The world's first aircraft. Aircraft. History of invention. Conquering the airspace in ancient China

Balloons and airships

The first flying vehicles for humans were balloons, gliders and airships. In the XX century, the development of aircraft with engines occurred at a phenomenal speed. During its first flight in 1903, Orville Wright's plane covered a distance not exceeding the wingspan of the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, which first flew in 1969. The temptation to think that the history of flying began with the Wright brothers (USA) is great, but in reality, man first took to the air a century before Orville and Wilber Wright switched their attention from bicycles to airplanes.

In 1783, exactly 120 years before the famous flight of the Wright brothers, the Frenchman Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier became the first person to take off. For this purpose, he used a tethered hot-air balloon designed by his compatriots Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. The following month, Rosier and the Marquis d'Arland (France) made their first free flight, again in a hot air balloon.

The first prototype of the helicopter

Just a year after experimenting with balloons, two Frenchmen, Lonois and Bienvenue, created the first prototype of a helicopter, which became the first heavier-than-air vehicle to take off. But only half a century later, it was possible to build an apparatus heavier than air, capable of lifting a person: in 1849 Sir George Cayley (England) designed a glider with three wings, which lifted a ten-year-old boy into the air, thus making the first ever flight in a heavier-than-air apparatus.

Henri Giffard

This achievement was soon followed by the first manned flight. It was made in 1852 by Henri Giffard (France) in his airship with a steam engine. A year later, Kayleigh created the first glider capable of lifting an adult, the coachman Kayleigh took part in the tests, who immediately after the flight demanded a calculation, allegedly saying: "I was hired to drive horses, not fly."

Free flight and controlled flight took place by the middle of the 19th century, and Kayleigh, who is often called the "father of aircraft construction", proved that flying with a heavier-than-air device was possible, but controlled flight of a heavier-than-air device remained an unattainable goal.

French aviator Clement Ader

French aviator Clement Ader made the first take-off on a vehicle with a heavier-than-air engine back in 1890, but was never able to switch to controlled flight. In 1901, the Connecticut newspaper Bridgeport de Herold, USA, reported that Gustav Whitehead (Weisskopf, Germany-USA) made the first long-term controlled flight in a vehicle with a heavier-than-air engine, but this statement was not supported by anything and did not receive official recognition ... Another unsubstantiated announcement of the same kind was made by Richard Pearce (New Zealand), claiming that in March 1903 he made the first flight in an airplane.

But be that as it may, the first documented, confirmed, controlled, perfect in the presence of an engine, sufficiently long and stable was the flight of an apparatus heavier than air, which lasted 12 seconds in the air and covered a distance of 36 m. This is the flight of Orville Wright on the Wright Flyer glider »In Kill Devil Hills, faithful Carolina, USA. It took place at 10:35 am on December 17, 1903.

Dmitry Demyanov, Samogo.Net (

Flights in the sky with the help of a special device were thought of by Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century, but the first flight was officially registered at the beginning of the last century. Fierce disputes are still going on about who we owe the possibility of air travel, but the fact remains - the first flight was officially registered in 1903. The very first aircraft 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 Ser George Cayley seriously took up this issue and published several scientific papers, in which he detailed the principle of construction and functioning of a prototype of a modern aircraft.

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

In his first sketches, Kayleigh imagined the plane as a boat with a tail unit at one end and a pair of oars at the bow. The structure had to be set in motion with the help of oars, which would transfer rotation to the cruciform shank at the end of the vessel. Thus, Kayleigh accurately portrayed 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.

Another English inventor, William Henson, became the pioneer of aviation in its modern sense. It was he who received an order for the development of an aircraft project in 1842.

Henson's proposed "steam air crew" project described all the main elements of a propeller-driven aircraft. The inventor proposed using an air propeller as a device that moves the entire structure. Many of the ideas proposed by Henson were subsequently developed and applied to early aircraft models.

Russian inventor N.A. Teleshov patented a project for the construction of an "aeronautical system". The aircraft concept 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 suggest 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 plane

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 credited 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, personally built and tested the world's first prototype of an airship in 1901. It was then that it was proved that controlled flights are indeed possible.

According to another version, the primacy in the invention of the first working aircraft should be assigned to the Russian inventor A.F. Mozhaisky, whose name will forever remain in the history of aviation. Thus, the controversy about who invented and who created the plane is still ongoing.

Interesting! Despite the fact that the official invention of the aircraft is awarded to the Wright brothers, all Brazilians are confident that the world's first aircraft was invented by Santos-Dumont. 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 weren't the first to invent the airplane. Moreover, the first uncontrollable flight of a person 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 were the first to carry out controlled flight in 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 racked their brains over the possibility of installing more powerful engines to lift the aircraft into the air, the brothers focused on the issues of the possibility of controlling the aircraft. The result was a series of wind tunnel experiments that served as the basis for the development of airplane wings and propellers.

The first engine-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 "Flyer-1" was made by mechanic Charlie Taylor, the design feature was the low weight. For this, the mechanic used duralumin, also called duralumin.

The first successful flight took place on December 17, 1903. The plane climbed several 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 14 bis

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

In 1906, his plane, named "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 aircraft, setting the first record for longest flight as a result.

The peculiarity of the "14-bis" was that the structure was able to take off on its own. The Wright brothers failed to achieve this, and their plane took off with assistance. 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 took up seriously the development of the monoplane, as a result the world saw the "Demoiselle".

Alberto Santos-Dumont never stopped on his laurels and did not keep his inventions a secret. The inventor willingly shared the designs of his aircraft with thematic publications.

Mozhaisky's aircraft

The scientist submitted the project of his aircraft for consideration back in 1876. Mozhaisky was confronted with a lack of understanding by officials of the War Ministry, as a result, he was not allocated funds to continue research.

Despite this, the scientist continued to develop, investing own funds, because of which the construction of the prototype of the Mozhaisky plane was delayed 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 nevertheless rose some distance from the ground before it crashed.

Since there is no documentary evidence of the flight, Mozhaisky cannot be considered the first person to fly on an airplane. However, the scientist's developments served as the basis for the development of aviation.

So who was the first

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

It is inappropriate to compare the contributions of the Wright brothers, Santos-Dumont and Mozhaisky to the development of aviation. Despite the fact that the first Mozhaisky plane was built 20 years before the first controlled flight, the inventor used a different construction principle, so it is impossible to compare his plane 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 off on its own.

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

There is no point in arguing which of these scientists was 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 a prototype of a modern airliner.

First military aircraft

Prototypes of the Wright Brothers Flyer 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 also initially 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 Kiev, 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 a while.

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

The history of the development of jet aircraft

The first idea of ​​a jet was proposed by the Russian inventor Teleshov. An attempt to replace the propeller with a piston engine was made in 1910 by the Romanian designer 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 prototype of a jet plane was able to develop high speed climb - more than 60 meters in one second of flight.

Due to design errors, the jet plane 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 entered mass production.

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

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

Video

Thus, jet aircraft appeared in the midst of World War II. On their account serious military victories, however, 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 undergo full-fledged training in controlling a fundamentally new aircraft. It took only 30 years from the moment of the first successful flight to the advent of jet aircraft, during which there was a great breakthrough in aviation.

Even in ancient times, people dreamed of taking off and learning to fly like birds. History has brought to us a lot of evidence of attempts by various people to make wings and fly. So, in 1020, the English monk Aylmer of Malmesbury, inspired by the Greek myth of Icarus, made artificial wings and jumped from the tower of the local abbey. Having flown a short distance, upon landing, the monk broke his legs and wanted, improving the design and adding a tail, to repeat the flight, but the abbot forbade him to do so. Most of the "inventors" ended up much worse - they crashed to death. And yet - what is the history of flying machines and when did the first successful devices appear that allowed people to take off?

The history of flights begins in ancient China. Back in the 3-4 centuries BC. NS. the Chinese invented the kite. Initially, this device was used to entertain the people at all sorts of holidays.

chinese dragon kite

However, kites soon found other uses. For example, fishermen began to use kites to catch fish, tying bait to them, kites were used to exchange signals over long distances, they even delivered messages and scattered leaflets with their help. Of course, the Chinese were also visited by the idea that a large kite can lift a person into the air. Flying in a kite was quite risky, but history has preserved evidence of successful flights. The first written mention of such a flight that has come down to us dates back to 559. This year, the brutal Emperor Qi Wenxuandi ordered his political opponents, who were sentenced to death, to be launched on large kites. One of them managed to fly several kilometers and land safely outside the city.

It is surprising that thousands of years passed before hang gliding, that is, in fact, the same simple aircraft without an engine, like the Chinese kite, became popular and widespread. One of the enthusiasts of such flights was Otto Lilienthal, who made the late 19th century. more than 2000 successful flights on gliders of our own design. He used the same materials as the Chinese - wooden rods and silk.

photo - Lilienthal's flights

Unfortunately, one of the flights ended in an accident - a gust of wind overturned the glider and Lilienthal fell, breaking her spine. “The victims are inevitable,” he said about this. And the modern history of hang gliding began only in the 70s of the 20th century. The date of birth of the modern hang glider is 1971.

Before the advent of airplanes and helicopters, the most in a simple way to make a flight was the use of aircraft lighter than air - balloons and airships. Interestingly, history here again leads us to China. Probably back in the 3rd century. BC NS. in China, air lanterns were invented. This flashlight is a simple rice paper construction with a small burner inside.

chinese air lanterns

The Chinese used air lanterns in ceremonies and as a means of signaling. Thousands of years passed before people began to fly in hot air balloons.

The Montgolfier brothers from France are considered the inventors of the balloon. The brothers were not quite guided the right ideas- they came up with the idea to make an analogue of a cloud and place it in a bag so that it could lift this bag into the air. To this end, they filled their balls with smoke from burning a mixture of straw and wet wool. However, their approach was successful. First, the brothers experimented with small balloons at home, and then staged a large balloon demonstration for the residents of their city of Annone. This happened on June 4, 1783. Soon they learned about the balloon in Paris, and in the fall of the same year, the Montgolfier brothers launched their balloons already in Versailles. For the first time, they decided to launch passengers in a balloon - they were a sheep, a duck and a rooster. Finally, making sure that a balloon flight would not harm a person, on October 19, 1783, people made the first balloon flight.

first hot air balloon flight

Balloons had a significant drawback - their flight depended on the direction of the wind, therefore, during the 19th century. attempts to create a controlled aircraft with an engine did not stop. We tried both options with the installation of the engine on a balloon, and with the installation of the engine on the airframe. But despite the fact that the idea of ​​controlled flight was expressed shortly after the flight of the first balloon, it took more than a hundred years before controlled flight became a reality. Only in 1884, the French Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs were able to build an airship that could move freely in any direction. Their airship was elongated and powered by a battery-powered electric motor.

airship of Renard and Krebs

Attempts to put the engine on a glider and thus invent an airplane did not lead to much success for a long time. Among such attempts was, for example, Mozhaisky's plane. Mozhaisky, Rear Admiral of the Russian Navy, began to invent the plane back in the 50s of the 19th century. Starting with gliders that lifted harnessed horses into the air, Mozhaisky moved on to designing an aircraft with an engine. Unfortunately, steam engines, with which he tried to equip the plane, were too heavy, and could not keep it in the air, although there is evidence that Mozhaisky's plane was able to take off for a short time.

Mozhaisky's plane (model)

Mozhaisky spent all his money on inventive activity, sold the estate and eventually died of illness in poverty. The then Russian officials were not interested in Mozhaisky's ideas and did not finance his work; as a result, the Americans, the Wright brothers, became the generally recognized inventors of the aircraft. They made their first confirmed flight in 1903, 13 years after Mozhaisky's death.

The first documented flight of an aircraft designed by the Wright brothers took place on December 17, 1903. At the same time, the plane was launched using a rail catapult, and the distance that it flew was only 30 meters.

the first flight of the Wright brothers

The Wright brothers invented not only the aircraft itself, but also a light gasoline engine for it, which became a real breakthrough in aircraft construction. Nevertheless, time has passed from the first flight to the active development of aviation. The following year, the Wright brothers, in the presence of journalists, could not repeat their success, the plane went to the hangar, and the inventors began to design a new, more perfect model. The US military was in no hurry to conclude a contract with the Wright brothers, doubting the ability of bicycle mechanics (this was the specialty of the inventors) to design something worthwhile. In Europe, the reports of the Wright brothers' flights were generally considered a lie. Only in 1908, after impressive demonstration flights conducted by inventors both in the United States and in Europe, the opinion changed, and the Wright brothers became not only famous, but also rich.

In 1909 g. Russian government finally realized the importance of inventions in the field of aviation. It refused to buy the Wright brothers' plane and decided to create its own plane on its own. The first Russian airplane was built and flown by Professor Alexander Kudashev in 1910.

Since ancient times, people, watching the rapid flight of birds, also dreamed of conquering the sky. To this end, they worked tirelessly to make their dream come true - the creation of the first aircraft. Today, it is rather difficult to say exactly who invented the plane. Many scientists of the past centuries were involved in this. These include, for example, the well-known artist Leonardo da Vinci, who back in the 15th century presented drawings of flying vehicles (balloons, helicopters, airplanes, etc.) developed with his own hand.

The creation of the first aircraft in the world would have been impossible without the attempts to conquer the skies by the American scientist and engineer George Kayley. He was seriously involved in the development of aircraft such as gliders. His compatriot John Montgomery managed to achieve even greater success in this area. In 1883, he created the world's first controlled glider. A year earlier, the first domestic aircraft, designed thanks to the efforts of Rear Admiral A.F. Mozhaisky. And although his flight can hardly be called ideal, since the mechanic was injured during the landing, nevertheless, he made a considerable contribution to the development of aviation history.

December 17, 1903 is a memorable date when the first aircraft was created. Two brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, managed to do this. They flew their very first personal aircraft, the Flyer 1. This aircraft stayed in the air for about 59 seconds and flew 260 meters over the Kitty Hawk Valley. This fact is recognized by most of the world community. However, there are those who question him. The last championship in this issue they are given to the Brazilian designer Santos-Dumont, whose plane took off on its own on October 23, 1906.

The name of the famous Ukrainian scientist I.I. Sikorsky is also associated with aviation. He became famous all over the world as the creator of the C-2 aircraft, which won a lot of prizes. The year of the creation of this aircraft is 1910, and two years later its analogue, improved in terms of aerodynamic parameters, appeared - the C-6 aircraft. In addition, the scientist paid considerable attention to the creation of fighters for military aviation, such as the Grand (Russian Knight) and Ilya Muromets. I.I. Sikorsky is known not only as a creator of airplanes, but also as a pilot. He set a lot of world records for the speed of flights.


Today it is difficult to imagine what the first aircraft was, it naturally differed in many respects from modern models. However, even then, more than two centuries ago, mankind still managed to conquer the sky.

The invention of aircraft

It was not easy being the inventor of flying machines. The same work had to be done several times. Aircraft did not want to fly, fell, broke, crashed. And I had to start all over again.

Without such early aviation pioneers and romantics as Clement Ader, Alexander Mozhaisky, Gustav Whitehead and the Wright brothers, we won't see flying machines. Let not all early aviation inventors have flying machines, but all their attempts gave a great impetus to the development of aviation.


Invention by Gustav Whitehead
Wright brothers
The Wright Brothers Invention

The Wright brothers were among the first to understand that the aircraft should not float uncontrollably in the air, but it must be controlled. Their merits are now topics of debate whether they were the first innovators of the idea of ​​using a rudder and engine on a glider or not. But in any case, regardless of the outcome of the controversy, the Wright brothers implemented the engine and steering wheel on their glider.

In 1856, Jean-Marie Le Brice launched his glider into the air. In order for the glider to rise as high as possible into the air, it was accelerated by horses, according to the principle of a kite.


Jean-Marie Le Brice and his designs

But before you is the invention of the previously mentioned Clement Ader, his invention Avion III in 1897 rose to a height of more than 9 meters and is still a topic of debate.


Avion III Avion III

At the same time, Gustav Whitehead and Paul Butusov worked on their inventions. Oddly enough, their inventions were also similar to each other.


Left: Gustave Whitehead model 1901; Right: Invention by William Paul Butusov.

Alphonse Penot, a French inventor and pioneer of aviation, in 1876 designed an aircraft with a closed cockpit, retractable landing gear and working wing skin. Unfortunately, the project was never implemented.


Alphonse Penot and his plane

Now let's talk about the famous aircraft designer Gianni Caproni. Caproni once made a great contribution to the development of aviation. Caproni was the founder modern methods In his entire life, he has designed more than 100 types of aircraft - mostly heavy bombers.

But despite this, I always wanted his planes to carry good, and not war. In the picture below, just a peaceful Caproni aircraft designed in 1921. The fuselage was a boat, and on the sides of it there were 9 wings, 9 engines and the weight of this colossus was about 24 tons. The plane flew once.


Airplane Caproni

Samuel Pierpont Langley not only designed the aircraft, but also built a full-size airfield on a boat, so that it would be convenient to take off directly from the water.


Invention by Samuel Pierpont Langley.

Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896) - German engineer and first explorer pilot and one of the most famous aviation pioneers. During his short life he designed, built and tested eleven aircraft. Unfortunately, during one of the tests of the glider, Otto died. Before his death, he managed to say - "Victims are inevitable."


Otto Lilienthal and his invention

Here's another of the romantics of aviation - Samuel Franklin Cody. Cody learned the secret of kites by befriending a Chinese chef.

Over time, he learned to make large kites and even fly them. In the late 1890s, Cody created an aircraft based on a box kite that could lift a person into the air. In 1902, Cody patented such an extravagant aircraft.

And at the turn of the century, Cody crossed the English Channel in his aircraft, although he was towed all the way by boat.

George R. White and Canadian inventor Doug Frebe continued to build bird-wing aircraft in the 1930s.

Russian aircraft.

In conclusion, I will tell you a little about the Russian aircraft designer Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky. In 1884, in the fall, at a military training ground in Krasnoe Selo, his plane took off from the ground during the next test, but immediately after takeoff, he banked on its side and broke its wing. It was a historic event, because a plane with a man on board was able to get off the ground for the first time. For comparison: the Wright brothers made their first flight by plane only in 1903. So for Mozhaisky it was big victory and he also obtained proof that an apparatus heavier than air could take off.

Mozhaisky A.F.

Quote: “Whatever random circumstances favored the first take-off, no matter how it ended, A.F. Mozhaisky was the world's first life-size aircraft, tested and separated from the ground with a man on board. According to the scheme, it was more perfect than all the projects that preceded it and all the aircraft built both in Russia and abroad until 1907. It contained all six main structural groups that make up a modern aircraft: hull, wing, empennage, landing gear, control and power point» (VB Shavrov "History of aircraft designs in the USSR until 1938", M. "Mechanical engineering" 1978)

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Barbara

Creativity, work on modern idea world outlook and constant search for answers

 

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