Sir George Cayley, the founder of the science of aerodynamics, credited as the first person to separate the forces of lift and drag which are in effect on any flight vehicle, in 1799 he set forth the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, and he built a successful passenger-carrying glider in 1853. In 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first powered flight, by having his glider "L'Albatros artificiel" pulled by a horse on a beach. On 28 August 1883, the American John J. Montgomery made a controlled flight in a glider. Other aviators who made similar flights at that time were Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher and Octave Chanute.
The first self-powered fixed-wing aircraft was created by Englishman John Stringfellow, whose unmanned model made its first successful flight in 1848. Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian living in France, built the first practical dirigible balloons at the end of the nineteenth century.[citation needed] In the 1890s, Australian inventor and aviator Lawrence Hargrave conducted research on wing structures and developed a box kite that lifted the weight of a man. His box kite designs were widely adopted and became the prevalent type of aircraft until 1909.[verification needed] Although he also developed a type of rotary aircraft engine, he did not create and fly a powered fixed-wing aircraft.
On 14 August 1901, in Fairfield, Connecticut, Gustave Whitehead reportedly flew his engine-powered Number 21 aeroplane for half a mile at 15 m height, according to an article in the Bridgeport Sunday Herald. No photographs were taken, but a sketch of the plane in the air was published with the article.
The Wright brothers made their first successful test flights on 17 December 1903. Their flights are recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the standard setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics, as "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight". By 1905, the Wright Flyer III was capable of fully controllable, stable flight for substantial periods.
On 12 November 1906, Santos-Dumont made what Brazilians say was the first airplane flight unassisted by catapult and set the first world record recognised by the Aéro-Club de France by flying 220 metres (720 ft) in less than 22 seconds. This flight was also certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
World War I served as a testbed for the use of the aircraft as a weapon. Initially seen by the generals as a "toy", aircraft demonstrated their potential as mobile observation platforms, then proved themselves to be machines of war capable of causing casualties to the enemy. The earliest known aerial victory with a synchronised machine gun-armed fighter aircraft occurred on July 1, 1915, by German Luftstreitkräfte Leutnant Kurt Wintgens. "Fighter aces" appeared, described as "knights of the air"; the greatest (by number of air victories) was the German Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. On the side of the allies, the ace with the highest number of downed aircraft was René Fonck, of France. All-metal-structure aircraft took their first steps into reality during the World War I era, through the work of Hugo Junkers in the creation of the Junkers J 1 in 1915.
Following the war, aircraft technology continued to develop. Alcock and Brown crossed the Atlantic non-stop for the first time in 1919, a feat first performed solo by Charles Lindbergh in 1927. The first commercial flights took place between the United States and Canada in 1919. The turbine or the jet engine was in development in the 1930s; military jet aircraft began operating in the 1940s.
Aircraft played a primary role in the Second World War, having a presence in all the major battles of the war: Pearl Harbor, the battles of the Pacific, the Battle of Britain. They were an essential component of the military strategies of the period, such as the German Blitzkrieg or the American and Japanese aircraft carrier campaigns of the Pacific.
In October 1947, Chuck Yeager was the first person to exceed the speed of sound, flying the Bell X-1.
Aircraft in a civil military role continued to feed and supply Berlin in 1948, when access to rail roads and roads to the city, completely surrounded by Eastern Germany, were blocked, by order of the Soviet Union.
The Cold War played a large role in the production of new aircraft, such as the B-52
The first commercial jet, the de Havilland Comet, was introduced in 1952. The Boeing 707, the first widely successful commercial jet, was in commercial service for more than 50 years, from October 26, 1958 to June 22, 2010. The Boeing 727 was another widely used passenger aircraft, and the Boeing 747 was the world's biggest commercial aircraft between 1970 and 2005, when it was surpassed by the Airbus A380.
Here are some pictures of airplanes:
#1 Le Bris and his glider, Albatros II, photographed by Nadar, 1868.
#2 A Tupolev Tu-160 of the Russian Air Force at MAKS in 2007.
#3 A F16C
#4 The Wright Brothers Glider after being improvised in 1902.
And ofcourse,
Our very own
And...
Along with heart-warming stewardess,
So, Malaysia Boleh? :P
