Category FLIGHT and M ОТІOIM

The Japanese navy built a number of air­craft carriers, gaining experience in their use during the nation’s war with China that began in 1937. Japanese carriers led the attack on the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that brought the United States into World War II. The U. S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet’s carriers, which were at sea at the time, escaped damage in this attack, and their aircraft went on to help the United States win the key Pacific air-sea battles of the war. In April 1942 the first U. S. air raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo was made by B-25s launched from the USS Hornet.

After World War II, heavier, faster jets came into naval service. The first jet aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier was a British De Havilland Vampire, which touched down on the HMS Ocean in December 1945. The first U. S. jet plane to operate from an aircraft carrier soon followed, when a McDonnell FH-1 Phantom flew from the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1946. U. S. Navy jets saw combat for the first time during the Korean War, when a Grumman F9F-2 Panther shot down an enemy MiG-15 jet fighter on November 9, 1950.

New aircraft carriers had angled flight decks and steam catapults to help land and launch the new generation of airplanes. The U. S. Navy’s first carrier with an angled flight deck was the USS Antietam (1953). The Navy’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was the Enterprise (1960).

From 1964 onward, naval air power played an important part in the Vietnam War. McDonnell F-4 Phantom jets,

О The U. S. Navy’s Nimitz-class carriers have angled deck landing areas, visible here on the USS Harry S. Truman. The angle allows aircraft that are unable to stop before the end of the landing area to become airborne again for another try without the risk of hitting anything on deck.

flying from the USS Midway, scored the first combat victories against MiG-17 fighters in June 1965. Carrier-based aircraft also took part in the Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq War of 2003.

During World War I (1914-1918), Germany built a fleet of more than sixty Zeppelins. The airships were used to patrol European waters and to drop bombs on London and other cities in England. The airships were a little slow­er than the fighter planes of the time. By flying high, however, they made it diffi­cult for fighter pilots to catch them.

The first Zeppelin shot down in air combat was LZ-37, in June 1915. While bombing the French town of Calais, this airship was attacked by a British plane. The pilot flew above the Zeppelin and dropped six bombs; the sixth bomb exploded. The airship caught fire and plunged to the ground. The British pilot, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Reginald A. J. Warneford, became a national hero, but he was killed twelve days later when his airplane crashed.

After World War I, airships stayed in the news. In 1919, the British airship

R-34 flew across the Atlantic Ocean from Scotland to New York (July 2-6 ) and then back to England (July 9-13). In 1926, the Italian-built airship Norge —with Roald Amundsen as one of its passengers—flew over the North Pole. Amundsen had been the first explorer to reach the South Pole, in 1911.

The Apollo program continued until 1972. In November 1969, the Apollo 12 mission, crewed by Charles Conrad and Alan Bean, made a second Moon landing. During this mission, the astro – nauts inspected an earlier unmanned probe, Surveyor 3. The subse­quent mission, Apollo 13, nearly ended in dis­aster. On its way to the

О President Richard Nixon visited the Apollo 11 astro­nauts while they were held in quarantine after their return to Earth on July 24, 1969.

Moon, the spacecraft was damaged when an oxygen tank in the command module blew up. This seriously reduced the supply of oxygen and electrical power. The crippled spacecraft flew on around the Moon and headed back to Earth. Astronauts James A. Lovell, Jr., Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert used the little lunar module as their “lifeboat,” making use of its power and oxygen supplies during the three-day return trip. They returned to the command module before making a safe landing.

The last four Apollo missions carried out explorations at different sites. Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin were the first people to explore the Moon riding in a four­wheeled, battery-driven Lunar Rover.

THE LUNAR ROVER

On the last three Apollo landings, American astronauts drove the elec­tric Lunar Rover, or Moon buggy. This remarkable vehicle was steered by a T-shape control stick instead of a steering wheel. Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin found the buggy hard to drive—it took a little time to get used to driving in gravity that is only one-sixth of that on Earth. The Lunar Rover had four – wheel drive to cope with the bumpy Moon surface and a top speed of 7 miles per hour (11 kilometers per hour). When the astronauts returned to Earth, the Moon buggies from the three missions were left behind on the Moon.

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In 1782 French silk maker Joseph- Michel Montgolfier made a model hot air balloon. Montgolfier burned scraps of wool or straw to warm the air inside his balloon. Because the hot air was less dense than the surrounding air, the bal­loon rose successfully. Montgolfier and his brother Jacques-Etienne then flew a larger balloon in the town square. Next, they set off for the French capital of Paris, where scientist Jacques Charles was working on a rival balloon. This balloon was to be filled with hydrogen, the lightest of all gases. Naturally light gases work in the same way as hot air – they rise because they are lighter than the air surrounding them.

Charles demonstrated the hydrogen balloon (without a passenger) on August 27, 1783. It rose to about 3,000 feet (915 meters). Undeterred, the Montgolfiers brought out their own balloon. It was 72 feet (22 meters) high and 43 feet (13 meters) in diameter. On September 19, 1783, watched by King Louis XVI and other amazed spectators, the balloon rose in the air, carrying a sheep, a duck, and a chicken. It flew for eight minutes, traveled 2 miles (3.2 kilometers), reached an estimated altitude of 1,500 feet (457 meters), and landed safely.

Jean-Frangois Pilatre de Rozier vol­unteered to ride on the next flight, and he ascended to 84 feet (25.6 meters). The balloon was tethered to the ground with a rope. On November 21, 1783, de Rozier rose into the air again, accompa­nied by the Marquis d’Arlandes. This

time there was no rope tether, and the men flew for 25 minutes, traveling 5 miles (8 kilometers) and rising to 3,000 feet (914 meters). For the first time, people had taken to the air and stayed in flight. In December 1783 Charles flew in his hydrogen bal­loon for about 26 miles (42 kilo­meters).

irds are warm-blooded vertebrates with wings instead of forelimbs or arms. Birds are the only animals with feathers. These strong but delicate structures keep a bird warm and help it to fly.

The Study of Flight

The first people to dream of flying undoubtedly gazed at birds. Birds are truly masters of the air, although other animals, such as insects and bats, also fly. Scientists of old must have watched a bird or a bee and puzzled over how these creatures flew. Today’s scientists have analyzed the aerodynamics of the bumblebee and are amazed that this insect can even get off the ground!

People in ancient times thought they could imitate bird flight. It looked so easy-if a swan or a goose could fly simply by flapping its wings, why not a human? So inventors tried to fly by strapping feathery wings to their arms and leaping from high towers, waving their arms. Sadly, like Icarus in the ancient Greek myth, they crashed to the ground. A machine called an ornithopter can fly by flapping its wings, but a person cannot.

Boeing entered the jet age in 1947 with the B-47 Stratojet, a swept-wing bomber with six jet engines. Its “big brother” was the B-52 Stratofortress (1952), which became the U. S. Air Force’s primary strategic bomber. The B-52’s success showed that manned airplanes still had roles in the missile age and that a good design could be updated several times. In 1952, Boeing also built its first missile, the Bomarc.

Boeing was the first manufacturer in the United States to see the potential in commercial jet travel. In 1952 Boeing’s designers began work on a jet airliner, known as “Dash-80” to employees but marketed as the Boeing 707. Like most Boeing designs, it built on earlier experience: the 707’s wings were similar to the wings of the B-47, but it had four engines, each one separately mounted on an under­wing pylon.

О A Boeing 777 was on display at the Paris Air Show in France in 2005. The 777, released in 1994, was the first Boeing civil airplane with a fly-by-wire (electronic) control system.

William Boeing, the company founder, lived to see the new 707 fly in 1954; he died two years later. In 1958 the 707 started transatlantic services, capturing a lead for Boeing in the com­mercial jetliner market that the company retained for a half century. The 707 had a cruising speed of 605 miles per hour (973 kilometers per hour) and could carry 147 passengers over a distance of 5,755 miles (9,260 kilometers). Boeing’s 707 design led to other successful air­planes, such as the E-3A Sentry AWACS airplane. It also resulted in the develop­ment of the KC-135 tanker, used by the U. S. Air Force for inflight refueling.

Fighter cockpits are different from other aircraft cockpits. There is only enough room in a fighter’s nose for one seat for one pilot. If a second crewmember is needed, perhaps to operate the weapons systems, he or she sits behind the pilot.

The cockpit has a bubble canopy to give the fighter pilot a good all-around view. The pilot sits in an ejection seat. If the plane is about to crash, the pilot fires a rocket under the seat, which blasts it clear of the plane. The pilot then lands safely by parachute.

There is no control yoke in a fighter’s cockpit. The pilot steers by means of a control stick, or joystick. Moving the joystick to one side makes the plane roll

О Information from the Head-Up Display (HUD) is super­imposed in the pilot’s field of view in the cockpit of an F/A-18C Hornet fighter plane as it prepares for takeoff. Four other Hornets are lined up on the runway in front of the plane.

to that side. Pushing it for­ward makes the plane dive, and pulling it back makes the plane climb.

A fighter pilot does not always have time to look down at the instruments or to let go of the joystick or throttle to operate other controls. The cockpit is designed to solve both of these problems. A Head-Up Display, or HUD, projects important information onto a glass plate right at eye level so the pilot can keep looking ahead. The information seems to float in midair. Some HUDs are even built into the pilot’s helmet.

The pilot does not have to let go of the flight controls, because the buttons and switches that control the cockpit displays and other systems are all on the throttle and joystick. This is called Hands On Throttle-and-Stick (HOTAS).

HUDs and HOTAS are now built into some cars. A handful of cars project the car’s speed onto the windshield so the driver can see it without looking down at the instruments. Some racecars have buttons and switches for the most important systems built into the steering wheel, so the driver does not have to let go of the wheel to operate them.

Helicopters

Helicopters can fly up, down, sideways, and even backward as well as forward, so the pilot needs a good view all around the aircraft. Helicopter cockpits must therefore have large windows.

Helicopter cockpits have four main controls. They are: cyclic pitch control, rudder pedals, collective pitch control, and throttle. The cyclic pitch control is a joystick that steers the helicopter. The rudder pedals turn the aircraft to point in the right direction. The throttle con­trol is a twisting device on the collective pitch lever. Twisting the throttle control increases the engine speed, and raising the collective pitch control lever makes the helicopter rise into the air.

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SEE ALSO:

• Altitude • Control System

• Fighter Plane • Helicopter • Pilot

• Space Shuttle

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Type: Commercial transport, medium – range airliner.

Manufacturer: Douglas.

First flight: December 17, 1935.

Primary use: Widely used by airlines.

he Douglas Commercial 3, or DC-3, was one of the most successful aircraft ever built. It has been called the greatest airplane of all time because it made air travel popular with passengers and profitable for airlines.

Day and Night Passenger Plane

The DC-3 was born when American Airlines asked the manufacturing com­pany Douglas to design a “stretched” version of their DC-2 airliner that would offer comfortable sleeping accommoda­tion. The result was the DST (Douglas Sleeper Transport), or Skysleeper, first flown in December 1935. This plane pro­vided hotel-style luxury, with fourteen sleeping berths converted from folded – down seats.

From this model, Douglas produced a day version of the airplane, which it called the DC-3. The new plane was fitted with twenty-one to twenty – four seats, ten more than the standard DC-2. The DC-3 was an immediate suc­cess. It was delivered to American Airlines in August 1936 and operated a regular flight schedule between New

TECH^TALK

RELIABLE AND STRONG

The secret of the DC-3 was its relia­bility, excellent safety record, and ease of maintenance. The DC-3 had a rugged all-metal airframe-only the control surfaces were fabric-cov­ered. The aircraft had a very strong, almost circular cross-section, and strong cantilever wings that were slightly swept back. It had a single elevator and rudder, retractable landing gear, and an automatic pilot.

Its engines were as reliable as its strong frame.

Cruising speed: 207 miles per hour (333 kilometers per hour).

Ceiling: 23,000 feet (7,000 meters). Maximum range: 2,125 miles (3,420 kilometers).

Maximum takeoff weight: 25,000 pounds (11,350 kilograms).

Wingspan: 95 feet (29 meters).

Length: 64.5 feet (19.7 meters).

Height: 17 feet (5.2 meters).

York City and Los Angeles. Its flight times were 16 hours eastbound and 17 hours 45 minutes westbound.

Before the end of the year, United Airlines also had ordered the DC-3, which was proving cheaper to operate than the Boeing 247. Over the next 2 years, thirty airlines placed orders for the DC-3. By 1939, more than 90 percent

of Americans who bought an airline ticket flew on a DC-3.

Energy and power are measured in a variety of units. Units of energy used in the United States include the foot­pound, the Btu, and the kilowatt-hour. The foot-pound is the energy needed to lift a 1-pound weight a distance of 1 foot. The Btu, or British thermal unit, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. The kilowatt – hour is the amount of energy needed to supply one kilowatt of power for one hour (1 kilowatt equals 1,000 watts).

The international unit of energy is the joule-the amount of energy used, or work done, when a force of one newton acts through a distance of one meter. Another way to describe a joule is to say it is the energy needed to lift a small apple 3.28 feet (1 meter) off the ground.

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JOHN PRESCOTT JOULE (1818-1889)

The joule, the international unit for measuring energy, is named after English physicist John Prescott Joule. Joule studied heat and mechanical work (the work done in moving objects) and how they are connected.

His research led to the law of conser­vation of energy. Joule also found the link between the electric current flowing through something and the amount of heat given out. This con­nection is known as Joule’s Law, or the Joule Effect.

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Power is the amount of work done per second. It is a measurement of how fast energy changes from one form to another. The international unit of power is the watt. One watt is the same as one joule per second. A 100-watt light bulb changes 100 joules of electrical energy into light and heat every second. A large airliner’s engine is as powerful as about 2 million of these light bulbs, or about

200,0 kilowatts.

Power also can be measured in horsepower. One horsepower used to be
the power of an actual horse. Today, it is the same as about 746 watts or 550 foot-pounds per second. A big airliner engine produces approximately 270,000 horsepower—more power than one – quarter of a million horses!

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SEE ALSO:

• Bird • Force • Fuel • Gravity • Jet

and Jet Power • Laws of Motion

• Weight and Mass

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Building flying boats was a specialized business. One of the few companies making these aircraft was the German company Blohm und Voss. It built the biggest flying boat of World War II: the
six-engine BV 222 Viking, originally planned as a civilian aircraft. During the war, however, the Viking became a mil­itary transport, flying troops and sup­plies to German bases in North Africa. After Viking, Blohm und Voss built the even larger BV 238. This giant weighed as much as three B-17 bombers. It made its first flight in 1945 but was destroyed shortly afterward by Allied aircraft.

Even the giant BV-238 would have been dwarfed alongside the Hughes H4 Hercules. Built by U. S. millionaire and aviator Howard Hughes, this was the biggest flying boat ever. Also known as the Spruce Goose, it was piloted on its unsuccessful first and only flight by

Howard Hughes himself. The H4 flew for about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) on November 2, 1947, but rose no higher than about 80 feet (24.4 meters). The H4 never flew again. Another postwar giant, the British Princess (1952), which had ten engines, also failed. It was clear that land planes, not flying boats, were the future for passenger flying.

The Martin Company, founded by U. S. aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin

in 1917, produced several successful flying boats for the U. S. Navy, such as the PBM Mariner (1939) and P5M Marlin (1948). Martin also built the four-engine Mars, the biggest flying boat ever used by the U. S. Navy. Entering service in 1943, the Mars was able to carry a load of 20,500 pounds (9,307 kilograms) from California to Hawaii; it once carried 308 people. Martin’s P6M SeaMaster (1955) was jet-powered and probably

THE HUGHES H4 HERCULES (SPRUCE GOOSE)

The Hughes H4 was the biggest flying boat and the biggest propeller plane ever built. It weighed 180 tons (163 metric tons) and was 219 feet (67 meters) long. It had the biggest wingspan of any airplane-320 feet (98 meters). The H4 had eight engines and could have seated 700 passengers, but it was designed to be a military aircraft. The H4 is now on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. The huge hangar in which the giant airplane was built later became a movie studio.

the fastest flying boat ever, with a speed of over 600 miles per hour (965 kilo­meters per hour). Only three were built before the U. S. Navy canceled the contract in 1959. The propeller-engine Marlin was the last flying boat to serve with the U. S. Navy, flying until 1966.