Introduction to flying

History of flight
From prehistoric times
Humans have watched the flight of birds and longed to imitate them
But no one understood the mechanism of flight
Thousands of years and countless lives were lost in attempts to fly like
birds

Each failure gave those who wished to fly questions that

needed to be answered.
In the 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci
sketched a proposed flying machine
his ideas were flawed because he clung to the idea of bird like wings

In 1665, Robert Hooke

concluded that the strength of the human will not power artificial wing

 In 1783, the first manned hot air balloon,

was crafted by Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier , it flew for 23 minutes

Ten days later

Professor Jacques Charles flew the first gas balloon

the balloons solved the problem of flight

But not the problem of speed and direction
The solution to that problem lay in a childs toy familiar to the East for
2,000years but not introduced to the west until the 13 th centaury- the kite
The kites were used by the Chinese for aerial observation

Sir George Cayley was one of the men who believed the study of
kites unlocked the secrets of winged flight
He was the first to identify the four aerodynamic forces of flight ; weight,
lift, thrust and drag and their relationship
He is the father of Aerial Navigation
Sometimes called father of aviation
He discovered the principles on which the modern science of aeronautics is
founded
He built what is recognized as the first successful flying model and tested
the first full size man carrying airplane.
Before him, researchers thought that the propulsion system should
generate both lift and forward motion at the same time, as birds were able
to do so they constructed their flying machines with flapping wing
(Ornithopters)

 William Samuel Henson

The design follows earlier birdlike gliders
Monoplane propelled by a steam engine house inside the
fuselage

Otto Lilienthal,
He was known as the Glider king.
Proved human flight in aircraft heavier than air was practical
His glider stalled falling from about 50ft he broke his neck
and died the next day

Wilbur and orvile Wright

Made the dream reality
They had experimented for 4years

with kites,
with their homemade wind tunnel,
and different engines to power their biplane,
by the afternoon of December 17 th , the Wright brothers had flown
a total of 98 seconds on four flights.

Classification of aircrafts based on their

characteristics and their physical properties
Airplane:- an engine driven
Fixed wing aircraft
Heavier than air
Supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its wing

Glider:- heavier than air

Supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces
Whose free flight does not depend principally on an engine

Lighter-than-air aircraft
Can rise and remain suspended by using contained gas weighing less than the
air that is displaced by the gas
Airship- lighter than air aircraft that can be steered
Balloon- it is not engine driven and sustains flight through the use of gas
buoyancy or an airborne heater

Powered lift- an heavier-than-air aircraft capable of

Vertical takeoff
Vertical landing]and low speed flights
Depends of engine driven devices

 Powered parachute
It is powered by a flexible or semi-rigid wing connected to a fuselage so
that the wing is not in position for flight until the aircraft is in motion
The fuselage of a powered parachute
Contains the aircraft engine
A seat for each occupant which is attached to the aircrafts landing gear

Rocket
An aircraft propelled by ejected expanding gases generated in the
engine from self-contained propellants and not dependent on the intake
of outside substances

Rotorcraft: its an heavier than air aircraft

It depends principally for its support in flight on the lift generated by
one or more rotors
Gyroplane:- it is engine driven, except for initial starting, but are made
to rotate by action of the air when the rotorcraft is moving
Helicopter:- a rotorcraft that, for its horizontal motion, depends
principally on its engine=driven rotores

Weight-shift-control a powered aircraft with a

framed pivoting wing and a fuselage controllable only
in pitch and roll by the pilots ability to change the
aircrafts center of gravity with respect to the wing,