History of AIRCRAFT

History of AIRCRAFT

History

The first powered aircraft had been designed and invented by the famous Wright brothers. (Wilbur & Orville) On 17th December 1903, they had experimented flying their aircraft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U. S.A, establishing a history of the first aeroplane flight, though it could fly only for twelve seconds. However, with continued determined efforts they improved its mechanism so that in 1908 Wilbur could fly for two hours and twenty minutes. Many people had witnessed this wonderful experience and thus a new idea of air transportation was conceived. Many entrepreneurs and talented people developed and experienced different aeroplanes in USA and Europe enabling the first commercial flight with passengers and mail to operate between Paris and London in 1919. Another land mark had been set on 15th May 1941 when Sir Frank Whittle, an engineer and officer of the Royal Air Force, successfully tested the flight of an aircraft with a jet engine which he had invented after twelve years of his dedicated work. Prior to this occasion all the aircraft were powered by piston engines. The application of jet engines revolutionized the concept of aviation as it enabled the aircraft to fly with much greater speed and at higher altitudes. Eventually, today, air transportation has become the fastest, most convenient, efficient, comfortable and even economical to travel across the world.

Operation

Let us try to observe different parts of a commercial aircraft from the figures in the adjacent page. Fuselage: It is the main body of the aircraft. The upper part of the fuselage consists of cabins and the cockpit. Cabin is where the seats are laid out for the passengers and an aircraft may have separate first, business and economy class cabins according to the commercial and market requirements of an airline. In each cabin there are rows of seats and between those rows there is a passage which is called an aisle, for the passengers to walk to their seats. Cockpit or the flight deck is the place from where the cockpit crew controls the flying operation. Cockpit crew consists of a captain, a co-pilot and sometimes a flight engineer. Cabin crew hosts the passengers in the cabin and consists of a flight purser, flight stewards and flight stewardesses. (air hostesses) The lower part of the fuselage has separate baggage hold and the cargo hold. Some airlines may also keep an animal hold here.

Wings: They are attached to the fuselage. They also serve as the fuel tank. Most of the aircraft have their engines fitted with the wings.

Four forces which apply to the body of an aircraft during its flight are

Weight, Drag, Lift and Thrust.

Weight of the aircraft tends it to stay on the ground due to the gravitational pull.

Lift is the opposite of the weight which lets the aircraft move up in the air. Lift is provided by the use of the WINGS.

Drag is the force which tends the aircraft to remain static.

Thrust is the opposite of the drag which moves the aircraft in the forward direction. Thrust is generated by the ENGINES to move the aircraft forward with great speed.

Once the aircraft is in the air it experiences three types of rotational movements around their axes. These rotational movements are called, roll, pitch and yaw which are controlled by using some hinged and moveable parts located in the wings, the tail and the tail fins from the cockpit. Roll is the rotational movement from one wing tip to the other and is controlled by moving the AILERONS located on both sides of the wings for the angling of the aircraft to either right or the left during the flight.

Pitch is the rotational movement from the tail to the nose tip of the aircraft which is controlled by moving the ELEVATORS located in the tail. Elevators are the horizontal stabilizer of the aircraft.

Yaw is the vertical rotation with its centre of axis in the tail fin which is controlled by using the RUDDER located vertically along the tail fins. Rudder is the vertical stabilizer and used to fix the direction of the aircraft.

Wings play an important role in flying the aircraft. As mention earlier they provide the required lift. Therefore, wings are specially designed with a curved shape in the front and thinner flat surface in its rear to take the air from the front and let it flow over it while the air underneath the wing lifts the aircraft upwards to let it fly. Another hinged part of the wing is the FLAPS lying in the rear of both the wings. They are used to enhance the lift of the aircraft during the flight or control its speed during takeoff and landing.

The body of aircraft is assembled with a special metal, duralumin which is stronger but lighter in weight. As you know, the air gets thinner as we go higher up in the atmosphere and it gives much lesser resistance to the flight of an aircraft. Therefore, the higher the altitude the greater the speed will be. But at higher altitudes, let us say, at 30,000 fits there will hardly be any oxygen to breath and the temperature drops to far below the freezing point i.e. -40 degrees C to -60 degrees C. Both the conditions do not allow human and animal survival. For this reason aircraft cabins and cockpits are constantly kept pressurized to maintain normal atmospheric pressure as on the ground level with enough oxygen to breath and a comfortable temperature is maintained during the flight. Thus the air travel is made so convenient and enjoyable. The speed of the aircraft is measured in terms of the speed of sound. The speed of sound is 750 miles per hour. The aircraft capable of flying at speed greater than that of sound is called the SUPER-SONIC and the one which can only fly at less than the 750 M.P.H or 1 mach, is called the SUB-SONIC.

The aircraft having a fuselage width of less than 16 fits and only a single aisle in its cabin is termed as NARROW BODTFT) AIRCRAFT. The aircraft having a fuselage wider than 16 fits and two or more aisles in its cabin is called WIDE BODIED AIRCRAFT.

Aircraft types

PROPELLER (P): Older types of aircraft powered by piston engines with propellers PLTRE JEt (J): These aircraft are powered by jet engines to have maximum speed. TURBO-PROP or PROP-JET (T): These aircraft have moderate speed and use semi jet engines with propellers. HELICOPTERS (HI It does not have the wings rather it uses a fan on the top of its fuselage with very large blades. It can land and take off from a small air strip or a helipad. It flies at low altitude and used for transportation between small distances. AMPHIBIAN SEA-PLANE (A): This is capable of landing or taking off from water surface as well as the air strip on the ground.

There are many companies in America and Europe who manufacture commercial aircraft. However, Boeing and Airbus arc the two giant companies competing with each other. Boeing is an American company based at Seattle, USA. Airbus is a European enterprise having its main manufacturing plant at Toulouse, France. They design and manufacture varieties of aircraft according to the needs of airlines and the passengers. For commercial and administrative identification, IATA has given a three character code to each model of the commercial aircraft produced by any company. You will always find these codes with airlines time schedules in OAG and all the GDS for information to the customers.

Airlines lay lot of emphasis on the features of their aircraft, particularly about cabin seat plan (configuration), comforts, convenience, and the services on-board in their advertisements. Try to know more from the airline sources for customer information.

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