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[Illustration]
_The Story of_
AMERICAN AVIATION
_by_ JIM RAY
ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR
[Illustration]
The thrilling story of
how the airplane grew
and the part it has played
in the war and peace-time history of the United States of America
OVER 150 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR
OF AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS AIRPLANES--OLD AND NEW
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA · TORONTO
[Illustration]
_Copyright, 1946, by_
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
Copyright in Great Britain and in
The British Dominions and Possessions
Copyright in the Philippines
FIRST EDITION
MADE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOREWORD
In the following pages, Jim Ray, talented in his work of presentation
and a conscientious student of aviation, presents a chain of highlights
in the progress of American aëronautics. The work as a whole is directed
toward a sound conception of the steps which have been taken in aircraft
development. In so far as possible, without being exhaustive, Mr. Ray
has portrayed the engineering advancement which underlies the structure
of our swiftly developing air age. The reader who thoroughly digests the
text and illustrations of this book will find that it is an orderly and
faithful guide.
GILL ROBB WILSON
_Aviation Editor,
New York Herald Tribune
Director of Aviation
State of New Jersey_
INTRODUCTION
It is difficult to believe that, just a little over thirty years ago, I
was a high-school student watching the pilots at the Wright Brothers’
exhibition of the world’s first flying machine. That machine weighed
about eight hundred pounds. Its engine developed thirty horsepower. It
flew at the then astounding speed of forty-two miles an hour, which is
equal to the landing speed of our slowest light plane today. High-school
students now are accustomed to the sight of giant airplanes whose weight
is measured in tons and whose horsepower mounts to the thousands.
December, 1945, marks the forty-second anniversary of the first flight
of an airplane. The progress of aviation since that first flight still
seems unbelievable, even to one who has followed its development
closely. The purpose of this book is to trace the progress of aviation
in America and to tell the story of the men and machines that have given
this country supremacy in the air.
In telling the story of American aviation from Kitty Hawk to the present
day, I have been able to touch only the high spots in its dramatic
progress. Space limitations prevent me from giving personal credit to
the hundreds of pioneer airmen, engineers, and mechanics who have
contributed so greatly to the progress of American aviation. Lack of
space also makes it impossible to give the complete story of the great
Government research organization, the National Advisory Committee for
Aëronautics, whose work has been most fruitful in the advancement of
civil and military aëronautics in the United States.
As we look over the record of the astounding progress of American
aviation in forty-two years, let us salute our military leaders who have
visualized the need for air power; the men who have designed and built
our great engines and airplanes, and the leaders of commercial aviation
who have made air travel fast, safe, and economical.
JIM RAY
_Ottsville, Pennsylvania,
1945_
CONTENTS
The Beginnings of American Aviation 6
Aviation in America in Its Early Days 9
First Army Airplane 23
America Becomes Air-Minded 24
The Army and Navy Spread Their Wings 28
United States Military and Naval Aviation, World War I 32
The First Transatlantic Flight 34
Men and Machines, World War I 36
The First Air Mail 38
Precision Bombing Is Born 40
The U. S. Navy’s First Aircraft Carrier 41
The First Flight Around the World 42
Air Progress 44
America’s First All-Metal Transport 46
Better Power for America’s Airplanes 49
Record-Making Fokker Tri-Motor Transport Plane 50
Air Transport Grows 52
Donald Douglas’ Dream Comes True 54
Safety in Flight 56
Luxury Airliners and Skysleepers Make Air Travel an Accepted Fact 58
Pan American Clippers Conquer Pacific Skies 60
Pan American Clipper Inaugurates America’s
First Transatlantic Air Transport Service 62
Private Planes 64
Superchargers and Super-Airliners 65
Air Power for World War II 67
Naval Aviation, 1922-1935 68
Shipboard Fighters 69
Battleship of the Air 70
Naval Aviation Gets Ready 72
The U. S. Navy’s First Long-Range Flying Boats 74
Technical Progress in the U. S. Army Air Corps in the Thirties 76
Army Attack Aviation and Training 80
Superfighter 82
Man-Made _Thunderbolts_ Rip Wide a Path to Victory 84
Superfortress 86
Naval Aviation in the Early Months of World War II 88
The U. S. Navy’s Deadliest Fighter Plane 90
Dive-Bomber 93
Our Flying Navy 94
Aërial Armada 96
Postwar Aviation 100
Index of Persons 103
[Illustration]
THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN AVIATION
[Illustration: THE FLIGHT OF ETANA]
THE DREAMERS
The idea of human flight has excited man’s imagination for thousands of
years. From stories and legends handed down through the years, we know
that even from earliest times people dreamed of flying. There are
visions of conquering the air in the colorful legends of winged men and
beasts found in ancient folklore. The winged statuary of the Egyptians
was no doubt inspired by the desire to imitate the flight of birds. In
Greek mythology Hermes, the messenger of the gods, is clothed with
winged sandals and helmet.
Historians have unearthed stories in cuneiform writing of man’s attempts
to fly. Some of these inscriptions date back more than five thousand
years, to 3500 B.C. Perhaps the most famous of these stories is the
ancient Babylonian tale of the shepherd boy, Etana, who rode on the back
of an eagle.
The story of Dædalus and Icarus also tells us that man believed flying
was somehow possible. Dædalus was a very clever man who lived with his
son Icarus on the Island of Crete. The king of this island requested
Dædalus to build a labyrinth or maze for him. Dædalus constructed the
labyrinth so cleverly that only the king, who had the clue to the
winding passages, could find his way out. One day the king became very
angry at Dædalus and threw both him and his son Icarus into the
labyrinth, intending that they should perish. Dædalus, who had been
dreaming of flying, fashioned wings from wax and feathers, with which he
and Icarus could fly to freedom. He cautioned Icarus that he must not
fly too high or the sun would melt the wax in his wings. Icarus,
impatient to escape, scarcely listened. Like birds the two flew into the
air, quickly leaving the walls of the labyrinth. Dædalus, flying low,
safely crossed the sea and reached Sicily. Icarus, unfortunately, failed
to heed his father’s warning. Flying was so much fun that he rose higher
and higher. Suddenly feathers began to drop one by one. Too late Icarus
realized that the sun had melted the wax in his wings. Down, down he
fell into the sea.
Another ancient myth of flying concerns Pegasus, the winged horse.
Bellerophon, a Corinthian hero, rode Pegasus and with his help killed a
horrible monster called the Chimera.
Not only did men of long ago dream of flying--some of them firmly
believed it could be done. Archimedes, a great Greek mathematician born
in 287 B.C., was one. In the year 1250 an Englishman, Roger Bacon, had
the idea that a large hollow globe of thin metal could be made which,
when filled with an ethereal air or liquid fire, would float on the air
like a ship on water.
[Illustration: DÆDALUS AND ICARUS]
Leonardo da Vinci, the great Italian artist and scientist, who lived in
the fifteenth century, spent years experimenting with the idea of
flying. He made a number of sketches of wings to be fitted to the arms
and legs of man. His plan for a parachute was soundly worked out and his
idea that the wings of a flying machine should be patterned after the
wings of the bat found expression in the doped fabric covering of our
early airplanes.
[Illustration: LEONARDO DA VINCI’S GLIDER AND PARACHUTE IDEA]
Aviation today is such an accepted fact that we sometimes forget how men
from different parts of the world had to work, suffer hardships, face
ridicule, and even give their lives that flying might become possible.
In 1678, Besnier, a French locksmith, constructed a curious flying
machine consisting of two wooden bars which rested on his shoulders. At
the ends of the bars he attached muslin wings, arranged to open on the
down stroke and close on the up stroke. The wings were operated by
moving the arms and legs. Although Besnier failed to realize that no man
had sufficient muscular strength to fly as the bird flies, he did sense
part of the truth--that gliding with the air currents was possible.
During his experiments he is said to have jumped from a window sill,
glided over the roof of a near-by cottage, and landed on a barge in the
river.
[Illustration: BESNIER AND HIS WINGS]
In 1799 an Englishman, George Cayley, conceived the idea that a kite
could be built large enough to carry him up into the air. Instead of a
string to hold the kite against the wind he decided to use the weight of
his own body. He built a huge kite with a sustaining surface of three
hundred square feet. When he held on to it and ran against the wind, the
kite did indeed lift and carry him some distance through the air.
Cayley’s kite was the first glider and also the very beginning of the
modern airplane.
Wonderful though it may have seemed to him, no one paid any attention to
Cayley’s discovery until 1867, when F. H. Wenham, also an Englishman,
came to the conclusion that if a glider were attached to a propeller
driven by an engine, it would fly. Wenham was right, of course, but he
left his fine logic for other men to use. He did, however, leave
something else by which we may remember him. He coined the word
_aëroplane_. He took the Greek _aëro_, meaning air, and joined to it the
Latin _planus_, meaning flat. The British still use the world
_aëroplane_, but we in America use the simpler form _airplane_.
The first successful attempt to fly was made in France on June 5, 1783,
when the Montgolfier brothers demonstrated their hot-air balloon. It
rose to the height of one thousand feet and remained aloft for ten
minutes. Benjamin Franklin, then in France, witnessed a flight of the
Montgolfier balloon and referred to it in his chronicles. (As this book
tells the story of the airplane, we shall not describe in detail the
free balloon.)
In Germany, another man interested in flying was experimenting. Otto
Lilienthal, in the year 1890, built for himself a queer-looking glider
which resembled nothing so much as a bat with huge wings. Remember
Leonardo da Vinci’s idea? To his bat wings Lilienthal attached a
tail-like rudder for steering. For his own support on the glider he
provided a pair of struts similar to the arm rests of crutches.
Lilienthal would run down a hill into the wind with his glider. When
sufficient speed had been attained, the glider and Lilienthal would rise
triumphantly into the air. He learned to travel fair distances and was
fired with the ambition to put an engine on his glider. He did design a
2½-horsepower engine, weighing ninety pounds and mounted on a biplane.
Before trying his new machine, Lilienthal decided to make a short flight
in his old glider. Somehow the glider stalled, one wing dropped off, and
the whole thing fell to the ground, carrying Lilienthal to his death.
His powered machine was never tried. Other men, however, believed that
Lilienthal had been correct in his idea of flying, and his death did not
stop their experiments.
About this time in America, a young man, just out of college, built a
glider patterned after a sea gull. This young man was a Californian,
John J. Montgomery. He worked alone and was so timid that he tried out
his glider from a near-by hill at three o’clock in the morning. He was
afraid that onlookers would laugh at him if his glider failed. It did
not fail. He made a flight of six hundred feet--the first of many
successful flights. Montgomery solved many of the problems of flight
with little or no funds or encouragement. Because he worked alone and
was until recently almost unknown, few written records of his work are
available.
All through the nineteenth century men continued their experiments in
order to bring to a reality the dream of human flight. With each
generation, they moved ever closer to the fringe of the secret but never
quite grasped it.
In 1842 an Englishman, W. S. Henson, was optimistic enough to patent his
monoplane _Ariel_ for a flight from Britain to India. Though his design
had a cambered, or slightly curved, wing, tricycle landing gear, and
excellent bracing, it never got beyond the model stage. Another
Englishman, John Stringfellow, worked for four years on his steam-driven
monoplane. It also did not progress beyond a few model flights. In 1876,
a young Frenchman, Alphonse Penaud, read an article that ridiculed man’s
presumptuous attempts to fly. This angered the boy and he determined
forthwith to conquer the air. Though lack of money balked his ambition,
he constructed a number of models which contained many features found in
present-day airplanes. Incidentally, Penaud was the first to use an
elastic band to propel his model, as boys do. Laurence Hargrave, an
American, was the first man to make a study of the cellular or box-kite
type of wing construction. He confined his efforts to building models.
His ideas influenced the work of Lilienthal, who incorporated them in
the powered airplane he was building at the time of his death.
AVIATION IN AMERICA IN ITS EARLY DAYS
The story of the heavier-than-air machines that flew really begins in
the United States in the early 1890’s. Octave Chanute, born in France
and reared in America, was one of the first men to make a scientific
approach to the problem of flying machines. A thorough scientist, he had
followed the progress of all flight experiments the world over. He built
gliders with one, two, and even five pairs of wings and tested all of
them on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan. His most successful glides were
made with a biplane glider. In 1894, he published a book called
_Progress of Flying Machines_, which covered all the efforts of men like
himself who had experimented with man-carrying gliders and flying
machines. This book, without doubt, was responsible for bringing to this
country the honor of being the birthplace of the first successful,
man-carrying, power-driven, flying machine. A copy of Octave Chanute’s
book fell into the hands of two ambitious and enterprising young bicycle
makers of Dayton, Ohio--Orville and Wilbur Wright.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
At the time when Octave Chanute was experimenting with his gliders on
the Michigan sand dunes, another aviation pioneer was hard at work in
his laboratory in Washington, D. C. This man was Professor Samuel
Pierpont Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In this
position he had the opportunity to pursue his studies in the
aëronautical side of physics.
After much study and experimentation, he succeeded in building a tiny,
steam-powered model which flew for six seconds. Langley was so much
encouraged by the performance of his first model that he built a larger
one. This model, weighing 26 pounds and powered with a one-horsepower
steam engine, made a flight of three thousand feet in 1896.
After this flight Professor Langley felt that he had proved his theory
of flight. The public became interested and the government appropriated
$50,000 for Langley’s use in the construction of a full-size airplane.
Langley built his plane without much difficulty, but could not find
anyone to make an engine large enough for it. Finally, Charles Manley,
an expert engineer, asked for permission to build the engine. Manley’s
engine was a five-cylinder, radial gasoline engine that developed 51
horsepower and was far ahead of its time. It was years before American
radial engines were used successfully in airplanes.
Professor Langley called his machine the _Aerodrome_, and by October,
1903, the plane was ready for its test flight, with Manley to guide it.
The _Aerodrome_ was to be launched from a catapulting platform built on
the roof of a houseboat. The houseboat was anchored on the Potomac River
near Washington. As it left the platform the machine crashed into the
river, and the trial was a dismal failure. The newspapers and the public
ridiculed Langley, but he and Manley, who was unhurt in the crash,
repaired the machine for another trial. This test took place on December
8, 1903, and again the _Aerodrome_ crashed into the river. Manley once
more escaped injury, but Langley and the government were abused by the
public for wasting money. Langley was out of money himself, the
government could not furnish funds for further trials, so the
experiments were ended. The professor, discouraged and brokenhearted,
gave up.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE DREAM FULFILLED
Out in Dayton, Ohio, there were two small brothers, who dreamed, as
countless other children before them had dreamed, of flying like birds
through the air. Their dreams were heightened by a small toy given to
them by their father, the pastor of a local church. This toy was to lead
to an idea which had a profound effect on the world. You would probably
call it a flying propeller. It consisted of a wooden propeller which
slipped over a notched stick. By placing a finger against the propeller
and rapidly pushing it up the notched stick, the propeller was made to
whirl up off the end of the stick and fly into the air. The brothers,
young as they were, never quite forgot this little toy as they continued
to dream of flying like birds through the air.
Though the brothers continued to dream of flying, they were not the kind
of lads who spent all their time in dreaming. They made kites which flew
a little better and a little higher than those made by the other boys in
the neighborhood. They built a press to print their own little
newspaper, and they dabbled in woodcuts. To carve out porch posts for
their father’s home they built an eight-foot wood-turning lathe. Indeed,
they were the sort of boys who caused the neighbors to say, “What will
they think of next?”
Small town pastors in the early 1890’s did not receive princely
salaries. The brothers knew that if they ever wanted to see their dreams
come true they must earn their own capital. In the early nineties
America was in the midst of the bicycle craze. Everyone who could
possibly afford to do so owned a bicycle of some sort and belonged to a
cycle club. Being mechanically minded, the brothers did the logical
thing. They set themselves up in a small bicycle shop in Dayton, next
door to their home.
The bicycle shop in Dayton prospered, for the brothers were careful and
expert mechanics, and cyclists in need of repairs made their way to the
Wright Brothers’ shop.
[Illustration: WRIGHT BROTHERS’ BICYCLE SHOP]
The two boys who had never forgotten the little toy helicopter which
their father had given them years before, were Orville and Wilbur
Wright. Although their bicycle shop prospered the brothers continued to
dream of flying. Unlike others, who, all over the world, had been
dreaming of the same thing, the dreams of the Wright Brothers persisted.
They read everything that had been written about experiments in flying.
Every spare moment of their time was spent in thinking about flight.
Soon after Octave Chanute’s book _Progress of Flying Machines_ was
published in 1894, Orville and Wilbur Wright read a copy. Although they
had long discussed the idea of flight, it was not until they read
Chanute’s book that they were able to consider seriously any experiments
of their own.
Chanute’s book did not give the answers to the questions in the minds of
the Wright Brothers. It was primarily a record of man’s attempts to fly
and of his failures. However, it served its purpose because it created
many more questions in the minds of Orville and Wilbur Wright. They
wrote to Chanute for further information on what man had to do in order
to fly.
[Illustration: THE WIND TUNNEL BUILT BY THE WRIGHT BROTHERS TO TEST WING
DESIGNS]
The noted scientist answered the questions of the Wright Brothers as
best he could and sent them a set of tables derived from his studies of
air pressure in relation to wing surfaces. The Wrights saw in these
figures a possible clue to the mysteries of flight, and in 1900 they
built an experimental glider based on the information they had received
from Chanute. What followed this first glider experiment is the key to
the problem of why the Wright Brothers eventually succeeded while other
men failed. When the glider they constructed on the principle of the
then most perfect data failed to fly, they were capable of realizing
that the scientific research--and not their own efforts--had been at
fault.
[Illustration: ELECTRIC FAN(A) FURNISHED AIR PRESSURE WHICH ACTED ON
WING SECTION(B). WING SECTION(B) WAS MOUNTED ON A SWINGING FRAME(C). THE
MOVEMENT OF(B) CAUSED(C) TO MOVE A POINTER ON DIAL(D) WHICH INDICATED
THE AMOUNT OF MOVEMENT OF(B). (E) ARE WEIGHTS ATTACHED TO WING(B). (E)
REPRESENTED _WEIGHT_ AND _DRAG_. THEY REGISTERED THEIR EFFECT ON WING
LIFT.]
The Wright Brothers were not only inspired mechanics (as many people
still believe today) but serious scientists, working along the soundest
lines. In their keen desire to know what air pressure on wings really
was, they cleared a corner of their bicycle shop and built a small wind
tunnel with spare lumber and an old electric fan. They built small wing
sections of various shapes and experimented with them in their wind
tunnel. The electric fan was used to create the moving air around the
wing section. By attaching the wing sections to a supporting frame and
connecting the frame with a pointer and dial, they were able to keep a
record of the effect of moving air on each experimental wing section.
Through their wind tunnel research the Wright Brothers discovered the
four forces that control all heavier-than-air flight: _lift_, _thrust_,
_weight_, and _drag_. They found that a slight curve or camber in the
wing section would cause the moving air to travel farther over the top
of the wing surface than along the under side. This made the air
pressure greater under the wing, gave a suction effect above the wing,
and caused it to rise, creating _lift_. They discovered that a wing
section of the proper camber would counteract the _weight_ of gravity.
Thus, a wing must be so designed that, with a certain amount of air
flowing around it, it would lift a certain _weight_. They also
discovered that air flow against any surface attached to the wing would
cause a resistance or _drag_. Hundreds of experiments in their wind
tunnel with various types of wing shapes gave the Wrights a series of
tables from which to design a wing that would create the _lift_ for a
designed weight.
[Illustration: THE FOUR FORCES THAT CONTROL THE FLIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE
LIFT
TRUST DRAG
WEIGHT]
Then, after testing more than 200 wing designs and plane surfaces in
their wind tunnel, the Wright Brothers found out how to figure correctly
the amount of curve, or camber, that was essential to weight-carrying
wings. They discovered, too, that before man could be flown through the
air, he must have his wings attached firmly to a body or platform which
was firm and controllable. The Wrights in their earliest experiments had
realized that to be practical their machine must be built not only to
fly in a straight line, but also in order that it could be steered to
the right or to the left. One day, Orville was twisting a cardboard box
in his hand when Wilbur noticed it. Immediately he saw the solution to
the problem of steering their airplane. The result was a design which
changed the _lift_ of either end of the wing by warping its surface. If
one end of the wing was warped to give it more _lift_, the machine would
_lift_ on that side and fall off into a turn. Thus the problem of
steering was solved by the Wrights.
[Illustration: THE WRIGHT BROTHERS’ EXPERIMENTAL GLIDER]
FIRST FLIGHT
After a year of exhaustive study and experiments with models in their
wind tunnel, the Wright Brothers were ready to experiment with a
man-carrying glider. With the thoroughness that was typical of every
move of the Wrights, the brothers asked the government to let them have
information on meteorological conditions all over the country. By
studying the weather charts they were able to find a locality where
there was a continual flow of wind. This would be nature’s wind tunnel
where they could test their glider day after day. Through their study of
the charts they found that the wind conditions at Kitty Hawk, on the
North Carolina coast, seemed to offer the best possibilities for their
glider test.
Orville and Wilbur Wright began their experiments with a small
man-carrying glider at Kitty Hawk in 1900. From that time until 1903
they made hundreds of successful glider flights and kept accurate
records of each flight. They recorded wind velocity, angle of flight,
duration of flight, time of day, temperature, humidity, and sky
conditions overhead with the typical Wright attention to detail. Each
year the Wrights constructed new gliders which embodied principles they
had discovered for themselves during their flights at Kitty Hawk. Each
glider was larger and had longer and narrower wings than the one before.
During the fall of 1902 the brothers recorded nearly a thousand flights
in a glider with a wingspan of thirty-two feet. It had a front elevator
and a vertical tail which helped to maintain lateral stability.
By 1903 the Wright Brothers were ready to build a powered man-carrying
flying machine. Their experiments had shown them just how much moving
air was necessary to create lift in such a machine. To create the needed
thrust, an engine having eight horsepower and weighing not over 200
pounds had to be fitted into the machine. Such an engine was not
available, so the Wrights built one in their shop at Dayton, Ohio. They
were ready to ship their airplane to Kitty Hawk, N. C., in the fall of
1903.
[Illustration: 1903
WINGSPAN 40 FEET
LENGTH 19 FEET
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS’ AIRPLANE WAS THE FIRST HEAVIER-THAN-AIR
MACHINE THAT WOULD REALLY FLY UNDER ITS OWN POWER.
ONE 4-CYLINDER
16-HP. GAS ENGINE
IT WAS POWERED WITH A 4-CYLINDER WATER-COOLED ENGINE, DESIGNED AND
BUILT BY THE WRIGHT BROTHERS.
ONE HOUR
30½ MILES
THE FIRST WRIGHT AIRPLANE HAD A TOP SPEED OF ABOUT 30 MILES PER
HOUR.
RANGE
120 FEET
THE LONGEST FLIGHT IT MADE ON THE FIRST DAY’S TRIALS WAS 120 FEET,
LESS THAN THE WINGSPAN OF OF THE MODERN _SUPERFORTRESS_.
CEILING
20 FEET
IT FLEW AT LOW ALTITUDES. MOST OF THE FLIGHTS WERE AT ALTITUDES OF
FROM TWELVE TO TWENTY FEET.
ONE PERSON
IT CARRIED BUT ONE MAN, THE PILOT.
ALTHOUGH THE FIRST FLIGHTS OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS WERE NOT
SPECTACULAR FROM A POINT OF SPEED, HEIGHT OR DISTANCE, THEY DID
PROVE THAT MAN COULD FLY AND THAT THE WRIGHTS HAD DISCOVERED THE
SECRET. FROM THAT TIME FLIGHT HAS BEEN BASED ON THEIR ORIGINAL
IDEAS.]
[Illustration]
A cold wind whipped across those buff stretches of Kitty Hawk on
Thursday, December 17. A coin was tossed into the air between Orville
and Wilbur Wright. Orville won the toss, climbed up and stretched prone
on the wing of the flying machine. He clutched the controls.
There were no cheering crowds; a mere handful of people were there.
Running along its launching track, the 750 pounds of plane, engine, and
passenger shot up into the air so fast that Wilbur, at the wing-tip,
could not keep up. For three and one-half seconds the plane was in the
air. It came to rest 105 feet from the take-off. Powered flight was
born!
WRIGHT BROTHERS’ AIRPLANE
Three more flights were made on that epochal day at Kitty Hawk. The last
flight of the day, with Wilbur at the controls, proved to be a
breath-taking adventure. For fifty-nine seconds the roaring,
white-winged craft pitched and rolled in the fitful wind. Flying low
with its pilot tense at the controls, it covered a distance of 852 feet.
There was no question now in the minds of Orville and Wilbur. They had
proved conclusively their theory and were anxious to get back to their
shop to continue improving their first flying machine.
Except for the handful of spectators who were present, the world treated
the first powered flight coldly. Only a few days before the first flight
of the Wright Brothers the highly publicized Langley _Aerodrome_ had
crashed into the Potomac for the second time. People just would not
believe that the Wrights actually had flown. The newspapers refused even
to print the story. Had not most newspaper editors just proved
conclusively from Langley’s disaster that the heavier-than-air flying
machine could never work? Most scientists agreed with the newspaper
editors, and the Wright Brothers were ignored by both press and public.
Immediately after their initial flight, the Wrights offered their
invention to the government. The criticism aroused by the government’s
investment of $50,000 in the disastrous Langley experiment was too fresh
in the minds of the authorities, and no encouragement was given to the
brothers’ offer. The Wrights returned to Dayton, where they housed their
machine in a closed barn on the flat land a few miles east of the city.
They admitted that they had flown, but they were among the first to
state that they had only uncovered the barest physical facts associated
with flight.
The brothers continued to make flights over the flat lands. They made
105 flights during the year 1904 and gained a considerable amount of
experience and skill. They mastered the art of flying in a complete
circle and landing the plane in the same field from which it had taken
off.
[Illustration: THE CURVED WING FORCES MOVING AIR AWAY FROM ITS UPPER
SURFACE.]
[Illustration: THIS CREATES LIGHT AIR ABOVE THE WING. THE AIR FLOWING
UNDER THE WING IS NOT DISTURBED. AS A RESULT IT IS HEAVIER THAN THE AIR
ABOVE THE WING. THE HEAVIER AIR PUSHES THE WING UPWARD, CREATING
_LIFT_.]
[Illustration: ELEVATORS ARE SMALL WINGS. WHEN THEY ARE SET TO CREATE
_LIFT_, (E) ABOVE, THEY LIFT THE NOSE OF THE PLANE. THIS RAISES THE
LEADING EDGE OF THE WINGS OF THE PLANE.
THE WINGS ARE DESIGNED FOR LEVEL FLIGHT. WHEN THE LEADING EDGE RISES,
THE WING HAS A GREATER LIFT. THIS MAKES THE PLANE CLIMB. WHEN THE
LEADING EDGE IS LOWERED THE WING LOSES _LIFT_ AND THE PLANE DESCENDS.
WHEN THE WING IS WARPED IT LOSES SOME OF ITS _LIFT_ AREA (A). THE LOSS
OF _LIFT_ CAUSES THE WING TO DROP. THIS MAKES THE PLANE TO TURN TOWARD
THE LOW SIDE.
THE RUDDERS ARE MOVABLE SURFACES THAT REACT TO MOVING AIR. WHEN THEY ARE
SWUNG INTO THE AIRSTREAM OF THE MOVING PLANE, THE AIR STRIKING THEIR
SURFACES TURNS THE PLANE TO THE RIGHT OR LEFT.]
Early in the winter of 1905 the Wrights began work on a new machine,
incorporating many improvements resulting from their flying experience.
They continued to work quietly, and the only news of them that reached
the world came from the reports of farmers who lived near the flat-land
flying field. Confirmed reports showed that the Wrights had now covered
a distance of twenty-four miles in thirty-eight minutes.
[Illustration]
THE FIRST AIRPLANE
Many people speak of the Wright Brothers’ first airplane as a flimsy
contraption of sticks, cloth, and wire. Although it was indeed built of
wood, cloth and wire, it was, like everything else the Wrights built,
thoughtfully and painstakingly constructed. Its wings were efficient
lifting surfaces and the entire airplane was sound structurally. The
main force that went into it was the result of years of sound research
in aëronautical science. Orville and Wilbur Wright had solved all the
fundamental problems of flight before they built their first powered,
man-carrying airplane. They discovered the basic forces that control all
heavier-than-air flight: _lift_, _thrust_, _drag_, and _weight_. Today,
little more than forty years after the first flight at Kitty Hawk, those
_four forces_ discovered by the Wright Brothers still control the design
of every airplane built.
Equally important was their solution of the problem of controlled
flight. Their knowledge of the effect of air on the surfaces of the
wings helped the Wrights solve the problem of control. By warping the
wings they were able to turn the plane to the right or to the left. When
a wing-tip was warped downward it increased the lift of the wing,
causing it to rise. The opposite wing-tip warped upward lost lift and
the plane would fall off toward the low side. The effect was that of
dragging one oar of a boat in the water. To aid in turning the plane,
the machine was provided with a vertical rudder attached to the lateral
control. When the wings were warped, the rudder automatically swung to
enforce the turn.
The pilot’s right hand was on the lever which controlled the wing
warping and rudder. His left was on the lever which raised and lowered
the elevators. The lever at the extreme left also was attached to the
elevators, providing dual control. All movements of the controls were in
the direction of the desired attitude of the plane.
[Illustration: The Wright plane was mounted on skids and launched from a
monorail platform running on a track. The platform was attached by means
of cable and pulleys to a heavy weight swung from a tripod mast. When
the propellers were whirling and the weight was dropped, the plane shot
down the track and into the air.]
[Illustration]
The story of American aviation began in a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio.
It continued in the shop of a daredevil motorcycle racer and gasoline
engine builder at Hammondsport, New York.
While the Wright Brothers were quietly flying their plane on the flat
lands in Ohio, another self-taught, young Yankee was combining bicycles
and gasoline engines to create speedy motorcycles. Speed fascinated this
young man. He had started to build motorcycle engines of his own design
in order to win races and break speed records.
It was not long before the name of this young mechanic began to appear
repeatedly in connection with new motorcycle speed records. His name was
Glenn H. Curtiss, and he won race after race. His prize money was not
spent foolishly, but put into his experiments with gasoline engines.
In 1904, the pioneer American dirigible balloon builder, Captain Tom
Baldwin, saw a Curtiss motorcycle in California. One look at the engine
sent him scurrying to Hammondsport, New York, where he begged Glenn
Curtiss to build him an engine for a new dirigible he was building.
Curtiss built the engine, the first Curtiss engine to function in the
skies. He also flew Tom Baldwin’s dirigible, but he was not enthusiastic
over the idea of flying. “Not bad sport,” he remarked the first time he
flew the dirigible, “but there’s no place to go.” Curtiss had heard of
the flights of the Wright Brothers, but he was skeptical.
Before long Glenn Curtiss had another visitor. Dr. Alexander Graham
Bell, the inventor of the telephone, had long been interested in the
problems of flight, and had organized the Aërial Experiments Association
to encourage aëronautical efforts in this country. After talking for
hours, Dr. Bell converted Curtiss to a belief in the future of flying
and persuaded him to join the experimental group.
[Illustration: 1908
WINSPAN 40 FEET
LENGTH 20 FEET
GLENN H. CURTISS WAS THE NEXT AMERICAN TO FOLLOW THE WRIGHT BROTHERS IN
BUILDING SUCCESSFUL AIRPLANES.
POWER
ONE 4-CYLINDER 40-HP. ENGINE
CURTISS’S EXPERIENCE IN BUILDING MOTORCYCLE ENGINES LED HIM TO DESIGN
AMERICA’S BEST AIRCRAFT ENGINES.
SPEED
ONE HOUR
40 MILES
RANGE
1,000 FEET
CEILING
500 FEET
PAYLOAD
ONE PERSON
CURTISS WAS ABLE TO STUDY THE WORK OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS, AND AS HE WAS
A NATURAL MECHANIC, HE BUILT SUCCESSFUL PLANES FROM THE START. HIS
ENGINES WERE WELL BUILT AND HE SOON BEGAN TO TAKE THE LEAD IN MAKING
SPEED RECORDS. CURTISS USED BAMBOO FOR THE FRAMEWORK OF HIS EARLY
AIRPLANES. HE WAS THE FIRST TO DEVELOP A TRICYCLE LANDING GEAR, USING
WHEELS INSTEAD OF SKIDS.
FROM THE TIME OF HIS FIRST FLIGHTS CURTISS WAS A LEADER IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN AVIATION. HIS FIRST GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO THE
SCIENCE OF FLIGHT WAS THE INTRODUCTION OF THE INTER-WING LATERAL CONTROL
SURFACES, THE FORERUNNER OF THE AILERONS.]
[Illustration]
In November, 1907, Glenn H. Curtiss, in company with two young Canadian
engineers, F. W. Baldwin and J. A. D. McCurdy of Dr. Bell’s group, and
an official Army observer, Lieutenant Tom Selfridge, started to work on
a new airplane. Using all of the available existing flight research and
the ingenuity of Glenn H. Curtiss, the group finished their first plane
in March, 1908. On March 12 Baldwin flew it 300 feet. Curtiss then
designed an improved plane, the _June Bug_. With it he won the
_Scientific American_ contest by flying over a measured kilometer course
on July 4.
[Illustration]
AMERICA’S SECOND PLANE
In 1909, Glenn H. Curtiss, in a plane of his own design, again won the
_Scientific American_ award, by flying 24.7 miles over a closed course.
The plane he flew was built on order for the New York Aëronautical
Society. This was the first airplane order ever received by an American
aircraft manufacturer.
On July 25, 1909, a Frenchman, Louis Bleriot, flew his monoplane
twenty-five miles to cross the English Channel. Immediately there was
furor in Europe and golden prizes were posted for new airplane
developments and designs. The first big air race, the James Gordon
Bennett Cup race, was held at Rheims, France, in 1909. Glenn Curtiss
flew his machine against the pick of foreign pilots including Bleriot,
whom he beat by six seconds to win the Cup. His speed was forty-six
miles an hour.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: CURTISS CONTROL SYSTEM
CLIMB
BANK
TURN
ELEVATOR
RUDDER
ELEVATOR AND RUDDER CONTROLS
AILERON
AILERON CONTROL YOKE]
Glenn Curtiss had the benefit of the aëronautical research of the Wright
Brothers to aid him in designing his first airplanes, but he could not
use the wing warping method of control invented by them. This was
thoroughly protected by patents. As a result, Curtiss was forced to work
out a new system of lateral controls. He developed the aileron method of
control for use in turns or circular flight. He did this by mounting
small winglike planes on the rear struts of the plane, between the upper
and lower wings. These ailerons were hinged to swing up or down and were
attached by cables to a yoke which encircled the pilot’s shoulders. The
banking of the plane was produced by the movement of the flier as he
leaned against the yoke, pushing it in the direction of the desired
bank. Vertical motion was achieved by a fore and aft pressure on the
control column by the flier. The wheel on the control column was
attached to the vertical rudder by cables. Right or left steering was
produced by turning the wheel in the desired direction. To make a
climbing turn to the right, the flier would lean against the yoke,
pushing to the right. At the same time he would turn his wheel gently to
the right and pull the control slightly toward himself. Curtiss’ method
of control led the way to the modern type of wing aileron and the
general system of control was basically the same as that in use today.
POWER FOR THE AIRPLANE
Going back to the four forces that govern the flight of a plane, we find
_thrust_ pulling the plane forward. _Thrust_ is the force that keeps the
plane in the air; without it the airplane could not leave the ground for
sustained flight. _Thrust_ is created by the propeller. The propeller
blades function in the same manner as the wings. Just as the wing of a
plane bites into the air to cause _lift_, the propeller blades,
patterned after wing camber, bite into the air to create _thrust_. Their
action on the air is similar to a screw biting its way into wood.
The propeller is whirled by the engine. Without the engine to whirl it
the propeller is useless, for without _thrust_ we would have no _lift_.
That makes the engine the governing factor in flight. _Weight_ also is a
serious force in flight, and the Wrights and Curtiss found from the
beginning that the four-cycle gasoline engine would give greater power
for its weight than would a steam or electric engine.
The principle of the airplane engine is the same as the one used in the
automobile engine. However, weight always has been a problem to aircraft
designers. The automobile engine always has been too heavy for use in a
plane. When the Wrights built their first plane, automobile engines
weighed 25 to 35 pounds per horsepower. The Wrights built one that
weighed 13 pounds per horsepower and produced 12 horsepower. They used
this engine in 1903 to power their first plane. Since that time all
practical airplanes have been powered with gasoline engines, designed
specifically for use in heavier-than-air machines. Since the first
flight, engineers constantly have strived to produce engines with
greater power and less weight per horsepower. How well they have
succeeded is proved by the progress of the airplane.
[Illustration: HOW THE FOUR-CYCLE ENGINE WORKS
FOUR MOVEMENTS PRODUCE THE ENGINE’S POWER STROKE
1. Valve (1) opens for the INTAKE of gasoline and air vapor, and
the piston sucks it into the cylinder.
2. Valve (1) closes and the piston pushes up, producing a
COMPRESSION of the gas vapor in the cylinder.
3. Valves are closed and an electrical spark from the sparkplug
explodes the gas, forcing the piston down in the POWER stroke that
turns the crankshaft. This whirls the propeller.
4. Valve (2) opens and the piston rushes up, forcing out the
EXHAUST gases.]
It was in 1905 that the Wright Brothers had first offered to the Army a
license to use their patents; but nothing came of it. Reports coming
from Dayton during the next two years, concerning their flying
activities, caused the newspapers to publish a number of articles about
them.
Theodore Roosevelt, then our President, was a diligent reader, and
several articles about the Wrights attracted his attention. One day he
clipped one of these articles from a newspaper and scribbled across it
one word: “Investigate!” He passed it along to his Secretary of War,
William Howard Taft. In a short time the almost forgotten Wright
Brothers had a call from Brigadier General James Allen, U. S. Army
Signal Corps. In the autumn of 1907 Wilbur Wright appeared in Washington
to confer with the War Department.
A few months later, in July, 1907, an aëronautical division was
established in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army. In
December of that year the Army asked for bids on the construction of an
airplane. The specifications called for a machine that could carry a
weight of 350 pounds. It had to be able to remain in the air
continuously for one hour with two passengers. During the flight the
machine was required to remain under perfect control and to be capable
of being steered in all directions. Its speed should be 40 miles per
hour. The machine had to be built so that it could be taken apart and
packed for transportation in army wagons. Then it had to be reassembled
and put in flying condition in one hour.
By this time inventors everywhere were working on flying machines, but
the Wright Brothers were the only ones who put in an appearance with an
airplane for the Army trials in September, 1908.
Unfortunately the trial was a failure. The huge crowd gathered at Fort
Meyer, Virginia, was horrified to see a propeller fly off and the
machine crash, killing Lieutenant Tom Selfridge, the Army observer, and
injuring Orville Wright. Tom Selfridge thus became the first American
air martyr, and the future dimmed for the Wright Brothers and the
airplane.
[Illustration: 1909
WINGSPAN 36 FEET
LENGTH 28 FEET
THE 1909 WRIGHT BIPLANE BOUGHT BY THE UNITED STATES ARMY WAS THE WORLD’S
FIRST MILITARY AIRPLANE.
POWER
ONE 4-CYLINDER 30-HP. IN-LINE ENGINE
THE WRIGHTS DESIGNED AND BUILT THE FOUR-CYLINDER, VERTICAL, IN-LINE,
WATER-COOLED ENGINE THEMSELVES.
SPEED
ONE HOUR
44 MILES
RANGE
75 MILES
CEILING
3,000+ FEET
PAYLOAD
A PILOT AND ONE PASSENGER, TOTAL WEIGHT 350 LBS.
THE WRIGHT ARMY PLANE OBTAINED ITS _THRUST_ FROM TWO OPPOSITE-TURNING,
EIGHT AND ONE-HALF-FOOT PROPELLERS. ITS FRAME WAS CONSTRUCTED OF SPRUCE
WOOD AND WAS COVERED WITH UNDOPED FABRIC. THE GROSS WEIGHT OF THE WRIGHT
MACHINE WAS 1,200 POUNDS. THE PLANE WAS OF THE FINEST WORKMANSHIP AND
ITS PERFORMANCE EXCEEDED THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE ARMY OFFICERS WHO
OBSERVED ITS RIGID TESTS.
THAT THE U.S. ARMY WAS THE FIRST IN THE WORLD TO OWN A MILITARY AIRPLANE
WAS DUE TO THE LONG AND PAINSTAKING WORK OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS. THEIR
SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF FLIGHT AND THEIR CAREFULLY DEVELOPED PLANS
GAVE THE WORLD A PATTERN FOR THE FUTURE OF AVIATION.]
[Illustration]
FIRST ARMY AIRPLANE
Fortunately, the Army considered the crash a result of material failure
rather than a basic fault of the airplane. A year later, in July, 1909,
Army trials again were held at Fort Meyer, with only the Wrights
appearing on the scene. On July 30, Orville Wright, accompanied by
Lieutenant (now Brigadier-General, retired) Frank Lahm, as the Army’s
observer, flew around the course, and fulfilled with ease the Army’s
speed and endurance specifications. The Army had its first plane, and on
August 2 formal acceptance was made--just six years after man had first
flown in a heavier-than-air machine. Thus the U. S. Army was the first
in the world to own a military airplane.
[Illustration: GLENN L. MARTIN’S FIRST AIRPLANE]
AMERICA BECOMES AIR-MINDED
The United States Navy also had been giving an occasional glance toward
the airplane. It had been represented at the Army trials by Lieutenant
G. C. Sweet and Naval Constructor William McIntee. These observers were
enthusiastic and reported: “The Navy must have airplanes.”
Another interested spectator was a young midshipman who had robbed his
savings bank in order to witness the Army airplane trials. The young man
was Donald Douglas. He, too, was most enthusiastic, but he left the
trials with a vision, not of Army planes, but of giant passenger planes
flying all over the world. We will hear more of him later.
On the day after the Army trials at Fort Meyer another young man far
away in California headed his homemade airplane into the wind and took
off on his first flight. This young fellow was Glenn L. Martin who, with
the help and encouragement of his mother, had built a plane in an
abandoned church in Santa Ana, California. He not only designed and
built his airplane but, in addition, taught himself to fly. We will also
hear more of Glenn.
As the summer of 1910 rolled around, the flights of F. W. Baldwin and
Glenn Curtiss, as well as the recognition accorded the Wrights by the
Army, kindled at last the public imagination. All over the country
people started clamoring for a chance to see an airplane in action. As a
result the Wrights and Curtiss were swamped by requests from daring
young men who wanted to fly. People even wanted to buy airplanes for
sport.
[Illustration]
For the first time in its history, America had become air-minded.
The conservative Wright Brothers at last realized that the only way in
which the public could be taught to understand the possibilities of the
airplane was through seeing it perform. They picked a group of
intelligent young daredevils and formed a flying team. This Wright
flying team and a similar group under the banner of Glenn Curtiss toured
the county fairs and brought aviation to the American public. In
California, the twenty-year-old Glenn Martin was giving flying
exhibitions to earn money with which to build bigger and better
airplanes. Truly 1910 was a great year for aviation.
On May 29, 1910, Glenn Curtiss won the _New York World_ prize of $10,000
for the first flight from Albany to New York City. He flew 137 miles at
a speed of 54.8 miles per hour. In August another chapter in aërial
history was written by the sending of a wireless message to the ground
from an airplane in flight.
[Illustration: GLENN CURTISS FLIES FROM ALBANY TO NEW YORK]