The History of Aircraft design
By: David Roberts

Imagine yourself at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The year is 1903. You and your brother our about to make the first powered flight in history. The wind was right and you recorded a 59 second flight over a distance of 852 feet. You have just made history, in successfully flying the first powered aircraft. This is probably how the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright felt that day. They successfully flew an airplane with a 75 horse power engine. I will be talking on how aircraft design and power plants have evolved since 1903. From the Wright brothers era, the golden age, to the jet era, to what we use today. It going to be an accelerating time so let's get started with the Wright Brothers. The Wright Brothers were known as the first people to achieve the first powered heavier than air flight. This was a huge accomplishment, but believe it or not, they were not the first to fly. According to Aviation 1890-1939 The Pioneering Years, "the Montgolfier Brothers were even earlier pioneers when they took to the sky in a hot air balloon over Paris in 1783. In 1853, in Yorkshire, England, an employee of Sir George Cayley, flew across a valley in the first, heavier than air glider (http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kenanderson/aviation/index.html)." These early pioneers helped pave the way for the Wright Brothers. The Wright Brothers started off as bike builders, and it wasn't till December of 1900, that the Wright Brothers decided to try out glider designs. "For the last two months Wilbur Wright (33) and his 29 year-old brother Orville, bicycle manufacturers from Dayton, Ohio, have been testing a biplane glider with flexible wings and forward ‘horizontal rudder’ which enables them to maintain control in moving current of air." After a few successful attempts they went back to the drawing board to try and design a better more efficient glider. In September of 1901 the Wright Brothers returned back to Kitty Hawk, and brought with them an improved design of glider, having a greater wing-span at 22 feet and proper arrangements for the aerial pilot to adjust the flying control surfaces as he lies on the lower wing. But, launched repeatedly from a prime location on Big Kill Devil Hill, these improvements seem only to have introduced new problems. Initially lateral control proved almost impossible; although it was mastered later, with glides of some 300 feet, attempts to turn, using the wing-warping system sent the machine spinning into the ground. In response, Orville and Wilbur have cut short their flying season and returned to Ohio (http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kenanderson/aviation/index.html)." Almost three years later and many successful, as well as, unsuccessful attempts at flying the Wright Brothers finally became the first to achieve heavier than air powered flight. By 1904 Wilbur Wright was a seasoned operator of the flying machines made by him and his brother. Their success did not come easy. According to Aviation 1890-1939 The Pioneering Years, the Wright Brothers tried to sell one of their Flier III machines to the British military, and negotiations fell through when C.F. Hadden wrote rejecting their terms. This made the Wright Brothers extremely mad and they refused to demonstrate the machine to any government in advance without a firm sale agreement (http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kenanderson/aviation/index.html). So as you can see early aviation was all about getting an object in the air for an extended period of time. We went from balloons, to gliders, to the Wright Brothers first heavier than air powered flight. This was the beginning of a new age in aviation history. Soon after came the golden age of aviation. So let's glide from the Wright Brothers, or early aviation, and soar into the golden age of aviation. "Aviation’s Golden Age began with Charles Lindbergh’s Atlantic flight in June, 1927 and ended twenty years later in Long Beach Harbor with the short flight of Howard Hughes’ giant flying boat, the "Spruce Goose." It was a period of record-breaking flights, the first commercially-viable airliners and major advances in aeronautics. But more than any of these accomplishments, the age was dominated by single individuals who through vision, courage and skill transformed aviation from a barnstorming curiosity to one of the great industries of the twentieth century. Lindbergh’s flight ignited the public’s imagination like few other events this century. To span the North Atlantic by air was incredible. To do it alone in a tiny single-engine airplane flown by a shy pilot from the Midwest, a pilot who had never even seen the ocean before, was almost unimaginable. Later, in the 1930s Lindbergh flew and charted air routes across the North and South Atlantic and the northern Pacific for the early airlines. His wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, flew with him on these survey flights and as a gifted writer published her diaries describing their flights as well as the tragedy of the kidnapping and murder of their first child. As war approached, Lindbergh was invited by the Nazis to inspect the German air industry, including the Luftwaffe. Lindbergh was impressed, some say duped, by the Nazis and argued strongly for non-intervention. Angering Roosevelt, the President forbid him from serving in a military role once war broke out. Lindbergh then contributed to the war effort as a civilian, training pilots and even flying fighter missions in the South Pacific. Next to Lindbergh the most famous name in early aviation for most people is Amelia Earhart. Earhart set numerous legitimate speed and distance records through the mid-thirties, including the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. Nine years after her first record flight over the North Atlantic, she and Fred Noonan, her navigator, disappeared over the South Pacific during her famous 1937 around-the-world flight. No definitive trace has ever been found of her last flight. Perhaps aviation's most impressive personal achievement in the 1930's was the one-eyed Wiley Post's second around-the-world flight. Post and navigator Harold Gatty had set the around-the-world record in 1931 at 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes. Two years later, Post, flying solo in his Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae, beat his earlier record by 21 hours. Post fought Atlantic fog, Russian thunderstorms, equipment problems and his own fatigue to set the incredible record. Five years later, it took Howard Hughes flying a twin-engine Lockheed with a crew of four to beat the one-eyed pilot's record. Post was fascinated by high-altitude flight and reached an unofficial altitude of 55,000 feet in 1934. His flights pioneered the use of high-altitude flight suits, superchargers and pressurized ignition systems for stratospheric flight (The Golden Age of Aviation)". The Golden age was also a period during which airplanes changed from the slow wood and wired frames to faster sleek, all metal planes. This age had the aviation world really going. After World War I it was easier for people to learn to fly. The airplanes were cheap and if you owned one you could teach yourself. Believe or not there were no license requirements and no government regulations. According to The Golden Age of Aviation, a major event took place in the 1920s. The Science of Aeronautics took its place as a true and recognized science (Mattimoe). Once this type of science was recognized many improvements were brought about. Some included were wing shapes were developed for all purpose use, cowlings were including for cooling, retractable landing gear and wing flaps were proposed for safer flight (Mattimoe). These changes showed that aviation technology was going to a safer more reliable mode of transportation. From the golden age we zip right into the jet era. "The introduction of reliable jet planes, such as the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, in the late 1950s ushered in a new era in commercial aviation—the jet era. These new planes offered more speed and comfort to passengers and were less expensive than piston-engine aircraft to operate, especially for long-distance routes. The advent of jets into commercial aviation profoundly changed the structure of civil air management and ground operations, affected how airlines managed their shorter routes, and had important social effects on people all over the world. The proliferation of jets in commercial aviation revolutionized how airlines looked at short-distance routes. In the early 1960s, the public had become used to jet service for flights over long and even medium distances, such as between New York and Chicago. Consequently, airline operators faced the challenge of transferring the appeal of the new jets—their speed, comfort, and reliability—too much shorter routes [ (Siddiqi) ]." The jet era proved to somewhat difficult due to the high consumption of fuel for some of these airplanes. "However, the advances in jet engine technology in the early 1960s, especially the introduction of the fanjet engine, forced airlines to reconsider. The new levels of reliability and efficiency (i.e., low maintenance costs) as well as their low noise levels made jets attractive even for short routes. The innovator in this area was not an American aircraft, but a French one, known as the Caravelle, built by the Sud-Est Aviation (later Sud-Aviation) company. Air France had flown this sleek twin-engine aircraft since 1959, and in July 1961, United Airlines began using the Caravelle on its New York-Chicago route. Taking a cue from the design of the Caravelle, Boeing built the 727, a larger and faster jet with three engines, and perfect for both medium- and short-distance routes [ (Siddiqi) ]." According to The Era of Commercial Jets, by 1970, the Boeing 727, one of the most versatile aircraft of the jet era, became the fastest-selling commercial jet plane in the world. It was the first plane to pass the 1,000 sales mark, and by the mid-1970s, as many as 60 airlines all over the world were flying the 727. Douglas offered its own DC-9 to compete with the 727 on its shorter routes, and after entering service in December 1965 with Delta Air Lines, the DC-9 also sold in large numbers around the world. Another major advance was the introduction of the wide-body jets [ (Siddiqi) ]. Siddiqi also writes that, "Pan American played a key role in shaping the economics and eventual design of a new generation of jets. Pan American's primary focus had always been to lower its operating costs by having higher block speeds, higher aircraft use, or higher load capacities. Having maximized all of these factors, Pan American's famous guiding manager Juan Trippe, began looking for the only remaining option: a massive airplane capable of carrying hundreds of passengers that would be an ocean liner for the skies. By defining requirements for size and passenger capacity, Trippe was instrumental in determining the eventual shape of Boeing's new aircraft—called the 747—which could carry as many as 490 passengers. Trippe ordered 23 passenger 747s for Pan American in April 1966. Although Boeing faced severe problems with its weight, its engines, and its size during development, the company successfully delivered its first flight model in December 1969. Pan Am had originally intended to begin regularly scheduled services across the Atlantic before Christmas 1969, but engine problems forced a delay to January 22, 1970, when its first Boeing 747 took off from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and headed out over the Atlantic. Other airlines followed Pan Am's lead. TWA inaugurated a New York-Los Angeles Boeing 747 service in February 1970, followed soon by American Airlines in March on the same route. Airlines such as Continental, Northwest, United, Delta, National, Eastern, and Braniff all followed with their own 747 services within the year [ (Siddiqi) ]." Despite the economies expected from the introduction of wide-bodied jets, airline fares did not go down—at least not significantly. Also, the new planes were not faster than the earlier jet aircraft. Additionally, not all passengers liked being in a plane brimming with people, sitting in a cabin with ten seats abreast and two aisles. "If the initial excitement over the grand ambition of the Boeing 747 attracted Pan Am and its passengers, by the mid-1970s, the major airlines had a slightly more cautious approach to the “big-is-better” solution. The introduction of jet aircraft changed the ground infrastructure of the air industry. For example, airports across the United States now had to build much longer runways with thicker concrete to support heavier planes. Chicago's O'Hare Airport was the first to introduce several innovations such as parallel runways that enabled simultaneous landings and takeoffs, and accordion-like corridors that replaced the old passenger stairs leading to the planes. Because of the louder noise of jets, newer airports were now located much farther from major urban centers, thereby boosting economic growth in many suburban areas. If in the early 1950s, air travel still was considered adventurous by some, by the end of the decade, it had become routine for many Americans. In 1958, over one million passengers flew to Europe, thus displacing ocean liners as the premier method of transatlantic travel. Because of fast-flying jet aircraft, by 1968, transatlantic passenger service had increased to six million passengers per year. The ability for the middle class to travel far and wide meant new social habits: students were now traveling to Europe for summers, and families were now vacationing in far-off places for a single weekend. By the 1970s, the convenience of jet travel made vast international cultural exchanges a norm [ (Siddiqi) ]. As the jet era quickly picks up the tempo in aviation technology, we run into the modern aircraft we know today. Let's see how we have turned full circle from the early aviation days. Modern aircraft can be seen all across the skies. Commercial airlines sporting the now retired Concorde, a supersonic transport, to the military flying the B-2A stealth bomber or F-22 Raptor. Modern aircraft has proved to be successful as well as unsuccessful. For example the Concorde, "while commercial jets take eight hours to fly from New York to Paris, the average supersonic flight time on the transatlantic routes was just under 3.5 hours. Concorde had a maximum cruise altitude of 18,300 meters (60,039 ft) and an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02, about 1155 knots (2140 km/h or 1334 mph), more than twice the speed of conventional aircraft [ (Wikipedia) ]." The Concorde flew 22,296 hours before being retired in 2003. It is said that the Concorde was the safest airline of its era. But rising costs and low demand because of the accident in 2000 many people did not want to fly on the Concorde. Another example of a modern aircraft is the B-2A Spirit. The B-2A is an American strategic bomber. "The B-2 is the only aircraft that can carry large air to surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration [ (wikipedia) ]." According to Wikipedia, "the B-2's low-observable, or "stealth", characteristics give it the ability to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated anti-aircraft defenses to attack its most heavily defended targets. The bomber's stealth comes from a combination of reduced acoustic, infrared, visual and radar signatures, making it difficult for opposition defenses to detect, track and engage the aircraft. Many specific aspects of the low-observability process remain classified. The B-2's composite materials, special coatings and flying wing design, which reduces the number of leading edges, contribute to its stealth characteristics." To think that an airplane can fly around and because of its design cannot be seen on radar. Some people confuse stealth technology with being invisible, but you can still visually see a B-2 flying. What stealth means is to be not seen on radar equipment. Finally the F-22 Raptor is a version of technology at its finest. "The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is a single-seat, twin-engine fifth-generation super maneuverable fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles [ (Wikipedia, F-22 Raptor) ]." Just like the B-2, the Raptor has a stealth technology. This is extremely beneficial when providing close air support or even flying was time missions. One thing that was modernize was unlike the B-2, which needs climate controlled hangers, the Raptor can undergo repairs on the flight line or in normal hangars. this significantly reduced the maintenance costs of the Raptor. Just like all the other era, I have talked thus far, the Modern age has seen its share of difficulties. Economical crisis has cut the aviation and technology budgets, also some of the modern aircraft are experiencing problems that my cost millions to fix. The modern era has taken us to today, as we look into the future. I have taken you on a journey through aviation history. We started from the bicycle makers, from Dayton Ohio, that was the first to achieve powered flight. We then explored the Golden Age of aviation, where we learned about Charles Lindbergh. We then zoomed into the jet era. We saw the airplanes became larger, and more luxurious to fly. We finally made a stop at modern age aviation. We saw how we can be invisible but not be invisible. There have been so much accomplished since the first flight in 1903. Johnny Moore, someone who was there when the Wright Brothers flew for the first time said it best, "They done it! They done it! Damned if they ain't flew." We don't know where we are heading, if we don't know where we came from. Hope you enjoyed the paper.

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Siddiqi, A. (n.d.). The Era of Commercial Jets. U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission .
The Golden Age of Aviation.
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Aircraft. wikipedia. (n.d.). B-2 Spirit.
Wikipedia. (n.d.). F-22 Raptor. www.century-of-flight.net. (n.d.). The Jet Age.