User:CirrusSF50 G2/sandbox

Aircraft's By: Connor Burns

If you want to learn more about aircraft's you have come to the right place. I wrote about the history, scales, sizes, speeds, propulsion, uses for aircraft's design and construction of aircraft's. We have made many advancements in aircraft technology. It all started in 1783 when two brothers in France figured out how to make something fly more specifically a Hot air balloon. The brothers figured out that hot air was lighter than cold air. So they made a balloon that has a basket at the bottom for people to stand in with a heater that heats up the air in the balloon which made it fly/hover and so the first hot air balloon was made. Over the next century people kept experimenting with aviation and made aircraft's that somewhat resemble our modern day aircraft's. The first fixed wing aircraft (A fixed wing aircraft is an aircraft that doesn't have moving wings. An example of a non fixed wing aircraft is a helicopter.) otherwise known as a plane was made by two brothers, Orville and Wilburt Wright. They owned a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They believed that the key to flight was the newly invented gasoline engine. They first tested their machine which nowadays is called a plane on December 17, 1903. They made three successful flights that day but none lasted over a minute. Even with modern day aircraft's planes still have two things in common with the first aircraft that the Wright brothers made and that is an engine and wings. The big challenge was made a little bit before world war one by William Randolph Hearst. He set a challenge that if someone could fly from one coast of the United States to the other coast in thirty days they would get the prize which was $50,000. Most people thought that the challenge was impossible. Because planes could not even get 1,000 miles in before they break. Flights that lasted over an hour without mechanical problems were rare back then. Because the plane was going to have to be repaired a lot the contestants needed a ground crew that would repair the plane. And the only velichel back then that could keep up with a plane was a train. So the contestants would have a train following them that had the right materials to repair the plane. Which also solved the problem of navigation since aircraft's back then didn’t have GPS or any form of navigation except for maps so they followed the tracks. Only three contestants entered the competition. Calbraith Perry Rodgers was one of the contestants, He learned how to fly at the Wright Brothers Flying Academy in Dayton, Ohio. He asked the Wright brothers if they could make a plane that could make the trip. Although reluctant the Wright brothers made a plane for Cal. Cal got sponsored by the Amour company, which just came out with a new grape drink, named the “Vin Fiz”. Cal left the ground in Sheepshead Bay. After plenty of crashes Cal reached Chicago on October 8th. The $50,000 prize would expire in two days and there was no way the plane named the Vin Fiz could make it in two days. He went on though because he wanted to do it even without the prize. He finished it on the 49th day after he left New York which was the starting point for the big challenge. Planes/aircraft's come in all different sizes, scales and speed’s. One of the most well known plane is the A380 which is the biggest airliner at 239 feet or 73 meters long, and 79 feet or 24.1 meters tall. The A380 wingspan is 262 feet or 79 meters. An A380 top speed is 737 miles per hour. Although an A380’s top speed is 737 miles per hour it’s cruising speed is only 652 miles per hour. A cruising speed is when the plane reaches a certain altitude. All cruising altitudes change throughout different planes/aircraft's. The world's quickest plane is a plane named the Blackbird. The plane Blackbird can fly up to speeds of mach 3 which is equivalent to 2301.81 miles per hour. Although the blackbird is the quickest plane the quickest plane that is an airliner (which is a plane that carries passengers that airlines use) is called the Concorde. The Concorde’s cruising speed is 1,335 miles per hour. It’s take off speed is 248 miles per hour. Which compared to a Boeing 747 is a huge difference with the Boeing 747 taking off at 198 miles per hour. The F-16 was made by the U.S.A. in 1970. It was a small plane compared to planes when they made it with a wingspan of only 31 feet or 10 meters. The wingspan ( A wingspan is how far the end of one wing to the end of the other wing is.) wasn't much bigger than a world war 1 fighter. Although it has a short wingspan it can fly at speeds over 1,320 miles per hour or 2,146 kilometres per hour. Propulsion is what keeps planes/aircraft's in the air. The cockpit is where the pilot sits and controls the plane. The cockpit has many instruments that help the pilot fly the plane/aircraft. Like a steering wheel a control column is what controls the plane/aircraft. When the control column gets pushed left or right the plane rolls the direction it was pushed so left or right. But unlike a steering wheel the control column also controls the pitch of the plane/aircraft. Pulling the control column up makes the nose pitch upward which moves the plane up. When the pilot pushes the control column down the plane's nose pitches down which moves the plane down. How this works is that the elevators on the back of the plane move up or down on the tail of the plane depending on if the pilot pushed the control column down or pulled the control column down. When the elevator is up the plane’s nose will pitch up. When the elevator is down the plane's nose will pitch down. And if the elevator is even, the plane will stay level. All planes have pedals that control the rudder. Pushing the right pedal will make the plane yaw right and if you push the left pedal the plane will yaw left. Pilots use the rudder to steer the plane on the ground, they do not use the control column on the ground. Although pilots only use the rudder on the ground to steer in the sky the pilot will use both to steer with using the control column to roll which is the main part of turning and the pilots will use the rudder to level out and support the roll of an airplane. To make any self powered plane/aircraft fly it needs an engine. Like a car the engine of a plane moves the plane forward. Other things that a plane needs to fly are wings which lift the plane in the air and keep it in the air. Also all planes need ailerons which move’s the plane left or right and an elevator which moves the plane up and down. All major parts of a plane/aircraft can be controlled in the cockpit. Planes can go left, right, up, down and forward. But turning is called something different and so is going down and up. Rolling is when tilts left or right. Pilots use this for main turning. Yawning is when the nose which is the front of the plane moves left or right. This is used for stabilizing the plane during turbulence, helping turn the plane, and steering the aircraft on the ground. Pitching is what pilots call moving the plane up or down. Pitching is when the nose of the plane moves up or down which then makes the airplane go up or down. The engine is used to keep the plane/aircraft in the air. The reason a plane can fly is the wing. The top of the wing is curved and the bottom of the wing is flat. That means the air that flows on the top of the wing needs to move forward more quickly to keep up with the air flowing on the bottom of the wing. That causes the lift of the airplane, but for a plane to keep lift and stay in the air it has to have a good enough propulsion to stay in the air. So planes have engines to get the plane to have enough propulsion to get lift in the first place and stay in the air. Planes/aircraft's have uses. One use of an airplane is for fun. Although planes can be used for rescuing people, transportation and many other things such as cargo. One way a plane/aircraft's is used is for fun/entertainment. In the old days there used to be flight circuses. In the flight circuses they had planes race against cars and many other things. Nowadays we don’t have flight circuses, but we still have air racing which is where airplanes race against each other. Planes/aircraft's are also used for military’s. planes/aircraft's are an important part in battles and wars most of the time if you controlled the air you also controlled the ground. Planes/aircraft's were first used for battle/wars when only 8 years after the Wright brothers made their first plane. In 1911 when Italian forces used a plane to spy on Turkish troops in North Africa. Most planes from 1914 to 1918 during World War 1 were made for the military. The military made fighters, bombers, transport planes and ground attack aircraft's. Another use of an aircraft is to fight fires. The Canadair CL-415 helps firefighters put out fires that the firefighters truck’s can’t reach. It has a hull that enables it to land on water. When on a lake or water source it can pick up 1,586 gallons of water in only 12 seconds! Airplanes that fly to the polar outskirts are made with skis at the bottom to distribute all of the weight out of just three spots which are the landing gear. The planes are made with the skis so that the plane with its heavy weight does not sink into the snow. Planes/aircraft's have very complicated design and construction. Airships are made with a passenger area where the passengers sit, dine and sleep. The other part of an airship is the balloon. It has one giant balloon that keeps it afloat with the use of helium. An airship has two propellers that move the airship. Those propellers can move making it able to go up, down, backward and forward. This causes the airship to move in whatever direction it wants to go. They used to use hydrogen, but now we use helium for airships because an airship named the Hindenburg exploded because hydrogen is flammable and because of a recent storm, the leftover electricity caused a spark that ignited the hydrogen. Helicopters are great for rescuing people and many other tasks. Although one downside of a helicopter is that it doesn't move as quickly as a plane. The reason for this is that the engine uses most of its power to keep the helicopter stay in the air instead of moving forward. Also rotor blades cause more air resistance than plane wings. A solution to this problem is to make a new aircraft called the tilt-rotor. The tilt-rotor has propeller engines that move. With this the tilt-rotor can be used like a helicopter with the propellers facing up it can act like a helicopter’s rotor and can hover, and to get to places the propellers move forward. This causes a huge difference of speed when going places with the tilt-rotor flying at speeds of 310 miles per hour vs. the helicopters 124-186 miles per hour. Repairs of an airliner. Every airliner is stripped apart after 4 to 8 years to inspect the parts. If all the parts work fine the airline will put the plane back together, add new paint and have it fly again. If the plane has some non working parts the airline will repair or replace the non working parts. This process takes a maximum of 3 months, a little longer if they have to repair or replace parts. Airliners are one of the most complex machines in the world. They are made with up to 6 million parts. The main Boeing jumbo jet production hall in Everett, Washington is super big! It is 1,968 feet wide and nearly 1,640 feet long. That is as big as 56 american football fields! 10,000 people work around the clock and they can still only produce 5 jumbo jets in a month. Although airlines can make new planes without informing the pilots the pilots most of the time are allowed to inspect models/prototypes of the new planes. These are the history of aircraft's. Scales, sizes and speeds of aircraft's. Uses for aircraft's. Design and construction of aircraft's. Thanks for reading.