After the early flights of the Flyer, the Wright brothers continued to build better aeroplanes. They kept experimenting and testing to develop safer and more reliable aircraft.
Following the Wright brothers success, pilots and inventors also worked to improve aeroplanes. Almost every year aeroplanes flew faster and further than they had flown the year before.
The early years of aeroplanes were a time of great experimentation. Many different aeroplanes were designed, built and tested. There were no rules or standards to follow when building the early aeroplanes.
Aeroplanes were built with one, two or three or more sets of wings. Monoplanes had longer, weaker, single wings. Biplanes had two shorter, stronger wings. Biplanes were very popular as fighter planes in World War 1, which lasted from 1914 to 1918.
The early planes were difficult and dangerous to fly and there were many accidents. Engine failures and other problems were common with the early aeroplanes. Forced landings, when pilots had to land their aeroplanes as quickly as possible in an emergency, happened often. Pilots often risked imprisonment if they landed in foreign countries without permission.
In the 1920s and 1930s aeroplanes became safer and more reliable. This spurred many competitions and air races to see which planes were the fastest. Many prizes were offered to pilots looking for challenges. These air races and competitions encouraged improvement in aeroplane design.
Light Aircraft: Small, light aeroplanes are usually called light aircraft. They have one or two engines that drive propellers. Most light aeroplanes are monoplanes, which means they have one set of wings. Light aeroplanes do not need large airports to take off and land as larger planes do. These small planes are used to carry passengers and goods to remote places. They are also used to train pilots and for hobby and leisure flying.
The ailerons, elevators and rudder are hinged control surfaces on the tail and the wings of an aeroplane. They are used to steer the aeroplane from left to right, as well as up and down.
Modern Airliners: Today the modern Airliner is the fastest way to travel. Airliners can range in size from small propeller-driven planes used for short journeys to jumbo jets that fly enormous distances.
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Airliners have become much faster and larger since the first passenger services began. There are more than 500 airline companies in the world, each with its own markings on the body and tail of the airliner. Today's jumbo jets, the Boeing 747s, measure 70.66 metres in length and carry as many as 500 passengers. |
Airships: The first airship was a sausage-shaped balloon. It was built in 1852 by French engineer Henri Giffard, who fitted his new aircraft with a small engine and a rudder for steering. It flew 27km, but did not have enough power to fly against the wind. In 1900, Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin from Germany built the first rigid airship. It was longer than a football field and had a lightweight framework that contained huge gas bags or cells, each of which was filled with hydrogen- a highly inflammable gas. Between 1910 and 1913, Zeppelin airships carried more than 30000 passengers on sightseeing flights over Germany. They were also used to bomb London in night raids during the First World War. The luxurious Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg, the largest rigid airship, carried thousands of passengers across the Atlantic between the two world wars. In 1937, however, the world was stunned when the Hindenburg exploded. The airship era came to an abrupt and tragic end.
Seaplanes and flying boats: Seaplanes and flying boats are aeroplanes that can take off and land on water. Flying boats are usually large aircraft, while seaplanes are smaller.
Flying boats have a hull-shaped fuselage and wing-tip floats to keep them balanced. They are sometimes used for passenger and freight transport, but their main role is in firefighting.
Seaplanes have floats in place of the undercarriage of land based aeroplanes. They are used for transport in areas of the world where it is difficult to build runways but where there are stretches of water such as lakes for landing.
Amphibians are aeroplanes that can land on water and land. A Cessna 206 is a modern amphibian version of a light aircraft.
Helicopters:
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Helicopters can fly backwards, forwards, sideways, hover in one place and land in the smallest spaces. They have many advantages over ordinary aeroplanes. The first helicopter and the earliest known powered aircraft was actually Leonardo da Vinci, who lived between 1452 and 1519, drew plans for a full-sized helicopter. About four hundred years later, Paul Cornu became the first person to fly in a helicopter. |
Successful twin-rotor helicopters were produced in Germany during the 1930s, but Igor Sikorsky revolutionised this machine with the design of his single-rotor helicopter after the Second World War. Helicopters have now become part of our lives. They are used as aerial ambulances and cranes; to fight bush fires and to carry out police work; for traffic and shark control, news reporting, cattle herding; and to help rescue people in distress.
Concorde: Concorde was the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft. It flies at over twice the speed of sound (Mach 2). Britain and France cooperated in the design of Concorde and it first flew in 1969. Concorde was used to carry passengers from 1976.
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Today, British Airways and Air France operate a small number of these airliners, offering a luxurious but expensive service to passengers between Europe and the United States. Concorde can fly passengers to their destination in little more than half the time taken by other airliners.
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