History of flight

By 1680, after studying long flight of birds, physiologist and physicist Giovanni Borelli concluded that
man cannot fly under its own power. Therefore, many people thought then, after sensational
Montgolfier brothers invention that the solution for the human flight is an apparatus lighter than air.
But when the idea emerged to replace muscle strength through a car appeared partisans of aircraft
heavier than air.
The most important representative of this orientation was an English inventor with remarkable vision,
George Cayley. In the book "On Air Navigation" (1809), he stated the principle of operation of aircraft (an
area supports a weight load, defeating air resistance by a driver) and he described the main components,
including propeller. In 1804 he built a model and, in 1809, several gliders, but did not have available an
engine light enough.
Despite its remarkable innovations, Cayley was unable to progress due to technology times in which he
lived. Only available with mechanical power, steam engine proved itself to be inadequate for
aeronautical applications.
Widely used in the 1800s, steam engine revolutionized the design of ships and made possible the
emergence of railways, ships and locomotives not only had to get up in the air. Steam engines were
massive and heavy, too heavy for the power produced, and required considerable amounts of wood or
coal for power and water to produce steam.
However, Cayley's glider models have not gone unnoticed. Many have studied and have copied
achievements and gliders are still used today registering flights on impressive distances and with
amazing durations.
Cayley's investigations were continued by his admirer, William Henson. His partner, engineer John
Stringfellow, built to scale a "car air steam" which, in 1848, made descents in gliding flight, but the
engine weight didnt allow, unfortunately, to gain altitude, only to extend slipping.
In the second half of the nineteenth century there were two leading pioneers of flight who worked
successfully:

The first major scientific contribution to improving gliders was the German engineer Otto Lilienthal. He
studied long flight of birds, recording observations results in "Flight of birds as a basis for aviation".
Lilienthal built and flew many gliders in different experiments and he even incorporated in aircraft design
a small gasoline engine. He had already made many flights when, in 1896, he was fatally injured falling
from 15 meters high.
During the same period, the Englishman of American origin Hiram Stevens Maxim built in 1894, a biplane
driven by steam power. The plane had two engines and two propellers and it was able to rise from the
ground. Despite promising debut, Maximum inexplicably gave up continuing work on this project.
In 1900, the number of experiments made by predecessors was large enough to allow a methodical and
persevering inventor to fly a power-driven machine having a person on board. This was accomplished by
the Wright brothers.

Orville and Wilbur Wright, two brothers from Dayton, Ohio (USA) are unequivocally recognized by
historians as the inventors of the first operational airplane/aircraft.
The story, that the two were some semi-illiterate bicycle mechanics who discovered absolutely by
chance the secrets of flight, is libellous and without basis. In fact, given the information available at
present, we know its true that the Wright brothers had not received a complete education, initially
trying to embrace a career as editors and publishers of a newspaper and then dealing with repairing
bicycles. But once they became interested in birds flight, in 1899, they began to study aviation in the
most serious way, standing out as true experimental researchers.
The Wright brothers have developed a device characterized by stability wings that allowed them
deformation (until then, the glider was tilted to one side, the pilot was recovering his body leaning
opposite to avoid collapse). Once building a stable machine, the Wright brothers were busy drivers,
achieving a combustion engine, light weight (83 kg and 13 hp) as they needed. Finally, they have built a
highly efficient propeller for that time (the device had two propellers, contra-rotating, triggered by
bicycle sprockets and chains).
In late 1903 they made the first flight. While representing the most advanced technology of the time,
this device - The Flyer (Zburatorul) - could not take off under its own power, being catapulted from a
wooden track.
First takeoff attempt was a failure due to pilot error committed by Wilbur (it won the right to fly the first
attempt, giving the money). A second attempt Orville allowed him to perform a "flight" of 12 seconds
over a distance of 36 meters. On the same day - December 17, 1903 - he managed to keep the device in
the air for 59 seconds and a distance of 260 meters.
The airplane was born. Wilbur died in 1912, but Orville lived till 1948, long enough to notice how their
invention changed the history of the 20th century and the world we live in.

One of the pioneers of world aviation is Trajan Vuia who made a design unit that took off and who
managed to flew his own mechanical device. This memorable flight was performed in Paris on 18 March
1906, helping to open a new era in the history of aeronautics.
The device called Vuia 1 was an easy monoplane with steel tube frame with pliable wings of waterproof
linen, which were stretched over a metal frame, with a single propeller and the landing gear consisted of
a four-wheeled cart equipped with tires (used for the first time in the construction of airplanes). This
fully mechanical flight was made at a distance of 12 meters at a height of about 1 metre.
Romanian Henri Coanda is considered the father of jet propulsion aircraft, which he experienced for
the first time in the world in 1910, near Paris. But the most important invention that made him famous
throughout the world is "Coanda effect", patented in 1934, as the process and device to divert fluid to
another fluid.
This invention brought a revolution in aeronautics, finding numerous applications in
other areas. It says that a fluid stream tends to adhere to a straight wall downstream of a sharp curve
because of the pressure created by involving fluid flow swirl of jet and curved wall. His invention led to
turbojets with propulsion and power port because they are provided with flue gas jets, tipped with high
speed of effusion.
Through their outstanding achievements, the famous Romanian inventors Henri Coanda, Traian Vuia
and Aurel Vlaicu, contributed greatly to the development of global aeronautics.