|
|
|
Celebrating a century of flight
On a cold windy day of December 17, 1903 the Wright Flyer rose above the sands of Kitty Hawk for a mere 12 seconds and covered 120 metres. But the four years of exhausting work that went into the twelve seconds of flight made man realize that he had fulfilled his dream to fly. Merely three decades after the Wright Flyer, the Douglas DC-3 made regular airline service possible and within sixty years of the Wright Brother’s success the first Boeing 747 flew over Washington.
Within a decade aviation developed magnanimously as man took over the skies and projected into space. To commemorate the century of flight and to realize the efforts that went into making air travel possible, the world has joined in this year to celebrate The Century of Flight. Join the adventure as we take a walkthrough of some of the major events that changed aviation history.
The Wright Flyer: The basic structure of the Wright Flyer was made of spruce and ash covered with muslin. The muslin covering was made an integral part of the structure by fabric pockets sewn inside it. The Wright Flyer was powered by a four cylinder and 12 horse power gasoline engine, designed by the Wright brothers themselves. The pilot had to lie down on his front and use his left hand to operate the elevator control. To operate the rudder and lateral control, the pilot had to shift his hips from side to side. This moved the hip cradle which was joined to the wing tips by wires. The length of the aircraft was just 21 feet with a wingspan of 40 feet and 4 inches and it stood at a height of 9 feet and 3 inches. It was a brief flight in this machine that is to this day remembered as the turning point in aviation history.
Curtiss JN-4D: The Jenny was infamous for barnstorming - a term used for pilots flying from town to town performing stunts and giving rides. It also delivered the first United States airmail and trained 9000 American pilots during World War I alone. Jenny’s design was relatively new for the era. It was a staggered biplane with wings, engine and propeller in the front, two main landing gears up front and a tail skid in the back beneath a vertical rudder and horizontal stabilizer.
Vickers Vimy: The Vickers Vimy made some record breaking flights including the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. The airplane was designed at the end of World War I and served as a long range night bomber that could carry two thousand pounds of bombs from England to Berlin. The aircraft, powered by two 375 horsepower Rolls Royce V-12 engines could cruise at 85 mph and could travel for one thousand miles.
“Spirit of St Louis”: When you were taught at school that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line - your teacher was wrong! For indeed the shortest distance between two points on earth is in an arc called a “great circle route”. This is exactly what Charles Lindbergh did in his airplane “Spirit of St Louis”, when flying on his historic nonstop flight between New York and Paris. He traveled from New York, curved northeast to Newfoundland and then southeast across the Atlantic to Ireland, across England and into Paris. The journey was by no means an easy one. In an era without electronic navigation and radio communications for airplanes, it required more than thirty hours of super human endurance to navigate using a simple compass and landmarks to go all across the Atlantic and land in Paris. The competition of being the first one to achieve this feat and the resulting failures of other pilots is a very interesting piece of history which has also been made into TV documentaries. Documented details are also available on the internet.
Ford Tri- Motor: The Ford Tri- Motor was nicknamed “The Goose”. It is credited for pioneering to fly airline and air transport routes. It was amongst the first American airplanes to support passenger service and was designed for safety and comfort and to change people’s perspective about air traveling
The 5B/5C Veg: The Vega had better instrumentation then other planes before it. It had a turn and bank indicator, a Vertical Speed Indicator, directional gyros - hence making it the first of the modern aircraft. It is known for its record making flights including those of around the world.
DH- 88 Comet: The Comet DH-88 is the proud winner of the 11,000 mile MacRobertson race from England to Australia in 1934, in which many competitors rivaled to showcase the viability of their airline operations or aircraft.
Douglas DC - 3: In 1932, Transcontinental and Western Air put forward their request to Douglas Aircraft Company for an airplane that could seat at least 12 passengers and go for a thousand miles at a cruise sped of at least 145 miles per hour. The DC 3 (Douglas Commercial 3) rose to the skies for the first time in December 1935 — 32 years after the Wright Brothers historical flight. The DC 3 progressed further in aircraft design with powered flaps and retractable landing gear. The DC 3 was launched as a luxury airliner and supported modern amenities including cabin temperature control, running water in lavatories and bunkers for passengers to sleep in. The DC 3 has been a legendary airplane that has been used in multiple roles.
Celebrations
Activities are being held the world over to celebrate this great achievement of man. A key role played in this regard is that by the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA: http://www.aiaa.org). They key technical body dedicated to the development and support of aviation. There aim is to, “Honor those individuals in aerospace history whose legacy continues to impact our society. To encourage new talent in the sciences to ignite innovation in the aerospace industries and to bring together the leaders of the aerospace community to shape a common vision for the future that will continue to benefit the world community.”
Their campaign includes symposiums and expositions, Reconstruction of the Wright model and displays at various locations, lectures, awards and scholarships — that aim not only at the US but converge aeronautics people from the world over. The focus of the activities is also based on “shaping the next 100 years of aviation”. The celebrations have been continuing through out the year and converge onto December 17th 1003, when the hundred years of flight get complete.
Celebrations in Pakistan
Locally, there has been no activity as such regarding the hundred years of aviation. People are not even aware that the hundred years of aviation are about to complete. Tough one may conveniently say that Pakistan had no specific role in shaping aviation in its first hundred years, but the air power and strength of the Pakistani aviation too has changed since independence. The Pakistan Air Force Museum at Karachi happens to be the only well maintained living record of Pakistani combat aviation history. What is required is an initiative this year to emphasize on the evolution of flight and to educate the masses. However this year too the Air Force Day has come to pass off in the same orthodox fashion. Activities aimed at promoting the centennial would generate people’s interest in aviation; the adventures of the daring pilots of the past would encourage today’s enthusiast to take a step further into promoting aviation.
As we cruise, comfortably seated in todays modern jets the GPS and other electronic systems guide your airplane across the globe. A vigilant Air Traffic Control monitors you on the ground making sure you are safe up in the sky. You land at the busiest airports of the world without hassle and as you disembark from your plane in the US within twenty four hours of boarding it in Pakistan, little do you realize the daring and life threatening efforts of the people who risked their life, who spent sleepless hours as their hands clung to the yoke of their solitary aircraft as they guided it across every inch of the oceans, tersely looking out for signs of land to check their course.
Those were the people who took the true taste of flying and aviation. It was them who shaped aviation into what it is today and the least we can do is to remember the efforts of these great men.
The writer
|
|
|
|
