Kites ~400 BC - Chinese - to study weather and for use in religious ceremonies
DaVinci -1480's - studies flight - hundreds of designs of flying machines (none worked)
Lighter-than-air flight -1783 - Balloons - Montgolfier brothers Rooster, duck, and sheep were first passengers
Gliders ~1800 - Sir George Cayley - wings were for lift, not a means of propulsion Manned gliders - 1890's - otto lillienthal - primary source of knowledge was birds killed in flight after 2500+ flights (gust of wind)
Steam-powered engine - 1891 - Samuel Langley - successful flight of a powered engine on a model airplane flew for 3/4 of a mile, full-size trials were a failure (too heavy) Scientific collection of aviation research - 1894 - octave chanute - "progress in flying machines" wright brothers proved much of the research was wrong
First manned, heavier-than-air, powered, controlled and sustained flight - 1903 - Wright Brothers Meticulously scientific, realized the pilot was just as important as the airplane
aircraft go to war - WWI
first air fatality - 1908 - Thomas Selfridge - was flying with Orville wright and crashed (Wright was seriously injured)
first takeoff from warship - 1910 - Coast of Virginia first landing on a warship-1911
Endurance record- 1914 - 24hrs, 12 min nonstop without refueling lasted until 1927
first air to air combat - 1914
REconnaissance flights- 1914
first female combat aviator - 1914 - russian Princess Eugenie M. Shakhovskaya
First specialized bombers-1917 previously dropped bombs over the side of their aircraft
First "aces" - top pilots- determined by downed enemy planes (kills)
WWI aircraft were mostly wood, wire and canvas- notoriously unreliable
average life expectancy for a british pilot was only 69 flight hours
at the start of WWI america has 6 planes and 14 pilots- americans would fly with the british and french
commercial zeppelin flights across the atlantic - 1928
Hindenburg disaster- 1937 - burst into flames while docking in new jersey 35 fatalities out of 97 on board, 1 on ground fatality
first aircraft carrier- 1922 - USS LAngley (542 feet long. compared to Modern Gerald Ford class at 1092 feet)
non-stop flight across atlantic- 1927 -Charles Lindbergh New York to Paris in 33.5 hours
instrument flight-1929 - Jimmy Dolittle flew a fully hooded cockpit around a course using only instruments
Jet engine - 1930(1941) - patented in 1930 but never had a test flight until 1941
First african american woman and first Native American to become a pilot- 1921 - Bessie Coleman - Wasn't allowed to fly in america, went to france to get her license, came back to america to perform Airmail - 1919
"Red Tails" - 332nd fighter group - only American escort fighter group never to lose a bomber All its pilots were african american
all-metal cantilever monoplane
higher, faster, further
long range bombing
Radar and advanced navigation
Lindbergh, Doolittle, and Rickenbacher again - Doolittle Military pilot (Tokyo Raid) commanded 8th Air Force in England Lindbergh - although not in the military flew in over 50 combat missions, Lindbergh revolutionized flight by helping aircraft go further
Nazi Rockets - V1 and V2 - first guided "missiles" V2 rocket traveled at 3500 miles per hour, range of 200 miles Start of space age - V2 created by wernher von braun (father of the American Rocket program)
Jet Age - Post WWII
Helicopters - Late 30's - By the early 50's over 30 types of helicopter were in use
Sound Barrier- 1947 - Chuck Yeager became the first to break the sound barrier in a Bell X-1 Some thought the sound barrier couldn't be broken X-1 was only ever used as a test vehicle (a rocket with wings) Yeager eventually reached mach 2.44 (about 1800 mph) in the X-1A
higher, faster, further
Cold War- spurred the development of the Jet engine and space race
SR-71 BLACKBIRD- 1964 - American spy Plane Fastest aircraft ever built at Mach 3.3 (~2000 mph), flew to over 90,000' its only defenses were being fast While not true "Stealth" implemented Stealth ideas
first supersonic commercial flight- 1969 - Concorde
First Stealth aircraft - 1981 - F117 Nighthawk
space travel - 1960's onward
First satellite in space- 1957 - Sputnik 1
first person in space- 1961 - yuri gagarin (Alan Shepard - less than one month later)
landing on the moon- 1969 - Apollo 11 First woman in space - 1963 - Valentina Tereshkova, Sally Ride first american woman in space (1983)
space station - 1971 - Salyut
SPACE SHUTTLE- 1981 - FIRST REUSABLE, landable SPACECRAFT
First space telescope- 1990 - Hubble
Voyager 1 - Launched 1977 - first manmade object to leave our solar system in 2013