AVIATION

Peacetime

During World War I, which ended in November 1918, military aircraft technology went through prodigious and rapid development, especially by the Europeans. By contrast the 1920s were devoted to civilian aviation pursuits.

Barnstormers

Unemployed former fighter pilots roamed the country, each having spent a few hundred dollars for a war-surplus plane, usually a two-seater Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" trainer. They buzzed from county fair to county fair, giving one person at a time a ride for the then significant fare of five or ten dollars. The daredevil barnstormers became the subjects of many movies depicting their exploits of flying under bridges and through barns. Flying upside down and doing barrel rolls and loop-the-loops were standard practices, and even wing walking was performed to attract attention. Charles A. Lindbergh, too young to have been in the war, always wore a parachute when wing walking and ended his act by floating to the ground to the astonishment of the crowd.

Regulation

There was no official inspection of aircraft, no mandatory training of pilots, no rules of flight. Anyone old enough to buy a horse could buy a plane and treat either means of transportation with equal abandon. In 1926 Congress passed an Air Commerce Act, creating an Aeronautics Branch connected with the Department of Commerce. Planes and their pilots became subject to qualification standards and licensing, and the recklessness of the old-time barnstormers came to an end.

Airmail

In the 1920s the best way to make steady money in aviation was to land a government contract to deliver mail. Passenger service was slower to develop. The first regular airmail route had been established in 1918 between New York and Washington, D.C. In 1920 the Post Office Department expanded its airmail service to transcontinental proportions, initiating a route from New York to San Francisco with stops at major interior cities. At first mail was airborne only by day and was transported by train during the night. Day-and-night air transportation was attempted in 1921 but discontinued because with only rudimentary instrumentation night flying was dangerous. In fact it was the main reason thirtyone of the first forty airmail pilots crashed and died. Not until mid 1924 was day-and-night service permanently established. By 1925 private airlines had emerged, and Congress authorized the post office to put mail on regularly scheduled flights. Those mail contracts were a boon to the infant airline industry and helped attract investment.

Sikorsky

One of the greatest American aircraft designers of the 1920s and after was Igor Sikorsky, who arrived in the United States in 1919 as a refugee from Communism in the Soviet Union. In February 1920 he formed a partnership with Ivan Prokofieff and Joseph Michael to manufacture large airplanes capable of carrying freight or passengers. Emerging as leader of the enterprise, Sikorsky reorganized it in March 1923 as Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company.

Long Island

Sikorsky rented space at a Long Island airfield, where in 1924 he successfully tested a transport plane, the fourteen-passenger S-29-A. The two-engine S-29-A was quite an innovation because it was entirely made of metal at a time when wood was still much used in aircraft construction. Charles A. Lindbergh's history-making solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927 over-shadowed Sikorsky's aeronautic accomplishments. At that time Sikorsky was building a transatlantic plane, the twin-engine S-37. He sold his prototype S-37 to American Airways International, and in 1929 it flew seven thousand miles from San Francisco to Santiago, Chile. From there it flew over the Andes to Buenos Aires, Argentina, attaining an altitude of nineteen thousand feet. Meanwhile Sikorsky had attracted the attention of Pan American Airways, whose technical adviser, Charles Lindbergh, became interested in Sikorsky's S-38, a twin-engine amphibian plane. Starting in 1929 a total of 111 S-38s were sold, mainly to Pan Am but also to other companies, private individuals, and the military. Those planes were the beginning of the famous Pan American Clippers of the 1930s. Though Sikorsky is best known for his work on helicopters in the 1930s, during the 1920s he restricted himself to developing fixed-wing aircraft.

Army Planes

Although the 1920s were not an active decade for research and development of military aircraft, the services were not completely out of the picture. The champion of military aviation was U.S. Army Air Corps Brig. Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell. In a 1921 experiment off the Virginia Capes, he demonstrated that airplanes could sink large naval vessels (in this case battle-ships captured from Germany). Yet skeptics pointed out that the ships were motionless in the water and were not firing back at the planes. General Mitchell continued to harass his superiors in Washington until they demoted him to colonel and banished him to Fort Sam Houston, Texas. When the giant U.S. Navy dirigible Shenandoah crashed in Ohio in 1925, Mitchell blamed it on "incompetency and criminal neglect" that was "almost treasonable." The army was stung and moved to court-martial Mitchell, who was suspended from duty for five years. At the urging of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, President Calvin Coolidge convened a nine-man investigatory panel, headed by financier Dwight Morrow, the future father-in-law of aviator Charles Lindbergh. The Morrow report led to some strengthening of the Air Corps within the U.S. Army, but no new funds were appropriated for the corps, and it was not until after World War II that Mitchell's dream of an independent U.S. Air Force was realized.

The Verville Scout

In foreign flying meets during the early 1920s Americans, though the inventors of the air-plane, commanded little respect. There were four American entries in the 1920 Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup race, held near Paris. The most sophisticated American plane in the contest was a Verville Scout, partially designed by Orville Wright and built by the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company of Ohio. It was a monoplane at a time when most manufacturers felt that the mutually reinforcing wings of the double-winged biplane were the only safe way to achieve the strength required for racing competition. Fears about the Verville Scout were allayed with a photograph showing twelve men standing on its wings, which boasted variable camber, arching or curvature to adjust the wind flow over the wings (achieved today by wing flaps). The plane also had retractable landing gear to reduce drag and was powered by a 250-horsepower Hall-Scott engine, which unfortunately malfunctioned, taking the plane out of the race. With the other American entries so amateurish as to occasion mirth among the European spectators, the French retained the cup.

Naval Aviation

Along with Mitchell, navy fliers were able to obtain some funds during the first half of the 1920s to have the Curtiss Company produce racing airplanes for the services. From 1920 to 1925 navy Curtiss planes competed with army Curtiss versions and civilian sport planes in the National Air Races from 1920 to 1925. In a 1923 seaplane competition, the Schneider Trophy Race, held in the English Channel off the Isle of Wight, the Americans made up for earlier embarrassments. The U.S. Navy sent four single-seat biplanes: two Curtiss CR-3's with Curtiss D-12 engines, a Navy-Wright NW-2 racer, and a Naval Aircraft Factory TR3-A. The 650-horsepower high-compression engine in the NW-2 blew up in a preliminary race, and the engine in the TR3-A malfunctioned on takeoff, but the two streamlined CR-3's swept lap after lap at the amazingly high speeds of 177 and 173 MPH, astounding European aviators. Before the end of the year a Curtiss R-2C1 navy racer—with an improved Curtiss D-12 engine and two wing-mounted radiators—won the American Pulitzer Trophy race, averaging 244 MPH. The D-12 was a water-cooled engine with twelve inline cylinders. It had one-eighth inch greater bore than earlier Curtiss engines and therefore 50 additional horsepower.

The Curtiss R3C

In 1925 the army ordered the Curtiss R3C-1 (the wheeled version), and the navy bought the R3C-2 (the seaplane version) of a single-seat biplane constructed mostly of wood (spruce, birch, ash, and hickory) and powered by a 610-horsepower Curtiss engine. That year the army plane took the Pulitzer Trophy with a speed of 249 MPH. Unsatisfied, the army took the wheels off, attached streamlined pontoons, and entered it in the Schneider Trophy Race, hosted by the navy as the defending champions from 1923 and held off Baltimore. With Lt. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle as pilot, the army plane won the race averaging just under 233 MPH. The next day he set a world speed record of 245.7 MPH.

Fighters

There were a few prototype fighter planes produced in the decade, including the navy O2U Corsair, but because it was peacetime they were not put into mass production. To test its planes at sea in the early 1920s, the navy converted a collier (coal-carrying ship) as its first aircraft carrier—the Langley. Both services went to monoplane designs and preferred lower-powered radial engines; that is, the cylinders were arranged in a circle so they could be air cooled. Inline engines had to be water cooled, and the water lines were subject to rupture by enemy gunfire. Nevertheless, Europeans largely ignored this problem and produced fighter planes with water- cooled engines that were more powerful than those of the Americans. During the 1920s American fighter planes still had the same armaments as World War I planes—two machine guns. The fall of Gen. Billy Mitchell in 1925 hurt efforts to win congressional appropriations for military aviation in the late 1920s. In 1928 the Boeing Company of Seattle sold the army and navy planes from its F4B/P-12 series. Powered by a single, air-cooled, rotary 550-horsepower Pratt and Whitney engine, the plane was the last of the old wooden biplanes. It went into limited mass production in the 1930s and was still in use during the first years of World War II.

The Guggenheim Fund

In the late 1920s private aeronautics was greatly assisted financially by the Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, a philanthropic fund set up by Daniel Guggenheim, a wealthy American mining entrepreneur. Guggenheim's son Harry F. Guggenheim, who had been a U.S. Navy pilot in France during World War I, inspired his father's creation of a fund to ensure further research and development in aeronautics. From 1926 to 1930 seven major grants were made to universities, including New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and California Institute of Technology. The fund also sponsored international contests to demonstrate improvements that came out of their research—such as increases in takeoff angle, decreases in stalling, and other safety improvements. The fund enlisted Doolittle to perform experiments that led to the development of instrument flying, thus minimizing crashes caused by fog or night blindness. The fund also assisted Comdr. Richard Byrd in his polar explorations, and after Charles Lindbergh's groundbreaking nonstop transatlantic flight, the fund sponsored a nationwide tour for Lindbergh and his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh's flight helped to convince the public that long-distance flying could be a safe means of transportation, and the tour contributed greatly to the popularization of air travel.

A Ford Airplane

Patterned rather closely on a German Fokker aircraft, Henry Ford's 4AT trimotor, first flown in 1926 and featuring three Pratt and Whitney 420-horsepower radial engines, was one of the safest airplanes of its time. With its inherent stability it could climb with two engines and maintain level flight with one. It had an enclosed cockpit with sideby-side dual controls and carried eleven to fourteen passengers. With a cruising speed of 107 MPH and a range of 570 miles, it could attain a ceiling of 16,500 feet, higher than any mountain in the forty-eight states. Some 199 of the 4AT and its 1928 successor, the 5AT, had been produced by 1933.

Sources:

Enzo Angelucci, Airplanes from the Dawn of Flight to the Present Day (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973);

Terry Gwynn-Jones, Farther and Faster: Aviation's Adventuring Years, 1909-1939 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991);

James J. Halley, The Role of the Fighter in Air Warfare (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1979);

Richard P. Haillon, Legacy of Flight: The Guggenheim Contribution to American Aviation (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977);

H. F. King, comp., Kitty Hawk to Concorde: Jane's 100 Significant Aircraft (London: Jane's Yearbooks, 1970);

Claudia M. Oakes and Kathleen L. Brooks-Pazmany, comps., Aircraft of the National Air and Space Museum, fourth edition (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991);

Lowell Thomas and Lowell Thomas Jr., Famous First Flights That Changed History (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969).

AVIATION

Innovation and Consolidation

Aeronautics in the 1980s experienced many technological improvements built on achievements from the previous two decades. Such progress was hampered in some fields by economic realities and enhanced in others by political imperatives. Issues such as safety, pollution, the arms race, and government spending became fully intertwined with aero-space technology. As a result, aviation developed into a field with enormous socio-economic implications ranging from leisure travel to high-technology industrial development. Some observers nevertheless argue that the fluctuations the field underwent in the 1980s point to its having yet to reach maturity.

No-Frills Flying

The 1980s were a period of upheavals for the commercial aviation industry. Following the deregulation trend begun in the United States in 1978, economic control of the industry was lifted in favor of letting market forces act. The rationale that high levels of competition would winnow out inefficient airlines and lower the costs of flying led to the appearance of low-cost "no-frills" airlines, operating a limited number of routes and offering little or no on-board service. The practice had been initiated by Sir Freddie Laker, a British businessman, with his low cost "Skytrain," a DC-10 that flew daily between New York and London. In the case of U.S. no-frills airlines, such policies were quite successful in the short term, allowing many people who would have other-wise traveled on the ground or not at all to fly to their destination. One of the more notorious airlines was the now-defunct People Express, which bought used jets and flew them out of its Newark, New Jersey, base to cities throughout the United States. It competed directly with Eastern Airlines on the New York-to-Boston shuttle route (one of the busiest air links in the nation). In 1984, at the height of People Express's short success, a one-way ticket between the two cities cost as low as $29 for an off-peak flight, against $60 for an Eastern ticket and $35 for an Amtrak train ticket.

Market Problems

No-frills airlines found themselves fighting each other for the same market, with little over-head left to face losses. On the other hand, older, more stable airlines were established in a variety of markets that guaranteed income (businesspeople flying to a meeting, no matter what the cost), while the no-frills airlines, in an attempt to increase profits, started opening new routes at a pace too fast for their own good. People Express and others suffered fatal growing pains. When expected revenues failed to materialize, these airlines either went bankrupt or had to consolidate their operations. There were a few notable exceptions, such as Southwest Airlines, a short-haul operator that carefully expanded into other markets. As for big, established air-lines, they also suffered from the competition prompted by deregulation. Big airlines were able to compete by matching the low fares of no-frills airlines. While they profited considerably from the low cost of fuel (in the mid to late 1980s it cost about the same as in 1979), they also faced a series of slumps when recessions hit the United states in the early and late 1980s. This forced several airlines into bankruptcy court, while others fared somewhat better, depending on their structure. Some never recovered, such as Pan Am and Eastern Airlines.

The Civil Aircraft War

New technologies developed in the 1970s allowed aircraft manufacturers to build safer, more efficient, and less polluting aircraft. This situation caused considerable competition for airline contracts: from the mid 1960s until the late 1970s, U.S. airlines usually bought American-built aircraft, citing quality of manufacture, better financing, and better servicing as reasons. The European Airbus Industry Consortium broke the U.S. consensus when it leased and sold its A-300 model to Eastern Airlines in 1978. Soon other Airbus models followed into the breach, as did those of other aircraft manufacturers. In 1982 the British Aerospace Corporation, for example, built a four-engine jet, the 146, designed for short-haul links between airports with limited space. The technical solutions devised to reduce noise pollution made the aircraft the only jet allowed to operate at such airfields as the Orange County, California, airport. Other foreign manufacturers offered new commuter aircraft (Brazilian Ambraer, Franco-Italian ATR, Dutch Fokker, German Dornier).

U.S. Manufacturers Respond

Calls for U.S. governmental protection of domestic aircraft builders against foreign aircraft caused confusion among business and political leaders, as most foreign aircraft used parts and engines built by American firms, thereby nullifying the claim that the U.S. aerospace industry deserved governmental help. In fact, U.S. manufacturers did not remain idle. McDonnell-Douglas offered updated versions of its highly successful DC-9 model, while Boeing launched two new models. The 757, designed to replace the aging 727, offered a vastly improved wing design and a cockpit centered around digital displays rather than the traditional dials that had characterized commercial aircraft until then. The other model, the 767, a twin-engined wide-body aircraft designed to compete with the European Airbus 310 model, became the first twin-engine passenger aircraft used regularly on Transatlantic routes. Overall, many of the technical improvements made to civil and commercial aviation came in part from trickle-down effects of military innovations from the 1960s and 1970s.

Military Aviation

In the 1980s military aviation arguably got its greatest boost since the Vietnam War. Political events, framed within the implications of the Cold War, prompted a massive military buildup under the two Republican administrations that controlled the White House in the 1980s. The most notorious aspect of this buildup was a call for a six-hundred-ship navy, including a series of nuclear aircraft carriers. At the aviation level President Ronald Reagan ordered the reactivation of the B-1 supersonic nuclear bomber program (which had been canceled under President Carter), to be built by the Rockwell company. Other aircraft, in particular F-14, F-15, and F-16 jet fighters, were ordered in large quantities, and the new F-18 "Hornet" also entered service. This buildup became popular in the public mind in part through the release of such movies as Top Gun (1986) and Iron Eagle (1986). The rationale for such an increase in military spending pointed to the failure of negotiations with the Soviet Union concerning arms reductions and the discovery that new aircraft with vastly superior capabilities to previous Soviet and American models were under development in Russia.

New Missile Technology

New missile technology was also developed during the decade. Air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) were installed on aging B-52 bombers. These automatic machines, fitted with either nuclear or conventional explosives, could cruise hundreds of miles thanks to satellite navigation (a signal from a satellite in orbit gives the missile its exact position second by second) to reach their target without requiring human control and strike within yards of their intended goal. These ALCMs weren't used, however, until the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Missiles intended for air-to-air and air-to-sea or -ground combat were also perfected, in particular those nicknamed "fire and forget," which implied that, once aimed on target, the device keeps track of the target without assistance from the operator. Finally, at the tactical level, the U.S. Army completed development of the Pershing II missile, capable of carrying several warheads that would drop on different targets (the term assigned to these warheads is MIRV—Multiple Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicle). The development of the Pershing II was part of a NATO defense program known as "dual track," which involved negotiations for armament reduction with the Soviet Union while at the same time developing new weaponry for deployment in case negotiations failed. The Soviet Union, for a variety of reasons, refused to remove its new SS-20 missile from Eastern Europe, and in October 1983 the Pershing II was deployed in West Germany.

Invisible Planes

In an effort to put new research and development results to practical use, the Pentagon also pushed forward the "stealth" program. Stealth technology's goal is to render an object invisible to radar detection. Methods used since the 1940s ranged from building machines out of wood (early radar could detect metal only in large quantity) to covering aircraft with a wave-absorbing substance that would not reflect back to the radar dish. The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, whose "Skunk Works" secret aircraft project unit had already developed such aircraft as the U-2 and the SR-71 "Blackbird" spy planes, set about in the 1970s to develop a stealth aircraft. The first prototype, named "Have Blue," has never been shown in public and remains classified, although some blurry pictures of it exist. Following the testing of the machine, probably in the late 1970s, a production model, the F-117, was built and first flew in 1983. It was first used in combat during the U.S. invasion ofPanama in 989.

The B-2

In parallel, the Northrop company was contracted to build a stealth bomber, the B-2, that would help perpetuate the nuclear deterrence aspect of American defense policy (a B-2 might have a better chance of breaking through the Soviet defense perimeter than an aging, very vulnerable B-52). While the end result (a massive, carefully engineered flying wing) makes the B-2 one of the great marvels of American aerospace technology, its cost (over $1 billion per plane) along with budgetary problems and the end of the Cold War have led critics to question its usefulness when military objectives seem to be shifting to other regions of the globe where other machines, such as helicopters, would be more useful. Other critics argue that spending the money on space flight would be preferable.

Commercial Satellites

In the 1980s, private companies were formed to launch commercial satellites into space. These satellites were to be used for weather, ground observation (geological studies), television relays, and long-distance phone service. The increase in demand for such services and the loss of availability of the space shuttle (only U.S.-sanctioned payloads are allowed) opened the market to other launchers. In the United States, Titan and Delta rockets were put to use, competing against the European Ariane space consortium. The increase in competition in this highly lucrative market has lowered launch costs and prompted further demand for such services, which companies from other nations are eager to offer.

New Promises and Concerns

The aerospace industry in the 1980s offered hope in solving long-distance transportation problems. More people could afford to fly, and, despite occasional recurrence of terrorism, flying remained the safest mode of transportation. Military aviation was used extensively in fulfilling U.S. foreign policy goals, whether to carry out political objectives or to provide relief missions. Finally, the conquest of space allowed new applications, in particular in the field of tele-communication. All these factors contributed to shrinking further the planet, yet also raised new concerns with regard to noise and air pollution. The depletion of the ozone layer remains a central issue to the development of new aircraft, in particular those intended to fly supersonically. Increases in air traffic are encountering the opposition of people residing near airports, and airlines operating at break-even levels worry about maintaining a steady passenger flow. Nevertheless, aviation has become central to many aspects of life in the United States in the 1980s and will likely increase in importance as the United States moves into the next millennium.

Sources:

Michael E. Brown, Flying Blind: The Politics of the U.S. Strategic Bomber Program (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992);

Steven Morrison and Clifford Winston, The Economic Effects of Airline Deregulation (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute, 1986);

John Newhouse, The Sporty Game (New York: Knopf, 1982);

James Ott and Raymond E. Neidl, Airline Odvssev (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995);

George C. Wilson, Flying the Edge (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1982).

AVIATION

Military Aircraft

Aircraft played an important role in World War II, with the military using them for purposes such as long-range bombing missions, protection of land and sea convoys, diversion of enemy fire, provision of cover for ground and naval assaults, and transportation of troops, munitions, and supplies. The wartime needs of the military spurred advancements in aviation. By the late 1930s improvements had taken propeller aircraft with piston engines to their farthest limits of speed and power, and wartime aeronautic research was directed toward solving the aerodynamic problems of developing jet air-craft. Innovations in aviation during the war included not only jet-propelled aircraft but also the helicopter, the winged pilotless missile, and the long-range rocket.

NACA

Responsibility for the development of military aviation rested with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which served both the army and the navy. The committee, led by physicist Joseph S. Ames of Johns Hopkins University, sponsored studies of the fundamental principles of flight. The results of such research included the development of a streamlined engine covering that permitted greater speed without increased engine power or fuel consumption, as well as leakproof fuel tanks and aluminum air frames. The industrial buildup necessary for the United States to produce some 296,000 military aircraft in the early 1940s dramatically stimulated the domestic economy.

Strategic Aircraft

During the war the United States developed bombers with increasing strategic capability. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, first tested in 1936, had a range of 1,864 miles and carried a bomb load of 4,400 pounds. The B-29 Super Fortress, developed in the late 1930s but not used by the military until late 1944, had a range of more than 4,000 miles with up to 10 tons of bombs, allowing the United States to bomb Japan from bases in Iwo Jima. An even greater improvement was the B-36, introduced into service in 1947. The first intercontinental strategic bomber, it could carry 38 tons of bombs up to 3,700 miles or 4.5 tons up to 9,950 miles.

Jets

Wartime competition hastened the development of jet aircraft. The first American jet fighter was the P-59A Airacomet, designed by Bell Aircraft Company. Initially tested in summer 1942, it was never used in combat because it lacked power and consumed too much fuel. On 28 July 1944 the German Messerschmitt Me-262 became the first jet flown in combat. The first American jet put into service by the military was the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, successfully tested in January 1944. In February 1945 the U.S. Army Air Corps announced that the F-80 had been perfected for use in combat, but the planes did not reach air force units in time for use in the war. (They later saw combat in the Korean War.) At the close of World War II, Jerome C. Hunsaker, then chairman of NACA, declared that the end of the war also meant the "end to the development of the airplane as conceived by Wilbur and Orville Wright." The propeller-driven airplane used during the war had power that would have seemed impossible to the Wright brothers. The end of the war marked the beginning of the age of jet propulsion and supersonic flight.

Supersonic Flight

Propeller planes and early jets were not powerful enough to break the sound barrier. When an aircraft reaches the speed of sound, which is about 741 miles per hour at sea level and less at higher altitudes, air particles cannot flow around the plane, and they are compressed into a barrier in front of the plane. As the nose of an aircraft penetrates this wall of air, it creates a shock wave that makes a sound resembling an explosion when it reaches the ground. In 1943 forward-looking engineers John Stack of NACA and Robert Woods of Bell Aircraft recognized that the future of aviation lay in breaking the sonic barrier. They convinced NACA, the U.S. Army Air Corps, and the U.S. Navy to undertake a program exploring supersonic travel. The first aircraft developed as part of this program was the Bell X-1, powered by a rocket that developed six thousand pounds of thrust. On 14 October 1947 the X-l, piloted by Capt. Charles E. Yeager, became the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. Since the speed of sound varies at different altitudes, supersonic flight required a new system of measuring speed. Ernst Mach of Austria developed the new scale: Mach 1 represents the speed of sound regardless of altitude; Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound. Speeds from Mach 1 through Mach 4 are termed supersonic, and those above Mach 5 are called hypersonic. (Yeager's pioneering flight, for example, exceeded Mach 1 but did not reach Mach 2.)

Civilian Air Transport

After the war military aircraft were converted for civilian use. Civilian air travel rose dramatically from just under 1 million passengers transported in 1937 to 14.2 million in 1947. As more and more people traveled by air, the aeronautic industry improved the speed and passenger capacity of commercial airliners. For example, the DC-4, in use in 1947, carried forty-two passengers and reached a maximum speed of 211 miles per hour, while the DC-6, introduced in 1950, could carry sixty-six people at speeds of up to 261 miles per hour.

Sources:

Joseph J. Corn, The Winged Gospel: Americas Romance with Aviation, 1900-1950 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983);

C. H. Hildreth and Bernard C. Nalty, 1001 Questions Answered About Aviation History (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1969);

Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation (London: Jane's, 1980).

aviation operation of heavier-than-air aircraft and related activities. Aviation can be conveniently divided into military aviation, air transport, and general aviation. Military aviation includes all aviation activity by the armed services, such as combat, reconnaissance, and military air transport. Air transport consists mainly of the operation of commercial airlines, which handle both freight and passengers. General aviation consists of agricultural, business, charter, instructional, and pleasure flying; it includes such activities as the operation of air taxis, as well as aerial surveying and mapping.

See also air, law of the ; air navigation ; airplane ; airship .

Early Interest in Human Flight

Interest in aviation can be traced back as far as Leonardo da Vinci; a human-powered aircraft based in part on his designs, Daedalus 88, flew 72 mi (115 km) in 1988. However, real progress toward achieving flight in heavier-than-air machines only began in the middle of the 19th cent. In 1842 the Englishman W. S. Henson patented a design for a machine that closely foreshadowed the modern monoplane; another Englishman, John Stringfellow, developed a model plane said to be the first power-driven machine to fly; and a third Englishman, F. H. Wenham, devised the first wind-tunnel experiments. In France, Alphonse Penaud made successful flying models of airplanes, while Clément Ader actually achieved flight (over a distance of about 150 ft/45 m in 1890 and about 300 yd/280 m in 1897) in a power-driven monoplane fashioned after a bat. In 1894 a plane built in England by Sir Hiram S. Maxim, operated by steam engines and carrying a crew of three, rose into the air from the track on which it was being tested. In the United States, S. P. Langley, Octave Chanute, and Otto Lilienthal made notable contributions to the early development of the airplane.

The Birth and Development of the Airplane

Finally, on Dec. 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first piloted airplane off the beach near Kitty Hawk, N. C. Henri Blériot and Glenn H. Curtiss made significant improvements in airplane design and, as more powerful engines became available, flew successively longer distances. In 1909 Blériot flew across the English Channel; ten years later a Curtiss-designed flying boat crossed the Atlantic Ocean. At first aviation development was motivated by the large prizes put up by publicity-seeking newspapers; but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 provided far greater motivation for aviation research and development (see air forces . The cessation of hostilities made available a large number of aircraft that could be bought cheaply, and the result was a great deal of aviation activity; barnstorming and stunt-flying kept aviation before the eyes of the public for a time, but the real stimulus was the initiation of airmail service in the mid-1920s. The intrepid airmail pilots caught the fancy of the public, and out of this group came the famous solo fliers Lindbergh, St-Exupéry, and others.

During the 1930s aviation continued to expand. Technological improvements in wind-tunnel testing, engine and airframe design, and maintenance equipment combined to provide faster, larger, and more durable airplanes. The transportation of passengers became profitable, and routes were extended to include several foreign countries. TransPacific airmail service, begun by Pan American Airways (later Pan American World Airways) in 1934, was followed by the first transoceanic aviation service for passengers, on the China Clipper, from San Francisco to Manila (to Hong Kong in 1937). In 1939 the first transatlantic service carrying both mail and passengers was inaugurated.

The Era of Mass Commercial Aviation

The outbreak of World War II interrupted commercial air service, but by 1947 all the basic technology essential to contemporary aviation had been developed: jet propulsion , streamlining, radar, and metallurgy. Perhaps the greatest example of this transition from military technology to commercial applications is the Boeing Company, a minor military contractor which became the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. Commercial jet transportation began in 1952, when the British Overseas Airways Comet first flew from London to Johannesburg. Though this service was short-lived, by 1960 several commercial jet aircraft were in service; today virtually all commercial air routes are flown by jet or turboprop aircraft. The latest significant development in aviation has been the introduction of fly-by-wire control systems, which rely on computers and electronics rather than cables to operate aircraft control surfaces.

The result has been the explosive growth of commercial aviation, from jumbo and superjumbo jetliners to overnight package services, while general aviation has lagged behind. This growth has not been without some major problems. Jet aircraft use more fuel and require longer runways and more durable construction materials, and their sheer numbers create special problems for air-traffic control. In addition, the takeoff and landing of jet aircraft over populated areas create locally dangerous levels of noise pollution .

Bibliography

See A. de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars (tr. 1939); B. Markham, West with the Night (1942, repr. 1987); W. Green and G. Pollinger, The Aircraft of the World (1979); L. K. Loftin, The Evolution of Modern Aircraft (1985); D. Todd and J. Simpson, The World Aircraft Industry (1986).

AVIATION

Defined as the science and practice of powered, heavier-than-air flight, aviation made its first great strides in the early twentieth century, after decades of flights in lighter-than-air gliders and balloons had been achieved in several countries. As acknowledged in reference books worldwide, including those of Soviet Russia, the first successful flight of an airplane was performed one hundred years ago by Orville and Wilbur Wright on December 17,1903. Throughout the nineteenth century, however, designers and engineers in many countries were working on plans for powered human flight.

In Russia, Sergi Alexeyevich Chaplygin (1869–1942) and Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky (1847–1921) made major contributions in their study of aerodynamics, founding a world-famous school in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1881, Alexander Fyodorovich Mozhaisky (1823–1890) received a patent for a propeller-driven, table-shaped airplane powered by a steam engine, which crashed on takeoff in 1885. From 1909 to 1914, however, Russia made significant strides in airplane design. Progress included several successful test flights of innovative aircraft. For instance, the Russian aircraft designer Yakov M. Gakkel (1874–1945) achieved worldwide attention among aviation experts for developing a single-seat, motor-powered biplane that attracted world attention among aviation experts. In 1910, Boris N. Yuriev (1889–1957) designed one of the world's first helicopters, which were known in aviation's earlier days as autogyros.

A major breakthrough in world aviation occurred in 1913, with the development of the four-motored heavy Russian aircraft, the Ilya Muromets. This huge airplane far outstripped all other planes of its time for its size, range, and load-carrying capability. Russian ice- and hydroplane development was also outstanding in the years 1915 and 1916. One of the world famous Russian aircraft designers of this period, and the one who built the Muromets, was Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (1889–1972), who emigrated to the United States in 1919 and established a well-known aircraft factory there in 1923.

Before and during World War I, Russian military aircraft technical schools and aviation clubs blossomed. In the war, the Russians deployed thirty-nine air squadrons totaling 263 aircraft, all bearing a distinctive circular white, blue, and red insignia on their wings. With the coming to power of the Communists in late 1917, Lenin and Stalin, who stressed the importance of military production and an offensive strategy, strongly supported the development of the Red Air Force. Civilian planes, too, were built, for what became the world's largest airline, Aeroflot.

By the time of World War II, the Soviets had made significant strides in the development of all types of military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, gliders and transport planes, for both the Red Army and Red Navy. By the time of the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, various types of Soviet aircraft possessed equal or superior specifications compared to the planes available to their Nazi German counterparts. This achievement was possible not only because of the long, pre-revolutionary Russian and postrevolutionary Soviet experience in designing and building aircraft and participating in international air shows. Progress in this field also stemmed from Soviet strategic planning, which called for offensive air–ground support in land battle.

During World War II, such aircraft as the Shturmoviks, Ilyushins, and Polikarpovs became world famous in the war, as did a number of male and female Soviet war aces. With the coming of jet-powered and supersonic aircraft in the 1950s and beyond, the Soviets continued their quest for air supremacy, and again showed their prowess in aviation.

See also: science and technology policy; world war i; world war ii

Albert L. Weeks

31. Aviation

accelerometer

an instrument for measuring and recording the rate of acceleration of an aircraft.

aerialist

a person who performs aerial acrobatics, as a trapeze artist, tightrope walker, stunt flier, etc.

aeroballistics

the science of ballistics combined with or from the special viewpoint of aerodynamics, particularly with regard to rockets, guided missiles, etc. —aeroballistic, adj.

aerobatics

stunts performed with aircraft. See also 2. ACROBATICS .

aerocartography

the process of mapmaking by means of aerial survey.

aerodonetics

Rare. the science or art of gliding. —aerodonetic, adj.

aerodrome, airdrome

an airport or airbase, not including the personnel.

aerodromics

the art or science of flying airplanes.

aeroembolism

Medicine. a condition caused by the formation of nitrogen bubbles in the blood as a result of a sudden lowering of atmospheric pressure, as when flying at high altitude or rising too rapidly from a deep underwater dive.

aeromedicine

the medical specialty concerned with the health of those engaged in flying within the earth’s atmosphere.

aeronautics

1. Archaic. the science or art of ascending and traveling in the air in lighter-than-air vehicles.

2. the technology or art of flying airplanes. —aeronaut, n. — aeronautic, aeronautical, adj.

aeronautism

the technique of ballooning. —aeronautics, n.

aeropause

the region in the upper part of the earth’s atmosphere where the air is too thin for aircraft to operate properly.

aerophone

an instrument for detecting the approach of aircraft by intensifying the sound waves it creates in the air.

aerophysics

the branch of physics that studies the earth’s atmosphere, especially the effects upon the atmosphere of objects flying at high speeds or at high altitudes. —aerophysicist, n.

aeroplanist

an aviator or aircraft pilot.

aerostatics

the study of the construction and operation of aerostats, lighter-than-air craft, as balloons or dirigibles. —aerostatic, aerostatical , adj.

avigation

the science of aerial navigation.

avinosis

airsickness.

avionics

the science and technology of electrical and electronic devices or equipment used in aviation.

ballooning

the art and science of operating balloons for sport or air travel. Also balloonry .

bioastronautics

the science that studies the effects of space travel on life, especially human life and the human body.

omithopter, orthopter

da Vinci’s exploratory design for a flying machine moved by flapping wings.

perastadics

the science and art of space flying. — perastadic, adj.

photoreconnaisance

reconnaissance for purposes of aerial photography; reconnaissance or surveillance by means of aerial photography.

radar

an acronym for RAdio Detecting And Ranging: a method and the equipment used for the detection and determination of the velocity of a moving object by reflecting radio waves off it.

rocketry

the science and technology of rocket design and manufacture.

supersonic

applied to aircraft moving at speeds beyond the speed of sound, about 750 mph (1207.5 kph) at sea level.

volitation

flight, the act of flying, or the ability to fly.

51. Aviation

1. Kitty Hawk site of first manned, powered flight (1903). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 563]
2. Lafayette Escadrille American aviators assisting Allies in WWI. [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 273]
3. Night Flight relates the harrowing experiences of early airmail pilots on South American routes. [Fr. Lit.: Magill III, 687]
4. Red Baron nickname given to Baron Richthofen. [Aviation: EB, VIII: 574]
5. Smilin’ Jack comic strip pilot who solves crimes. [Comics: “Smilin’ Jack” in Horn, 624–625]
6. Spirit of St. Louis Charles Lindbergh’s plane. [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 287]
7. Wright brothers creators-aviators of first manned aircraft (1903). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 563]

a·vi·a·tion / ˌāvēˈāshən/ • n. the flying or operating of aircraft: [as adj.] the aviation industry aviation engineering.

aviation XIX. — F., irreg. f. L. avis bird + -ATION.
So aviator XIX. — F. aviateur.

aviation n.the flying or operating of aircraft: the aviation industry | aviation engineering.

AVIATION

AVIATION. SeeAir Transportation and Travel ; Aircraft Industry .

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