INTRODUCTION TO

AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
History of Flight
 A Brief History of Flight
• Birds in flight motivated early inventors to
mimic nature and propose vehicle designs that
could carry humans above the confines of
earth’s surface.
• At first people fashioned artificial wings and
flapped them with arms.
• As that proved unsuccessful and engineering
advanced, mechanical mechanisms were used to
flap the wings, resulting in vehicles known as
ornithopters. The great artist, architect,
scientist and engineer Leonardo da Vinci (1452-
1519) devoted much of his time to such a flight.
Flying Machine Design of Da Vinci
Ornithopter & Helicopter

1480s
 Balloons and Dirigibles
• It was only the 18th century that humans
achieved lighter-than-air flight. Then it
took 120 years to achieve heavier-than-air
flight.
• Two French brothers Montgolfier’s,
pioneered lighter-then-air flight with their
innovative balloon design. They conceived
the idea of using the “lift power” of hot air
to achieve flight. On 25 April 1783 they
launched the first true hot air balloon and
rose it to 305 m.
 Balloons and Dirigibles
• The design of balloons matured rapidly. Hot air
was replaced by hydrogen, which allowed the
balloons to rise higher and did not depend on the
temperature difference with the ambient air.
• Balloons made way for blimps (or dirigibles) which
were essence elongated bags filled with gas,
fitted with engines, propellers and a rudder. First
steam and later electric and gasoline engines
were used as power plants.
• These balloons were fully filled, a slender
elongated aerodynamic shape could be maintained
and steered, but when the bags were only
partially filled they become extremely difficult
to steer.
Unmanned, Manned and Gas
Balloons in 1783
Montgolfier Brothers Balloon

1783
USS Los Angeles AIRSHIP build
by the Zeppelin Company
 Heavier-Than-Air Flight
• During the height of the zeppelin era,
heavier-than-air flight was still in its
infancy even though the groundwork had
been laid at the end of the 18th century.
• Sir George Cayley (1773-1857) devised the
basic configuration of modern airplanes.
He separated the means of generating lift
from the means of generating propulsion.
In 1799 he designed an airplane that
featured fixed wings for generating lift,
paddles for propulsion and a tail unit with
horizontal and vertical stabilizers. He also
developed curved wings to increased lift.
 George Cayley
- First steps
to airplane
with
independent
Replica of Cayley’s 1852
Glider
Lift &
Propulsion,
- Developed
early wing
test stand
- Build & flew
Whirling arm manned
apparatus, 1804
Cayley’s disk diagram, glider
1799
 Otto Lilienthal
-Over 2000 successful
flights
-Advances in photography
spread his experiments
worldwide
-Published the most
detailed data available at
Prussia (Germany)
the time
Lilienthal piloting his glider
-The only way which leads us to a
quick development in human
flight is a systematic and
energetic practice in actual
flight experiments, 1889
-Of all the men who attacked the
flying problem in the 19th
century, Otto Lilienthal was the
most important (Wilbur Wright,
1912
Bird Flight as the Basis of
Aviation
 Flapping Wings

Otto Lilienthal with his small wing flapping apparatus near to the "Fliegeberg"
Samuel Langley
-Systematically tested
airfoils and 100 different
rubber-band-powered and
steam powered scale models
by 1892.
Successfully flew powered
scale models.
Developed the tandem-
winged ‘Aerodrome’. It
crashed on launch in 1903,
weeks before the Wright
brothers’ successful flight.
CAYLEY’S GLIDER
 Gliding Flight
• The aviation pioneer identified most strongly
with gliding flights was the German engineer
Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896). He build
numerous single-wing and biwing gliders and
flew them by running down a hill until he
reached a speed high enough to fly. He made
2.000 successful flights.
• He published his highly influential book which
laid the groundwork and many aviation
enthusiasts learned from his knowledge and
used it as the basis for their work.
GLIDING FLIGHT
Otto Lilienthal "Mount flight",
Lichterfelde (near Berlin)
 Wright Brothers
• The Orville 1871-1948) and Wilbur (1867-
1912) Wright brothers eagerly followed
Lilienthal's glider flights and corresponded
frequently with him.
• The Wright brothers were the first to
achieve controlled, powered, heavier-than-
air flight because of their extensive
research and engineering approach. They
were also fortunate that gasoline engine
technology was advanced enough to permit
the sufficiently lightweight powerplant.
The Wright Flyer I

First flight (17 Dec. 1903)

 Orville and Wilbur Wright
Testing one of their kites
Lift distribution
-Made test flights
of several kites and
manned gliders
-Build first wind
tunnel with a basic
force balance
-Developed wing –
warping for control,
based on bird
observations
Replica of their wind Tunnel
 Orville and Wilbur Wright
First Flights at Kill Devil in Kitty Hawk, NC

Wright Flyer II – Less camber, more power

Wright Flyer III – First practical aircraft
 Glenn Curtiss
- An original member of
Bell’s Aerial Experimental
Association (1907)
- Flew Langley’s
Aerodrome and his own
designs, June Bug &
Golden Flyer
-Was issued the first
pilot license
Golden Flyer Glenn Curtis,
1909

Motorcycle & Engine

June Bug on 4 July 1908
 Commercial Air Transport
• Airships were commercially successful in the
early decades of the 20th century. While
zeppelins could fly not much more than 100
km/h, they could do so for thousands of
kilometers without to land. The Hindenburg,
which was build in 1936, disaster marked the
end of the use of rigid airships.
• The first scheduled flight of an airline using an
aircraft occurred on 1 January 1915 from St.
Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, Florida.
 Commercial Air Transport
• The first regular commercial airline with
passanger service was Germany’s
Luftreederei which began service from
Berlin to Leipzig and Weimar in 1919.
• In October of that year KLM was founded
in the Nederlands and is the world’s oldest
airline.
• The most striking change was the
conversion from biplanes to streamlined
monoplanes as well as the use of all-metal
airframes.
 WW II
• At the start of the WWII in September of
1939, Germany’s aircraft industry was by far
the most advanced in the world, which was
reflected in the arsenal of Germany’s air force.
• Aircraft played a decisive role in the conflict
since achieving air superiority became
important to winning land and sea battles.
• During the course of the war, aircraft
production reached enormous proportions. The
Bf 109 was build some 33,000 times. The US
alone produced over 300,000 military aircraft
in the period of 1940-1945.
Bf 109G-6, B-17 and A6M3
Faster and Higher
 The Jet Aircraft
• Shortly before the end of conflict, the
first aircraft powered by jet engines was
independently developed by Hans Joachim
Pabst von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle.
• The German Heinkel He 178 became the
first aircraft powered by a jet engine in
August 1939. The first jet aircraft in
service was the British Gloster Meteor
followed by the German Messerschmitt
Me-262.
 The Major Challenge Facing
Aviation
• For years it was believed that crossing
the sound barrier was impossible.
• The cause of the sudden breakup of the
aircraft attempting to fly faster than
the speed of sound was a rapid increase
in drag as the aircraft approached the
speed of sound and a phenomenon known
as buffeting.
 Helicopters
• The German Focke-Wulf Fw 61 became the
first practical helicopter when it flew in 1936.
It had two rotors mounted on outriggers to the
left and right sides of the fuselage. It was able
to reach an altitude of 2,430 m.
• In 1939 the Russian-born Igor Sikorsky
designed, build and flew the experimental
helicopter Vought Sikorsky VS-300 in the U.S.
• With a single main rotor for lift and a smaller
vertical rotor mounted on the tail to counteract
torque arrangement Sikorsky achieved
controllability and set a pattern for helicopter
design and resulted in first production
helicopter, the R-4.
VS-300 and Marenco P-2 (76
Years later)
 NEW IDEAS

Prandtl-d at a test flight 2014. NASA

Could it be the Fırst Mars
Airplane?
10-e Engined Tilt Wing
QueSST