The Airplane

THE AIRPLANE

Early Flight

Although powered flight was achieved at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, the airplane industry did not take off until the advent of World War I. The years before the war, however, did see impressive achievements in aviation. In January 1910 the first aviation competition in America was held in Los Angeles. Also that year Glenn Curtiss flew from Albany to New York City in 150 minutes to set a new long-distance speed record. In 1911 there were only about four hundred airplanes in the United States, but the airplane was in the news: Curtiss built the first practical plane with pontoons instead of wheels; Galbraith Perry Rogers flew from New York to California in forty-nine days in sixty-eight segments, with an average airspeed of 51.5 MPH (not until 1913 would speeds in excess of 100 MPH be achieved in flight); and Harriet Quimby, an editor at Leslie's Magazine, became the first woman licensed as a pilot. In 1912 Ruth Law flew nonstop from Chicago to New York. The war years, though, brought a great leap forward in aviation. Toward the decade's end a few passenger and mail delivery routes had been established in the United States. By 1919 aircraft technology had advanced enough to allow John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown to make the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

Airplanes in War

In 1914 there were only about five thousand airplanes in the world, but by the end of World War I there were an estimated two hundred thousand planes worldwide, most of which had been manufactured for military service. During the war airplanes were used for reconnaissance, as bombers, and to strafe enemy infantry. The first dogfights between fighter pilots captured the imagination of many Americans. Germany's Baron Manfred von Richthofen (the "Red Baron") had eighty successful air engagements with enemy planes. The Frenchman Rene Fonck (with seventy-five successful engagements) and British airman Edward Mannock (with seventy-three) were not far behind. There were no air-craft carriers during World War I. The few planes that took off from ships at sea (at times aided by catapult devices) had either to ditch in the sea near their ship and be pulled from the water or fly to a land base. During the war U.S. engineers designed pilotless bomb-carrying aircraft, but the armistice was signed before the designs could be put into production.

THE FIRST INTERCITY AIRPLANE RACE

The 19 August 1911 edition of Scientific American recounted the first airplane race from New York to Philadelphia, which was flown on 5 August: "The first aeroplane race across country from New York to Philadelphia was flown on Saturday, August 5th, when Messrs. Bechy, Ely, and Robinson of the Curtiss force started from Governors Island, flew up the Hudson to Thirty-Third Street, circled over the roof of the Gimbel building, and headed for Philadelphia. Bechy, who has already made a name for himself by his flight over Niagara Falls a short time ago, won the race, his time from store to store for the 90 miles being 3/4 minutes less than two hours, including a stop at Trenton, in order to take on fuel.…Just before reaching Philadelphia Bechy was soaked as he circled above the Gimbel building in Philadelphia.…The prize was $5,000 in cash."

The V-12 Liberty Engine

At the opening of World War I the United States trailed Europe in the manufacture of airplanes. During the war, however, U.S. engineers developed the famous V-12 Liberty engine, twenty thousand of which were produced for the military. Mainly designed by engineers in the automobile industry (especially at Packard Motor Company in Detroit), the V-12 proved the ability of American scientists and engineers to respond swiftly in a crisis. The V-12 went from drafting table to production in six months, from May to November 1917. Engineers tested prototype airplane engines by bolting them to truck beds and "driving" the propeller-powered trucks in the streets of Detroit. As one observer noted, "The air-propelled truck could travel faster than any man would care to drive it." An automotive plant was retooled to produce the new engines in quantity, and engineers at Ford Motor Company developed cylinders forged from steel tubing—replacing the slow and laborious method of boring cylinders directly into a metal block—that allowed for more efficient engine production at a much reduced cost. Another innovation of the V-12 was its use of water rather than air as an engine coolant.

Sources:

John Batchelor and Bryan Cooper, Fighter: A History of Fighter Aircraft (New York: Scribners, 1974);

"The True Story of the Liberty Motor," Scientific American (1 June 1918): 500, 515.