Category FLIGHT and M ОТІOIM

Navigational satellites are very useful pieces of space equipment. They provide the Global Positioning System (GPS) network, which enables pilots, sailors, drivers, and hikers to fix positions almost anywhere on the globe with pin­point accuracy. Developed by the U. S. Department of Defense as NAVSTAR (Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging Global Positioning System), the GPS uses at least twenty-four satel­lites to make sure that at least four are always within the line of sight of a nav­igator on the ground or ocean. One early navigation satellite, Transit 4A, was the first satellite to carry a small nuclear power plant.

Earth Observation and Weather Satellites

Earth observation (environmental) satel­lites are used to monitor changes in the environment such as melting ice caps, deforestation, and desertification. Earth observation satellites are normally launched into Sun-synchronous polar orbits so that they can survey the entire globe. They can scan for minerals, water, and other resources and record land use

Although accidents do happen, skydiv­ing and parachute sports have a good safety record. Accidents are most com­mon when people jump in poor weather conditions, such as unpredictable winds. Jumping from buildings, cliffs, or other high structures (known as BASE jump­ing) is especially dangerous. Because the modern parachute can be steered, there is little chance of the parachutist landing accidentally in a lake or a tree, as was often the fate of parachutists in the past.

Drop zones in the United States and Canada are required to have an experi­enced person who acts as a safety offi­cer. In most countries, skydivers are required to carry a reserve parachute that has been packed and inspected by a certified parachute rigger. In the United States, certification is provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Many countries have national para­chuting associations, affiliated to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). In the United States, skydiving permits and ratings are issued by the United States Parachute Association.

EXTREME SKYDIVING

Specialized forms of skydiving and parachuting include:

• Accuracy landing: Aiming to land on or very near a drop zone target.

• Blade running: Like slalom skiing with a parachute.

• Formation skydiving: Also called relative work (RW).

• Paraskiing: Landing on a snowy mountain on skis.

• Skysurfing: Landing with a surfboard strapped to the feet.

• Stuff jumping: Jumping with

an object, such as a bicycle, which is ridden through the air before the sky – diver lets go and opens the parachute.

Other people thought it might be possi­ble to build flying machines that were lighter than air itself. They believed they would simply float upward like an air bubble floating up through water or smoke rising from a fire.

The first successful manned flights were indeed made in the lighter-than – air craft envisaged by aviation pioneers. The French brothers Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier had the first success with a hot air balloon in 1783. The balloon was able to fly because heated air is lighter than the surrounding air. A sheep, duck, and chicken made a flight and survived! They were the first living creatures to make a balloon flight. Two months later, also in France, Jean-Frangois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes made the first manned flight in a hot air balloon.

In France the same year, Jacques Charles made the first manned flight in a hydrogen-filled balloon. Hydrogen gas is even lighter than hot air.

The problem with balloons is that they are carried wherever the wind takes them. They cannot be steered. The next goal, therefore, was to make a controlled flight. French engineer Henri Giffard (1825-1882) achieved this in 1852 with a steam-powered hydrogen balloon. The engine was slung under the balloon and drove a propeller. Giffard had invented the airship.

Airships developed further in the following years. In Germany, Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917) built bigger and bigger airships. They rose without effort into the air, and they were more spacious and comfortable than air­planes. For a time airships seemed to have a promising future.

In 1937, however, the world’s biggest airship, the Hindenburg, crashed in flames in New Jersey. News and images of the accident traveled around the world, marking the end of the golden age of the airship.

Airships are making a comeback today. Early airships were filled with hydrogen, a gas that catches fire and burns very easily. Modern airships are filled with helium, a gas that cannot catch fire. They are used for tasks, such as filming, which require a stable plat­form that can stay aloft for long periods.

When a spacecraft in orbit slows down, gravity pulls it closer to Earth and it descends into thicker air, which slows it down even more. This keeps happening until the spacecraft plunges deeper into the atmosphere. This process is called orbital decay, and it is caused by atmos­pheric drag.

The Space Shuttle usually orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 185 to 250 miles (about 300 to 400 kilometers). The atmosphere here is about a million times thinner than the atmosphere at sea level, but there is still enough air to slow the spacecraft down. The Space Shuttle is in space for only a week or two, however, and orbital decay is not a problem dur­ing such a short time.

The International Space Station stays in space all the time. It orbits Earth at a height of 200-250 miles (320-400 kilometers). Atmospheric drag lowers its orbit by a few feet per day, or about 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) a year, so it has to be propelled up to a higher orbit every few months.

The amount of atmospheric drag changes from day to day and season to season because of the effect of the Sun on the atmosphere. The Sun heats the atmosphere on the daylight side of the Earth and makes it expand. Spacecraft in orbit experience more drag (and increased orbital decay) from the thicker air expanding upward from below.

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The air-cushion vehicle (ACV) is a form of transportation that travels just above land or water on a cushion of air. It is also known as a hovercraft or ground-effect machine.

Commercial aviation is a huge global industry worth billions of dollars. New airports continue to be built, and exist­ing airports are enlarged to cope with the growing number of flights. This growth puts strain on local communities and on air traffic control.

Commercial aviation also entails environmental costs. Airplane fuel (made from petroleum) is expensive. Commercial airplanes have significant environmental impact, such as engine noise and air pollution. In addition, environmental scientists say emissions from jet engines are contributing to the greenhouse effect and the consequent change in the world’s climate.

Air routes link the large cities of the world to each other, and increasing numbers of flights fly to vacation desti­nations beyond large cities. The busiest airways are across North America, between North America and Europe, and between European cities. Other impor­tant air routes link South America, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, China, India, and Australia.

TECH^TALK

THE LARGEST AIRLINERS

The largest airliners are the Boeing 747-400 and the Airbus A380.

Boeing 747-400

Wingspan: 211 feet (64.3 meters)

Length: 231 feet (70.4 meters)

Takeoff weight: 875,000 pounds (397,250 kilograms)

Airbus A380

Wingspan 261.6 feet (79.8 meters) Length: 239.5 feet (73 meters)

Takeoff weight: 1,235,550 pounds (560,000 kilograms)

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Today’s airline industry is extremely competitive. Budget airlines offer low fares and no-frills service to attract pas­sengers. Famous names of commercial aviation, such as Pan Am, have been replaced by budget airlines, such as JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines. Airline travel, once reserved for the wealthy, has changed with the develop­ment of air tourism and the increasing number of leisure travelers.

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SEE ALSO:

• Aerospace Manufacturing Industry

• Airport • Airship • Boeing

• Concorde • Flying Boat and Seaplane • Future of Aviation

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A new aircraft must satisfy a particular need. Designers could produce all sorts of amazing designs for new aircraft, but if the aircraft are not needed, airlines or air forces will not buy the planes. The design for the Boeing 747 jumbo jet, for example, was produced when Pan American Airlines expressed a need for a new airliner that could carry up to 400 passengers.

In the early years of aviation, aircraft were built from very accurate drawings on paper. There was a drawing for every part of an aircraft and more drawings to show how they fit together. Every design goes through many changes before an airplane is built, and, before computers, every change needed new drawings. When the Boeing 747 was designed in the 1960s, 75,000 drawings were needed!

FLOATING AIRCRAFT

Some aircraft designs are very pop­ular for a while, and then they disappear. Between the 1920s and 1940s, there were a lot of seaplanes, or aircraft that can land on water. Many seaplanes land and rest on floats on the water. A flying boat is a seaplane with a watertight hull, like a boat. These aircraft were popular in the period when there were few runways, especially outside Europe and the United States.

The big flying boat airliners disappeared because they could not match the new generation of airliners that came along after World War II (1939-1945), such as the Lockheed Constellation. Small seaplanes are still used today in places such as northern Canada and Alaska. In these remote places, with a lot of water to land on and few runways, seaplanes still offer the best way of getting around.

О Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, test the prototype X-48B aircraft in a full-scale wind tunnel in 2006.

to do some of the testing that actual models were used for in the past. Computer programs, for example, can simulate (or copy) the effect of air flowing around a plane. Computers cannot test everything, how­ever, so wind tunnel tests with models are still carried out. Sometimes a new design is so different from existing aircraft that the only way to find out if it really works is to build it and fly it. In the United States, a series of experimental planes, or X-planes, have been built to test new aircraft designs of all sorts. The X-1 was the first supersonic airplane. The X-plane series also includes the X – 15, a rocket-powered space plane, and the X-45, a plane without a pilot.

Eventually, a prototype is built for all new aircraft, experimental or not. Every new design for an aircraft must undergo a series of test flights before it is deliv­ered to the buyer. Designers have to make sure that the aircraft flies exactly as they intended. Flight tests for the Boeing 747 jumbo jet used five aircraft for ten months. They were in the air for more than 1,500 hours.

When an airplane is designed and manufacturing begins, the design process does not stop. The first Boeing 747, the 747-100, went into service in 1970. By that time, work had already begun on a new jumbo jet, the 747-200. This model could carry more fuel and fly farther. The revised model led to the 747-300, which could carry more passengers. Then the biggest and most powerful 747 of all, the 747-400, was developed. There were cargo-carrying versions of the 747, too. In total, fifteen designs of the 747 have been built.

Meanwhile, in 1913, the British news­paper the Daily Mail had offered a large cash prize to the first person or team to fly a plane across the Atlantic Ocean. Efforts to win the prize were interrupted by the war, but pilots became interested again when the war was over.

Alcock-now out of the service – hoped to win the prize. In 1919 he contacted Vickers, a British aircraft company, to enlist its support. Vickers officials agreed to supply an airplane. Soon after, Arthur Brown visited the Vickers offices looking for a job. He agreed to join the venture as Alcock’s copilot and navigator.

Vickers chose the Vimy aircraft for the flight, an airplane the company

had designed as a bomber for use in the war. Vickers gave Alcock and Brown the thirteenth Vimy it had made.

The Vimy was a biplane made most­ly of wood with fabric covering the wings and body. The airplane was about 55 feet (17 meters) long and had a wingspan of 68 feet (20.7 meters). The Vimy carried two engines, made by automaker Rolls-Royce, that could fly for about 100 hours without needing service. These highly reliable engines were one reason the Vimy was selected for the trip.

The team made three adjustments to the plane. All military equipment was taken off, and extra fuel tanks were
added. In addition, the cockpit was widened so Alcock and Brown could sit side by side.

After some test flights, the plane was partly taken apart to be shipped to Canada. There, it was reassembled and made ready to fly, but Alcock and Brown had to wait through a period of poor weather before beginning their journey. On June 14, 1919, after several days of rain and snow, the men finally took off. They left from an airfield near St. John’s, Newfoundland and carried

coffee, sandwiches, and candy for refreshment and toy cats as mascots.

The first living creature in space, the dog Laika, was put into Earth orbit in November 1957 by the Soviet Union. The Soviets then startled the world on April 12, 1961, by putting the first per­son into orbit. He was Yuri Gagarin, a pilot with the Soviet air force, and his spacecraft was Vostok 1. Although Gagarin made only one orbit, lasting 108 minutes, the mission’s impact was enormous. Gagarin was greeted as a hero after his historic flight, and the world became excited by the possibility of astronauts flying, not just around Earth, but to the Moon and even to other planets.

Gagarin started training in 1959, the same year in which seven Americans were chosen to become NASA’s first astronauts. The seven U. S. astronauts
were Donald Slayton, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, L. Gordon Cooper, M. Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, John Glenn, and Alan Shepard. They trained to fly the Mercury capsule, a cone-shaped spacecraft weighing about 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilo grams)-about one-third the weight of a ball-shaped Vostok capsule.

Shepard and Grissom were the first to test the Mercury craft, making fifteen – minute suborbital flights in May and July 1961. The U. S. astronaut chosen to fly into orbit was John Glenn, a former Korean War fighter pilot. His capsule was mounted on top of a U. S. Air Force Atlas rocket, which was more powerful than the Redstone rocket used for the first two Mercury flights. Glenn blasted off on February 20, 1962, and became
the first American to orbit Earth in his craft Friendship 7. Glenn’s three-orbit flight was followed by other manned flights by U. S. astronauts. They used Mercury spacecraft and then the larger Gemini two-man craft. These flights led to the Apollo program (1967-1972), which sent the first people to the Moon.

THE FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE

No women were among the first U. S. and Soviet astronauts. In the 1950s, there were few experienced female jet pilots, and some scientists believed women would be physically unable to withstand the stress of launch and reentry. In June 1963, however, the Soviet Union launched the spacecraft Vostok 6 that carried Valentina Tereshkova. The first woman in space was not a pilot but a former textile technologist in a cotton mill and an avid parachutist. Inspired by Yuri Gagarin’s flight, she had written to the Soviet govern­ment with a request to become a cosmonaut. Just over a year later, she was orbiting Earth. Tereshkova suf­fered no bad effects from her orbital mission. She later married and gave birth to a daughter. The normal birth showed that human reproduction was not affected by spaceflight.

Barnstorming

Barnstorming was a form of flying exhibition that was popular in the 1920s. Stunt pilots flew airplanes to entertain crowds in rural areas across the United States. The word barnstorming originally meant traveling around rural districts making political speeches or putting on theatrical shows in barns.

The Performance

To attract a crowd, the barnstormers would fly over a small town, usually at low level, to attract attention. Then they would land their planes in a farmer’s field or showground nearby. Local peo­ple would come running, and the pilots would distribute handbills and start sell­ing tickets for airplane rides for as little as $1 (about $10 today). Those who felt brave enough climbed in for a short flight. Others paid from 25 to 50 cents
($2.50 to $5 today) to stand and watch the aerobatics. Many people in the 1920s had never seen an airplane close-up, so they were thrilled to see the aircraft and the daring pilots.

Aerial barnstorming was exciting. Many youngsters who later grew up to become pilots or to work in the aviation industry got their first taste of flying at a barnstorming show.

Barnstormers performed aerobatics, such as dives, rolls, and loops. They flew upside down, and they zoomed down low over the crowd. They raced cars and trains. Wing walkers balanced on top of airplanes, and parachutists jumped out of them. Some performers climbed out of one plane into another in midair. Other pilots leapt down from a plane to a vehicle speeding beneath it or climbed out of a moving car into a low-flying aircraft. Another unbelievable stunt involved playing tennis on the wing!

When a bird takes off, it usually does so into the wind, like an airplane. To get airborne, it must produce enough for­ward momentum to generate lift. A small bird takes a short run or jumps into the air from a perch, such as a branch. A large, heavy bird needs a takeoff run, just like most airplanes. Water birds, such as ducks, often skitter across the surface of water, paddling with their feet to build up speed. Swifts have short legs and seldom walk on the

WING SPEEDS

Tiny hummingbirds flap their wings so fast-more than fifty times per second-that the wings are just a blur. The fastest wing beat of any bird is that of the horned sungem, a South American hummingbird species that beats its wings ninety times per second. A heron needs to flap its wings only two times per second, and condors can stay in the air for 50 miles (80 kilometers) or more, using air currents, without beating their wings once.

more than fifty times in a second.

ground. They just drop from their nests and open their wings.

To climb higher through the air, a bird tilts its wings to increase the angle of attack. This action pushes more air over the top of the wing. If the angle became too steep, turbulence in the airstream could cause the bird to stall—
it would stop climbing and could start falling. To prevent a stall, the bird uses a tuft of feathers (called the alula) on its “thumb.” This tuft can be spread forward to form a slot on the leading edge, or front of the wing. Air rushes through the slot, preventing turbulence and keeping a fast flow of air over the wing. In nor­mal flight, the tuft is folded back against the wing. This is similar to the slots and flaps used on the wings of airplanes.

A bird steers by tilting its body and wings and using its tail as a rudder. Birds can twist and turn sharply to avoid obstacles (such as tree branches) and to escape a pursuing predator. Tail shape does not seem to affect a bird’s control very much. A swift twists and turns when chasing flying insects, yet it has a short tail. Swallows fly very similarly, at high speeds, with long, forked tails. A partridge can turn sharply using its broad wings rather than its stubby tail.