The Wright brothers are two Americans who invented and built the world's first airplane capable of flight. On December 17, 1903, the first manned flight in an airplane took place - the first controlled flight of a man in an apparatus heavier than air with an engine.

Let's remember how it was.

Like many geniuses, the Wright Brothers were not educational stars. So, they attended high school, but did not receive diplomas of its completion. In 1892, the brothers opened a bicycle repair shop and a bicycle shop, and then began manufacturing bicycles under their own brand in 1896. They used the money earned at their enterprise to finance their aviation experiments.

On the left - Orvil Wright, on the right - Wilbur Wright. They were 34 and 38 years old in 1905 respectively. (Photo Library of Congress):

In 1896, three important events took place in world aviation. In May, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley successfully launched a steam-powered drone. During the summer, Chicago engineer and renowned aviator Octave Chanute hired several young men to test different types of gliders over the sand dunes along the shores of Lake Michigan. In August, Otto Lilienthal died in the crash of his glider. These events made a big impression on the brothers.

Workshop in the Wright brothers' bicycle shop, 1897. (Photo Library of Congress):

Despite the tragic fate of Otto Lilienthal, the Wright brothers adopted his strategy: gliding flight experiments that tested flight control systems before the first powered flight. At the beginning of their experiments, they identified control as the unsolved third part of the "flight problem". They believed that sufficient knowledge and experience had already been accumulated to solve the other two problems - lift and engines. And in this they differed sharply from the more experienced aviators of their time, who built powerful engines, attached them to aircraft bodies equipped with untested controls, and tried to take to the air without preliminary flight tests.

Crashed glider, October 10, 1900. (Photo by Library of Congress):

Based on observations, one of the brothers, Wilber, concluded that birds change the angle of their wing tips to make their body turn to the right or left. The brothers decided that it would also be a good way for the flying machine to turn - to "roll" or "tilt" in the direction of the turn, just like birds do - and just like cyclists: this was an experience the brothers were familiar with. .

Dan Tate (left) and Wilbur Wright (right) with a glider, September 19, 1902. (Photo by Library of Congress):

The design of the Wright brothers' first full-size glider was based on the work of their predecessors: the Chanute-Herring biplane glider, which made successful flights in 1896 near Chicago; lift data published by Lilienthal. The struts between the wings of their glider were surrounded by cables in their own modification.

Experiments continue. North Carolina, October 10, 1902. (Photo by Library of Congress):

In 1902, the Wright brothers took a huge step forward and made basic wind tunnel tests on 200 wings of various shapes and profiles, which were followed by deep testing of 38 of them.

The Wright brothers' 1902 glider made its first flights as an unmanned kite. Working with the wind tunnel proved to be very useful: the lift force of the glider corresponded to the calculated one. The new airframe also had a new feature: a rigid vertical rudder, which was supposed to eliminate a number of problems that had arisen earlier.

With the help of a new method of control, the Wrights achieved true control of their apparatus for the first time, this happened on October 8, 1902 and became the most important invention in the history of aviation. In September and October, they made 700 to 1,000 flights, the longest of which lasted 26 seconds, and its range was 190 m. Hundreds of well-controlled flights after installation convinced the brothers to start building a flying machine heavier than air with an engine.

Wilber makes a turn with a movable rudder on October 24, 1902. (Photo Library of Congress):

In 1903, the Wright brothers built an engine-powered Flyer 1 (pictured below), the material of which was the usual construction material for Wright devices - spruce, a strong and light tree. They also designed and manufactured wooden propellers as well as a gasoline engine made in their bike shop. (Photo Library of Congress):

Wilbur Wright at the controls of the damaged Flyer 1 after a failed flight on December 14, 1903. (Photo Library of Congress):

Modern tests in a wind tunnel of propellers of the 1903 model showed that they had an efficiency of more than 75% in the conditions of the first flights, and in fact had a maximum efficiency of 82%. This is a very big achievement, considering that modern wooden propellers have a maximum efficiency of 85%.

The first flight was made by Orville, he flew 36.5 meters in 12 seconds, this flight was recorded in the famous photograph (below). The next two flights were about 52 and 60 meters long, made by Wilber and Orville, respectively. Their height was about 3 meters above ground level.

The first human flight in an airplane. This is the first flight of Flyer 1 on December 17, 1903, piloted by Orville, Wilber on the ground. Photograph of John T. Daniels from the Kill Devil Hills Rescue Station, using an Orville camera on a tripod. (Photo Library of Congress):

The biggest fundamental achievement of the Wright brothers was their discovery of 3 axes of rotation of the aircraft, which allowed pilots to effectively control the aircraft and maintain its balance during flight. This method has become the main one, and remains so to this day for all types of aircraft.

In 1904, the Wright brothers built the Flyer II (pictured) and set up an airfield at Huffman Prairie, a cow pasture 13 miles northeast of Dayton, Ohio. (Photo Library of Congress):

In 1905 the brothers built the new Flyer III, which included important improvements that greatly improved stability and control, setting the stage for a series of six "long flights" lasting from 17 to 38 minutes and ranging from 20 to 39 km in 1 4-km route around the Huffman Prairie from 26 September to 5 October. Wilber made his last and longest flight, with a range of 39.4 km in 38 minutes and 3 seconds, ending in a safe landing after running out of fuel.

Flight September 29, 1905. (Photo Library of Congress):

The Wright brothers certainly took steps to ensure that attention to their flights was minimal. Fearing that competitors will take advantage of their ideas. They wrote to the US government, and then to the UK, France and Germany with an offer to sell the flying machine, but refused demonstration flights, insisting on the preliminary signing of the contract. They didn't even want to show pictures of their Flyer. (Photo Library of Congress):

The Wright brothers did not fly in 1906 and 1907, negotiating with American and European governments during this period. After finally signing contracts with the French company and the US Army, they returned in May 1908 with the 1905 Flyer, in which the pilot and passenger seats were redesigned, and began to prepare for exhibition flights important to their contracts. Under the contracts, the aircraft had to be capable of carrying a passenger.

Plane crash during an unsuccessful demonstration flight for representatives of the US Army, September 17, 1908. A few minutes after takeoff at an altitude of about 30 m, the propeller split, depriving the aircraft of control. (Photo Library of Congress):

Deeply shaken by the accident, Wilber decided to make even more spectacular demonstration flights; in the days and weeks that followed, he set new height and duration records.

In July 1909, Orville, with the help of Wilber, completed demonstration flights for the US Army, fulfilling the requirement for a two-seat aircraft capable of flying with a passenger for an hour at an average speed of 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) and making a safe landing. They sold the plane to the military for $30,000.

Close-up of the Wright brothers' aircraft with passenger seat and pilot's seat, 1911. (Photo Library of Congress):

Wilber's height of fame came in early October when, at New York City's Hudson River tercentenary celebrations, he flew around the Statue of Liberty and made a 33-minute flight up and down the river along Manhattan in front of about one million New Yorkers. These flights brought great fame to the Wright brothers in America. (AP Photo):

During demonstration flights in the south of France, where Wilber made many more demonstration flights, passengers in which were officers, journalists and statesmen, and on February 15, 1909, his sister Catherine (left). (Photo Library of Congress):

Demonstration flight for the US Army in 1909. (Photo by Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress):

Both brothers remained single. Wilber once quipped that he "couldn't feed a wife and a flying car at the same time." The story of the Wright brothers has been filmed several times. In addition, the brothers appear in some films as minor characters, there are documentaries, animation and educational films about aviators, their inventions and flights.

Although the Wright brothers were not the first to build and fly an experimental aircraft, they were the first to be able to control such flight in the air, which made possible the further development of aircraft construction. (Photo by Library of Congress).

The history of the idea - to fly.

The legend of the British king Bloodud, who dreamed of flying since childhood, is widely known. He made wings that act on the principle of birds, that is, with the help of flapping movements. The material for them was rods, belts and feathers. The use of bird feathers was supposed to help flight due to the air contained within them.

On a beautiful sunny day, Bloodud decided to try his invention. Climbing up the high palace tower, he jumped down and flapped his wings. However, the gravity of the earth was stronger, and the king collapsed to the ground.

Meanwhile, Bloodud's death did not stop the experimenters. People continued to invent various flying devices and test them.

Numerous sources have information about flights after a jump from a height.

In the XI century. the English monk Aylmer of Malmesbury planned from the tower of the abbey. He managed to fly a few meters, after which he collapsed to the ground.

As a result, the monk broke both legs, but still survived. His flight marked the beginning of numerous experiments.

However, the first documentary confirmation of an attempt to fly on wings in the Russian Empire dates back to 1695. Then an unknown inventor turned to the tsar with a request to give him money to create a flying device. His request was granted - 18 rubles were allocated from the treasury, and the inventor set to work. Rods, mica, and then leather were used, but no one ever saw the flight of a winged man.

It is noteworthy that, in addition to traditional feathers, other materials were also used to create wings, primarily fabric, leather and wood.

However, all attempts to fly into the sky on such devices ended in the death or injury of the next Icarus.

New projects for the creation of aircraft were developed throughout the Middle Ages. Even then, the inventors began to understand that the tail unit is simply necessary for flying. Indeed, in birds, it is this part of the body that plays the role of steering and balancing weight.

The first flying devices were a kind of appendage of natural human organs. Technological progress during the Middle Ages made it possible to start developing projects for more complex flight vehicles.

The idea of ​​a bird-man was replaced by the idea of ​​a flying cart, the mention of which has been preserved in Greek, Chinese and Indian mythical tales. The principle of operation of such carts was as follows: a person was located inside the apparatus and, by certain manipulations with the transmission mechanism, set the wings in motion. It was assumed that in this way a person would be able to increase the efficiency of his muscles and finally rise to the sky.

The first jet aircraft, according to legend, appeared in 1500. It was then that the Chinese general Wang-Hu installed powder rockets on a kite and attempted to take to the air on this aircraft. The results of the experiment turned out to be very sad - the gunpowder exploded, and the experimenter died. However, the lack of documentary evidence of this event does not allow us to consider it as a historical fact.

The idea of ​​an aircraft with flapping wings originated in the head of the famous English philosopher and naturalist, Franciscan monk Roger Bacon. In his work “On the Secret Things in Art and Nature”, published in 1542, it was said: “Machines can be built, sitting in which, a person, rotating a device that sets artificial wings in motion, would make them strike in the air, like birds ". However, these were just generalities. Bacon did not propose specific projects to implement this idea.

Two centuries later, the legendary Leonardo da Vinci became interested in “flying carts”, who, unlike Bacon, developed in detail the projects of several types of ornithopters: with a recumbent position of the pilot (1485-1487), the vertical position of the pilot (1495-1497), etc.

Leonardo owns a number of remarkable constructive ideas. For example, the creation of a fuselage (aircraft body) in the form of a boat, the use of a rotary tail and retractable landing gear. In addition, the projects were supposed to act with both hands and feet, which would increase the power of the flapping wings of the apparatus.

Leonardo da Vinci also came up with the idea of ​​​​creating an ornithopter, the power source of which would be a tightly stretched bow. But in the event that the scientist's project was implemented and the machine was built, the attempt would still end in failure. Her weight would have exceeded 600 pounds (272 kg), that is, she would have been too heavy to take to the air.

Long-term observations of the immobile hovering of birds in the air allowed Leonardo to substantiate the principle of the aerodynamic method of control (change in the position of the center of pressure relative to the center of gravity) and draw a conclusion about the importance of a low center of gravity to ensure better stability in flight.

Leonardo da Vinci never managed to develop a project for an aircraft with a completely fixed wing - the prototype of a modern glider or aircraft. But an analysis of his work suggests that the talented inventor was close to this.

At the end of the 17th century, scientists D. Borelli and R. Hooke tried to scientifically substantiate the futility of experiments using musculolet ornithopters.

Empirically, they managed to prove that the weight and energy characteristics of a person differ significantly from the corresponding parameters of a bird, as a result of which a person cannot rise into the air with the help of artificial wings.

During the period under review, the lack of scientific knowledge and mechanisms was a brake on the development of the aircraft industry. Thanks to the principle of collecting mechanical energy with a tightly drawn bow or spring, it was possible to obtain an impulse sufficient only for a very short flight.

He was not of particular interest to inventors.

The English scientist D. Wilkins came up with the idea of ​​using steam energy in a flying machine, but the first steam-atmospheric apparatuses were too heavy, as a result of which they were not suitable for lifting into the air. An attempt to create a light piston engine powered by explosions of gunpowder was also unsuccessful.

Thus, scientists were able to make strong arguments about the impossibility of flying with artificial wings set in motion by flapping movements of the hands. As a result, the number of such attempts decreased significantly: in 1580-1679. there were fourteen of them, and in the XVIII century - only seven. In addition, the church, which considers human flight a sin, prevented the implementation of new projects.

The crisis of the idea of ​​a “pure” ornithopter contributed to the emergence of the idea of ​​using a fixed aerodynamic surface along with moving parts. Developments in this direction marked the beginning of the development of the idea of ​​​​creating an aircraft.

The first aircraft.

Already in 1647 the first model of an airplane with a motor flew. Its developer was the Italian Titus Livio Burattini, who at that time lived at the court of the Polish king Vladislav IV. Until now, the description of this aircraft has been preserved: it had four pairs of wings located along the fuselage, and a tail unit. The two middle pairs were motionless, while the movement, according to the ornithopter principle, was carried out due to springs installed on the front and rear pairs of wings. Eight years later, the Englishman Robert Hooke managed to repeat this experiment and launch his ornithopter model into the air.

Many aviation historians refer to Emmanuel Swedenborg's 1716 aircraft design as rational. In the description of this device, a rigid fixed surface appeared, which serves to generate the necessary lift force when interacting with the oncoming air flow, that is, it performs the same role as the wing of an aircraft. However, in order to lift and move the machine in the air, it was necessary to use movable wings driven by a person. Stability in flight was supposed to be provided by a cargo suspended from below to the wing. It was assumed that the weight of such an aircraft together with a person would be 180 kg.

Swedenborg's project took into account many features inherent in aircraft designs: a bearing surface with a curved profile, an orthogonal power set of the wing, landing gear, rudder. Despite the fact that a number of shortcomings did not allow the aircraft to take to the air, the project of a muscle aircraft equipped with a fixed wing was a significant step towards the creation of modern aircraft.

In 1763, M. Bauer submitted a project for such an apparatus for lifting into the air. Unlike Swedenborg's model, the German inventor's muscle car weighed only 20-25 kg. Its wing was made in the shape of a rectangle and was supported by wire braces attached to the hull of the experimental model and four masts. But an essential element of Bauer's muscle car was a propeller, consisting of sixteen movable wings, rotating relative to the transverse axis of the model.

Thus, it was the first design of a manned fixed-wing aircraft propelled by a propeller. However, Bauer's idea did not find ardent admirers, and the project failed to materialize. The project discovered in 1921, progressive for its time, turned out to be hopelessly outdated for the 20th century.

At the end of the XVIII century. many inventors revisited the idea of ​​a fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft. One of these people was the Englishman D. Cayley. In his project, which, like all the previous ones, had a number of shortcomings (lack of an engine, poor wing bearing properties), the main elements of the aircraft appeared - a fixed wing, fuselage, tail, wheeled landing gear.

Cayley is called the founder of the scientific stage in the development of aircraft construction. His experiments on a rotary machine in 1804 were the first aerodynamic experiments, thanks to which it was possible to accurately determine the lift developed by a low aspect ratio wing at different speeds and angles of impact on it. When testing the glider model, it was possible to establish the values ​​of the lift coefficient, and in 1808 to determine the points of application of the lift force.

The first among the well-known projects of aircraft with an engine is the aircraft of F. Mattis, equipped with a flat diamond-shaped wing, which was supported by a spar of variable section and braces. A steam engine was located in the center of the wing, and in front there was a cabin for the pilot and passenger. With the help of elevators and rudders, the apparatus was controlled, a wheeled chassis was intended for takeoff and landing.

The waving surface under the fuselage ensured optimal movement in the airspace. It was also planned to create a special platform for takeoff. However, Mattis' aircraft was not perfect, because the propeller and small wings did not meet the requirements of aerodynamics. Even German aviation historians did not know about the existence of this project for a long time.

In England, attempts were also made to create an aircraft with a steam engine. W. Henson's project was the first technically correct aircraft project, the existence of which was known to many aviation historians.

Henson's aircraft had wings connected by braces with a constant chord (spars, curved ribs and double skin were used in their manufacture), an enclosed fuselage with cabins for crew and passengers, compartments for the engine and a three-wheeled non-retractable landing gear, a vertical keel and a large tail unit. It was assumed that the owner of this model will be the world's first airline "Eriel Transit Company" (its opening was planned in the near future), and the aircraft will be called "Eriel Steam Carridge".

Henson is the first inventor to propose the use of a screw propeller and a high aspect ratio wing on an aircraft. He also made a proposal to use an inclined plane to facilitate the takeoff of the aircraft. In 1937, this idea was adopted by Soviet aviators flying heavily loaded machines. Unfortunately, all launches of Henson's experimental model, carried out from 1844 to 1847, ended in failure. Nevertheless, the inventor's project was an outstanding achievement of technical thought, containing a huge number of design ideas that were progressive for their time.

Henson's successor was John Stringfellow. According to many researchers, it was he who created the model of an airplane with an engine that made the first successful flight. Taking advantage of the ideas of the illustrious compatriot, Stringfellow developed his own aircraft project, which provided for the use of a wing with a curved profile with a span of 3.2 m. In 1848, the new aircraft took to the air, but could not hold out for a long time at a height.

Stringfellow also became famous as the developer of the triplane model, which was shown at the first aeronautical exhibition, held at London's Crystal Palace in 1868. The inventor managed to realize the concept of straight wings arranged one above the other in three tiers.

Not only in England and Germany, aircraft projects were developed. In 1853, the Frenchman M. Lu presented to the general public a draft of a bird-shaped aircraft moving across the sky with the help of two large-diameter screw propellers located in the wing cutouts.

This design provided for elevators and rudders, wheeled landing gear, wire braces for attaching the wing and a closed fuselage with an engine in the central part. According to the idea of ​​the inventor, the take-off should have been made from a natural elevation, and the inclined surface would provide the optimum speed, maintained after being lifted into the air by the engine.

After some time, the project of a bird-like aircraft with a muscular propeller drive was developed by G. Carlingford. Of course, the idea of ​​a muscle car was hopelessly outdated by the 19th century, but the project of the English inventor contained a number of new constructive proposals, for example, the use of a pulling propeller and launch using a catapult. These ideas were developed already at the beginning of the 20th century. in the projects of the Wright brothers.

In 1857-1858. The flight of Felix du Temple de la Croix's airplane was successfully completed. In his project, the Frenchman used new design solutions, in particular the use of an electric motor driven by a wooden twelve-bladed propeller with a diameter of 4 m, installed in the forward fuselage. He also suggested replacing the conventional wing with a more resilient one to ensure automatic balancing of the aircraft, but this idea did not find application in the future. Other innovations du Temple - cantilever wing, retractable landing gear with shock absorption, the use of an aluminum fuselage - were implemented in the aircraft industry many years later.

1865 can be called the date of the creation of the jet aircraft project in the modern sense of the word. Charles de Louvrier called his model "Aeronav". She had a domed wing mounted on struts on a wheeled cart with twin injector tubes. It was assumed that it was in them that atomized oil or other fuel similar to it would be burned. However, the project never came to fruition.

In Russia.

The world's first documented practical development of an aircraft heavier than air was carried out by the great Russian scientist M. V. Lomonosov.

In 1754, he built a model that worked on the principle of a helicopter with coaxial propellers, which was supposed to fly.

The idea of ​​such a machine arose from Lomonosov in connection with his work on physics and meteorology. He was looking for a means by which it would be possible to raise meteorological recording instruments above the ground. Aircraft lighter than air did not yet have practical application, and the scientist turned to the idea of ​​creating an aircraft heavier than air.

In the 1860s, the inventor A. V. Ewald provided the public with a description of the “ideal aircraft design”, which included all the elements necessary for flight: an engine, a wing, a propeller, a streamlined shape that provides low drag, fragments to achieve stability and steering control. But this was not a project with a detailed development of the design of an aircraft with a steam engine.

The author of the first technical design of the aircraft in Russia is an artillery officer N. A. Teleshov. Together with two partners, he issued a patent abroad for a multi-seat passenger aircraft designed by him with a steam engine and a cigar-shaped fuselage. Inside the hull, on the upper and lower decks, it was supposed to place places for passengers and a luggage compartment. A two-cylinder steam engine was supposed to stand in the center, the rods of the rotary cylinders of which acted directly on the propeller shaft, thereby reducing the weight of the engine itself.

A bearing surface in the form of a hexagon, covered with material on both sides, was attached to the upper part of the fuselage. It was supposed to exercise control with the help of elevators and rudders, and to balance in flight, use the weight regulator. Obviously, Teleshov borrowed many design solutions from shipbuilding. However, this project was not feasible in practice.

A.F. Mozhaisky said a special word in the field of aircraft construction. It is known that in 1877 he proposed to the Military Ministry of the Russian Empire to build an aircraft. In the project he proposed, it was said about a monoplane with one pulling and two pushing propellers, with a wing in the form of a plane of slight elongation. The inventor had to build a full-size aircraft at his own expense, since the government did not appreciate the prospects of his idea.

Nevertheless, all financial difficulties were resolved, and by 1883 a braced monoplane was created with two steam engines and three propellers (one in front and two on the sides). The fuselage, which housed the steam engines (fore and aft), boiler, oil tanks, instruments and crew seats, was a boat with a wooden frame and linen lining. The rectangular wooden wing of small elongation, made in the "gull" type (slightly arched with a bulge upwards), had a multi-spar structure and silk lining impregnated with varnish to ensure airtightness.

The load-bearing surfaces supported steel braces connected to the masts on the fuselage and to the landing gear. The tail unit consisted of two twisting rudders. The plane took off after a long takeoff run on wooden rails.

Newspaper notes for 1909 contain information about the trial flight of Mozhaisky's monoplane, which ended in an accident. However, some researchers believe that this aircraft never managed to get off the ground. Despite a number of shortcomings, Mozhaisky's design was technically competent for its time.

IN USA

In the United States, aircraft became interested only in the 1870s. The first description of these aircraft in the American press dates back to 1876. A year later, the American F. Barnett received a patent for his invention - a monoplane with a muscular propeller drive.

The year 1870 was marked by the appearance of a project for a propeller-driven aircraft of the “tailless” type, the creator of which is the English inventor R. Hart.

He wanted to make a model with a rectangular wing, a pusher propeller driven by a steam or muscle engine.

For balancing, it was supposed to move the center of gravity of the monoplane, and control was carried out using deflectable surfaces located on the trailing edge of the wing. Acting simultaneously, the flaps functioned as elevators; when acted separately, they served as aerodynamic brakes to create yaw moments. The balancing of the jet moment of the propeller was created due to the differential deflection of the flaps.

Hart's project contains a number of design innovations: the use of aerodynamic brakes, automatic change of the propeller pitch depending on the rotation speed. However, the inventor failed to correctly solve the problem of the stability of an aircraft without horizontal tail. Only in 1876, the French designer A. Peno coped with this task and received a patent for a “tailless” amphibious aircraft with a steam engine and a fuselage in the form of a boat.

Peno proposed a number of design ideas that were progressive for their time: the joint work of a multi-spar wing with metal skin and the main power set; cockpit glazing; a single control knob for altitude and direction of flight; instrument panel (magnetic compass, barometric altimeter, anemometer, pitch angle sensor) and an autopilot consisting of various sensors and an electromechanism that deflects the rudders and elevators. This model also provided for a four-wheel retractable landing gear with rubber or pneumatic shock absorption, and in the rear of the fuselage - a crutch that protects against damage.

According to the project, the Peno plane could also take off from the water, for which it had to glide on the bottom of the fuselage or on hydrofoils, which are inclined metal surfaces. The floats installed under the wings allowed the aircraft to stand quietly on the water. It was the first seaplane design that also included the ability to fly with the control stick thrown down. Putting this idea into practice would make flying safer.

The use of variable-pitch propellers made of metal made it possible to facilitate the moment the aircraft took off from the ground. Taking into account all the design features, Peno calculated the take-off weight of the car - 1200 kg (with two crew members), while the maximum speed was 90 km / h, and the engine power was 20-30 hp. from. Many of Peno's technical innovations were almost half a century ahead of their time.

Thus, by the middle of the XIX century. A rational constructive model of the aircraft was worked out in detail, which is a braced monoplane with a wing formed by longitudinal and transverse load-bearing wooden or metal elements covered on all sides with dense matter.

At the same time, ideas were put forward to create a polyplane - an aircraft with several bearing surfaces. For the first time, this idea was voiced by D. Cayley, who developed the project and made a model with three fixed wings of small elongation, two flapping surfaces driven by muscle power, and two tails. Cayley's ideas were developed in the works of F. Wenham, who proposed to increase the span of the bearing surfaces. Soon, polyplane projects began to be developed in other countries.

A variety of polyplanes is a tandem - an aircraft with a winged propeller and bearing surfaces located one after the other. The design of such aircraft was carried out by the Englishman T. Walker, the Frenchmen Claude and Danzhar (the model of the latter provided for the use of not only a vane, but also a screw propeller). In their developments, the designers sought to position the propeller closer to the points of application of weight and aerodynamic forces.

Individual mistakes made by the inventors in the design of polyplanes could not reduce the influence of this idea on the development of aircraft construction.

With the correct layout of the elements, the "polyplane" scheme made it possible to increase the carrying capacity of the aircraft. Nevertheless, until the end of the 19th century, the concept of a polyplane aircraft did not have ardent admirers. Only a few decades later, the designers found the use of one of the varieties of this scheme - the biplane.

Even in the XV-XVIII centuries. Thoughts were expressed about the use of a jet engine in transport. However, practical developments began only in the second half of the 1860s. The authors of the first projects of jet aircraft, proposed in 1865, were the Spaniard P. Maffiotti and the Frenchman C. de Louvrier.

Maffiotti focused on working on the design of the engine, in which it was supposed to use heated air ejected through a nozzle as a working mechanism. This project was left unfinished.

The model of the French inventor, called "Aeronav", was a braced monoplane of the "tailless" scheme with a diamond-shaped wing located on top. Two jet engines were assigned a place between the wing and the fuselage. With the help of a pump, fuel (kerosene or gasoline) was supposed to flow into the engine.

The principle of its operation was as follows: a mixture of fuel and air ignited from an electric spark, and the gases thus obtained were removed through a nozzle. At the same time, the valves blocked the supply of fuel and air. This design was a prototype of a modern jet engine. However, de Louvrier's project was far from perfect and did not find support among the members of the French Academy of Sciences.

In Russia, N. A. Teleshov was involved in the development of a project for an aircraft with an air-breathing engine. Following the French inventor, he wanted to install on his monoplane a pulsating liquid-fueled jet engine, the main difference of which was that the mixing of fuel vapors with air had to occur even before entering the combustion chamber. A special device was also envisaged, resembling a modern carburetor.

At the same time, the forward part of the fuselage and the front part of the wing I should have been given a pointed shape, which made it possible to reduce drag.

It was planned to take off the aircraft from a special detachable cart or after a run on wheels on rails. However, the constructive solutions proposed in this project were far ahead of their time, and therefore remained unrealized.

It is noteworthy that the development of jet aircraft projects was carried out in many countries at approximately the same time, in the period from 1865 to 1868. Perhaps this is due to the publication in 1863 of the “Manifesto of Dynamic Aeronautics” by F. Nadar, calling for the creation of aircraft devices heavier than air, which have a great future. At the same time, the designers were mainly engaged in the general development of the engine; they did not have enough knowledge for a more detailed study.

In the 1880s, when air units began to appear in various countries, proposals were again made to use jet engines in aircraft. Particular attention was paid to the issues of increasing the efficiency of such power plants through the use of more energy-intensive fuel. A huge contribution to the development of these ideas was made by the Russian inventors S. S. Nezhdanovsky, A. Winkler, F. R. Geshvend.

In the projects of Nezhdanovsky, it was proposed to use engines running on compressed gas, water vapor, a mixture of nitroglycerin with alcohol or glycerin with air. He also owns the idea of ​​placing ejector nozzles on the nozzle for sucking air to the exhaust stream. Currently, this idea is used in the creation of bypass turbojet engines.

According to Winkler, the most efficient is a pulsed rocket engine powered by a burning mixture of oxygen and hydrogen gas produced by electrolysis. The current source for this process, as well as for igniting the combustible mixture, was a galvanic battery.

The Kiev architect Geshvend developed a project with an engine powered by a jet of compressed air and ejector nozzles for air suction. The tailless biplane with elliptical wings, a four-wheel landing gear, a nine-meter fuselage with a cone-shaped nose and an enclosed cockpit for the pilot and passengers was called the Parolet.

Lifting into the air was carried out after a long run-up along the rails, while the maximum design speed developed by such an aircraft would not exceed 280 km / h. After lengthy calculations, the inventor came to the conclusion that the Parolet would have flown from Kyiv to St. Petersburg in six hours with five stops for refueling.

Early jet aircraft designs are of great interest to aviation historians and designers. But in the 19th century, this direction in the design of aircraft was not recognized, since the first aircraft were designed for low speeds, and the use of a jet engine in this case would be inappropriate.

At this time, projects of aircraft such as a cantilever monoplane appeared. In 1891, the Swiss artist K. Steiger-Kirchhoffer presented to the general public his project of such an aircraft, in the design of which there were many promising solutions. It was a monoplane with an overhead wing of the "gull" type and pulling propellers. The streamlined fuselage with a closed cockpit helped reduce drag. A device was also provided for changing the angle of installation of the propeller blades in flight and a convex wing profile with a rounded leading edge.

However, the Swiss failed to find the right solution to many technical problems. Among the main drawbacks of this project are the imperfection of the control system and the erroneous idea of ​​​​the possible use of a motor running on compressed air.

An important milestone in the history of aircraft construction is the creation by the German Nikolaus Otto of a four-stroke gas internal combustion engine (ICE) (1876), which resulted in a qualitative improvement in the performance of engines. A few years later, Otto's compatriot, G. Daimler, invented a gasoline engine. This led to the fact that many designers thought about the problem of using such engines in aircraft construction, especially since by the end of the 19th century, no one doubted the prospects for using internal combustion engines in aviation.

This was also discussed by the Russian scientist K. E. Tsiolkovsky, who in 1894 published a project of a cantilever monoplane of the classical scheme with a gasoline internal combustion engine, the material for which was to be aluminum. It is noteworthy that in his work the inventor relied on a comprehensive scientific study, in many ways reminiscent of modern design methods.

Paying special attention to the analysis of the influence of individual aircraft parameters on its flight characteristics and the calculation of the optimal values ​​of aspect ratio and wing thickness, Tsiolkovsky thus laid the foundations for a scientific approach to the design of aircraft.

According to the project, this monoplane was supposed to be equipped with two coaxial propellers rotating in opposite directions. The wing with an elongation of 4, a relative thickness of 5% and a convex profile narrowed towards the ends, while the connection of the bearing surface with the fuselage was carried out according to the "gull" type.

Vertical and horizontal rudders provided control, there was also a wheeled chassis. In the closed cabin of the streamlined fuselage with an oval cross section, one to four people could be transported.

According to Tsiolkovsky's calculations, the take-off weight of a single-seat monoplane with an engine power of 18.6 liters. from. was supposed to be about 450 kg, while the aircraft could reach speeds of up to 128 km / h and stay in the air for 4 hours. The inventor believed in the possibility of implementing his project in the near future. And it is no coincidence that he is called the founder of modern astronautics.

An important obstacle to the creation of an aircraft was flying in a turbulent atmosphere, where the pilot could not always predict the behavior of the wind. In the 90s. XIX century, many inventors thought about the problem of using a device on an airplane that provides automatic stability of the aircraft in the air. The most realistic at that time seemed to be the use of a pendulum autopilot. Similar ideas were expressed by S. K. Dzhevetsky (Russia), A. Goupil (France), S. Langley (USA) and other designers.

But experimental flights demonstrated a serious shortcoming of the pendulum autopilot - the presence of acceleration forces in flight led to a disruption in its operation. Soon the pendulum was replaced by a gyroscopic automaton, which is a small disk rapidly rotating under the influence of a weak electric current, mounted on axes in such a way that its plane always remains stationary relative to the projectile. Only in the 1930s. gyroscopic autopilot found life in aviation.

Despite the existence of various approaches to design, a number of characteristic features are seen in the projects of the 19th century: the use of the “braced monoplane” scheme, ensuring the stability of the aircraft due to the high position of the wing relative to the fuselage, the absence of a lateral control rudder, and the use of ground means for lifting into the air ( catapult or inclined surface).

However, the general level created at the end of the XIX century. models and projects was significantly lower than in the middle of the century: many ideas turned out to be so fantastic that they could not be applied in practice. Nevertheless, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating an aircraft continued to live.

Aircraft of the 20th century

Early 20th century was marked by the creation of flying clubs in various countries. Ordinary inhabitants no longer looked at the pioneers of aviation as eccentrics who wanted to "build a railroad to the moon." Every year an increasing number of people began to take an interest in aerocraft and looked forward to when success in aircraft construction would be achieved.

By 1910, two directions had developed in aircraft construction: Two-seat biplanes without a fuselage with a pusher propeller and an elevator located in front of the wing, and single-seat monoplanes with a fuselage, tail and tractor propeller. Each of these designs had its own merits: biplanes had higher payloads and better visibility for pilot and passenger, and were often used as training machines, while high-speed monoplanes were more suited to recreational pilots and athletes. Thus, there were prerequisites for the evolution of aircraft of both types, and for several decades there was a sharp struggle between mono- and biplanes.

At that time, not only the general designs of aircraft were improved, but also their individual systems: control devices, power plants, landing gear. By the end of 1913, the ailerons had become the only means of lateral control. The cockpits of the aircraft were unified: there were pedals connected to the rudder, and a lever that controls the elevator and ailerons. Thus, the pilot could fly the plane with one hand and feet, which was very important for military purposes (shooting, photographing the area and other tasks). The layout, which has become standard, is also used in modern aircraft.

In the prewar years, wheeled and wheeled skid chassis became widespread. Taking off in winter conditions contributed to the emergence of a ski chassis, the development and testing of which was carried out in Russia. The first aircraft of this design was made in 1909.

Developments in the field of engine building turned out to be very effective: due to the increase in the number of cylinders, the water-cooled engine became more powerful and was widely used in the aircraft industry of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. The use of profiles with less relative curvature contributed to the improvement of the aerodynamic performance of many airplanes of the early 20th century.

Biplanes.

The idea of ​​creating an aircraft based on a non-motorized aircraft originated as early as 1902 after successful testing of the airframe. Fearing competition, Wilber and Orville Wright kept their project a secret. They built a four-cylinder in-line water-cooled gasoline engine with a capacity of 12 liters built by them in a few months. from. was a lightweight version of the car engine. When creating the propeller, the Wright brothers took advantage of their aerodynamic observations. The chain drive that connected the propellers to the engine made it possible to reduce the speed of the propeller by several times.

In general, the design of the aircraft resembled a glider with increased wing dimensions and double rudder surfaces. As in the airframe model, the rudder was automatically deflected at the moment of warping of the wing, under which the skids were located. As a result of the work done, a biplane was made with two pusher propellers that rotated in opposite directions, and an engine mounted on the lower wing. The pilot controlled the warping of the wing by moving the hips, the levers located in front of him served to turn on the engine and to control the elevator.

It was assumed that the aircraft would take off into the wind along an eighteen-meter wooden rail sheathed in iron. For these purposes, a small cart was used, which is separated from the aircraft at the time of its rise into the air.

On December 14, 1903, the designers conducted the first test of their Flyer airplane, during which they managed to stay in the air for only 3.5 seconds. and fly 32 m. Three days later, a second attempt was made, which turned out to be much more successful than the first. The results of the most successful of the four flights performed on December 17 were impressive - the aircraft stayed at an altitude of 59 seconds. and covered a distance of 250 m.

Wilbur and Orville Wright entered the history of aviation as the pioneers of airspace, which marked the beginning of the exploration of the sky by manned aircraft heavier than air. In subsequent years, the inventors continued to work on their aircraft, in September 1904 the first takeoff took place using a catapult. Thanks to a successful test, it became possible to fly regardless of the strength and direction of the wind.

On September 15, for the first time, a circling flight was made, which made it possible to further increase the time spent by the aircraft in the airspace. The duration of the flight on November 9 was 5 minutes. 4 seconds, during this time the aircraft made four complete circles (4.8 km) in the air. However, the Wright brothers' airplane remained unusable.

The improvement of maneuvering technology (by the end of 1905, not only circle flights, but also "eights" were made) made it possible to significantly increase the duration of flights - up to 38 minutes. Nevertheless, the successes of American inventors did not attract the attention of journalists, and the creation of a practical aircraft was still not completed.

In 1908, an improved model was made, called "Wright A". This aircraft was a two-seat biplane (pilot and passenger seated on the lower wing) with a more powerful engine, a combined lever that controls the rudder and wingtips. By the end of 1908, Wright A had made 104 experimental flights, during which several new records were set. So, on September 21 in France, W. Wright flew 66.5 km in his car. By that time it was one of the longest flights.

The European designers were greatly impressed by the maneuverability of the Wright brothers' aircraft. The aerobatics demonstrated by Wilber were convincing evidence that lateral controls can be used not only to eliminate unexpected rolls, but also to perform maneuvers. The advantages of large wooden propellers with transmission became obvious.

The design ideas of the Wright brothers were further developed in the work of French and other European inventors.

By 1907, more than 15 aircraft designers from Europe were already working on the creation of aircraft. The first aircraft manufacturing enterprise, owned by the brothers Gabriel and Charles Voisins, appeared in the French city of Billancourt. Here, by order of customers, flying models were created and design work was carried out. From 1905 to 1908, the brothers made about 15 aircraft and gliders.

In the first half of 1907, the sculptor L. Delagrange (Italy) and the motorist A. Farman (England) became the customers of the Voisin brothers. For them, the Voisin-Delagrange-1 and Voisin-Farman-1 aircraft were designed with wheeled landing gear, fewer vertical partitions and a fuselage with a closed nose.

The pilot's seat was at the front of the hull, and the engine was located between the lower and upper surfaces of the wing, near the trailing edge. There was also a biplane elevator and rudders, presented as a continuation of the side walls of the box-shaped tail stabilizer.
The aircraft created for Delagrange and Farman were the first European aircraft to find practical use due to their more advanced aerodynamic design, but they also had a number of drawbacks.

In October 1907, Henri Farman managed to take off and fly 771 m. This was the second flight distance record (the first belonged to A. Santos-Dumont). The improvement of the turning technique allowed Farman to make the first flight in Europe in a circle 1 km long, and in the summer of 1908 to hold out in the airspace for more than 20 minutes.

Farman's rival Leon Delagrange also achieved great success, the longest flight of which took 18 minutes. 30 sec. In May 1908, in a car built by the Voisin brothers, Delagrange made the first airplane flight in Italy. There were many who wanted to look at it, because the Italians had never seen such aircraft before.

On September 6, 1908, the pilot made the first continuous flight in Europe. For 29 min. 53 sec. he managed to cover a distance of 24.4 km. However, in January 1910, one of Blériot's monoplanes, piloted by a famous Italian, crashed and Delagrange died.

Another direction in the development of the design of biplanes was the design work on vehicles with a pulling propeller and a monoplane tail. This scheme was first used by F. Ferber. To ensure the stability of the aircraft, he intended to use a horizontal stabilizer and deflect the wing panels slightly upward. Then, an engine and a pulling screw were installed on the Wright airplane, the front placement of the elevator was preserved. However, the low power of the motor did not allow to keep the device at a sufficient height. Only with the advent of the Antoinette engines did short flights become possible.

Ferber made his first attempts to take to the air in July 1908, and on September 19 he managed to fly 500 m on his plane. . By the beginning of World War I, the “biplane with a pulling propeller and an elevator behind the wing” took a leading place in aircraft construction.

By 1912, the design of the fuselage biplane had undergone major changes, including the abandonment of the “duck” scheme, the use of the elevator, vertical baffles on the wings and tail, resizing of the upper wing, the installation of a gondola that covered people and the engine, as well as the replacement of the biplane horizontal plumage monoplane.

The first biplanes with a pusher propeller, which were improved models of the Wright-V and Voisin for military purposes, appeared in 1910. In the new models, the parallel beams of the tail truss began to converge towards the end. The rudders and elevators were also installed here. By 1911, polutoraplans became the most popular, the span of the upper wing of which was 2–4 m larger than the lower one. The ends of the upper wing supported wire braces or inclined braces. The use of a gondola with a mica windshield made such aircraft more comfortable for the pilot and passengers.

Modernization of biplanes contributed to the improvement of their aerodynamic performance: they became quite stable, streamlined and were able to reach high speed. The carrying capacity of these aircraft has also increased. By the beginning of the First World War, fuselageless biplanes were replaced by more promising two-winged aircraft (bi-monoplanes) with a propeller located in front and a fully sheathed hull.

Back in 1908, by order of A. Goupy, the Voisin brothers made a fuselage triplane with a pulling propeller (“Goupi-1”), but the model turned out to be far from perfect and could not even take to the air. Failure also befell the second modification of the Goupi with two wings and ailerons. Experimental flights of the third version of such an aircraft, equipped with a new engine and rotary wingtips, had positive results, and after a while the Goupi-3 began to fly not only in France, but also in England. But this model has not received wide distribution, although the layout with the location of the upper wing in front of the rear (this allowed unhindered visibility from the cockpit) is also used in modern biplanes.

In Russia, the development of aviation was hampered by the government's focus on the creation of aeronautical aircraft such as airships and balloons, which at that time were used in the army. The unpleasant story with V. V. Tatarinov's "Airmobile" also influenced the attitude of ministers and the royal court to aircraft heavier than air.

In 1909, the inventor was allocated a large sum for the construction of a helicopter, but the task was very difficult for Tatarinov, and the project did not get a real implementation. The government, having thrown money away, refused to further finance any projects.
Nevertheless, sensational reports from France about the successful development of airspace contributed to the growth of the interest of Russian inventors in the creation of aircraft. 1908 was marked by glider flights. However, this was already a passed stage in the development of aviation, so Russian designers began to develop new projects.

In 1909, the first home-made airplanes appeared in the Russian Empire. However, the development of the domestic aircraft industry was slow for the simple reason that the Russian industry did not produce engines suitable for use on aircraft. Therefore, the inventors had to create not only a model of the aircraft, but also an engine for it.

At the same time, the government, having assessed the potential capabilities of aircraft, finally became interested in the fate of the domestic aircraft industry. Soon, aeronautic officers M. A. Agapov, B. V. Golubev, B. F. Gebauer and A. I. Shabsky received a state order for the creation of an aircraft. However, all the projects they proposed were unsuccessful.

The first successes of Russian aviation date back to 1910, when Prince A. S. Kudashev, a professor at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, managed to overcome several tens of meters on a biplane of his own design. A few days later, luck awaited the young inventor I. I. Sikorsky.

And soon the flight of the Gakkel-3 machine took place, made in the form of a biplane with a fuselage (bimonoplane) according to the project of engineer Yakov Gakkel. In his opinion, a biplane with a closed body and an engine located under the wing is the most successful design. In the pre-war years, many leading European aircraft designers adhered to the same point of view.

In the Gakkel aircraft, there were no inter-wing struts, as a result of which aerodynamic drag decreased. However, the difficulties encountered during the assembly of the aircraft did not allow this model to conquer the world.

In 1911, the Gakkel-7 bimonoplane with a powerful engine, aileron control, a reinforced structure and an increased payload capacity won the First Military Competition for aircraft built in the Russian Empire. This car was the only one that passed all the tests. In 1912, Gakkel-7 received the Big Gold Medal, thereby recognizing the merits of the Russian inventor.

A strong and easily controlled aircraft was predicted to have a great future. However, his fate turned out to be sad: the device bought by the military for training flights was inactive for a long time, because the pilots refused to train on an unusual machine, and after a few months the plane failed.

Gakkel's work on the creation of a bimonoplane was continued by I. I. Sikorsky. The S-6 and S-10 aircraft he created had similar features to the German-type biplanes, but the larger wingspan and elegant exterior trim made Sikorsky's aircraft faster and more perfect.

On the S-6 biplane, the body of which was sheathed with thin, carefully polished and varnished wooden planks, as a result of which the aircraft acquired a streamlined shape, the talented aircraft designer managed to set world speed records: with two passengers on board - 111 km / h, with five - 106 km / h. For two years, Sikorsky's airplanes won top prizes in military aircraft competitions. Contemporaries testified that these aircraft were by no means inferior to the leading European models.

A few months after these significant events, the factory of the first Russian Aeronautics Association in St. Petersburg began serial production of airplanes based on the French Blériot-11 and Farman-3 models. Russian projects at that time did not receive wide popularity, since they were noticeably far behind the advanced ideas in aircraft construction at the beginning of the 20th century. The exception was the S-10 bimonoplane, which became the first production aircraft of Russian design.

A great contribution to the Russian aircraft industry was made by I. I. Steglau. The airplane he created was unusual: instead of traditional linen sheathing, plywood was used, which was attached to the spars and ribs of the wing with wood glue and nails. The body of the aircraft was also sheathed with plywood. The inter-wing struts welded from steel pipes had an X-shaped, unusual shape for that time. Welding was used to fasten many parts of this aircraft.

As a result, the aircraft turned out to be heavy, but very durable. Its aerodynamic forms allowed it to reach speeds of up to 130 km / h. In the future, many aviators were able to appreciate Steglau's innovations.

The desire of two-wing aircraft designers to exceed the speed performance of monoplanes led to the emergence of a new type of biplane, called the Scout. They were characterized by their small size, single-column wing box and small payload. The projects of these machines provided for only one place for the pilot. Low drag, a small load on the wing and a good power supply allowed the "scouts" to develop high speeds.

The inventor of machines of this type is the Englishman J. de Havilland, whose plane reached a maximum speed of 148 km / h, but was unstable due to the short fuselage.

At the end of 1913, the Sopwith Tabloid appeared - a two-seat, single-column biplane with a small wingspan (7.8 m). Successful flights made it possible to establish serial production of this machine. In the first half of 1914, according to this scheme, biplanes of the Avro, Bristol and Vickers aircraft manufacturing companies were created.

By the beginning of the First World War, Scouts were the fastest and most maneuverable aircraft. At first, the construction of racing Scouts was carried out, but nevertheless they played a major role in the development of military aviation. These biplanes marked the beginning of work on the creation of a fighter aircraft and a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft.

Development of monoplanes.

In 1903, trial flights were made in the United States of a small model of a monoplane with a gasoline engine, the creator of which was the mathematician and radio physicist S. P. Langley. Seven models were made, which differed in mixed construction: the fuselage with the engine located in it in the form of a spiral tubular boiler was made of steel, the silk-covered wings had a wooden power set, there were also wire braces, masts and a steam engine.

The successful completion of the experimental flight allowed the designer, with the financial support of the American government, to begin creating a full-size Aerodrom aircraft. However, attempts made on December 7-8, 1903, to take to the air over the Potomac were unsuccessful - the airplane fell into the water twice. Soon the US government refused to finance Langley's work, since in the same year the Wright brothers were successful in creating an airplane with a motor.

Since 1915, interest in the "monoplane" design began to revive. In Europe, the first flying monoplane aircraft were the Ellehammer-1 and Vuia-1, which were completed in 1906. The creator of the first of them is the Danish inventor J. Ellehammer, the second - the Romanian T. Vuia, who worked in France for a long time . In the designs of these models, a number of common features can be traced: the upper wing and the absence of horizontal tail.

At the same time, the aircraft also had their own characteristic features. For example, the Ellehammer had a device for automatically maintaining a given angle of attack. The frame with the seat for the pilot and the engine located on it was pivotally connected to the wing and could freely perform longitudinal oscillations, while rejecting the horizontal rudder associated with it on the trailing edge of the wing. In the first version, a 9-liter gasoline engine was used. from. However, tests carried out in 1906 showed that it was necessary to increase the power.

Soon, a second wing and a new engine were installed on top, as a result of which the inventor managed to fly about 42 m in his car. However, during the tests, the pilot could not control the aircraft on his own, for this a pendulum regulator was used, which created certain inconveniences for the pilot. For this reason, the inventor soon moved away from the monoplane design and began to create models with a polyplane wing.
Separate shortcomings do not detract from the merits of the Ellehammer-1 project, since this was the first case of implementing the idea of ​​​​a stability automaton on an aircraft suitable for lifting a person into the air. Nevertheless, the activities of the Danish aircraft designer were not reported in the media, so his projects did not have a significant impact on the development of aircraft construction.

The works of T. Vuyya, in contrast to the works of Ellehammer, immediately became widely known and contributed to the growth of interest in the "monoplane" scheme in European countries. The “flying car”, designed by T. Vuyya, had a number of design features: the aircraft was based on a four-wheeled chassis with rubber pneumatic wheels and coil springs; while moving on the ground, it was possible to fold the wing; control was carried out by changing the inclination of the wing; the rudder moved along with the front wheel of the cart when the pilot turned the steering wheel, reminiscent of an automobile. The pilot's seat could move back and forth, which provided the aircraft with longitudinal balancing.

The fuselage was made of steel tubes, and the fabric-covered wing was held in position by wire braces. The Serpolle carbon dioxide engine installed on the aircraft with a capacity of 25 liters. from. was a steam engine converted to use carbon dioxide as a working material. With the help of such a motor, a two-blade pulling screw was driven.

In March 1906, the first test of Vuia-1 took place, during which the aircraft covered a distance of 12 m at an altitude of 0.5 to 1 m. A second attempt in August was less successful and ended in an accident, since the aircraft turned out to be unstable and uncontrollable . Nevertheless, the activities of the Romanian designer contributed to the development of European and world aircraft construction. The concepts of the monoplane took a certain place in it. It was the example of T. Vuilla that prompted the talented aviator and designer Louis Blériot to create monoplane aircraft in 1907.
Blériot aircraft with a closed fuselage and devices for transverse control were equipped with Antoinette aircraft engines, the most modern for the beginning of the 20th century. However, all experimental flights in 1907 ended in failure for the French inventor.

It was only in the middle of 1908 that Blériot managed to produce his first successful monoplane, the Blériot-8, which was an aircraft with a long rectangular fuselage, tricycle landing gear, an overhead rectangular wing, a tail unit with a horizontal stabilizer, and side-mounted elevators.

The engine driving the four-bladed propeller was located in front of the aircraft body. Successful experimental flights on this machine were primarily due to the correct choice of centering, as a result of which the aircraft gained the desired stability even with strong gusts of wind.

Blériot's aircraft were the first monoplanes with movable surfaces for lateral control: some of his models had rotary wingtips, others had movable rudders on the tail. These innovations made it possible for the French aviator to become the first pilot in the world to master monoplane maneuvering.

By the beginning of the 1910s, along with biplane aircraft, monoplanes were also produced, among which the leading role was played by Blériot-11, which served as a model for many models of 1910-1912: Moran-Saulnier (France) , "Avis" (England), "Caproni" (Italy) and others.

The historic flight across the English Channel on July 25, 1909 made the Blériot the most popular model. From that moment on, humanity stopped looking at the aircraft as a means of entertaining the public and turned it into one of the most promising modes of transport designed to transport people, cargo and conduct combat operations. Soon the serial production of Bleriot monoplanes was launched.

An important step towards improving the monoplane was the completed project of the Frenchman E. Nieuport. In 1910, he created a single-seat light-engine car of the Blériot-11 type. The inventor made significant changes to the design of the fuselage: large compared to the "Blerio" dimensions, fully enclosed skin, deep cockpit. The streamlined shape resulting from these innovations gave the Nieuport the maximum speed advantage over other aircraft with more powerful engines.

It should be noted that the famous French engineer A. Eiffel (creator of the Eiffel Tower in Paris) provided great assistance to the aircraft designer. Nieuport took advantage of many of his recommendations.

In addition, the inventor installed on his apparatus a trapezoidal wing with rounded tips and a thin profile. He applied a single-bearing wing bracing scheme instead of the traditional three-bearing one. The lower braces were now attached directly to the chassis truss, the rubber damping of which was replaced by an automobile-type steel spring. It was also envisaged to install an anti-bonnet ski protruding forward.

A year later, a modification of the Nieuport monoplane was developed with a larger wing area and a powerful engine, as a result of which it became possible to carry one passenger on board the aircraft. The main disadvantage of this aircraft was the angular shape of the fuselage, which resulted in poor streamlining and external placement of the braces control rods.

Nevertheless, Nieuport became widely known throughout the world. This was facilitated by speed records set in sports and winning the first prize of the French Ministry of War. Durable, stable in flight, sensitive to steering deviations and well-planned, the Nieuport-4 soon took its rightful place in the armed forces of France, Russia and Italy.

It was on such an aircraft in 1912 and 1914. in one day, long-distance flights Sevastopol - Petersburg (pilots V.V. Dybovsky and D.G. Andreadi) and Kyiv - Gatchina were carried out, and the world's first "dead loop" was completed (P.N. Nesterov, 1913) . At that time, the Nieuport aircraft were the fastest mass-produced aircraft.

Soon the "Bleriot-27" ("Fast-moving") was created, which differs from previous modifications in the best aerodynamic characteristics. An airplane with a 70 hp engine. from. could reach speeds up to 120 km / h. Aircraft "Blerio" for some time were able to regain the palm. On June 12, 1911, a new world speed record was set - 125 km / h, which lasted only four days. It was exceeded by the same E. Nieuport, whose plane was able to reach a speed of 133 km / h. This record held until the end of 1911.

However, the inventor himself did not live to see the day when the Nieuport combat vehicles glorified the name of their designer on all fronts of the First World War. At the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works in St. Petersburg, the production of S-7, S-I and S-12 aircraft, vaguely reminiscent of the French Nieuport monoplane, was launched. Their creator was the famous Russian aircraft designer I. I. Sikorsky. These aircraft were heavy lifting monoplanes, designed to lift two people and equipped with ailerons. The fuselage was covered with plywood rather than traditional canvas.

The S-12 aircraft, produced in the amount of 10-12 copies, was in service with the Russian army until 1922. and became the first monoplane of Russian design, on which the pilot G.V. Yankovsky in 1913 performed a “dead loop”.

As the speed of aircraft increased, aircraft designers began to pay special attention to the shape of their individual parts. Great help in this was provided by research carried out in scientific centers. As a result, the aerodynamic performance of the new aircraft has improved significantly.

An example of this is the racing Duperdussen, created in 1913. The monocoque fuselage, the annular aluminum hood of the air-cooled engine, the large propeller spinner, the closed spokes of the wheels and the garrott mounted behind the cockpit made this monoplane well streamlined, and the powerful engine allowed reach speeds up to 200 km / h. The fabric covering of the wing with a thin profile of small curvature was treated with varnish and polished, which also contributed to an increase in speed performance. Until 1917, Duperdussen was one of the fastest aircraft.

However, such shortcomings as a high landing speed, as well as the takeoff and run distance, unsuitability for maneuvering, low payload, did not allow this aircraft to be made a model for the production of future serial monoplanes. Even the air races that were popular at that time, which brought victories and world fame to the Duperdussen pilots, could not save the company, which by 1914 was almost bankrupt.

By the beginning of the First World War, racing aircraft had become a special group of aircraft, aerodynamically perfect, but very dangerous in operation and requiring high material costs. The development of projects for high-speed airplanes and their practical implementation had a positive impact on the development of aircraft construction as a whole. Such technical solutions as replacing wire braces with steel cables, rectangular hoods with annular ones, and covering the wheel spokes with fairings, found wide application in aircraft construction in 1912-1913.

Seaplanes.

The idea of ​​taking off from the water and landing on it attracted the attention of many aircraft designers. The water surface seemed to them an ideal airfield. In addition, falling into the water in the event of an accident was much safer than falling on the ground. Therefore, already at the beginning of the 20th century, projects of aircraft and gliders with floats instead of wheels became famous.

Russia did not lag behind the advanced European countries in the creation of float airplanes. The first successful flights of Russian models designed by I. Sikorsky took place in 1913. Participation in hydroaviation competitions demonstrated to the whole world the advantages of the single-float S-5A (became a naval reconnaissance aircraft) and S-10-hydro. Soon the serial production of these aircraft was launched. The Sikorsky seaplanes put into service in the Russian army took part in the First World War.

The most successful was not the development of new models, but the installation of popular aircraft models on floats. The advantage remained with the biplanes, as they had a large payload and their chassis was easier to remake. The wing area of ​​aircraft of this design and engine power were increased. Since contact with water could adversely affect seaplanes, special coatings were used to protect against corrosion.

In the first successful models, Fabre floats were used, the material for which was wood (frame) and tarpaulin (covering). These lightweight devices were hypersensitive to the slightest fluctuations in the water surface and soon fell into disuse.

In 1911 - 1913. Fabre's floats were replaced by plywood floats by the French inventor of racing motor boats A. Tellier. The elongated shape made them more efficient in operation.

Soon, a ledge (redan) began to be made on the bottom of the aircraft, thanks to which the floats were well pushed out of the water, thereby facilitating the takeoff of the hydroplane from the water surface. For the first time such an innovation was used by Nieuport (France), Curtiss (USA) and A. Roy (England). To keep the damaged float afloat, watertight partitions were installed inside.

Unlike the first hydroplanes, which had a landing gear with a nose support, all subsequent models began to use two-float landing gear designs (Avro, Nieuport, etc.). This innovation made hydroplanes more stable when moving on the water surface. Attaching the floats to the wheel landing gear made it much easier to convert a land plane into a hydro. In some models, shock absorbers were used to soften shocks.

Very large floats were made for heavy aircraft. So, in 1914, a four-engine Ilya Muromets was installed on them. Tests carried out in May with a full load of the aircraft had positive results. The use of one-way turns on engines located on the wing made the car well controlled. Until 1917, Ilya Muromets was the largest seaplane in the world.

In the early 1910s projects for hydrofoil aircraft were also developed. The attempts of the Englishman C. Burney, the Italians Guidoni and Crocco were unsuccessful - the hydroplanes could not even take to the air.

Since float planes could take off and land only on calm water, the designers tried to somehow increase their seaworthiness. Increasing the size of the water support and giving it the shape of a boat, which housed all aircraft systems, crew and cargo, was an important step towards improving the model. So there were "flying boats".

In the spring of 1912, the French inventor F. Donnet presented to the general public an improved model of a seaplane with an enlarged fuselage and a direct-drive engine with one pusher propeller located between the wings. The tail unit was placed directly on the hull. The design of "Donnet-Leveque-A" served as a model for the "Aeroyacht" by G. Curtiss, "Airboat" by O. Wright, "flying boats" by D. P. Grigorovich.

Less common was the scheme of a seaplane with a float-boat and tail empennage mounted on beams. The most famous representative of this type of aircraft was the Sopwith Bat Boat biplane, built in England in 1913.

The famous Dupperdüssen was also converted into a seaplane, capable of reaching speeds of up to 73.6 km / h. However, the wing of a large area, bulky poorly streamlined rectangular-section floats and their attachment trusses nullified all the advantages of this high-speed aircraft.

In 1914, the competition for the Schneider prize was won by an ordinary English Sopwith Tabloid biplane mounted on floats. The small floats of this apparatus did not distort its overall aerodynamics so much, as a result, the aircraft was able to reach speeds of up to 139.6 km / h.

When designing "flying boats", special attention was paid to the means of protecting the engine and crew from splashes. To this end, they tried to place the power plant and the propeller higher from the water, closer to the upper wing of the biplane. In the forward part of the fuselage, special protective grilles were installed, and on the outside the entire body was equipped with watertight bulkheads. Lateral stability on the water was provided by small underwing floats or protrusions on the sides of the fuselage ("gills").

By the beginning of 1914, serial production of float aircraft and "flying boats" was launched. In many countries of the world they were adopted and began to be used for commercial purposes.

Multi-engine aircraft

Already in the early years of the 20th century, incentives appeared for the creation of multi-engine aircraft. First of all, the task was to increase the carrying capacity of aircraft heavier than air. It was possible to increase it only in the case of an increase in the take-off weight of the aircraft, which also required an increase in the power of the power plant. Since at that time there were no very strong engines, it was supposed to put several engines on the planes. In addition, airplanes of this design seemed the safest. However, many questioned the success of such a machine.

At the beginning of 1910, the first successful flight was made on a twin-engine airplane, the creator of which was the Russian engineer B. G. Lutskoy, who lives in Germany. The aircraft was a monoplane with a front elevator and tail located behind the wing. The frame was made of thin steel pipes, and internal combustion engines were placed in the body of the apparatus. One of the motors drove the front propeller, the other propellers placed in the cutouts of the leading edge of the wing. The plane was large and could carry five people on board.

The next model was an improved version of the first. The engines were installed in the forward fuselage: one was located in front of the wing, slightly ahead and above the other, the second - under the wing. The aircraft was capable of flying at a speed of 150 km/h.

The first British twin-engine airplane was the Triple Twin biplane. In the forward part of the fuselage, made in the form of a gondola, there was a second Gnome engine with a chain drive for two propellers in front of the wings. Design features allowed the aircraft to fly with one engine off.

In the autumn of 1911, the Tandem Twin modification appeared with one pulling screw, and the next was the Triple Tractor, the front engine of which drove the nose screw, and the rear one drove two screws at the leading edge of the wing; the elevator was placed on the tail.

In 1911, the Romanian engineer A. Coande demonstrated his polutoraplan with two rotary engines mounted on the sides of the front of the hull. The differential gear provided the rotation of the propeller. Among the features of this model are a steel frame and a spring suspension of the upper wing of a large span, a fuselage suspended between the wings, an X-shaped plumage in a vertical plane, a landing gear with fairings could be retracted into casings; in addition, containers for oil and gasoline were located inside the upper wing. However, information about the successful flights of the aircraft could not be found.

A new word in the development of multi-engine aircraft was the creation in Russia of the Grand (Russian Knight) and Ilya Muromets airplanes, the designs of which belonged to I. I. Sikorsky. The models had four engines mounted on the wing, as a result of which the position of the center of gravity shifted back and the horizontal tail turned into a carrier (creating lift).

Vertical rudders were installed on the tail of the Russian Knight, and a rectangular fuselage with plywood sheathing on one side reached 20 m. The wing made of wood had a linen outer finish. In front of the fuselage there was a glazed cockpit with compartments for the pilot, passengers, a toilet, and rooms for spare parts and tools. There was a small space in front of the cockpit where one could go during the flight.

Ailerons on the upper wing were used for lateral control, and four skids and eight wheels were used as landing gear. Four internal cooling engines were placed on the wing, with the second pair with pusher propellers standing in tandem with the first. When any of the engines stopped, the Russian Knight could continue its flight without hindrance. After successful flights, Sikorsky decided to abandon the tandem scheme and place all four pulling engines in one row. The Ilya Muromets aircraft, built in October 1913, became the successor to the Grand. It was a biplane with a strong fuselage, in the bow of which there was a glazed cockpit with electric lighting and heating. In order to facilitate the construction, plywood sheathing was used in the rear of the hull. The large upper wing rested on six pillars. Between the box of wings and the tail there was another middle wing (later it was removed).

The first time "Ilya Muromets" took off on December 23, 1913. Experiments with two engines turned off and take-offs on skis from the snow turned out to be very successful. World records for carrying capacity, range and flight altitude were set. At the beginning of 1914, the serial production of multi-engine Sikorsky aircraft began, and in the industrial version, the Ilya Muromets was smaller and more powerful engines, due to which the maximum speed was 100 km / h, and the height was 3000 m.

A few months before the outbreak of the First World War, Sikorsky's four-engine aircraft made an outstanding flight for that time from St. Petersburg to Kyiv and back with three intermediate landings. The aircraft covered a distance of 2480 km, while being in the air for 28 hours 43 minutes. It was a world record for the distance and duration of a flight with two passengers on board.

The success of the inventor in the development and implementation of the largest projects for the beginning of the 20th century. Airplanes with several engines are explained by a reasonable choice of materials and a structural power scheme, as well as the correct location of the engine and the use of a high aspect ratio wing. The creation of the aircraft "Russian Knight" and "Ilya Muromets" laid the foundation for the development of heavy aviation. It is noteworthy that it was backward Russia that became the pioneer of this direction in aircraft construction. In the advanced countries of the world, it was developed only during the First World War.

In the first years of the XX century. aircraft were intended only for the entertainment of the public. But gradually, the government, primarily the military ministries, began to show attention to aircraft heavier than air. Realizing that airplanes are an effective means of military reconnaissance, and throwing hand grenades and small bombs from airplanes instills fear in the enemy, the generals began to form military aviation units.
On the eve of the First World War, these airplanes underwent a thorough re-equipment: radio stations, cameras, bomb racks, forward-firing machine guns, and many other devices were installed to perform various combat missions.

In addition to military purposes, aviation began to be used for peaceful purposes: for the transportation of passengers, cargo and mail. Letters on airplanes began to be transported in 1911, the initiator of this business was England. It was A. Farman who first suggested using an airplane for transporting passengers. However, his attempt to organize an airline between the French cities of Bouc and Etampes was unsuccessful. The first ever regular passenger airline St. Petersburg - Tampa (Florida, USA), which operated for only one month in 1914, operated much more successfully.

An aircraft is usually called an aircraft, which is designed to fly in the Earth's atmosphere due to a power plant that transfers thrust to the device. The structure of the unit includes fixed parts, such as wings and the fuselage itself. The main difference from a balloon and an airship is the use of aerodynamics, rather than aerostatics, which creates lift during the flight.

For the first time the term "aircraft" was used in 1857 by Captain N.M. Sokovnin. He used this word for a controlled balloon. Also in 1863, journalist A.V. Ewald used the word "aircraft" in his article Aeronautics. The article was the first proposal for the creation of such an aircraft with the name "airplane".

History

Who Invented the Airplane?

The first historical references to aircraft were in ancient Indian literature. It describes hypothetical flying machines - vimanas. In the folklore of almost all peoples, there is a mention of aircraft, such as a flying carpet or a stupa in which Baba Yaga flew.

The first tester who proposed a full-fledged concept of an aircraft unit with a separate engine and a fixed wing was the Englishman George Cayley. His writings date back to the end of the 18th century.

Proceedings of J. Cayley in the aviation field

Cayley's developments began in 1796, when he began to actively study the flight of birds. In 1799, a silver disk was made, on which an aircraft invented by him was applied, and on the reverse side of the disk a diagram of forces was applied, which allows flight. The device printed on the disk was very similar to a boat, but still it had the main details of an aircraft. Because of this, we can say that J. Cayley can be considered a man who thought through all the main details of the aircraft.

Since 1804, the researcher has been conducting a series of experiments related to aerodynamic properties. Due to this, he created a new rotary installation for surface studies. Using this setup, it was possible to measure the lifting force of objects depending on the angles of attack. It should be noted that the data were quite accurate. As a result, after the experiments, he created the first glider that could fly up to 27 meters, while the wing area was almost 1 sq. m.

By 1808, another glider was created with a large wing area and a curved airfoil. The unit was tested on a leash and in free flight. Due to the data obtained, Cayley published the first ever articles about aviation. The articles deal with the possibility of creating a tiltrotor with disk-shaped bearing surfaces and a polyplane. These disks are divided into 4 segments that rotate, due to this, a lifting force is created.

Another creation of this constructor was recorded in an article in Mechanics Magazine. It dealt with a controlled parachute, which is equipped with horizontal planes.

Yet Caylee's greatest achievement is the creation of full-size aircraft. The first machine was built in 1809. The machine was equipped with fixed wings and had a cutout for the landing of the pilot. The rise should be carried out with the help of flapping wings, but in the end the unit did not fly. The second apparatus was made in 1894 according to the same principle as its predecessor. The main difference was the presence of a wheeled chassis and a fuselage in the form of a boat. The pilot himself, or rather his muscles, acted as the power plant. As a result, the tests carried out showed that when accelerating from a slope, it was possible to lift off the ground, but only with a small load. It was not possible to raise an adult.

The designer was engaged in the design of other aircraft, such as airships, but things did not go beyond development.

Who Invented the Airplane?

Designed by William Henson

This invention can be attributed to the English designer William Henson, who in 1849 received a patent for the development of an aircraft project.

Henson's aircraft was also referred to as the "steam air carriage". The wing of the unit had spars, ribs and racks in its structure, all this was further developed in aircraft construction. The wing skin was double-sided, since the ribs had different curvature of the contours. To facilitate the design, longitudinal beams were used, this made the wing hollow and lighter.

The wing was attached to the top of the fuselage. An engine was installed in the hull itself, which drove two pusher-type propellers. Also, the fuselage had a place for passengers and crew.

The tail unit was attached to the rear of the hull. It had moving parts, namely the rudders, as for the keel, it was motionless. The design of the device did not have ailerons, due to which a roll could occur, but the designer solved this problem by changing the speed of the propellers. All this creation had a three-axle chassis with a front wheel.

Developments of Nikolai Afanasyevich Teleshov

As for the Russian Empire, the first aircraft was proposed by the designer N.A. Teleshov back in 1864. The designer's project was called the "aeronautics system", which, according to the original plan, should be able to carry 120 passengers on board. This aircraft was designed as an all-metal monoplane with a wing located on the upper part of the hull. The rectangular section of the inner fuselage was supposed to have two passenger decks.

ON THE. Teleshov - aircraft (project)

It should be noted that the proposed wing had a low elongation with large geometric parameters of the fuselage itself. The wings had a slightly curved profile and pointed ends. The double plating made it possible to increase their strength while reducing the overall weight. Due to the truss structure and the system of braces, the wings had to withstand large overloads.

The apparatus was controlled by a system of rudders and elevators. The entire structure was supposed to be lifted into the air by a steam engine, which rotated one pusher-type propeller. It should be noted that the power plant itself was located in the middle part of the hull, and a large shaft connected it to the screw. To shift the center of gravity in flight, the machine must be equipped with additional cargo, which had to be moved from the bow to the tail or vice versa. The aircraft did not have its own landing gear system, so the takeoff was carried out using a trolley landing gear. Of course, all this was never translated into reality.

Development of the aircraft by Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky

Naval officer A.F. Mozhaisky at the end of the 19th century actively began work on the creation of an aircraft, which was later made in full size. Unfortunately, detailed test data could not be saved. Nevertheless, some sources claim that a full-fledged flight never took place. The maximum achievement was a short-term separation of the device with the pilot. A steam engine with insufficient power was used as a power plant.

These are far from all the world's developments of aircraft that used steam engines as power plants. Nevertheless, the main problem of failures was the insufficient base of developments in the field of aerodynamics and the design of devices for flight.

Who created the plane?

The first aircraft in the world that was able to take off and fly. Designed by the Wright brothers.

The first successful experience in constructing an aircraft that could take off belongs to the Wright brothers. Wilbur and Orville Wright dubbed their brainchild "Flyer-1". The first flight of this aircraft took place on December 17, 1903. After taking off from the Earth, the car stayed in the air for 59 seconds, during which it was possible to fly 260 meters. The designers did not stop there, the modified model in 1904 was able to fly in a circle for the first time. A year later, in 1905, a long-range flight of 39 kilometers along a closed trajectory was performed.

First plane

The aircraft was equipped with a gasoline engine and a propeller made of wood, all this was mounted on a wooden frame made of spruce. The wingspan in the apparatus was equal to 12 meters, and the mass was 283 kilograms. It should be noted that the power plant itself, which produced 9 kW, weighed 77 kilograms. The brothers spent about a thousand dollars to build the entire car. The Wright aircraft did not have a full-fledged landing gear; for launch, they used a launch catapult with a wooden direction flight.

Beginning of aircraft industry in Russia

It should be noted that the creation of aircraft lagged behind world developments a little, since they made a big bet on the creation of airships, which they planned to use for military purposes. They also preferred the creation of helicopters. A striking example is the "Airmobile" designer V.V. Tatarinov, who in 1909 was allocated 50 thousand rubles for the construction. In addition, there were many donations and all kinds of help from sponsors. As a result, a huge amount of money was spent on the project, and the result is zero. After the failure of this design, almost no designer could receive subsidies for the development of their own projects, among which there were many promising ones.

Nevertheless, after the success of the Wright brothers, the Russian government decided to acquire its own aircraft. At the same time, they did not buy the Flyer-1 aircraft. It was decided to create the device on its own, only there was one problem - the designers of Russia had never seen an aircraft and were unfamiliar with the features of its creation. Because of this, many failures and accidents were noted even during the run-up of the units.

The first successful flying machine that was able to fly several tens of meters without an accident was Kudashev's plane. Professor of the Polytechnic Institute of Kyiv Alexander Kudashev in June 1910 was able to fly on an apparatus of his own design.

Developments by Igor Sikorsky

The most famous development of I. Sikorsky, of course, is the Ilya Muromets aircraft, which was made on the basis of the Russian Knight apparatus. It should be noted that the machine is fundamentally new and significantly different from the first device. Everything was changed, except for the general design scheme. A group of the best designers of the country, headed by Igor Sikorsky, worked on the creation.

"Muromets" was equipped with four engines of the "Argus" type with a capacity of 100 horsepower. This allowed the device to have a very large lifting force. Since 1915, some models were equipped with an R-BV3 engine, it had 6 cylinders and was equipped with a water cooling radiator. This aircraft can truly be considered the world's first aircraft for passenger transportation, since it had a cabin separate from the cockpit, sleeping rooms and even a toilet with a bath. Also on board the device had electric lighting and heating from the engine. The beginning of the First World War served as a great impetus to the development of the aircraft industry.

The first aircraft "Ilya Muromets" was manufactured in the autumn of 1913. Even during the tests of the machine, several world records were set. The first record in terms of carrying capacity was recorded on 12/12/1913, when it was possible to make a flight with 1.1 tons of payload on board. Exactly one month later, a record was set with 16 people and one dog on board the unit, while the total mass reached 1.2 tons. The aircraft was controlled by the designer Sikorsky himself.

In 1914, a seaplane with more powerful engines was manufactured on the basis of Muromets, it was the largest seaplane in the world until the beginning of 1917.

This machine belongs to the first flight in terms of range, when a flight from St. Petersburg to Kyiv was made with only one landing. During the flight, the maximum flight altitude of 2 kilometers was also reached, while there were 10 people on board. All this took place on 06/05/1914. The flight route was completed in 6.5 hours.

All these achievements and developments have served to further develop the aviation industry both in Russia and around the world.

Leonardo da Vinci thought about flying in the sky with the help of a special device in the 16th century, but the first flight was officially registered at the beginning of the last century. There is still fierce debate about who we owe the possibility of air travel to, but the fact remains that the first flight was officially registered in 1903. The very first airplane in the world was invented by the Wright brothers.

Aviation history

The first attempts to build an aircraft capable of lifting a person into the air began at the end of the 18th century. The history of the invention of the aircraft dates back to England, when Sir George Cayley took up this issue seriously and published several scientific papers in which he detailed the principle of construction and operation of the prototype of the modern aircraft.

The inventor began his work with birdwatching. The scientist devoted a long time to measuring the flight speed of birds and the wing span. These data subsequently became the basis of several publications that marked the beginning of the development of aviation.

In his first sketches, Cayley envisioned the aircraft as a boat with a tail at one end and a pair of oars at the bow. The structure was supposed to be driven by oars, which would transfer rotation to a cruciform shank at the end of the vessel. In this way, Cayley unmistakably depicted the main elements of the aircraft. It was the work of this scientist that laid the foundation for the development of aviation and became the impetus for the development of the concept of the aircraft.

The pioneer of aviation in its modern sense was another English inventor - William Henson. It was he who received an order to develop a project for an aircraft in 1842.

The "steam air crew" proposed by Henson described all the main elements of a propeller-driven aircraft. As a device that moves the entire structure, the inventor proposed to use a propeller. Many of the ideas proposed by Henson were subsequently developed and began to be used in early aircraft models.

Russian inventor N.A. Teleshov patented the project for the construction of an "aeronautics system". The concept of the flying machine was also based on a steam engine and a propeller. A few years later, the scientist improved his project and was one of the first to propose the idea of ​​​​creating a jet aircraft.

A feature of Teleshov's projects was the idea of ​​transporting passengers in a closed fuselage.

Who invented the airplane

Despite the fact that the development of the design of the aircraft was carried out by many scientists in the middle of the 19th century, the invention of the aircraft is attributed to the Wright brothers, whose airplane made a short flight in 1903.

Not everyone agrees that the Wright brothers were the first. Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont designed, built and tested the world's first airship prototype in 1901. It was then that it was proved that controlled flights are indeed possible.

According to another version, the championship in the invention of the first working aircraft should be given to the Russian inventor A.F. Mozhaisky, whose name will forever remain in the history of aviation. Thus, disputes about who invented and who created the aircraft are still ongoing.

Interesting! Despite the fact that officially the invention of the aircraft is awarded to the Wright brothers, all Brazilians are sure that Santos-Dumont invented the world's first aircraft. In Russia, it is believed that the first prototype of a modern aircraft was built by Mozhaisky.

The work of the Wright brothers

The Wright brothers were not the first inventors of the airplane. Moreover, the first uncontrolled human flight also does not belong to them. Nevertheless, the Wright brothers were able to prove the most important thing - that a person is able to fly an aircraft.

It was Wilbur and Orville Wright who first carried out controlled flight on an aircraft, thanks to which the idea of ​​​​the possibility of carrying out passenger transportation by air was further developed.

At a time when all scientists were puzzling over the possibility of installing more powerful engines to lift the aircraft into the air, the brothers focused on questions of the ability to control the aircraft. The result was a series of wind tunnel experiments that provided the basis for the development of airplane wings and propellers.

The first powered glider built by the brothers was named Flyer 1. It was made of spruce, as this material is lightweight and durable. The device was driven by a gasoline engine.

Interesting! The engine for the Flyer-1 was made by mechanic Charlie Taylor, a design feature was light weight. To do this, the mechanic used duralumin, also called duralumin.

The first successful flight was made on December 17, 1903. The plane climbed a few meters and flew about 40 meters in 12 seconds. Then there were repeated tests, as a result of which the duration and altitude of the flight increased.

Santos Dumont and 14bis

Alberto Santos-Dumont is known as the inventor of hot air balloons, he is also sometimes credited as the creator of the world's first controlled aircraft. He also owns the invention of airships, which were controlled by an engine.

In 1906, his plane called "14-bis" took off and flew over 60 meters. The height to which the inventor raised his aircraft was about 2.5 meters. A month later, Alberto Santos-Dumont flew 220 meters on the same plane, setting the first longest flight record as a result.

A feature of the "14-bis" was that the design was able to take off on its own. The Wright brothers failed to achieve this, and their plane took off with outside help. It was this nuance that became fundamental in the debate about who should be considered the inventor of the first aircraft.

After the "14-bis" the inventor seriously engaged in the development of a monoplane, as a result, the world saw the "Demoiselle".

Alberto Santos-Dumont never rested on his laurels and kept his inventions a secret. The inventor willingly shared the designs of his aircraft with thematic publications.

Aircraft Mozhaisky

The scientist presented the project of his aircraft for consideration back in 1876. Mozhaisky faced a misunderstanding of the officials of the Military Ministry, as a result, he was not allocated funds to continue his research.

Despite this, the scientist continued to develop, investing his own funds, which is why the construction of the prototype of the Mozhaisky aircraft dragged on for many years.

Mozhaisky's plane was built in 1882. The first tests of the aircraft ended in disaster, but witnesses claim that the aircraft still rose some distance from the ground before it crashed.

Since there is no documentary evidence of the flight, it is impossible to consider Mozhaisky the first person to fly an airplane. However, the development of the scientist served as the basis for the development of aviation.

So who was the first

Despite numerous disputes about the year in which the aircraft was invented, the first officially registered flight belongs to the Wright brothers, which is why the Americans are considered the "fathers" of the first aircraft.

It is inappropriate to compare the contribution to the development of aviation by the Wright brothers, Santos-Dumont and Mozhaisky. Despite the fact that Mozhaisky's first aircraft was built 20 years before the first controlled flight, the inventor used a different construction principle, so it is impossible to compare his aircraft with the Wright brothers' Flyer.

Santos Dumont was not the first to fly, but the inventor used a fundamentally new approach to the construction of an aircraft, thanks to which his device took to the air on its own.

In addition to the first controlled flight, the Wright brothers made a significant contribution to the development of aviation, the first to propose a fundamentally new approach to the construction of the propeller and wings of the aircraft.

It makes no sense to argue which of these scientists became the first, because they all made a huge contribution to the development of aviation. It was their work and research that became the basis for the invention of the prototype of the modern airliner.

The first military aircraft

Prototypes of the Flyer by the Wright brothers and the Santos-Dumont aircraft were used for military purposes.

If the brothers initially pursued the goal of inventing technology that would give an advantage to the American army, then the Brazilian Santos-Dumont was against the use of aviation for military purposes. Despite this, his work served as the starting point for the creation of a number of aircraft, which were then used during the war. Interestingly, Mozhaisky initially also pursued the construction of an aircraft that would be used for military purposes.

The first jet aircraft appeared at the height of World War II.

The first passenger aircraft

The first passenger aircraft appeared thanks to I.I. Sikorsky. The prototype of the modern airliner took off in 1914 with 12 passengers on board. In the same year, the Ilya Muromets airliner set a world record by making its first long-distance flight. He flew the distance from St. Petersburg to Kyiv, making one landing for refueling.

The airliner also participated in the transport of bombs during the First World War. The war forced Russian aviation to freeze in development for some time.

In 1925, the first K-1 aircraft appeared, then the world saw Tupolev passenger airliners and aircraft developed by KhAI. Since that time, more and more attention has been paid to passenger aircraft, they are acquiring greater passenger capacity and the ability to fly over long distances.

History of the development of jet aircraft

The first idea of ​​a jet aircraft was proposed by the Russian inventor Teleshov. An attempt to replace the propeller with a piston engine was made in 1910 by a designer from Romania, A. Coanda.

These attempts were unsuccessful, and the first successful test of a jet aircraft took place in 1939. The tests were carried out by the German company Heinkel, however, several mistakes were made during the design of the model:

• wrong choice of engine design;
• high fuel consumption;
• frequent need for refueling.

However, the first jet prototype was able to achieve a high rate of climb - more than 60 meters in one second of flight.

Due to design errors made, the jet aircraft could not move more than 50 kilometers from the airfield, due to the need for frequent refueling. Due to a number of shortcomings, the first successful model never got into mass production.

The first production aircraft was the Me-262 in 1944. This model has become an improved version of the previous Heinkel model.

Then the development of jet aircraft was picked up by Japan and Great Britain.

Video

Thus, jet aircraft appeared in the midst of the Second World War. They have serious combat victories on their account, however, the losses among them are also very high. First of all, this is due to the fact that the pilots simply did not have time to complete a full-fledged training in managing a fundamentally new aircraft. From the moment of the first successful flight to the advent of jet aircraft, only 30 years passed, during which there was a big breakthrough in aviation.

People have dreamed of conquering the airspace for a long time. In past centuries, various aircraft were created. Subsequently, their designs, as well as some elements, began to be used in the development of more modernized aircraft. A little time passed when the first aircraft in the world was created.

Aviation history

George Cayley in the XVIII century created several scientific works on the topic "Construction of aircraft". In them, he spoke in detail about the capabilities of the prototypes of a modern aircraft.

Note. He observed birds. He measured their flight speed, height, and wingspan.

The American designer imagined the aircraft in the form of a boat with a tail. The movement of the entire structure was provided by oars. They transmitted rotation to the tail in the form of a cross, which was located at the end of the aircraft.

The history of aircraft construction began in 1842. At this time, William Henson received an order to develop an aircraft project. The designer created a propeller-driven aircraft. The propeller lifted the ship and also ensured its movement. It is worth noting that some of Henson's ideas are still used by modern aircraft designers.

The history of Russian-made aircraft began in the 20th century. Inventor N. A. Teleshov for the first time patented the project "Aeronautics Systems". Aircraft had to fly by means of a propeller and a steam engine.

A little later, the same designer proposed to create a jet aircraft. Development was carried out on the basis of his patented project. The aircraft was supposed to transport passengers in a closed aircraft body. Moreover, this device had to be reactive. After that, the rapid development of aviation technology began. Modern aircraft models amaze with their technical and flight characteristics.

The first aircraft in the world and Russia

The first person to invent the airplane in the whole world was Anthony Fokker. This event took place in 1910. He lifted the first de Spin into the sky. Unfortunately, the aircraft did not cover a long distance. He crashed into a tree. Fokker did not stop his experiments on this.

Anthony Fokker

In 1911, he created a company that already in 1915 produced the first fighter aircraft. It was thanks to this air machine that Germany managed to change the course of the First World War.

Aircraft characteristics:

1. The wingspan of the aircraft reached 8.53 m;
2. Fuselage length - 6.76 m, and height - 2.89 m;
3. The aircraft developed a cruising speed of 132 km/h.

The first person who invented the plane in Russia was Alexander Mozhaisky. It happened in 1876. At that time, he was testing with a small boat on which wings were mounted. The secular press of that time was interested in an unusual structure. It has been published in various publications.

Alexander Mozhaisky

This invention was not ignored by Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. At that time, the scientist was known to the whole world. It was he who convinced the commission of the Main Engineering Directorate to sponsor the experiments.

Note. At that time, there was a skeptical attitude towards inventors of this kind in the country. For this reason, Mozhaisky failed to complete his experiments.

1881-1886 - the beginning of testing the aircraft. All attempts to hold out in the airspace as long as possible were unsuccessful. In 1890, the designer died without finishing his work. Many argue that if he had had more time and finances, modern aircraft would have appeared much earlier.

The first passenger aircraft

The man who laid the foundation for the creation of passenger aircraft was Alberto Santos-Dumont. Initially, he designed balloons and airships. In 1905, he completed work on the design of the first aircraft. Already in 1906, the designer made the first flight on an aircraft of his own production. The air car was named Oiseau de proie or 14-bis. In translation, this name means "Bird of Prey".

Alberto Santos-Dumont and his 14-bis

First flight characteristics:

• height - 2-3 m;
• range - 220 m;
• flight time - 22 seconds.

The aircraft was equipped with removable landing gear.

Looking at the aircraft design experience of the Wright brothers and Santos-Dumont, the Russian government decided to start its own developments in this area. The only nuance was that in Russia at that time there were no designers with experience in creating aircraft. Many of them have never seen these machines.

The first Russian aircraft that could fly several tens of meters without an accident was created by Alexander Kudashev, a professor at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In 1910, he flew in an aircraft of his own production.

Igor Sikorsky adopted the experience of the designer Kudashev. He created the plane "Ilya Muromets". This is the first passenger aircraft to be equipped with partitions. They divided the salon into different compartments: a sleeping area, an entertainment compartment, a restaurant and a bathroom.

Designed by Igor Sikorsky

In 1913 a significant event took place. The plane took to the skies for the first time. A year later, a presentation flight took place. There were 16 passengers on board.

The first military aircraft

The aircraft, which managed to get off the ground, and also spend a small amount of time in the air, was the development of the Wright brothers. Orville and Wilbur designed it in 1900. The Wright Brothers' first plane was called the Flyer 1. Its first flight took place in 1903.

Wright brothers

The air car spent about 59 seconds in the air. In this short time, she flew 260 m. Already in 1904, the model was finalized. And a year later, the plane flew a distance of 39 km.

Aircraft characteristics:

• wingspan - 12 m;
• weight - 283 kg;
• power plant power - 9 kW;
• weight of the power plant - 77 kg.

The gasoline engine, which accelerated the car to the desired speed, was mounted on a wooden frame. The aircraft did not have a landing gear. Instead, they used a catapult to launch. She was equipped with a flight direction made of wood. The Wright brothers spent about $ 1,000 to create such an aircraft. USA.

jet planes

The idea of ​​creating a jet aircraft belongs to the inventor Teleshov. It was brought to life by the designer A. Coanda in 1910. Attempts to start the aircraft using the engine were unsuccessful.

Already in 1939, a jet aircraft was launched. The tests were carried out by the German company Heinkel. The prototype aircraft could reach high speed in a short time. He flew at an altitude of 60 meters.

Certain errors were made in the design:

• significant fuel consumption;
• wrong choice of power plant;
• constant need for refueling.

Due to the latter reason, the plane could not fly more than 50 km. The model was not released into mass production, as design errors were not corrected.

In 1946, a new jet-powered aircraft was developed. The achievement belongs to the American company Bell Aircraft. The Bell X-1 aircraft could fly at an altitude of 24400 m. It developed a speed of 2720 km / h.

Interesting fact! On this aircraft, 80 flights were made.

In 1949, the aircraft rose to a height of 7600 m and reached speeds of up to 273 km / h in 1 second.

supersonic aircraft

The Bell X-1 aircraft is rightfully considered supersonic. It was it that was equipped with an XLR-11 rocket engine. The aircraft reached supersonic speed in controlled flight.

The F-100 is considered to be the first US production fighter jet. He flew in 1953. The MiG19 became the first Russian-made supersonic fighter. He flew in 1952. Serial production of this model began in 1954.

F-100