Lesson 8: A History of Aerodynamics – Part II
Section 2 - The Shape of Aeronautics
CONTRAPTIONS
In 1854, a Frenchman M. Breant, designed a wing-flapping contraption that was written about by Octave Chanute in his 1894 “Progress in Flying Machines.”
A sea captain, Jean-Marie le Bris, built what he called an ‘Artificial Albatross” in 1855, making a determined attempt to imitate that powerful sea bird.
The body had the form of a dory and was made of light wood. It carried hinged wings with a 23-foot spread. The wings, covered with canton flannel, were stressed with steel wires. An arrangement of cords and pulleys were in place to make the wings flap.
On the way to make his first trial, the horse pulling his machine went into an unexpected trot, and Le Bris’s artificial bird began to take off with him sitting in the boat. The dangling rope became entangled around the body of his cart driver, and to prevent an accident, Le Bris guided his “Albatross” back to the bed of the cart, ending the flight. He did not attempt to fly his machine again.
In 1864, two Russian engineers, Strave and Telescheff, built a huge flying machine with five sets of wings. Several farsighted editors were inspired to conclude that “The nation that conquers the air will rule the world.” As a result, scientists began new tests and experiments to keep up with the Russian engineers’ advance.
THE WORD "AVIATION
It is thought that the word “aviation” was coined by the French aeronaut Gabriel de la Landelle, who designed what he called a “Steam Air Liner” in 1863. His design was applied to the helicopter and had a boat-shaped body with two broad monoplane wings extended.
There were elaborate rudder-elevator assemblies mounted on loft and aft, and power to be supplied by a steam engine that would twirl two sets of helicopter vanes appearing like two ship’s masts.
Above these vanes were two mounted umbrella parachutes, that were to be carried folded, and only opened during emergencies. A pusher propeller ran from the auxiliary shaft to provide forward propulsion. The boiler and engine frame were constructed of aluminum, and the steam cylinders of bronze.
Landelle and two of his friends, the Vicomte de Ponton d’Amecourt and Felix Tournachon, whose nickname in the aeronautic profession was “Nadar,” organized the Societe’ d’Autolocomotion Ae’rienne in 1862. Two years later, the name was changed to Soci’ete’ d’Aviation, becoming the first organization to use the name aviation.
There were strange aerial contraptions appearing throughout the nineteenth century. In 1874, De Groof, a Belgian, fell to his death with his ornithopter, which had been launched from a balloon.
However, tailor A.L. Berblinger of Germany, was luckier. He announced in 1811 his plan to fly across the Danube River. When a crowd assembled to see Berblinger fly with wings attached to his arms, he started from a city wall near the bank of the river and plunged into the water without hurting himself.
In 1857, the Englishman F.H. Wenham theorized about flight and the Frenchman F. Du Temple worked on practical problems of aviation, making a powered aircraft in 1874.
INCREASING POPULARITY
Aviation was starting to become increasingly popular with the public. In 1866, the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain was founded, and the first airshow ever, a static display without flight demonstrations, took place in 1868 at the Crystal Palace in London.
Sir Hiram Maxim built an enormous steam-driven airplane with a wing span of 102 ft (31 m) and a three-man crew. This machine lifted briefly off its test track in 1894. Sir Maxim is best known for his invention of the Maxim machine gun in 1884.
OTTO LILIENTHAL
Now it is time to consider one of the great pioneers of flight, Otto Lilienthal. Lilienthal was born May 24, 1848 at Anklam, a small town in Pomerania, Germany. As a teenager, he built wings, observed the flight of storks, and developed a consuming interest in aviation.
After attending what is now the Technical University of Berlin, he founded a machine and boiler factory. With the assistance of his brother Gustav, he went on to experiment with light wings used for gliding when fastened to the arms.
The two brothers later designed a set of wings that were fastened to their backs and moved up and down by arm power.
Through success and failure, Otto realized that in order to enjoy true, straight gliding, they would have to know more of the basic problems of flight. His experiments yielded that curved wings were far more effective than flat surfaces, and he was the first to point out the value and importance of upward currents of air to bird flight.
Otto Lilienthal published the results of his experiments in an 1889 pamphlet titled “The Flight of Birds as a Basis for the Art of Flying.” In 1893, he made a series of true gliding flights near Rathenow, soon making glides averaging 250 meters at a height of 30 meters.
In 1894, he built a hill near Berlin for his experiments and then constructed a biplane glider with a movable, horizontal tail. Lilienthal made nearly two thousand gliding flights in five years, spending a total of five hours in the air.
However, on August 9, 1896, Lilienthal fell with his monoplane glider from an altitude of 33 to 49 ft (10 to 15 m), suffering a fatal spinal injury. He died the day after at age forty-eight.
