HISTORY OF

FLIGHT
SHORT QUESTIONS
 Q#1
• George Cayley worked to discover a way that man could fly. He
designed many different versions of gliders that used the
movements of the body to control.
• Over 50 years he made improvements to the gliders.
• - Changed the shape of the wings
• - Designed a tail
.
• - Tried a biplane design
• - Recognized that there would be a need for power if the flight
was to be in the air for a long time.
• Cayley wrote On Ariel Navigation which shows that a fixed-wing
aircraft with a power system for propulsion and a tail to assist in
the control of the airplane would be the best way to allow man
to fly.
 Q#2
• ANS: The brothers, Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne
Montgolfier, were inventors of the first hot air balloon.
• They used the smoke from a fire to blow hot air into a silk bag.
• The silk bag was attached to a basket.
• The hot air then rose and allowed the balloon to be lighter-than-
air.
• In 1783, the first passengers in the colorful balloon were a sheep,
rooster and duck.
• It climbed to a height of about 6,000 feet and traveled more
than 1 mile
• This could not be done with vacuum spheres, but it could with a
balloon filled with hot air or a light gas such as hydrogen.
 Q#3
• ANS: He was an inventer and an engineer. But he’s almost
equally famous for his astonishing multiplicity of talents.
• Leonardo da Vinci made the first real studies of flight in the
1480's.
• He had over 100 drawings that illustrated his theories on flight.
• The Ornithopter flying machine was never actually created. It
was a design that Leonardo da Vinci created to show how man
could fly.
• One of the most well known ideas of Leonardo's flying machines
was the aerial screw.
• This contraption has been classified as the helicopter's ancestor..
The modern day helicopter is based on this concept. )
• Another piece of ingenious from Leonardo was the parachute.
The only difference between the ones today and his is that he
used a temple like structure for the parachute. 
 Q#4
• ANS: The German engineer Otto Lilienthal was the first man to
launch himself into the air, fly, and land safely.
• Lilienthal greatest contribution in aviation was in the
development of heavier than air flight.
• Lilienthal biplane glider in flight Had a structure with the
double sailing surface.
• As in all his gliders, he controlled the glider's direction by
shifting his weight.
• In 1892, he constructed a more accurate glider with fabric that
covered both sides of the wings.
• This glider had a wingspan of 31 feet. He could fly it up to a
distance of 270 feet.
• Between 1891 to 1896, he completed almost 2000 flights with 16
different gliders
 Q#5
• ANS: Octave Chanute published “Progress in Flying Machines”
in 1894.
• It gathered and analyzed all the technical knowledge that he
could find about aviation accomplishments.
• It included all of the world's aviation pioneers.
• The Wright Brothers used this book as a basis for much of their
experiments.
• Chanute was also in contact with the Wright Brothers and often
commented on their technical progress.
• Later, his experiments with gliders contributed to the science of
flight
• Using his knowledge of braced-box-structure in bridge
construction, he invented the familiar strut-wire-braced wing
structure still used in biplane aircraft.
 Q#6
• ANS: Self-taught French engineer and inventor, and a pioneer
• He focused on the problem of heavier-than-air flying machines and
in 1890 built a steam-powered, bat-winged monoplane, which he
named the Eole.
• On October 9 he flew it a distance of 50 m (160 feet) on a friend's
estate near Paris.
• The steam engine was unsuitable for sustained and controlled
flight which required the gasoline engine.
• nevertheless, Ader's short hop was the first demonstration that a
manned heavier-than air machine could take off from level ground
under its own power.
• He is also known as father of aviation because he flew before
wright brothers and discovered that steam engine is not suitable
for sustained flight
 Q#7
• ANS:
• ANATOMY OF TE WRIGHT FLYER BASED ON THESE
SALIENT FEATURES
• Equipped with an engine and propellers
• Biplane with wingspan of 40 feet, four inches, and a
wing area of 510 square feet.
• Wings had spars and ribs (covered in muslin)
• Struts and bracing between top and bottom wings
• Plane also had a front elevator
• Rudder at the rear (covered in muslin)
• Skids rather than wheels )
 Q#8
• ANS:
• THE BEGINNING OF this new phase in the
conquest of the air was symbolized by two
events in the summer of 1909: Blériot’s flight
across the English Channel and the Reims
aviation meeting. The Reims meeting
Although no other event of 1909 could match
the Channel crossing for the scale of publicity it
attracted, the air meeting officially known as the
Grande Semaine d’Aviation de la Champagne,
which followed in August, was even more
important in establishing the credibility of
heavier-than-air
 Q#9
• ANS:
• SALIENT FEATURES OF WRIGHT FLYER
• >An engine and propellers gave Wilbur and Orville the ability to use not
only lift but also thrust to propel their plane –
• >Vertically mounted propellers could provide the airflow for thrust –
• >They needed 90 pounds of thrust to propel the Wright Flyer –
• >Their 12-horsepower engine and the large propellers proved equal to
the task
• On 17 December, Orville took the controls
• Orville had made the first controlled, sustained, heavier-than-air human
flight with a powered aircraft
• The Flyer rose into the air and stayed almost for 12 seconds and
traveled 120 feet
• To the pilot’s left was a lever that he used to control the up-and-down
movement of the elevator
• By moving his hips, he pulled on the cables connected to the wings and
rudder (directing the plane left or right)