When 1 plane was invented. The invention of aircraft. Russian aircraft

Despite the fact that the great Leonardo da Vinci back in 1483 designed the first aircraft, people were able to climb into the sky only three centuries later. And it all began with balloons driven by the wind.

The first experience of aeronautics

The Montgolfier brothers, together with the pilot Jean-Francos, ushered in a new era in the conquest of the elements of air. Their prototype balloon was not much different from modern models: the flight was possible due to the temperature difference between the warm gas in the spherical sphere and the cold air outside. The successful experience was recorded in 1783.

Subsequently, repeated attempts were made to install the engine in the balloon nacelle so as not to depend solely on the wind. But it was only in 1901 that the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont managed to fly a cigar-shaped device over the outskirts of Paris with the help of a gasoline engine. The flight distance at that time was only 11 km.

And in 1914, the German Hans Berliner was able to fly from Berlin to the Urals. Gradually, the idea of balloons was supplanted by bulky airships, capable of lifting many people on board. Huge ships were able to cross the oceans and even fly around the Earth. In particular, as did the airship "Graf Zeppelin" in 1929. Later, these flying structures found their application in military aviation.

Parachute prototype development

Personal safety equipment in the air has its own characteristics. The fabric dome, which was invented almost at the same time as the balloon, in 1783, successfully copes with the task of making the descent smoother. So, Louis Sebastian Lenormand used ordinary beach umbrellas to demonstrate the possibilities of the dome design. True, he only jumped from a tall tree.

Already in 1802, another Frenchman Andre-Jacques Garnerin conquered the height of 2400 m. In the middle of the 20th century, the Parachuting Federation was created, which gave impetus to the development of popular entertainment.

The appearance of the first helicopter

Modern helicopters are equipped with two propellers, powerful enough to lift several people or a large group of people. However, this was not possible at all times. In 1784, the French J. Bienvenue and B. Longois were able to build a helicopter, and after more than half a century, the Englishman Keiley even managed to raise the device a full meter above the ground. At the beginning of the 20th century, the helicopter rose to a height of two hundred meters, but was still uncontrollable and was tied to the ground with cables. And only at the end of the 30s it turned out to make a vertical flight with the help of blades.

The distinguished Russian-American aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky, who was previously engaged in aircraft construction. Sikorsky built two helicopters in the Russian Empire - in 1908 and 1909. The helicopter took off, but was not strong enough to lift the pilot.

Glider aerodynamics

Free planning on the waves of air currents became a reality after the development of the German Otto Lilienthal, who lived in the second half of the 19th century. However, the "glider" invented by him led to the death of its creator. Read about inventions that killed their developers on our website. It was only in 1896 that American inventors modified the tail section of the vehicle and built an easily controllable glider. And already starting from the 30s of the XX century, these individual gliders were introduced into mass production.

At first, they were used in the war, when it was necessary to break through to their own through an ambush. Modern technologies allowed to significantly improve the aerodynamic component of gliders, thanks to which their use turned into separate species tourist sports.

When the kite became an airplane

It was these "naive" aircraft that the Wright brothers first hunted. But as history has shown, this hobby was a foreshadowing of the invention of real aircraft. In 1903, the internal combustion engine in the engine of the Flyer airplane reached a flight speed of 3 m / s. A few more decades, and this achievement will be surpassed many times over, and airplanes will become by air number 1. In this case, the aircraft will lose its propeller and become reactive. Since it is jet thrust that makes it possible to reach speeds of over 700 km / h. The first such engine is the legendary Junkers, produced by German developers from BMW in 1938.

A little later, the technology will be used by all the advanced countries of the world. At the moment, the development of technical progress has led to the fact that in 2004 NASA has designed so far unmanned vehicle, capable of developing a speed of 3 km / s. Thus, the appearance of passenger rocket planes can be expected soon.

The heaviest plane in the world

If we talk about modern aircraft construction in Russia, then it is necessary to start from the distant 1910, when the “Russia-A” biplane, designed on the basis of the French design, was first produced. A few years later, the name of Jan Nagursky will become loud: it is he who should be considered the ancestor of the most complex Arctic aviation.

Of the most notorious accomplishments of domestic aviation, the grandiose achievement of the Soviet Antonov plant should be noted. It was here in the late 1980s that the largest passenger aircraft, the Mriya (translated from Ukrainian - “dream”), was designed. The payload capacity of this colossal super-heavy aircraft has yet to be surpassed by any aircraft. The creation of a heavyweight aircraft was associated with the development of a great power's space program.

The largest and heaviest aircraft in the world - "Mriya"

People by nature do not have their own wings, but there is much more - the ability to dream and make their dreams come true. We invite you to find out about the fastest airplanes in the history of mankind.
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How the idea of human flight was born and developed

Age: 14 years old

Place of study: KGOAU "School of Cosmonautics"

City, region: Krasnoyarsk Territory, Zheleznogorsk

Manager (full name, place of work): Malyugin Igor Viktorovich, head of the Research Laboratory "Planetarium" KGOAU "School of Cosmonautics"

Historical research work "HOW BORN AND DEVELOPED THE IDEA OF HUMAN FLIGHT"

Plan

Introduction
Main part

Flights in myths and legends

The myth of Daedalus and Icarus

Aircraft of the Aryans

Nazca Lines

Flight in the myths and legends of Ancient Egypt

Flight in the myths and legends of Russia

Flight in myths and legends Ancient rome and medieval Italy

Flight in fairy tales, myths and legends of other peoples

The first flights of man

Ancient Greece

The conquest of airspace in ancient China

- "Flights from the bell towers"

Leonardo da Vinci

I would like to go to the sky ...

First parachute

Balloons

The Montgolfier brothers

Balloons by other inventors

First parachute jump
Airships

Meunier airship

Airship Giffard

Airship Dupree de Lum

Airship G enlein

Reinar and Krebs airship

Airships in Russia

Iron birds
Hang gliders
Space exploration

Early history (before 1945)

Space flights

Human space flights

Conclusion
Sources of information

Introduction

Since ancient times, people have dreamed of flying, of conquering airspace. They looked at the birds, and they wanted to soar in the sky the same way. This became the idea for the appearance of balloons, airplanes. Only after the invention, the person realized that in this way it is still possible to move quickly.

Main part

Flights in myths and legends

The myth of Daedalus and Icarus

The myth tells of the great Greek sculptor Daedalus, who decided to flee from King Minos to his homeland and made two pairs of wings from bird feathers - for himself and for his son Icarus. The day came when they managed to fly away, but intoxicated by the flight, Icarus forgot his father's instructions and rushed up to the sun, which melted the wax that held the feathers together. The wings crumbled, and Icarus fell into the waves of the Aegean Sea.

The history of the creation of the first aircraft heavier than air began with the study of the bearing properties of a wing covered with feathers, based on the observation of a gliding flight of birds. Both in distant and close to us times, people received "keys to the sky" from birds. At first they copied the "technique of nature", then, taking off the ground, they mastered the laws of soaring.

Aircraft of the Aryans

In the ancient Indian epic "Mahabharata", "Ramayana" and other texts in Sanskrit, flying machines are mentioned countless times - vimanas, a ray weapon, which now has no analogues in humanity - "divine lightning".

The Mahabharata reports that the four-wheeled vimana of Mayasura was twelve cubits in length and was used by the king to throw flaming projectiles. When, during Krishna's pursuit of his rival, the latter's chariot became invisible to sight, Krishna nevertheless struck the rival, determining the trajectory of the vimaana by sound

Nazca Lines

Nobody knows exactly what the Nazca Lines are. The only indisputable fact is that they are located in South America, in Peru, on the Nazca plateau in the southern part of the country. In 1994 they were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is where the indisputable facts end, leaving scientists with many unsolved mysteries.

Both groups of drawings - the Nazca and Palpa geoglyphs - must be viewed from a bird's eye view. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to understand what this phenomenon is. If you stand side by side, then before your eyes there is only a mountain desert and the Nazca lines running away into the distance. Only on earth does it not occur to you to follow the line to find out where it leads. The scale of the picture can be assessed while in the air.

But besides the lines, there are also drawings. And in the case of the Nazca drawings, the theory is again correct - they must be viewed from the plane. But the lines (more precisely, drawings) of the Palpa are suitable in order to study them from the ground. A small tower will be enough.

Flight in the myths and legends of Ancient Egypt

Archaeologists recently excavated at the edge of the Nile Valley in Egypt. They stumbled upon a very ancient burial site. The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife, so during burial they put a lot of various things in the grave, which supposedly could be useful for life “in the next world”. Scientists were not at all surprised that jugs, dishes, beads and other items were lying next to the mummy of the deceased person. This is a common thing. And suddenly their attention was attracted by an object, like two drops of water resembling a modern ... glider. Where could this flying toy come from in a grave that is 4 thousand years old ?!

Then archaeologists with the greatest care transported the find to Paris. There they made an exact copy of it and launched it. It is not difficult to imagine the greatest astonishment of scientists when a model of a glider of such a huge prescription flew. Who, how, in ancient times, came up with the secret of gliding flight? After all, the first modern glider flew only at the end of the nineteenth century.

Flight in the myths and legends of Russia

Russian chronicles say that in the 16th century, "Smerd Nikitka, the boyar son of Lupatov, a slave," allegedly made wings of wood and leather for himself and even successfully flew them around the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. It is clear that we also refer such events to legends.

In Russia at that time was ruled by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, whom the people called the Terrible. The news about the impudent servant Nikita reached the royal ears, and a public trial was carried out in Moscow. The tsar ordered: “A man is not a bird, they don’t have wings. If he puts on himself like wooden wings, he creates against nature ... For this friendship with unclean forces, cut off the head of the inventor ... And an invention, like a diabolical aid equipped with fire, will be burned with fire after the Divine Liturgy. "

And the Russian Ikar Nikitka, the son of Trofimov, nicknamed Brods, paid for his courage with his head on the chopping block. This for a long time discouraged everyone else in Russia from imitating Nikita. And if anyone dreamed of wings, then secretly, so that no one knew - neither the tsars, nor the tsar's henchmen.

Flying in the myths and legends of Ancient Rome and medieval Italy

The chronicles say that about five hundred years ago, an Italian, professor of mathematics Dante from the city of Perugia, also built wings for himself. His neighbors and townspeople claimed that Dante allegedly flew them perfectly. Still, he was not lucky either. Once his wing collapsed in flight, he fell on the roof of the church and broke his hip.

Flight in fairy tales, myths and legends of other peoples

In the legends of the northern peoples, the flight technique was described very simply: a fire was kindled from shavings, covered with a wet mat, anyone could sit on the mat, and he was lifted up to heaven right up to the Lord God with heat.

On the other side of the earth, the natives of Oceania, have a similar myth about their journey to the heavenly land of their ancestors with the help of a smoke jet: "Iolofat sat down on a stream of smoke and ascended to Lang" or "A woman entered a pillar of smoke and went up to heaven with him ... "

In the Finnish folk epics "Kalevala" there are a number of stories about how people or animals flew to the sky to different luminaries.

In the book Legends and Tales of Central Asia, we find the Mongolian Tale of the Origin of the Big Dipper. It tells how the seven Mongols learned to fly, left our land and flew into the sky, where they formed the seven stars of the Big Dipper.

Conclusion: Man's acquisition of wings and the ability to fly is one of the most widespread subjects in the mythology of the peoples of the world. However, the overwhelming majority of ancient legends on this topic have a sad ending. The flight of Daedalus only emphasized the improbability of this event.

The first flights of man

Ancient Greece

Around 400 BC Archytas of Tarentum, an ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman and strategist, may have developed the first flying machine, which is a model of a bird, and, according to sources, flew about 200 meters. This machine, which the inventor called the Dove, was probably suspended from a cable or rod during flight.

Conquering the airspace in ancient China

China is one of the oldest centers of world civilization. The people who inhabited this region built the Great Wall of China, presented mankind with paper, gunpowder, fireworks and many more useful things. From Ancient China the earliest evidence of a real-life aircraft has come down to us.

In the book "The Comprehensive Mirror of History" you can find the story of the flight of a man using a kite in the 4th century. Such flights were extremely dangerous, so slaves and prisoners were most often used as pilots.

Similar experiments continued in the future. In 1271, the famous Italian traveler Marco Polo traveled to China and lived there for about seventeen years.

The "Book" (1298), written from his words, contains a mention of the amazing flights of a man tied to a huge kite, which the navigator repeatedly observed in China and adjacent lands.

Legends about the first Chinese "cosmonaut" have also survived. A certain nobleman Wang Gu tied a bamboo chair on which he was sitting with a bunch of missiles and at the same time set them on fire. With a terrible crash, the chair rose into the air. Naturally, Wang Gu could not fly far, and his "ship" fell near the launch site.

"Flying" from the bell towers

Oliver of Mulsbury in 1020, having attached homemade wings, made a jump from the bell of the monastery. The flight was short-lived and resulted in a broken leg. But this failure did not break the obsessed natural scientist, who received the nickname The Flying Monk, but only convinced him that it was necessary to install an attachment to the legs of the tail stabilizing planes. Living out his days, he complained many times that he had forgotten about this annoying little thing.

A subject of the Turkish Sultan Arslan II Saracen from Constantinople, who jumped with only one cloak, into which stiffening ribs were sewn, was much less fortunate: one of the stiffening ribs broke in flight, and the daredevil died.

The attempt of the Saracen gymnast in 1178 in Constantinople ended in the same tragic way. For a large sum of money, he decided to make a flight across the entire running field during the next horse lists. The desperate inventor independently made fabric wings, sewed them to a special suit, and for rigidity he sewed willow rods into the wings. He threw himself from a high tower and broke his neck in a moment.

Such incidents continued for a long time, when, finally, one of these thousands of daredevils managed in the 17th century to hold out for some time in the air and not break anything. The lucky one was called Zheserfen Selibi. Jumping from the tower in Gala-te ( mall Istanbul), before touching the ground, according to eyewitnesses, he flew some distance through the air, but that's all.

Leonardo da Vinci

I would like to go to the sky ...

Throughout his life, da Vinci was obsessed with the idea of flight. One of the earliest (and most famous) sketches is a diagram of the device, which in our time is considered to be a prototype of a helicopter. Leonardo proposed to make a propeller with a diameter of 5 meters from thin flax soaked in starch. It had to be set in motion by four people rotating the levers in a circle.

In Milan, he made many drawings and studied the flying mechanism of birds. different breeds and bats. In addition to observations, he conducted experiments, but they were all unsuccessful. Leonardo really wanted to build an aircraft. He said: "He who knows everything can do everything. If only he knows, and there will be wings!"

First, Leonardo developed the problem of flying with wings set in motion by human muscle power: the idea of the simplest apparatus of Daedalus and Icarus. But then he came to the idea of building such an apparatus, to which a person should not be attached, but should retain complete freedom in order to control it; the apparatus must set itself in motion by its own power.

As a result, Leonardo was never able to create a working model of the flying machine. He focused only on the structure of the wing, worrying little about the power components of the mechanism.

First parachute

The drawing of the device, which Leonardo himself described as follows, turned out to be prophetic: "If you have enough linen fabric sewn into a pyramid with a base of 12 yards, then you can jump from any height without any harm to your body." The master made this entry between 1483 and 1486. Several centuries later, such a device was called "parachute".

Balloons

The Montgolfier brothers

After the death of their father, the brothers inherited a successfully operating factory and were able to spend significant sums on their experiments and experiments, which they did not hesitate to do. And the brothers were interested in the opportunity to take off. They pursued not only scientific, but also practical interest - the ability to quickly move over considerable distances.

In November 1782, the brothers sewed for the first time and filled with hot air a silk shell with a volume of 1 cubic meter. A silk balloon heated over the fire rose to a height of about thirty meters. And already on June 5, 1783, the brothers demonstrated their invention to the public of their city. Balloon with a volume of 900 cubic meters. soared to a height of about one kilometer.

On September 19, 1783, a hot air balloon flight was carried out with a ram, a rooster and a duck on board. The experiment ended successfully, the balloon flew 4 km in 10 minutes.

Balloons by other inventors

Hot air ballooning became more and more popular. From the beginning of the 19th century, they began to be used for scientific purposes.

In 1887 DI Mendeleev made an independent flight to observe a solar eclipse.

In the first scientific flights, the aeronauts managed to rise to a height of seven thousand meters or more.

In 1894, the German Berson on the Phoenix balloon rose to an altitude of 9150 meters, and in 1900, during the World Exhibition in Paris, the French de la Vaux and Costellon on the Centaurus balloon in 35 hours 45 minutes covered the distance of 1922 kilometers, landing in the Kiev province.

In the 20-30s of the XX century. stratospheric balloons were created - balloons with a sealed gondola for studying the upper atmosphere. They reached a height of 20 kilometers.

First parachute jump

On October 22, 1797, 14 years after the balloon was first raised into the sky, the famous balloonist André Jacques Garnerin made the historic first parachute jump from an aircraft (not from a tower or roof).

Garnerin, who had risen to a height of 680 meters above the Parisian park of Monceau with his brother, at some point ordered him to cut the rope holding an 8-meter umbrella covered with canvas under the gondola.

And then, clutching the handle of the "umbrella", he went into free fall, followed by the enthusiastic glances of a crowd of thousands.

The parachute of André Jacques Garnerin was made of white silk, in the shape of an umbrella, with a diameter of about 8 meters. The parachute was attached to the balloon of the balloon, and the basket was attached to the parachute lines.

Airships

Airship Menieux

The inventor of the airship is considered Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meunier. The Meunier airship was to be made in the form of an ellipsoid. The controllability was to be carried out using three propellers, manually rotated by the efforts of 80 people. By changing the volume of gas in the balloon by using a ballonet, it was possible to adjust the flight altitude of the airship, so he proposed two shells - an external main shell and an internal one.

Airship Giffard

Giffard rose on this balloon, which contained 2500 m³ of gas, on September 24, 1852 from the Parisian hippodrome and, despite a rather strong wind, began to make different turns and lateral movements with the help of a propeller and a special rudder; he descended safely at Trapp to the ground.

Dupuis de Loma airship

Dupuis de Lom built his oval ball, 36 m long and with a capacity of 3564 cubic meters. meters. A propeller was attached to the boat, 6 m wide and 3 meters long, consisting of 4 wings, each about 1 meter wide. The wings were covered with silk taffeta. The propeller made 21 revolutions per minute and was driven by 4 people. At this propeller speed, the ball was doing 2.22 meters per second on its own. If the propeller was rotated by 8 people, its average speed reached 28 - 32 revolutions, and the ball moved at a speed of 2.28 m per second. In addition, between the boat and the balloon of the balloon was placed a triangular, 5 meters in height, sail, which played the role of a rudder. This sail, with the help of a mast, fixed at a fixed point of support, could be installed in any position. A double rope mesh surrounded this entire airship. A test lift, which took place on February 2, 1872, from Fort-nave, in Vincennes, was very favorable to the inventor. The rudder worked in spite of the wind. The ball could travel on average 10 km per hour. The test gave the foreseen result that it is possible to move against the wind, the speed of which is less than the speed of the balloon.

Henlein's airship

This balloon also had a small Meunier compensating balloon inside. In order to soften and reduce the shock when the ball is lowered to the ground, a special device was placed at the bottom of the boat. The speed of the Gaenlein balloon, built at the expense of the capitalists, during the experiments in Brunn, reached a maximum value of about 5 meters per second.

Airship Renard and Krebs

The next technological breakthrough came in 1884, when the first fully controlled free flight was carried out in a French military airship powered by an electric La France electric engine by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs. The length of the airship was 52 m, its volume was 1,900 m³, in 23 minutes a distance of 8 km was covered with an 8 1/2 liter engine. with.

Airships in Russia

In the XIX century. in all countries the question of aeronautics was diligently developed. There were entire aeronautical societies that published periodicals on this issue.

In Russia, aeronautics in the 19th century. has made great strides. In addition to the military aeronautical detachment on Volkovo Pole, where flights were made every year and various new experiments were made, a new VII aeronautical department was formed under the Technical Society, which consisted of many members. Russian aeronauts rendered significant aeronautical services, such as Kozlov, Mikhail Rykachev, Alexander Kovanko.

Iron birds

On November 3, 1881, the Petersburg scientist A.F. Mozhaisky received a patent for the invention of an airplane - the world's first heavier-than-air aircraft. Aircraft designers from the leading countries of the world worked on its creation, but aviation acquired the most rapid development only in the first half of the 20th century. In 1903, the famous Wright brothers set the record for the number of completed flights on their Flyer biplane, unlike their predecessors, having managed to conduct tests without accidents. The aircraft were used during the First World War. In the future, aircraft designs were improved so rapidly that they became obsolete in literally 2-3 years.

Hang gliders

The first prototypes of hang gliders were tested by the German aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal, who died during one of the flights in 1896. Although Lilienthal's writings had a significant impact on the development of aviation in general, the idea of ultralight aircraft was forgotten for a long time.

A hang-glider is an aircraft consisting of three duralumin pipes interconnected at the front point and forming a fan in the horizontal plane, with an angle between the pipes of 90-140 degrees. A canvas of lightweight but dense and durable synthetic fabric is stretched between the pipes. The two side tubes and the trailing edge of the fabric form an almost triangle when viewed from above. To maintain their shape, the main pipes are fixed with smaller diameter auxiliary pipes and steel cables. The pilot in a special harness, originally borrowed from the parachute, is suspended on a rope by the central tube at a certain place, near the center of mass of the vehicle. The pilot's hands are holding on to the trapezium - a structure of three pipes, which, when viewed from the front, is most often a triangle with a horizontal base, fixed in space with stretch marks - steel cables with a diameter of several millimeters.

Flight control is carried out by the pilot by moving his body relative to the suspension point. Takeoff and landing are made on their own feet.

Space exploration

Early history (before 1945)

Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was one of the first to put forward the idea of using rockets for space flights. He designed a rocket for interplanetary communications in 1903. Tsiolkovsky's formula, which determines the speed that an aircraft develops under the influence of the rocket engine thrust, is still an important part of the mathematical apparatus used in the design of missiles, in particular, in determining their main mass characteristics.

German scientist Hermann Obert also laid out the principles of interplanetary flight in the 1920s.

American scientist Robert Goddard began developing a liquid-propellant rocket engine in 1923 and a working prototype was built by the end of 1925. On March 16, 1926, he launched the first liquid-propellant rocket using gasoline and liquid oxygen as fuel.

The work of Tsiolkovsky, Obert and Goddard was continued by groups of rocketry enthusiasts in the USA, USSR and Germany. IN USSR research work led Study Group jet propulsion(Moscow) and Gas-dynamic laboratory (Leningrad). In 1933, on their basis, the Jet Institute (RNII) was created.

Space flights

In 1957, under the leadership of Korolev, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was created, which in the same year was used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite.

October 4, 1957 - Sputnik-1, the first artificial Earth satellite, was launched.
November 3, 1957 - the second artificial satellite of the Earth, Sputnik-2, was launched, for the first time a living creature, the dog Laika, was launched into space.
August 19, 1960 - the first ever orbital flight of living beings into space was made with a successful return to Earth. The dogs Belka and Strelka made this flight on the Sputnik-5 spacecraft.
April 12, 1961 - the first manned flight into space, Gagarin, Yuri Alekseevich.
October 30, 1967 - the first docking of two unmanned spacecraft Kosmos-186 and Kosmos-188 was performed. (CCCP).
September 15, 1968 - the first return of a spacecraft (Zond-5) to Earth after a flight around the Moon. There were living things on board: turtles, fruit flies, worms, plants, seeds, bacteria.
January 16, 1969 - the first docking of two manned spacecraft Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 was performed.
April 19, 1971 - The first Salyut-1 orbital station was launched.
March 3, 1972 - the launch of the first spacecraft that subsequently left the solar system: Pioneer 10.
April 12, 1981 - the first flight of the first reusable transport spacecraft Columbia.
February 20, 1986 - launch into orbit of the base module of the Mir orbital station
November 15, 1988 - the first and only space flight of MTKK "Buran" in automatic mode.
November 20, 1998 - Launch of the first block "Zarya" of the International Space Station.

Nowadays, airplanes are an integral part of our life. Relatives abroad, business in different parts of the world, vacation on a remote quiet island somewhere in the ocean - in modern age huge winged machines are no longer a problem. The best aircraft from the leading manufacturers will take you to the other side of the world in a matter of hours. On the other hand, aviation, apart from being a multimillion-dollar and highly profitable business, for billions of unrelated people is an exciting hobby that takes away most of their free time and earned money. Who is responsible for this? Let's try to figure it out together.

Born to crawl cannot fly

People strongly disagree with this statement and are trying in every possible way to prove the opposite. Who is not familiar with the legend about two inhabitants of ancient Greece, one of whom, Icarus, lived with a dream to soar to the gentle sun? And although his own father, Daedalus, asked and begged not to do this, he did not listen to him. The gentle sun turned out to be not gentle at all, but unbearably hot. But this did not stop Icarus in his desire to conquer heaven. The higher he climbed, the more warmed his heavenly body and eventually melted the wax holding together the bird feathers, from which Daedalus constructed his homemade wings. Having lost his plumage, Icarus flew like a stone down from a great height and crashed to death.

Myths and reality

In addition to the unsuccessful attempt of the Greeks, in the mythology of various countries, Baba Yaga was also overcome by Baba Yaga in his stupa, pushing off with a broom against the air, the Egyptian sun god Ra and the Indian gods dissecting the sky in huge chariots, as well as characters from the Persian fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights" on a flying carpet. However, all these myths are united by one single detail that nullifies the reality of their existence - they all contradict the laws of physics. The first feeble attempt to understand the properties of aerodynamics and aeronautics can be attributed to the sixth century AD. At this time, the first kite was launched in China, designed in such a way as to stay in the air for some time, due to soaring in the air masses. A criminal sentenced to death was tied to him, but the serpent flew over the city limits and sank back to the ground. The villain managed to escape.

Almost three hundred years later, an inventor from the Arabian Peninsula, Abbas ibn Farnas, managed to fly ten minutes in free planning, strapping himself to a structure of his own making and jumping off a cliff on its leeward side. Almost at the same time, the Englishman Elmer Malmsber was forever disabled while trying to take off using his own made wings, shaped like a bird, but only of a larger size. Running up and jumping from a rocky ledge, he hoped to soar into the sky, using a strong wind as support, but everything turned out exactly the opposite.

First plane

The world famous artist, sculptor, and also inventor Leonardo da Vinci designed a kind of flying machine, shaped like a bicycle with large wings covered with leather, making rhythmic flaps. This invention is considered as the very first aircraft in the world. According to some reports, he even managed to successfully test it, but this has not been documented anywhere and remains unverified information at the level of rumors or speculation.

The first attempts to describe aerodynamic laws from an applied point of view first appeared in the work of the Swedish scientist Emmanuel Swedenborg in 1716 under the title "Sketches of machines for flying through the air." The article was approved by another scientist Christopher Polhem, as well as by the Swedish king himself after their meeting in the south of Sweden, in the city of Lund. The main point in the work was the statement that in order to maintain stable altitude when moving in air masses, the world's first aircraft must be equipped with its own engine. In 1849, the British scientist and inventor George Cayley, focusing on the concepts of lift and drag that he had grounded and introduced, launched the first unmanned glider, and exactly four years later he repeated the flight, already piloted by man.

Gold rush aeronautics

The nineteenth century created a huge demand for technology. Various models of planes and airplanes, or rather prototypes of aircraft, were created and tested annually. In pursuit of flight stability and time spent in the air, designs of the most unusual and original forms were sometimes proposed. What is an airplane with wings of several floors, two and a half meters high, equidistant from each other by twenty-five centimeters! However, the most successful was the design proposed by the British engineer Francis Herbert Wenham. The wings of his glider were long and thin, spanning over fifteen meters. It was he who first proposed such a concept. The aircraft was tested in a wind tunnel designed by the inventor himself.

Dangerous profession

In August 1896, the outstanding German inventor Otto Lilienthal made the last flight of his life. A gust of wind overturned his glider, and he broke his spine on impact on the ground. During his life, this outstanding man made more than two thousand flights. Engineer Lilienthal is rightfully considered one of the fathers of modern aviation. He is credited with the work on substantiating the reasons for the soaring of birds, continued by Nikolai Zhukovsky. Simultaneously with Otto, such inventors as Percy Sinclair Pincher, Hiram Stevenson Maxim, as well as Octave Chanute and Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky made a great contribution to the development of aircraft construction. Aircraft models of their designs organically supplemented and corrected the laws of aerodynamics described at that time.

Has it taken off? Prove it!

The world's first aircraft, the flight of which was documented, was designed and tested by the American professor Samuel Langley. One of the main centers of the CIA in the United States is named in his honor. However, he was unmanned, and his colleague, Gustav Whitehead, in parallel with him conducting tests, only the already controlled airframe, could not document the success of the tests of his model.

In 1906, the world famous Wright brothers succeeded in obtaining a patent for a "flying machine" and a method of controlling it. The first man-piloted aircraft flew three years earlier, on December 17, 1903, and it was officially documented as being controlled (changes in course, altitude and speed were subject to the engineer who flew it). A catapult with a rail accelerating mechanism and a headwind at a speed of 43 km / h helped to lift the aircraft three meters into the air and hold it for 12 seconds. During this time, he flew 36.5 meters, and his flight was caught by the lens of Orville's camera.

However, in some countries this record is not considered official. For example, in Brazil, local inventor Santos-Dumont was able to lift his first plane into the air without rails and in the absence of wind, although he did this for the first time three years after the Wright brothers.

More fun together

The Wright brothers hold another record in the aviation section. On October 7, 1908, Wilbur Wright flew the first passenger aircraft of his design, and the wife of the brothers' agent, Edith Berg, became the first civilian passenger. And a month later, during demonstration performances in front of the US Army, the flyer of his brother, Orville, was wrecked, which was seriously injured. The military representative, Lieutenant Selfridge, who was on board as a passenger, died on the spot from his injuries. He became the first victim of air accidents among passengers.

The first Soviet aircraft was assembled in 1917. Until now, it has not been found out which particular device took off first - the design of the P-IV named after Prokhorovshchikov or the M-17, also known as the "flying boat". The first of them was equipped with an internal combustion engine of 50 or 80 liters. with., on the second installed engines "Hispano-Suiza" in 150 liters. with. or "Klezhe" in 130 liters. with. The first Soviet passenger aircraft K-1 (Kalinin-1) took off in July 1925.

Today I remembered one of the thousand sayings-jokes of my first army chief, an inveterate joker. “Man is not a bird, but aspires to fly. And why is he, a fool, absolutely, straight, not afraid? " 🙂 He said funny ... But in general it is correct.

Mozhaisky's plane.

Thirst for the sky, the urge to fly has always been inherent. Unfortunately, nature created it for completely different purposes, and in order to fulfill the dream, it was necessary to build an apparatus that could lift a person into the air and which could be controlled. This apparatus was called an airplane. However, it is still called that. Airplane is in English, but in Russian it is just an airplane. So who built and flew it? Who took this step so important for humanity, which marked the beginning of a new era, the era of aviation?

Wilbur Wright.

Orville Wright

On this score, history has retained three names, or rather three surnames. And there were four names :-). Let's call these people: brothers americans Wright, Wilber and Orville; Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont; Russian Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky... All of them were serious researchers-practitioners and about each of them and their devices, you can tell a separate story, which I will definitely do in the future. In the meantime, let's decide why they ended up on this list of applicants.
In most countries of the world, the priority in this matter is given to the Americans. On December 17, 1903, they made their first flight in an airplane of their own design called Flyer 1. It was not actually a flight, but an approach. The heavier-than-air craft under the control of Orville Wright rose to a height of about 1.5 meters and flew 36.5 meters in 12 seconds.

Moreover, he took off with a sufficiently strong headwind, sliding along a special guide rail and accelerating with a primitive catapult. The aircraft's engine was an internal combustion engine of the Wright brothers' own design. In the future, the brothers carried out serious improvements and research. Flyer-2 and Flyer-3 appeared, and on October 5, 1905, the longest flight took place at a distance of 39.4 km in 38 minutes and 3 seconds. This airplane, of course, did not at all correspond to our modern concepts of an airplane. On the first Flyer, for example, the pilot controlled the flight lying on the wing (I can't imagine how this is possible, it's terribly inconvenient, in my opinion :-)). Until the end of its history, the airplane did not acquire a landing gear and took off with the help of a catapult. But on the whole it was, albeit a primitive, but a real plane, equipped with an engine, flying according to the laws of aerodynamics, controlled in flight. With this, the Wright brothers laid the foundation for the development of modern aviation. But! Despite all these merits, it was not they who built the world's first aircraft ...

A.F. Mozhaisky

Who do you think? Well, of course the Russians :-). Somehow it always happened in life, especially in pre-revolutionary Russia, that Russians in many cases were the first in the field of technical achievements. But this primacy was never clear. It's the same with the construction of airplanes ... The world's first airplane was built and took off as much as 20 years earlier than the Wright brothers' Flyer. It was Mozhaisky's plane, now known to everyone. Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky, a Russian naval officer, later Rear Admiral, for many years was engaged in aerodynamic research, the result of which was the "aeronautical projectile" built in 1882. So it was written in a patent for it in 1881. By the way, the patent for the plane was also the first in the world! The Wright brothers only patented their apparatus in 1905. Mozhaisky created a real plane with all the parts he was entitled to: a fuselage, a wing, a power plant of two steam engines and three propellers, a landing gear, and a tail unit. It was much more like a modern aircraft with a classic layout than the Wright brothers' airplane.

Takeoff of the Mozhaisky plane (from the drawing of the famous pilot K. Artseulov)

Moreover, fuselage-type aircraft began to be built already more than 30 years after Mozhaisky's aircraft. But the fate of this apparatus was not at all similar to the fate of Flyer. Mozhaisky faced outright indifference, inertia and misunderstanding. Little or no money was given for the construction of the apparatus, all actions were aimed at preventing either the construction of the apparatus or further research. That is, the usual Russian history of those times. Nevertheless, the flight took place. It happened on July 20, 1882 in Krasnoe Selo near St. Petersburg. The plane was tested by the assistant to Mozhaisky, mechanic I.N. Golubev. The device scattered on a specially built inclined wooden deck, took off, flew a certain distance and landed safely. The result is, of course, modest. But the possibility of flying in a vehicle heavier than air has been clearly proven. Further calculations showed that Mozhaisky's plane simply did not have enough power for a full-fledged flight. This, by the way, was confirmed by modern research at the TsAGI Institute. Mozhaisky himself understood this very well and led the work in the right direction. But fate decreed otherwise. He died three years later. There was no one to continue to work and fight against officials. All information on the apparatus was classified and “shelved”, and for many years he stood in the open air in Krasnoe Selo. Then it was transported near Vologda to the Mozhaiskys' estate and already there it burned down in 1895. Well, what can you say :-(. Very often - this is the usual fate of Russian inventions ...

Alberto Santos-Dumont

However, there is also a third contender for the invention of the world's first aircraft. This is the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont. He was an aeronaut with great theoretical and practical experience, who dealt a lot with the issue of controlling balloons and airships. Well understanding the future of devices heavier than air, he began to study them too. His most important achievement was a flight on an apparatus of his own design called "14-bis" on October 23, 1906, on the airfield of the Aeroclub of France in Bagatelle. This was the first powered airplane flight in Europe, it was carried out with a large number of witnesses (including official ones) and was well documented. But the most important thing is that the 14-bis flew like a real plane, without any special external devices. This strange-looking box-type apparatus, using only the thrust of its own engine, in calm weather, took off on its own fixed chassis and, having flown at a height of 2-3 meters, a distance of 60 meters, landed safely. By the way, now October 23rd in Brazil is the celebration of the founding of the Brazilian Air Force :-).

These are, in short, three important facts from the eventful history of aviation. So who, after all, built and performed a real controlled flight on it? Draw your own conclusions, but I think that this question cannot be answered unequivocally. No one should be given final priority. And is it really necessary to do this? Aviation is an interesting and challenging area of human life and work. And it was created by the labor of many, many theoreticians and practitioners, dreamers and enthusiasts, engineers and workers. And all these people have an unconditional and complete right to recognition.

In conclusion, I suggest you watch two interesting videos. The first is the newsreel footage of the flight of Flyer-3. Unfortunately, there is no film footage of the very first flight of Flyer-1. But here, too, the take-off rail and the catapult are clearly visible. The second video shows a modern flight of the 14-bis replica aircraft. Although a copy, it is impressive :-).

That, perhaps, is all, I hope you were interested :-). See you in this section and other sections of the site.

P.S. I can't just finish it :-). Nevertheless, I want to say that personally, of course, as a Russian, I am more impressed by A.F. Mozhaisky (that's why he put his plane in the title). After all, he was more than 20 years (and even 30 in the fuselage) ahead of other inventors and, if not for objective obstacles, who knows where the aviation center would have been in those days, and in the future too. But, as you know, time does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, and we have what we have.

Pictures and photos are clickable.

Since ancient times, man dreamed of conquering the sky and creating an aircraft with which one could move through the air.

People tried to climb into the sky using different devices. The first flying machines were wings, propelled by human muscle power. However, all attempts to take off with their help were unsuccessful. Later, balloons, gliders and airships were created.

Aircraft evolution

Airship

First flight to hot-air balloon took place in 1783 and the first person to take a balloon into the air was the Frenchman Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier.

In 1849 the Englishman Sir George Cayley constructed a glider with three wings. It was the first heavier-than-air aircraft that flew a 10-year-old boy. But the glider was uncontrollable.

In 1852, the French inventor Henri Giffard created an airship with a steam engine and made the first ever controlled flight on it.

Inventor of the first aircraft

Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky

The plane, like the airship, is set in motion with the help of power plant creating traction. But the airship uses aerostatic a way to create lift. And on the plane - aerodynamic.

Surprisingly, the first aircraft was created not by an aviator, but by the Russian naval officer Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky, who is called the pioneer of aviation. Mozhaisky had an excellent engineering education. As a professional sailor, he acquired a huge practical experience construction of ships with steam engines.

As a military man, Mozhaisky understood perfectly what prospects aircraft could open for the army. But in those days there was still no theory of the flight of vehicles heavier than air. Therefore, Mozhaisky began to study the aerodynamic properties of kites, which he met when he came to Japan in 1855, as a senior officer on the schooner "Diana".

After conducting a series of tests with kites pulled by a team of horses, Mozhaisky calculated the dimensions of the aircraft with sufficient lift. And here Mozhaisky was helped by his sea experience. The vertical sail theory was transferred to the horizontal wing, and the propeller thrust was recalculated for the propeller. We can say that the foundations of aerodynamics were laid by Mozhaisky.

In the fall of 1876, in the St. Petersburg arena, Mozhaisky demonstrated a model of an aircraft driven by its own engine - a four-bladed propeller. And this little aircraft, having reached the edge of the table, broke off the surface and flew.

Built in full size, Mozhaisky's plane was able to fly only ten meters. After that, he banked and lost altitude. This happened due to the inability to maintain balance with the oncoming air flow.

After a failed experiment, Mozhaisky did not receive money for further research and he carried out further improvement of the aircraft for own funds... But he did not have time to complete the work, having died of illness in complete poverty, despite the rank of Rear Admiral.

Wright Brothers Airplane

Wright Brothers Airplane

Having studied the design of Mozhaisky's plane, they realized that the inability to maintain balance was the main reason for the Mozhaisky's plane crash. And the brothers created a three-axis control system for the aircraft using cables, which made it possible to constantly monitor the turning, tilting and rotational movements of aircraft parts. Thanks to this system, the device was no longer afraid of the headwind. A steam engine was replaced by a gasoline engine.

The Wright brothers' aircraft was able to stay in the air for 59 seconds, flying a distance of 260 m.

The Wright brothers' invention was formally recognized as the first powered aircraft to carry out controlled flight.

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