermacchi was originally formed as Nieuport-Macchi for the purpose of building various Nieuports under licence. They started with the Nieuport IV, but built the Nieuport 10,11,17, in Russia several companies, notably Dux, built Nieuports of several types including the IV,10,11,16,17,21,23 and 24bis. In Scotland, the William Beardmore and Company built the Nieuport 12 under licence, by the end of 1918, Nieuport had two new fighter types flying, the Nieuport 29 biplane and the Nieuport 31 monoplane both of which had evolved in parallel from the Nieuport 28. They differed from earlier Nieuports in having streamlined wooden monocoque fuselages, a 300 hp Hispano-Suiza engine, and dispensed with the vee-strut sesquiplane wing used previously. Specially modified Nieuport 29 and 31 aircraft set speed and height records, also at this time, Tellier was also absorbed, and for a brief time the name Nieuport-Tellier was used. This design first saw light as a racer, then as single-seat and two-seat fighters for the French Air Force though none of these would see service. The French bought large numbers of the 62 series which was derived from the NiD.42 to equip the bulk of the French fighter units until replaced by newer designs in the late 30s
33.
Royal Flying Corps
–
The Royal Flying Corps was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War, until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC supported the British Army by artillery co-operation, at the start of World War I the RFC, commanded by Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson, consisted of five squadrons – one observation balloon squadron and four aeroplane squadrons. These were first used for spotting on 13 September 1914. Aerial photography was attempted during 1914, but again only became effective the next year, by 1918, photographic images could be taken from 15,000 feet and were interpreted by over 3,000 personnel. By this time parachutes had been used by balloonists for three years, on 17 August 1917, South African General Jan Smuts presented a report to the War Council on the future of air power. On 1 April 1918, the RFC and the RNAS were amalgamated to form a new service, after starting in 1914 with some 2,073 personnel, by the start of 1919 the RAF had 4,000 combat aircraft and 114,000 personnel in some 150 squadrons. The recommendations of the committee were accepted and on 13 April 1912 King George V signed a royal warrant establishing the Royal Flying Corps, the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers became the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps a month later on 13 May. The Flying Corps initial allowed strength was 133 officers, and by the end of year it had 12 manned balloons and 36 aeroplanes. The RFC originally came under the responsibility of Brigadier-General Henderson, the Director of Military Training, and had branches for the Army. Major Sykes commanded the Military Wing and Commander C R Samson commanded the Naval Wing, the RFCs motto was Per ardua ad astra. This remains the motto of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, the RFCs first fatal crash was on 5 July 1912 near Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Loraine and his observer, Staff Sergeant R. H. V, an order was issued after the crash stating Flying will continue this evening as usual, thus beginning a tradition. Four months later on 11 December 1912 Parke was killed when the Handley Page monoplane in which he was flying from Hendon to Oxford crashed. The Naval Wing, with pilots and aircraft than the Military Wing. In November 1914 the Royal Flying Corps, even taking the loss of the Naval Wing into account, had expanded sufficiently to warrant the creation of wings consisting of two or more squadrons and these wings were commanded by lieutenant-colonels. In October 1915 the Royal Flying Corps had undergone further expansion which justified the creation of brigades, further expansion led to the creation of divisions, with the Training Division being established in August 1917 and RFC Middle East, being raised to divisional status in December 1917. Finally, the air raids on London and the south-east of England led to the creation of the London Air Defence Area in August 1917 under the command of Ashmore who was promoted to major-general. Two of the first three RFC squadrons were formed from the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers, No.1 Company becoming No.1 Squadron, RFC, a second heavier-than-air squadron, No.2 Squadron, RFC, was also formed on the same day
34.
RNAS
–
In 1908, the British government had recognised that the use of aircraft for military and naval purposes should be investigated. To this end the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, approved the formation of an Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, both committees were composed of politicians, army officers and Royal Navy officers. After much discussion on the Committee of Imperial Defence the suggestion was approved on 7 May 1909, the airship, named Mayfly, never flew and broke in half on 24 September 1911. The then First Sea Lord, Sir Arthur Wilson, recommended that rigid airship construction be abandoned, on June 21st,1910, Lt. George Cyril Colmore became the first qualified pilot in the Royal Navy. After completing training, which Colmore paid for out of his own pocket, in November 1910, the Royal Aero Club, thanks to one of its members, Francis McClean, offered the Royal Navy two aircraft with which to train its first pilots. The Club also offered its members as instructors and the use of its airfield at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, the airfield became the Naval Flying School, Eastchurch. Two hundred applications were received, and four were accepted, Lieutenant C. R. Samson, Lieutenant A. M. Longmore, Lieutenant A. Gregory and Captain E. L. Gerrard, RMLI. After prolonged discussion on the Committee of Imperial Defence, the Royal Flying Corps was constituted by Royal Warrant on 13 April 1912 and it absorbed the nascent naval air detachment and also the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. It consisted of two wings with the Military Wing making up the Army element and Naval Wing, under Commander C. R. Samson, the naval wing, by the terms of its inception was permitted to carry out experimentation at its flying school at Eastchurch. In the summer of 1912, in recognition of the air branchs expansion, sueters remit as outlined in September 1912 stated that he was responsible to the Admiralty for all matters connected with the Naval Air Service. In the same month as the Air Department was set up, in 1913 a seaplane base on the Isle of Grain and an airship base at Kingsnorth were approved for construction. On 16 April ten officers of the Navy Service graduated from the Central Flying School, as of 7 June 44 officers and 105 other ranks had been trained at the Central Flying School and at Eastchurch, and 35 officers and men had been trained in airship work. Three non-rigid airships built for the army, the Willows, Astra-Torres, on 1 July 1914, the Admiralty made the Royal Naval Air Service, forming the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, part of the Military Branch of the Royal Navy. By the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the Navy maintained twelve airship stations around the coast of Britain from Longside, Aberdeenshire in the northeast to Anglesey in the west. On 1 August 1915 the Royal Naval Air Service officially came under the control of the Royal Navy, inter-service rivalry even affected aircraft procurement. This situation continued, although most of Sopwiths post-1915 products were not designed specifically as naval aircraft, on 23 June 1917, after the Second Battle of Gaza, RNAS aircraft attacked Tulkarm in the Judean Hills. On 1 April 1918, the RNAS was merged with the RFC to form the Royal Air Force, at the time of the merger, the Navys air service had 55,066 officers and men,2,949 aircraft,103 airships and 126 coastal stations. The RNAS squadrons were absorbed into the new structure, individual squadrons receiving new squadron numbers by effectively adding 200 to the number so No.1 Squadron RNAS became No.201 Squadron RAF
35.
Albatros D.III
–
The Albatros D. III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service during World War I. A modified licence model was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service and it was the preeminent fighter during the period of German aerial dominance known as Bloody April 1917. Development of the prototype D. III started in late July or early August 1916, the date of the maiden flight is unknown, but is believed to have occurred in late August or early September. Following the successful Albatros D. I and D. II series, however, at the request of the Idflieg, the D. III adopted a sesquiplane wing arrangement broadly similar to the French Nieuport 11. The upper wingspan was extended, while the wing was redesigned with reduced chord. V shaped interplane struts replaced the previous parallel struts, for this reason, British aircrews commonly referred to the D. III as the V-strutter. After a Typenprüfung on 26 September 1916, Albatros received an order for 400 D. III aircraft, Idflieg placed additional orders for 50 aircraft in February and March 1917. The D. III entered squadron service in December 1916, and was acclaimed by German aircrews for its maneuverability. Two faults with the new aircraft were soon identified, like the D. II, early D. IIIs featured a Teves und Braun airfoil-shaped radiator in the center of the upper wing, where it tended to scald the pilot if punctured. From the 290th D. III onward, the radiator was offset to the right on production machines while others were moved to the right as a field modification. Aircraft deployed in Palestine used two wing radiators, to cope with the warmer climate, more seriously, the new aircraft immediately began experiencing failures of the lower wing ribs and leading edge, a defect shared with the Nieuport 17. On 23 January 1917, a Jasta 6 pilot suffered a failure of the right wing spar. On the following day, Manfred von Richthofen suffered a crack in the wing of his new D. III. On 27 January, the Kogenluft issued an order grounding all D. IIIs pending resolution of the wing failure problem, on 19 February, after Albatros introduced a reinforced lower wing, the Kogenluft rescinded the grounding order. At the time, the wing failures were attributed to poor workmanship. In fact, the cause of the failures lay in the sesquiplane arrangement taken from the Nieuport. While the lower wing had sufficient strength in static tests, it was determined that the main spar was located too far aft. Pilots were therefore advised not to perform steep or prolonged dives in the D. III and this design flaw persisted despite attempts to rectify the problem in the D. III and succeeding D. V
36.
LFG Roland
–
Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft, also referred to as LFG, was a German aircraft manufacturer during World War I. Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft formed on April 30,1908, from the assets of an experimental airship engine company located in Bitterfeld, additional funding for the new enterprise was provided primarily by Krupp, AEG, and a local chemical company. The companys offices were located in Berlin along with the factory at Adlershof, manufacture was transferred to Charlottenburg following a fire on 6 September 1916, allegedly caused by the British Secret Service. Their first project was a design by August von Parseval. This entered service as the PL. II in 1910, during World War I, four were delivered to the German Army and Navy. In total some 25 PL airships were built, flown and delivered to various customers, the PL-26, one of the last, crashed on landing and burnt inside hangar Luftschiffhalle 2 with no fatalities. For the rest of the war the hangars were used mostly for repairs of observation balloons, in 1913 LFG started producing new designs under the trade name Roland to avoid confusion with the Luftverkehrsgesellschaft firm. In 1916 the company developed a version of the Albatros C. Ia as the LFG W. Some parts were built in Bitterfeld, but final assembly and checkout was carried out in new factories in Stralsund and their first successful design was the Roland C. II Walfisch, a two-seat reconnaissance biplane. It had a fuselage, skinned with two layers of long plywood strips glued at opposing diagonal angles around a mold and skinned with fabric both inside and outside. The fuselage filled the gap between the wings, leaving the pilot and observer/gunner over the top wings with an excellent view upward. The fuselage half-shells were each fitted onto a framework of wooden formers. Although it was said to have tricky handling, the Roland C. II had excellent performance, and was also used on long-range missions as a bomber escort. A version with the 200 hp Benz Bz. IV engine and new wing struts was built as the D. III, but only one prototype was ever built, as was the case for the 160 hp Mercedes D. III-powered C. V. The C. II was adapted to the fighter role as the Roland D. I. A fire at the factory severely constrained production, and only 20 were built, a newer version with a more conventional layout, the Roland D. II, followed, whose fuselage was reduced in height to leave a gap with the upper wing but was otherwise similar overall. The competing Albatros D. I was preferred, and only about 230 examples were built, the fuselage to wing gap was further increased in the D. III, but the temperamental 180 hp Argus As. III limited production to only a handful. Six D. IIs were delivered in July 1917 to the Bulgarian Air Force, although the Wickelrumpf style of wood-structure monocoque fuselage was extremely strong, it was also very difficult and time-consuming to build
37.
Manfred von Richthofen
–
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, also widely known as the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the Imperial German Army Air Service during the First World War. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being credited with 80 air combat victories. Originally a cavalryman, Richthofen transferred to the Air Service in 1915 and he quickly distinguished himself as a fighter pilot, and during 1917 became leader of Jasta 11 and then the larger unit Jagdgeschwader 1. By 1918, he was regarded as a hero in Germany. Richthofen was shot down and killed near Amiens on 21 April 1918, There has been considerable discussion and debate regarding aspects of his career, especially the circumstances of his death. He remains perhaps the most widely known fighter pilot of all time, Richthofen was a Freiherr, a title of nobility often translated as baron. This is not a name nor strictly a hereditary title—since all male members of the family were entitled to it. This title, combined with the fact that he had his aircraft painted red, led to Richthofen being called The Red Baron both inside and outside Germany, during his lifetime he was more often described in German as Der Rote Kampfflieger. This name was used as the title of Richthofens 1917 autobiography, Manfred von Richthofen was born in Kleinburg, near Breslau, Lower Silesia, on 2 May 1892 into a prominent Prussian aristocratic family. His father was Major Albrecht Philipp Karl Julius Freiherr von Richthofen and he had an elder sister, Ilse, and two younger brothers. When he was four years old, Manfred moved with his family to nearby Schweidnitz and he enjoyed riding horses and hunting as well as gymnastics at school. He excelled at bars and won a number of awards at school. He and his brothers, Lothar and Bolko, hunted wild boar, elk, birds, after being educated at home he attended a school at Schweidnitz before beginning military training when he was 11. After completing cadet training in 1911, he joined an Uhlan cavalry unit, disappointed and bored at not being able to directly participate in combat, the last straw for Richthofen was an order to transfer to the armys supply branch. He is supposed to have written in his application for transfer, I have not gone to war in order to collect cheese and eggs, in spite of this unmilitary attitude, and to his own surprise, his request was granted. Manfred joined the service at the end of May 1915. From June to August 1915, Richthofen served as an observer on reconnaissance missions over the Eastern Front with Feldflieger Abteilung 69, after a chance meeting with the German ace fighter pilot Oswald Boelcke, Richthofen entered training as a pilot in October 1915. In February 1916 Manfred rescued his brother Lothar from the boredom of training new troops in Luben, the following month, Manfred joined Kampfgeschwader 2 flying a two-seater Albatros C. III
38.
Curtiss 18
–
The Curtiss 18T, unofficially known as the Wasp and by the United States Navy as the Kirkham, was an early American triplane fighter aircraft designed by Curtiss Engineering for the US Navy. The Curtiss 18T was intended to protect bombing squads along the French coast, speed was not the triplanes only salient feature, an 18T-2 set a new altitude record in 1919 of 34,910 ft. The streamlined and very clean fuselage contributed to the aircrafts performance, the basic construction was based on cross-laminated strips of wood veneer formed on a mold and attached to the inner structure. The technique was a refinement of that used on the big Curtiss flying boats, flown by Roland Rholfs, the 18T achieved a world speed record of 163 mph in August 1918 carrying a full military load of 1,076 lb. The Model 18T-2 was a version of its predecessor, boosting 50 additional horsepower. The wings of the new model were swept back and it was also 5 ft longer with a 9 ft longer two-bay wing, though its flight ceiling was 2,000 ft lower. After World War I, it was employed as a plane, an 18T-2 nearly won the Curtiss Marine Trophy Race in 1922. Curtiss Engineering followed the success of the Model 18T with the launch of the Model 18B, unofficially known as the Hornet, Model 18T or 18T-1 Two-seat fighter triplane with single-bay wings, powered by a 400-hp Curtiss-Kirkham K-12 piston engine. Referred to by the US Navy as the Kirkham, originally designated 18T, the type was redesignated the 18T-1 when the prototype was modified to a new configuration designated 18T-2. Model 18T-2 18T with longer-span two-bay wings, could be fitted with floatplane or landplane landing gear. Model 18B Biplane fighter version, known unofficially as the Hornet, sole flying prototype of Curtiss 18B, USAAS40058, P-86, crashed early in flight trials at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, summer 1919
39.
Curtiss GS
–
The Curtiss GS aircraft were two types of similar scout aircraft designed and built by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company for the United States Navy. In 1917 the United States Navy ordered five aircraft from Curtiss, they were designated the GS for Gnome Scout. The GS was a biplane with a float and a stabiliser float at each end of the lower wing. The Navy ordered an aircraft as a triplane, which was designated the GS-1. Although they were delivered to the Navy in 1918 nothing further is known about the type, GS-1 Triplane scout floatplane, one built. GS-2 Biplane scout floatplane, five built, United States United States Navy Related lists List of seaplanes and amphibious aircraft
40.
Boeing GA-1
–
The Boeing GA-1 was an armored triplane. Designed in 1919, it was powered by a pair of modified Liberty engines driving pusher propellers and it was so well armored that its five-ton weight proved excessive. Soon after the end of World War I, the US Army sought to explore highly armored and armed specialist ground-attack aircraft and this was a pet project of General William Mitchell. The Army Air Service Engineering Division issued requests for proposals to U. S. aircraft producers on 15 October 1919. There were no designs offered, so the Engineering Division ordered one of its engineers, Isaac M. Laddon and his design, designated GAX, first flew at McCook Field on 26 May 1920. The GAX was McCook Field Project P129 and wore AAS serial number 63272, aerodynamic cleanliness was sacrificed to fields of fire for its eight machine guns. The sturdy structure was able to carry a load of ammunition along with about 2,200 lb of armor plate. The result was a machine of wire-braced wooden construction with plywood. The engines were carried in mid-wing nacelles, as designed, the armament was comprehensive. The pilot was in control of a 37 mm cannon, four fixed Lewis guns fired forward and down, a further two Lewis guns fired to the rear and downwards and a single machine gun up and over the wings. A gunners position was in the nose, the armor covered the front half of the fuselage and the engine housings. The top wing was of larger span than the lower ones, span decreased from 65 ft 6 in to 58 ft 6 in between the top and lower wings. On 7 June 1920, Boeing was awarded a contract for 20 production models designated GA-1, before the first was delivered in May 1921, the order had been reduced to ten. The production aircraft wore Boeing constructors numbers 200-209 and AAC serial numbers 64146-64155, number 64146 was evaluated at McCook as project P187. The follow-on GA-2 was flown at McCook field in December 1921 with orders to two more aircraft. The GA-1 were sent to Kelly Field, Texas, in early 1923 for service tests with the only US aerial attack formation and these tests showed the aircraft to be unacceptable. They had poor visibility and performance, particularly in rate of climb, maneuverability, the aircraft suffered from noise and vibrations caused by the 3/16-inch -thick armor. Takeoff runs were very long by the standards of the day, the GA-1s were extremely unpopular with the pilots conducting the evaluation
41.
Zeppelin
–
A Zeppelin was a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelins notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893 and they were patented in Germany in 1895 and in the United States in 1899. After the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the word came to be commonly used to refer to all rigid airships. Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG, the worlds first airline in revenue service, by mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights. During World War I the German military made use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts. The defeat of Germany in 1918 temporarily slowed down the airship business, an exception was made allowing the construction of one airship for the US Navy, which saved the company from extinction. In 1926 the restrictions on airship construction were lifted and with the aid of donations from the public and this revived the companys fortunes, and during the 1930s the airships Graf Zeppelin and the larger LZ129 Hindenburg operated regular transatlantic flights from Germany to North America and Brazil. The Hindenburg disaster in 1937, along political and economic issues. The principal feature of Zeppelins design was a rigid metal framework made up from transverse rings. The advantage of design was that the aircraft could be much larger than non-rigid airships. The framework of most Zeppelins was made of duralumin, early Zeppelins used rubberised cotton for the gasbags, but most later craft used goldbeaters skin, made from the intestines of cattle. The first Zeppelins had long cylindrical hulls with tapered ends and complex multi-plane fins and they were propelled by several engines, mounted in gondolas or engine cars, which were attached to the outside of the structural framework. Some of these could provide reverse thrust for manoeuvring while mooring, early models had a comparatively small externally mounted gondola for passengers and crew which was attached to the bottom of the frame. This space was never heated so passengers during trips across the North Atlantic or Siberia were forced to bundle themselves in blankets, the flight ceiling was so low that no pressurization of the cabins was necessary, though the Hindenburg did maintain a pressurized air-locked smoking room. Access to the Zeppelin was achieved in a number of ways, the Graf Zeppelins gondola was accessed while the vessel was on the ground, via gangways. This describes a large rigidly framed outer envelope containing several separate gasbags and he had previously encountered Union Army balloons in 1863 when he visited the United States as a military observer during the American Civil War. Count Zeppelin began to pursue his project after his early retirement from the military in 1890 at the age of 52. Convinced of the importance of aviation, he started working on various designs in 1891
42.
Armstrong Whitworth
–
Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth engaged in the construction of armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and aircraft. In 1882, it merged with the firm of Charles Mitchell to form Armstrong Mitchell & Company. Armstrong Mitchell merged again with the firm of Joseph Whitworth in 1897. The company expanded into the manufacture of cars and trucks in 1902, and created a department in 1913. In 1927, it merged with Vickers Limited to form Vickers-Armstrongs. the Wilson-Pilcher was an advanced car, originally with a 2. 4-litre engine, that had been made in London from 1901 until 1904 when production moved to Newcastle. When Armstrong-Whitworth took over production two models were made, a 2. 7-litre flat four and a 4. 1-litre flat six, the engines had the flywheel at the front of the engine, and the crankshaft had intermediate bearings between each pair of cylinders. Drive was to the wheels via a preselector gearbox and helical bevel axle. The cars were listed at £735 for the four and £900 for the six and they were still theoretically available until 1907. The first Armstrong-Whitworth car was the 28/36 of 1906 with a water-cooled, drive was via a four-speed gearbox and shaft to the rear wheels. A larger car was listed for 1908 with a choice of either 5-litre 30 or 7. 6-litre 40 models sharing a 127 mm bore, the 40 was listed at £798 in bare chassis form for supplying to coachbuilders. These large cars were joined in 1909 by the 4. 3-litre 18/22 and in 1910 by the 3. 7-litre 25, which seems to have shared the same chassis as the 30 and 40. In 1911, a new car appeared in the shape of the 2. 4-litre 12/14, called the 15.9 in 1911. This model had an 88-inch wheelbase compared with the 120 inches of the 40 range and this was joined by four larger cars ranging from the 2. 7-litre 15/20 to the 3. 7-litre 25.5. The first six-cylinder model, the 30/50 with 5. 1-litre 90 mm bore by 135 mm stroke engine came in 1912 with the option of electric lighting and this grew to 5.7 litres in 1913. At the outbreak of war, as well as the 30/50, the range consisted of the 3-litre 17/25, the cars were usually if not always bodied by external coach builders and had a reputation for reliability and solid workmanship. The company maintained a London sales outlet at New Bond Street, when Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers merged, Armstrong Whitworths automotive interests were purchased by J. D. Siddeley as Armstrong Siddeley. An Armstrong Whitworth car is displayed in the Discovery Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, in the bibliography heading links are given to the museums information sheet as available through Wiki Commons
