History of Aviation

Introduction

According to Aulus Gellius, Archytas philosopher of the old Greek, a mathematician, astronomers, law and political strategist, was considered that has designed and built around 400 B.C., first artificial device of the flight is self-propelled, a model in the form of bird propelled by an steam boost (an engine with the steamer) used as the reactor with steam, about whom they say he flew effectively to about 200 m altitude. This machine, named by its inventor “The Dove”, could be suspended on a wire to fly securely on a path of feed.

The inventor of the berbers from the ninth century, Abbas Ibn Firnas, is considered by John Harding to be the first attempt of the flight heavier than air in the history of aviation (Petrescu et al., 2017 a-c).

In 1010 AD, a British (English) monk, Eilmer of Malmesbury, assumed the piloting of a primitive sliding boat from the Malmesbury Abbey tower. It is said that Eilmer flew over 200 m (180 m) before landing and breaking his legs. He later remarked that the only reason he did not fly further was that he forgot to design his flight instrument and a queue, for which he redesigned his aircraft more technically, but his ancestor took Forbidden any other experiments on the grounds that they are bad (Satanic inspiration) and lead to serious accidents.

Bartholomew of Gusmão, Brazilian and Portuguese, was an experienced model aircraft engineer. In 1709 he demonstrated an aircraft model in front of the Portuguese court, but never managed to build a large-scale model.

The pilgrims of Rozier, Paris, France, made the first voyage of a man in a free balloon (Montgolfière), built by Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, covering a 9 km flight in only 25 min October 15, 1783.

On December 1, 1783 at Charlieère, the pilots of Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert made the first flight conducted with the help of a hydrogen balloon.

On September 19, 1784, at Caroline, an elongated boat (specially arranged after Jean Baptiste Meusnier's proposals in the form of a dirigible balloon), he completed the first flight of more than 100 kilometers, from Paris to Beuvry.

The history of aviation can be divided into six periods.

The epoch of the precursors: Until the beginning of the seventeenth century men imagined-more or less realistically-what a flying machine could be. Then from the end of the eighteenth century, this period saw the beginning of the conquest of the air with the development of aerostation and numerous attempts of gliding.

The pioneers of the heaviest air: It is the period of the first flights of motor vehicles capable of taking off on their own. Almost every flight is a first or record attempt: A little faster, a little farther, a little higher. Aviators are most often designers or adventurers.

The First World War: Only a few years after the first flight, this period saw the emergence of a new weapon on the battlefield. There is an abrupt shift to mass production, with some aircraft models even being built to more than a thousand; the pilots become "professionals", even if the perfume of adventure has not completely disappeared.

The end of the First World War put on the market a surplus of pilots and aircraft which enabled the launch of commercial air transport and, in the first place, that of mail. Aviation develops and there is the creation of an air force in many countries. Military aviation drives builders to break new records. Advances in civil aviation are a spin-off from military studies (Petrescu and Petrescu, 2011; 2012; 2013a; 2013b; 2013c; Aversa et al., 2016 a-f).

The Second World War: Aviation is widely used on the battlefield. This period can be considered the climax of planes using a piston engine and a propeller as a propulsion means. The end of the war saw the birth of the jet engine and the radar.

The second half of the twentieth century: Once again, the end of the war put on the market a surplus of aircraft and pilots. This is the beginning of the regular commercial air transport "all-weather" able to free itself from weather conditions and to practice the flight without visibility. Military aeronautics drives the development of the reactor, this is called the era of the jet and then sets out to conquer the supersonic flight. Civilian spin-offs allow the development of the first four-jet airliners and air transport is open to all, at least in developed countries (Crickmore, 1997; Donald, 2003; Goodall, 2003; Graham, 2002; Jenkins, 2001; Landis and Jenkins, 2005).

The Wright Flyer (1903) is widely regarded as the first aircraft capable of performing a controlled and controlled flight (Fig. 1). The Wright Flyer (often retrospectively referred to as Flyer I or 1903 Flyer) was the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft. It was designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it four times on December 17, 1903, near Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, US. Today, the airplane is exhibited in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. (Wright Flyer, From Wikipedia).

The Flyer was based on the Wrights' experience testing gliders at Kitty Hawk between 1900 and 1902. Their last glider, the 1902 Glider, led directly to the design of the Flyer.

The Wrights built the aircraft in 1903 using giant spruce wood as their construction material. Wings were designed with a 1-in-20 camber. Since they could not find a suitable automobile engine for the task, they commissioned their employee Charlie Taylor to build a new design from scratch, effectively a crude gasoline engine SNASM (0000). A sprocket chain drive, borrowing from bicycle technology, powered the twin propellers, which were also made by hand.

The Flyer was a canard biplane configuration. As with the gliders, the pilot flew lying on his stomach on the lower wing with his head toward the front of the craft in an effort to reduce drag. He steered by moving a cradle attached to his hips. The cradle pulled wires which warped the wings and turned the rudder simultaneously.

The Flyer's "runway" was a track of 2x4s stood on their narrow edge, which the brothers nicknamed the "Junction Railroad".

The engine Wright was a little gross, even after the standards of the day. It had four cylinders in horizontal line. Bore of 4 inches, travel of 4 inches, cast iron cylinders match in a cylinder of die-cast aluminum which extends toward the outside to form a mantle of water around the receptables the cylinder (Fig. 2), (SNASM, 0000).

The engine was cooled by water from a narrow vertical water reservoir mounted on a forward strut.

The system was not a radiator in the typical sense, for the water did not circulate. The reservoir simply replenished the water jacket as the water evaporated from it. The Wright engine, with its aluminum crankcase, marked the first time this breakthrough material was used in aircraft construction. Lightweight aluminum became essential in aircraft design development and remains a primary construction material for all types of aircraft.

The engine had no fuel pump, carburetor, or spark plugs. Nor did it have a throttle. Yet the simple motor produced 12 horsepower, an acceptable margin above the Wrights’ minimum requirement of 8 horsepower. Gasoline was gravity fed from a small quart-and-ahalf tank mounted on a strut below the upper wing. The gasoline entered a shallow chamber next to the cylinders and mixed with the incoming air. Heat from the crankcase vaporized the fuel-air mixture, causing it to pass through the intake manifold into the cylinders (Petrescu and Petrescu, 2011; 2012; 2013a; 2013b; 2013c).

Ignition was produced by opening and closing two contact breaker points in the combustion chamber of each cylinder via a camshaft. The initial spark for starting the engine was generated with a coil and four dry-cell batteries, not carried on the airplane. A low tension magneto driven by a 20-pound flywheel supplied electric current while the engine was running.

Materials and Methods; the Preecursors

The man probably dreamed of imitating the flight of the birds and the legend, such as that of Icarus, or many apocryphal tales claiming attempts of flight by men harnessed with wings and rushing from a man, a tower.

Whatever their identity, they tried to imitate a mechanism, that of the bird's wing, whose complexity they did not imagine. The Egyptians already make toys or models of balsa wood with the ability to climb and hover in the air.

Archytas of Taranto is credited with inventing a wooden dove capable of flying. Around 1500, Leonardo da Vinci drew and proposed several ideas of "flying machines", but they were based, for the most part, on the concept of swinging wings (Fig. 3), (LDVFM, 0000).

In 1655, Robert Hooke, an English mathematician, physicist and inventor, concluded that human flight was impossible without the assistance of an "artificial" engine (Robert Hooke, From Wikipedia).

In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers thanks to the hot air balloon and Jacques Charles thanks to the gas balloon allow the man to rise in the atmosphere but without control of the trajectory. The solution will come from the study of a toy, the kite, known in the East since antiquity but which will not be introduced in Europe until the thirteenth century (Montgolfier Brothers, From Wikipedia).

The British George Cayley (1773-1857), is the true precursor of the aviation. He discovers the basic principles of aerodynamics and understands that weight and drag are the two forces that must be overcome (Cayley George, From Wikipedia). He also understands that it is useless to reproduce the beaten flight of birds and that the wings must be fixed. It provides for the need for a stabilizer to stabilize the flight. He thus establishes the basic shape of the aircraft. Inspired by the work of the French Launoy, he built a helicopter in 1796, then in 1808 an "ornithopter" on a human scale and in 1809 a glider that will fly without a passenger.

Sir George Cayley, 6th Baronet (27 December 1773-15 December 1857) was a prolific English engineer and is one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him to be the first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying principles and forces of flight.

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 (Fig. 4). He was a pioneer of aeronautical engineering and is sometimes referred to as "the father of aviation." He discovered and identified the four forces which act on a heavier-than-air flying vehicle: Weight, lift, drag and thrust.

Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries and on the importance of cambered wings, also identified by Cayley. He constructed the first flying model aeroplane and also diagrammed the elements of vertical flight. He designed the first glider reliably reported to carry a human aloft. He correctly predicted that sustained flight would not occur until a lightweight engine was developed to provide adequate thrust and lift. The Wright brothers acknowledged his importance to the development of aviation.

William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow, taking over Cayley's work, have a model of a steam airplane flying. Nevertheless, powerful engines for real-size aircraft are far too heavy to allow them to take off. Progress will therefore first go through gliders and the study of aerodynamics.

Between 1857 and 1868, the Frenchman Jean- Marie Le Bris successively tries two gliders of his invention (Fig. 5), first from the hills of the bay of Douarnenez (Finistère), then on the height of the Polygon of the Navy, near Brest (Finistère), thus resuming in France the work of the British pioneers of the previous decade (Le Bris Jean-Marie, From Wikipedia).

In 1863, the term "aviation" was invented by Gabriel de La Landelle.

Britain's Francis Herbert Wenham, in 1871, built what is probably the first wind tunnel, which will allow experimenting models (Wenham Francis Herbert, From Wikipedia).

Francis Herbert Wenham (1824, Kensington-1908) was a British marine engineer who studied the problem of manned flight and wrote a perceptive and influential academic paper which he presented to the first meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society in London in 1866.

Wenham's report, "Aerial Locomotion," was published in the Society's journal and reprinted in widely distributed aeronautical publications in the 1890s, including Octave Chanute's "Progress in Flying Machines". The paper introduced the idea of superposed wings in a flying machine, a concept Wenham tested in 1858 with a multi wing glider, although it did not actually fly. In 1866 he patented the design, which became the basis for biplanes, triplanes and multi planes that took to the air as gliders in the 1890s and as airplanes in the early decades of the 20th century. Superposed wings increased the lifting area and avoided the structural problems of excessive wing length.

The French Louis Mouillard is inspired by the wing of a bird to design gliders whose sails are curved. It proposes the warping of the wings.

Between 1857 and 1877, the French Félix and Louis du Temple tried out models with spring-loaded engines, helping them with an inclined plane and then perhaps a machine, equipped with a steam engine, mounted by a sailor.

The first airplane capable of standing on its own, was made by brother Victor Tatin in 1874. The plane was an unmanned airplane powered by a compressed air engine. For that time, the machine was a real aviation jewel (Fig. 8).

The first man who flew while controlling the trajectory of his machine was Otto Lilienthal (Fig. 6), who carried out between 1891 and 1896 two thousand flights hovering from an artificial hill near Berlin (Otto Lilienthal, From Wikipedia).

The first flights on a rudder-controlled machine acting on all three axes (pitch, roll, yaw) were made by the Wright brothers on their glider in 1902.

The First Motorized Takeoff

The first man to say he flew with an engine is Frenchman Clément Ader, in command of his aircraft. The reality of these flights is discussed, due to the lack of witnesses and the lack of control of its craft.

The first attempt took place in 1890 at the command of the Éole; the marks left by the wheels in the loose soil would have presented a place where they were less marked and would have totally disappeared about twenty or fifty m. His flying craft would thus have jumped. There were no witnesses other than Ader's employees and the same machine, tried before official witnesses in 1891, gives no other results (Ader Clément, From Wikipedia).

The following tests of Ader were carried out at the military camp at Satory, at Versailles, where a circular area of 450 m in diameter had been established for an official demonstration. On October 12, 1897, Ader made a first round on this circuit aboard his Aircraft III (Fig. 7). He felt several times the apparatus leave the ground, then resume contact. Two days later, when the wind was strong, Clement Ader launched his machine before two officials from the War Department who said: "It was easy to see, from the wake of the wheels, that the aircraft had been frequently raised from the rear and that the rear wheel forming the rudder had not been constantly carried on the ground.

The two members of the committee saw him suddenly emerge from the track, describe a half conversion, bow to the side and finally remain motionless (it seems that the wheels no longer have enough grip due to the sustentation, the pilot lost directional control of his machine which then came out of the runway and then reversed under the effect of the wind).

To the question "... does the device tend to rise when it is thrown at a certain speed? "The answer is" ... the demonstration ... was not made in the two experiments that were carried out on the ground". In the face of this failure, the Ministry of War cuts the credits to Ader. It may be concluded that on October 14, 1897, the Frenchman Clément Ader could have carried out the first motorized but uncontrolled takeoff of a heavier than air.

The First Controlled Motorized Flight

After the gliders had developed their gliders between 1900 and 1903, with more than 700 flights in 1902, the Wright brothers experimented with their first plane, the Flyer, in the dunes of Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903. The two brothers fly in their turn; they make four flights, the last being the longest: Orville flies on 284 m for 59 sec. These flights are generally considered the first motorized and controlled flights of a heavier than air. Their critics, especially the supporters of Alberto Santos-Dumont and Gabriel Voisin, blame them for having needed a rail fixed to the ground and a catapult against weight for take-off, the Flyer being devoid of wheels; the low power of the engine also did not allow take-off in low wind. The inventors' desire to protect their invention from the 1905 flight of the Flyer III, the absence of public demonstrations and the low number of witnesses of their flights played a negative role in their publicity. Wright's mastery of the flight technique was later recognized during the various demonstrations that the Wright made in France, notably at Auvours in the Sarthe in 1908.

Historical research reveals that the first motorized flight was carried out by German American engineer Gustav Weißkopf (or Gustave Whitehead) in 1899. The American journalist Stella Randolph published a book on this engineer in 1930: Before the Wrights flew (Before the Wrigths fly) and his work is being confirmed by the historian of aeronautics John Brown.

The First Controlled Autonomous Motorized Flights

Traian Vuia flew to Montesson on 18 March 1906 with a heavier-than air-self-propelled airplane (no launch mechanism) over a distance of about 12 m at an altitude of one m (Fig. 9).

This flight ended in an accident, Vuia resumed its tests that from the month of July after having repaired and modified its apparatus. On 19 August 1906 he flew a distance of 25 m at an altitude of 2.5 m at Issy-les-Moulineaux (Vuia Traian, From Wikipedia).

Traian Vuia (August 17, 1872-September 3, 1950) was a Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer who designed, built and tested a tractor configuration monoplane. He was the first to demonstrate that a flying apparatus could rise into the air by running upon wheels on an ordinary road. He is credited with a powered hop of 11 m (36 feet) made on March 18, 1906 and he later claimed a powered hop of 24 metres (79 feet). Though unsuccessful in sustained flight, Vuia's invention influenced Louis Blériot in designing monoplanes. Later, Vuia also designed helicopters.

By December 1905 Vuia had finished construction of his first airplane, the "Vuia I". This was a highwing monoplane constructed entirely of steel tubing.

The basic framework consisted of a pair of triangular frames, the lower members forming the sides of the rectangular chassis which bore four pneumatic-tyred wheels, the front pair steerable.

The wing was mounted on the apices of these frames and resembled those of Otto Lilienthal's gliders, with a number of curved steel tubes radiating outwards from centres at the apex of each of the side frames, braced by wires attached to a pair of kingposts and covered in varnished linen. Pitch control was achieved by varying the angle of attack of the wing. A trapezoidal rudder was mounted behind and below the wing. It was powered by a carbonic acid gas engine driving a single tractor propeller.

The 25 hp engine had to be adapted by Vuia himself as a suitable engine was not available. Liquid carbon dioxide was vaporized in a Serpollet boiler and fed to a Serpollet engine. The fuel supply was enough for a running time of about five minutes at full power. The aircraft was constructed for Vuia by the Parisian engineering company of Hockenjos and Schmitt.

Vuia chose a site in Montesson, near Paris, for testing. At first he used the machine without the wings mounted so he could gather experience controlling it on the ground. The wings were put on in March and on March 18, 1906, it lifted off briefly. After accelerating for about 50 m (160 ft), the aircraft left the ground and travelled through the air at a height of about 1 m (3 ft 3 in) for a distance of about 12 m (39 ft), but then the engine cut out and it came down.

Caught by the wind it was damaged against a tree. On August 9 a longer hop of 24 m (79 ft) at a height of about 2.5 m (8 ft) was made, ending in a heavy landing which damaged the propeller.

In 1907 Vuia built the Vuia II, using an Antoinette 25 horsepower (19 kilowatts) internal combustion engine. This aircraft had the same basic configuration as the Vuia I-bis, but was both smaller and lighter, with a total weight (including pilot) of 210 kg (460 lb) and a wingspan of 7.9 m (26 ft). Vuia succeeded in making a brief powered hop on July 5, travelling 20 m (66 ft), but damaging the aircraft and suffering slight injuries on landing (Fig. 10).

Between 1918 and 1921 Vuia built two experimental helicopters on the Juvisy and Issy-les-Moulineaux aerodromes (Fig. 11).

On October 30, 1908, Bouy aviation took off from Henri Farman at the wheel of his Voisin for the first inter-city flight. He reached Reims after a 17-min flight and traveled 27 km.

On July 3, 1909, at the Brayelle Airfield near Douai, the first air show in the world took place, Louis Blériot with his monoplane flies 47 km in 1 h 7 (Fig. 12), Louis Paulhan with his biplane beats the record of height with 150 m (Blériot Louis, From Wikipedia).

On July 25, 1909, Louis Blériot crossed the Channel at the controls of his Blériot XI. The event has a great impact. The Daily Mail, organizer of the competition, headlines: "England is no longer an island".

The first autonomous flight of a seaplane was carried out by Henri Fabre, which took off on March 28, 1910 from the Etang de Berre in Martigues, France, with its "Canard" hydro-airplane (Fig. 13). The exploit was recorded by a bailiff (Fabre Henri, From Wikipedia).

The first autonomous flight of a single-engined airplane equipped with a jet engine, designed and piloted by the Romanian engineer Henri Coand and built in the body shop of Joachim Caproni, took place in October 1910 (Fig. 14) at the Second International Motor Show And air space at Paris-Le Bourget.

Results

 The air was sucked in at the front by a compressor and then directed to a combustion chamber (one on each side, at the front of the aircraft) which provided the thrust. The compressor was driven by a conventional piston engine and not by a turbine as in modern reactors (Coand-1910, From Wikipedia).

The Coand-1910, designed by Romanian inventor Henri Coand, was an unconventional sesquiplane aircraft powered by a ducted fan. Called the "turbopropulseur" by Coand, its experimental engine consisted of a conventional piston engine driving a multi-bladed centrifugal blower which exhausted into a duct. The unusual aircraft attracted attention at the Second International Aeronautical Exhibition in Paris in October 1910, being the only exhibit without a propeller, but the aircraft was not displayed afterwards and it fell from public awareness. Coand used a similar turbo-propulseur to drive a snow sledge, but he did not develop it further for aircraft.

Discussion

In the years leading up to the First World War, growing tensions in Europe prompted governments to take an interest in aviation as a weapon of war. Hence the organization by France of the famous competition of military airplanes in Reims (October and November 1911), the first competition of this type in the history of aviation world. The various manufacturers, especially French and British, are racing against the clock to try to get orders for export.

Léopold Trescartes, holder of the civilian certificate of the Aeroclub of France No. 842 issued on April 16, 1912, carried out the first flight over Porto (Portugal) on September 7, 1912 aboard a biplane manufactured by Maurice Farman. This plane, officially bought by a newspaper in Porto and whose exhibitions are used by the general public to finance the construction of a crèche, is in reality a model designed to convince the Portuguese government to buy French aircraft under the Of the creation of an air force. After numerous demonstrations, in the presence of the Portuguese Minister of War, the choice of the Portuguese authorities will ultimately be on a British aircraft of Avro brand.

Pioneer aircraft and pilots (volunteers detached from other units that kept their original uniform, especially recruited from the cavalry) are requisitioned for reconnaissance missions. Targets of both camps on the ground, they are decimated. The great nations quickly acquire a military aviation where the aircraft specialize: Reconnaissance, hunters, bombers.

A race to record is engaged to take the advantage over the enemy, the armament being improved with the appearance of the first synchronized machine guns. The parachute makes its appearance, but is only used by pilots of dirigibles, the planes flying too low for it to be effective. On the ground, aerodromes are built and the airplane is manufactured in series.

On October 5, 1914, near Reims, the first air combat in the world history of military aviation took place over the junction of the communes of Joncherysur-Vesle, Prouilly and Muizon. A plane shot down. The fight is won by the pilot Joseph Frantz and the mechanic Louis Quenault of the squadron V 24 on Voisin, against the Oberleutnant Fritz von Zagen on a German Aviatik. As a result, aerial duels multiply. If the first combats are very rare and dangerous (rifles on board, which require extreme dexterity), the development of synchronized machine guns (following the shielded propellers on the passage of bullets, invention of the French aviator Roland Garros) Battles (Notably because this device made it possible to fire the bullets of a machine gun through the propellers of the planes). Contrary to the horror of the trenches (mud, constant bombardments ...) air war is seen as a clean war (if at all possible). In the representations of pilots as well as of civilians and infantry, who follow the war of heaven with diligence, aviation possesses a noble and chivalrous side; Guynemer refused to kill Ernst Udet because his machine gun had stopped. There is a great competition between the "Aces", both between enemies and within the same camp.

The great figures of this period are the French Guynemer and René Fonck (the largest French Ace and war according to the method of calculation), as well as the Germans Manfred von Richthofen (nicknamed The Red Baron) and Ernst Udet.

On the evening of June 10, 1916, the first naval battle of history took place in Equatorial Africa! A British-built Netta-type seaplane, piloted by Belgian lieutenants Behaeghe and Collignon, successfully bombarded the German gunboat Graf von Götzen in the port of Kigoma (now Tanzania) on Lake Tanganyika using one of its two 65-pounder bombs which hit him to the quarter-deck putting his governor out of state. The ship is thus neutralized which breaks the German lock on the lake, between the Belgian Congo and the German East Africa which had been set up two years earlier. The German gunners could not retaliate against this air attack because their artillery pieces, intended for coastal or naval targets (we were only at the beginning of the aviation), did not rise at a sufficient angle to threaten aircraft (considered by the Germans as non-existent in Equatorial Africa). The seaplane rejoined its base nevertheless with 20 attacks of machine-gun bullets fired from Kigoma and a pierced float.

Conclusions

The history of aviation can be divided into six periods.

The epoch of the precursors: Until the beginning of the seventeenth century men imagined-more or less realistically-what a flying machine could be. Then from the end of the eighteenth century, this period saw the beginning of the conquest of the air with the development of aerostation and numerous attempts of gliding.

The pioneers of the heaviest air: It is the period of the first flights of motor vehicles capable of taking off on their own. Almost every flight is a first or record attempt: A little faster, a little farther, a little higher. Aviators are most often designers or adventurers.

The First World War: only a few years after the first flight, this period saw the emergence of a new weapon on the battlefield. There is an abrupt shift to mass production, with some aircraft models even being built to more than a thousand; the pilots become "professionals", even if the perfume of adventure has not completely disappeared.

The end of the First World War put on the market a surplus of pilots and aircraft which enabled the launch of commercial air transport and, in the first place, that of mail. Aviation develops and there is the creation of an air force in many countries. Military aviation drives builders to break new records. Advances in civil aviation are a spin-off from military studies (Petrescu and Petrescu, 2011; 2012; 2013a; 2013b; 2013c).

The Second World War: Aviation is widely used on the battlefield. This period can be considered the climax of planes using a piston engine and a propeller as a propulsion means. The end of the war saw the birth of the jet engine and the radar.

The second half of the twentieth century: Once again, the end of the war put on the market a surplus of aircraft and pilots. This is the beginning of the regular commercial air transport "all-weather" able to free itself from weather conditions and to practice the flight without visibility. Military aeronautics drives the development of the reactor, this is called the era of the jet and then sets out to conquer the supersonic flight. Civilian spin-offs allow the development of the first four-jet airliners and air transport is open to all, at least in developed countries (Crickmore, 1997; Donald, 2003; Goodall, 2003; Graham, 2002; Jenkins, 2001; Landis and Jenkins, 2005).

The Wright Flyer (1903) is widely regarded as the first aircraft capable of performing a controlled and controlled flight.

Traian Vuia flew to Montesson on 18 March 1906 with a heavier-than air-self-propelled airplane (no launch mechanism) over a distance of about 12 m at an altitude of one m.

The first autonomous flight of a single-engined airplane equipped with a jet engine, designed and piloted by the Romanian engineer Henri Coand and built in the body shop of Joachim Caproni, took place in October 1910 (Fig. 13) at the Second International Motor Show And air space at Paris-Le Bourget: The air was sucked in at the front by a compressor and then directed to a combustion chamber (one on each side, at the front of the aircraft) which provided the thrust. The compressor was driven by a conventional piston engine and not by a turbine as in modern reactors.

British company Reaction Engines Limited (REL), using SABRE, a combined-cycle, air-breathing rocket propulsion system, potentially reusable for 200 flights.

References

Ader Clément, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cl%C3%A9ment_Ader

Aversa, R.; Parcesepe, D.; Petrescu, R.V.; Chen, G.; Petrescu, F.I.T.; Tamburrino, F.; Apicella, A. 2016a Glassy Amorphous Metal Injection Molded Induced Morphological Defects, Am. J. Applied Sci. 13(12):1476-1482.

Aversa, R.; Petrescu, R.V.; Petrescu, F.I.T.; Apicella, A.; 2016b Smart-Factory: Optimization and Process Control of Composite Centrifuged Pipes, Am. J. Applied Sci. 13(11):1330-1341.

Aversa, R.; Tamburrino, F.; Petrescu, R.V.; Petrescu, F.I.T.; Artur, M.; Chen, G.; Apicella, A.; 2016c Biomechanically Inspired Shape Memory Effect Machines Driven by Muscle like Acting NiTi Alloys, Am. J. Applied Sci. 13(11):1264-1271.

Aversa, R.; Petrescu, R.V.; Sorrentino, R.; Petrescu, F.I.T.; Apicella, A.; 2016d Hybrid Ceramo-Polymeric Nanocomposite for Biomimetic Scaffolds Design and Preparation, Am. J. of Eng. and Applied Sci. 9(4):1096-1105.

Aversa, R.; Perrotta, V.; Petrescu, R.V.; Misiano, C.; Petrescu, F.I.T.; Apicella, A.; 2016e From Structural Colors to Super-Hydrophobicity and Achromatic Transparent Protective Coatings: Ion Plating Plasma Assisted TiO2 and SiO2 Nano-Film Deposition, Am. J. of Eng. and Applied Sci. 9(4):1037-1045.

Aversa, R.; Petrescu, R.V.; Petrescu, F.I.T.; Apicella, A.; 2016f Biomimetic and Evolutionary Design Driven Innovation in Sustainable Products Development, Am. J. of Eng. and Applied Sci. 9(4):1027-1036.

Blériot Louis, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Bl%C3%A9riot

Le Bris Jean-Marie, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Le_Bris

Cayley George, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley

Coand-1910, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coand%C4%83-1910

Crickmore, P.F., 1997. Lockheed's blackbirds -A-12, YF-12 and SR-71A". Wings Fame, 8: 30-93.

Donald, D., 2003.  Lockheed's Blackbirds: A-12, YF-12 and SR-71. 1st Edn., AIRtime, Black Jets.

Fabre Henri, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fabre

Goodall, J., 2003. Lockheed's SR-71 ‘Blackbird’ Family. 1st Edn., Aerofax/Midland Publishing, Hinckley, UK.

Graham, R.H., 2002. SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales and Legends. 1st Edn., Zenith Imprint, North Branch, ISBN-10: 1610607503.

SNASM, 1899. Inventing a flying machine. SNASM. Retrieved from: https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/fly/

Jenkins, D.R., 2001. Lockheed Secret Projects: Inside the Skunk Works. 1st Edn., MBI Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Landis, T.R. and D.R. Jenkins, 2005. Lockheed Blackbirds. 1st Edn., Specialty Press, North Branch, ISBN-10: 580070868, pp: 104.

LDVFM, 2008 Leonardo da Vinci flying machine. Retrieved from: http://www.da-vinci-inventions.com/flying-machine.aspx

Lilienthal, Otto, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Lilienthal

Mirsayar, M.M., Joneidi, V.A., Petrescu, R.V.V., Petrescu, F.I.T., Berto, F., 2017 Extended MTSN criterion for fracture analysis of soda lime glass, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 178:50–59, ISSN: 0013-7944, http://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2017.04.018

Montgolfier Brothers, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers

Petrescu, R.V. and F.I. Petrescu, 2013a. Lockheed Martin. 1st Edn., BoD-Books on Demand, CreateSpace, ISBN-10: 3848260530, pp: 114.

Petrescu, R.V. and F.I. Petrescu, 2013b. Northrop. 1st Edn., CreateSpace, pp: 96.

Petrescu, R.V. and F.I. Petrescu, 2013c. The Aviation History or New Aircraft I Color. 1st Edn., CreateSpace, pp: 292.

Petrescu, F.I. and R.V. Petrescu, 2012. New Aircraft II. 1st Edn., Books On Demand, pp: 138.

Petrescu, F.I. and R.V. Petrescu, 2011. Memories About Flight. 1st Edn., CreateSpace, pp: 652.

Petrescu, Relly Victoria; Aversa, Raffaella; Akash, Bilal; Bucinell, Ronald; Corchado, Juan; Berto, Filippo; Mirsayar, MirMilad; Apicella, Antonio; Petrescu, Florian Ion Tiberiu; 2017a Modern Propulsions for Aerospace-A Review, Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, 1(1).

Petrescu, Relly Victoria; Aversa, Raffaella; Akash, Bilal; Bucinell, Ronald; Corchado, Juan; Berto, Filippo; Mirsayar, MirMilad; Apicella, Antonio; Petrescu, Florian Ion Tiberiu; 2017b Modern Propulsions for Aerospace-Part II, Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, 1(1).

Petrescu, Relly Victoria; Aversa, Raffaella; Akash, Bilal; Bucinell, Ronald; Corchado, Juan; Berto, Filippo; Mirsayar, MirMilad; Apicella, Antonio; Petrescu, Florian Ion Tiberiu; 2017c History of Aviation-A Short Review, Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, 1(1).

Robert Hooke, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hooke

Vuia Traian, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traian_Vuia

Wenham Francis Herbert, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Herbert_Wenham

Wright Flyer, From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer

See all the article (with figures) at: http://thescipub.com/journals/jast