Airplanes and Airmen in
Airships, Dirigibles, and Balloons
Peacetime Aviation (1919-1927) 
Adventure, Exploration, and Sport
Commercial Airlines and Airliners
Aviation Radio and Military Aviation
Rockets, Missiles, and Satellites
Space Age Aviation (1959-1989)
Modern Aerospace (1990-Present)
General and Commercial Aviation
What was aviation? That is the central question addressed by Aviation History. What was aviation in different places and at different times? This textbook presents a chronological survey of information about aviation around the world based on the work of many historians who have carefully studied evidence pertaining to past events in aviation. The textbook presents a synthesis of what is known about the history of aviation. This coverage is comprehensive chronologically and geographically, yet selective and representative; it is neither encyclopedic nor definitive.
The arrangement is chronological by period, with themes discussed within each period and themes providing the transition between periods. Change and continuity are two issues behind the entire story and within each episode. What has changed? What has remained the same? Why? Asking and answering these questions are the essence of doing history.
Students in
any history course become student historians. It is thus important for students
to become familiar with what a historian does. Aviation History has students
practice examining aviation from the historical perspective. How a historian
approaches a topic is distinct from how a sociologist, anthropologist,
engineer, or someone from another discipline studies the same topic, though a
good historian takes advantages of the knowledge gleaned from other
disciplines.
Like detectives, historians gather and analyze evidence about what happened. Historians use statements about the past as evidence of what aviation was at different times. This evidence may be in the form of written statements, oral statements, and even material statements. Throughout Aviation History “Historical Evidence” boxes provide information about specific sources of evidence relevant to the content of the text near the respective boxes.
SUMMARY OF
EVENTS
This brief
summary of events includes aviation events and historical events outside of
aviation. The purpose is to give the student a chronological overview of what
was happening in aviation and in the world during the period covered by the
chapter.
INTRODUCTION
What was
aviation? This chapter mentions earliest aviation as ideas expressed in myths
and proposals, covers the invention of aviation as ballooning in 1783, and
discusses the development of lighter-than-air flight, including balloons,
dirigibles, and airships.
1. The Montgolfier Brothers: Joseph and
Étienne Montgolfier invented the hot air balloon in 1873. This balloon was the
first aircraft.
2. The First Balloon Ascension: On 4 June
1783 the Montgolfiers launched their balloon from
- Why was the Montgolfier paper strong enough to make balloons? The textbook does not explain, as its focus is aviation, not papermaking, but a student may ask this obvious question. Here is a brief explanation:
- Paper
originated in
3. Competition: J.A.C. Charles developed
the hydrogen balloon and launched it on 27 August 1783. This hydrogen balloon
was a technology in competition with the Montgolfiers’ hot air balloon, and
Charles was a competing aircraft designer.
4. Hot Air Development: Very rapidly the
5. Manned Flight: Several individuals flew
before the end of 1783—first Étienne Montgolfier in tethered test flights, then
others in tethered flight, and finally on 21 November 1783 Jean-François
Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, the marquis d’Arlandes, in free flight
of a Montgolfier balloon.
6. Hydrogen Balloon Development: After
improving the method of producing hydrogen, M.N. Robert and J.A.C. Charles flew
a hydrogen balloon in free flight on 1 December 1783.
1. The Montgolfiers Continue: The
Montgolfier brothers flew a large passenger-carrying balloon in January 1784
and collaborated on balloon development for months more, then turned their
attention to other interests.
2. Military Aviation:
3. International Aviation: The newly
invented balloon attracted international attention, and people went aloft in
balloons in
- Ballooning
in the
4. Exhibition Flying: Nineteenth-century
balloonists flew to exhibit flight and to reach distant locations, and in the
process they developed balloons that cost less to purchase and operate and
balloons that performed better; for example, Charles Green invented the
dragline in the 1830s.
5. Military Aviation Developments: The
armies of
6. Exploration: Swedish aeronaut S.A.
Andrée attempted to fly a balloon to the North Pole, to fly over geography so
cold, icy, and harsh that it had foiled all surface attempts to date to reach
the pole; Andrée’s 1897 flight similarly failed to reach the pole.
7. Turn of the Century: Ballooning
expeditions and the expensive sport of ballooning were news headlines.
1. Directional Control: Jean-Pierre
Blanchard attempted to control the direction of flight using wings, oars, and
fans; he failed to achieve directional control.
2. Dirigible Flight: Henri Giffard used a
steam engine to power the first dirigible flight; the three-horsepower engine
proved sufficient to enable the aircraft to be steered.
- Dirigible Development: Aircraft
designers adapted the internal combustion engine and electric power to
dirigible balloons, and Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe offered a cash prize to
encourage dirigible flight, a prize won by Alberto Santos-Dumont.
1. Airship Development: Aircraft designers
in
2. Exploration: Walter Wellman attempted
to reach the North Pole in a semi-rigid airship in 1906, 1907, and again in
1909, but he failed despite his aircraft being equipped with power and control
mechanisms.
3. Zeppelins: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
built his first rigid airship in 1900, and the first commercial airline began
service in 1910 using Zeppelin airships.
CONCLUSION
The development of aviation technology from the first balloons of 1783, to dirigible balloons in the 19th century, to dirigible balloons with framework—airships at the turn of the century, created three forms of lighter-than-air aircraft that flew into the twentieth century.
INTRODUCTION
This
chapter covers the early development of heavier-than-air flight, the
19th-century attempts to make and fly an airplane, and the successful
development of a practical airplane by Wilbur and Orville Wright.
1. Sir George Cayley: Sir George Cayley of
2. Henson and Stringfellow: William Samuel
Henson and John Stringfellow built airplane models, and Stringfellow’s
steam-powered model drop-launched from a wire may actually have flown.
3. Otto Lilienthal: The German
aeronautical pioneer Otto Lilienthal thought an airplane would be an
ornithopter with flapping bird-like wings, yet he accomplished influential work
by designing, building, and flying fixed-wing gliders.
4. Octave Chanute: A French immigrant to
the
5. Nineteenth-Century Aeronautics: People
around the world explored the possibility of heavier-than-air flight during the
19th century, some in fantastic ways and others along practical lines.
1. The Problem of Mechanical Flight: Wilbur and Orville Wright defined mechanical flight broadly as the plane and the pilot, stability and maneuverability, and based on this broad definition, they decided to build a relatively unstable airplane so that the pilot could control it in flight.
- Gliders: The Wright brothers initially built and flew gliders in order to obtain data about and experience with flight.
- Control: The brothers focused particularly on the problem of controlling an airplane about the three axes.
- Engine: Given the advances in internal combustion technology, the Wright brothers were confident that a powerful enough and lightweight enough engine could be built for their airplane, and local mechanic Charles Taylor built it for them.
2. Airplane Flight: The Wright Flyer flew
four times on 17 December 1903, twice with Orville at the controls and twice
with Wilbur there: these were the first sustained flights of a powered and
manned airplane under the control of a pilot.
1. Wright Flying Machine: Wilbur and
Orville Wright applied for a patent in 1903—before the first flights of their
Flyer, and the resulting patent (awarded in 1906) defined their
“flying-machine.”
- Wings: The Wright patent described
the airfoils or wings in great detail, including the control wires that could
warp or twist the wings for banking and turning.
- Control: A pilot could warp the
wings by moving the hip cradle connected via pulley and rope to the wings; wing
warping was, in the words of the patent, “any construction whereby the angular
relations of the lateral margins of the aeroplanes [wings] may be varied in the
opposite directions with respect to the normal planes.”
2. Historical Evidence: The Wright
brothers applied for foreign patents and obtained them;
1. Flyer No. 2: The Wrights’ second
airplane had less camber and more horsepower than the first, and in this plane
in 1904 the brothers experimented with flight and learned more how to fly an
airplane.
2. Flyer No. 3: The brothers’ 1905
airplane incorporated improvements based on lessons learned with the earlier
planes, and the brothers achieved their longest flights to date, in terms of
both time and distance.
- Marketing Attempts: Wilbur and
Orville Wright grounded themselves in the autumn of 1905 because they still did
not have patent protection for their technology, yet they approached the
3. Refurbished Flyer No. 3: In 1908 the
brothers resumed flying an improved Flyer No. 3, now equipped with a seat for
the pilot and a second seat for a passenger, and they took a passenger for a
safe ride before crashing the plane.
4. European Tour: With an army order in
hand (the first airplane order from the United States Army), the Wright
brothers built the two-seat Model A airplane, which Wilbur Wright demonstrated
with great success in Europe in 1908-1909.
5. More Military Sales: Wilbur and Orville
Wright soon sold Model B airplanes, equipped with wheels instead of the landing
skids characteristic of their earlier planes, to the United States Army.
6. Wright Company: In late 1909 the Wright brothers founded the Wright Company to manufacture and sell airplanes.
CONCLUSION
Wilbur and
Orville Wright developed heavier-than-air flight into a practical airplane
through their glider flights of 1900, 1901, and 1902, and their Flyer of 1903,
Flyer No. 2 of 1904, and Flyer No. 3 of 1905.
INTRODUCTION
Aviation
technology developed on both sides of the
AIRPLANES AND AIRMEN IN
1. European Developments: Octave Chanute
informed the European aviation community of the work of the Wright brothers,
but early attempts to replicate that work without knowledge of the
technological details failed and Europeans continued independent development of
heavier-than-air machines.
2. First Airplane Flight in Europe: The
Brazilian dirigible maker Alberto Santos-Dumont made the first officially
recognized airplane flight in
3. Production: In 1905 Gabriel Voisin and
Ernest Archdeacon in
- Henry Farman: Henry Farman
established the French firm Farman to manufacture airplanes, initially
biplanes, and gained publicity for his new company at the Rhiems International
Air Meet of 1909.
- Short
Brothers: Horace, Albert, and Hugh Short established an airplane manufacturing
business in
- Louis Blériot: The Blériot XI,
introduced in 1909, became the first airplane to fly across the
- Igor I. Sikorsky: Russian aviation
pioneer Igor I. Sikorsky built experimental helicopters and airplanes before
becoming the airplane designer for the Baltic Railroad Car Company, for which
he designed the four-engine Grand.
4. German Airplanes:
1. Aerial Experiment Association: From 1907
into 1909 Alexander Graham Bell led a small team of aviators from the
- Curtiss Airplanes: Glenn H. Curtiss
participated in the Aerial Experiment Association and then, in 1909,
established the first airplane manufacturing company in the
2. Exhibition and Stunt Flying: Both the
Curtiss and Wright companies exhibited their airplanes in flight to promote
sales, and their pilots and independent pilots added stunts to flying
exhibitions in order to increase attendance and their income at their shows.
1. Aero Clubs: Eight national aero clubs
established the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (International
Aeronautical Federation) in 1905, and that international body, in cooperation
with the national clubs, began issuing pilot licenses to airplane pilots in
1910.
2. Air Shows: Starting in
3. Newspaper Competitions: Newspapers in
the
4. Gordon Bennett Races: Gordon Bennett,
publisher of the New York Herald, sponsored international airplane races, which
started in 1909 at the
5. The Atlantic Crossing:
1. Patent Wars Begin: Orville and Wilbur
Wright began the patent wars in 1910 by going to court to prevent first one and
then other airplane makers from infringing upon the broad Wright patent granted
by the
- Curtiss Defense: Glenn Curtiss tried
various defenses: he denied infringement, he claimed the Wright patent was
invalid due to prior patents, and he argued that his aileron system differed in
a major way from the Wrights’ wing-warping system of control.
- Other Patent Battles:
The Wrights enforced their exclusive patents effectively in the
- Automatic Stability: Orville and
Wilbur Wright refined their balance between stability and control with a
automatic stability system tested on gliders in 1911 and patented in 1913, but
Lawrence Sperry’s gyroscopic stabilizer of 1914 surpassed the Wrights’
stabilizing system.
2. Engine Production: Numerous companies
in the
3. Flight Schools: Early airplane makers
taught their customers how to fly, and Louis Blériot and other airplane makers
opened schools to train civilian pilots.
4. Airports: Early airfields were fields;
they soon became improved fields that had been cleared, mowed, scraped, and
equipped with hangars and, sometimes, lights.
5. Publications: Technical and popular
literature, even aeronautical maps and international aerial laws, appeared in
print to serve the growing aviation market.
6. Airmail: Pilots in various countries
carried mail on single flights or short-lived routes, sometimes as private
ventures like that of Hans Grade in
7. Commercial Aviation: Commercial
airplane service began as one-time and short-term charter operations, though a
short-lived regularly scheduled airline operated in
8. Military Air Forces: As various nations established small aviation units within their military forces, these aviation units promoted the development of military airplanes and equipment, like the aviation radio, mostly through purchases and service testing.
CONCLUSION
The
INTRODUCTION
During
World War I aviation was mostly a military and European activity, supported by
production and training in
AIRSHIPS, DIRIGIBLES, AND BALLOONS
1. German Airships: During the war the
German airship fleet began as a small Army collection of reconnaissance
aircraft, became a large force of Army and Navy bombers that targeted civilian
morale as well as military facilities, and ended as a Navy branch that
effectively patrolled the coasts.
2. German Technology: The German airship
makers improved both the process and product during the war and thereby
increased not only the number, but also the size, power, and speed of airships,
but in the end the war demonstrated the failure of the airship as a land bomber
and its effectiveness as a naval reconnaissance craft.
3. French Dirigibles and Airships: As
vulnerable during daylight and over land as German lighter-than-air craft, the
French dirigibles and airships flew mostly at night and mostly over water where
they protected ship convoys and the coasts by scouting for enemy vessels and
mines.
4. British Dirigibles and Airships:
5. Drachen and Free Balloons: The Allied
Powers and the Central Powers used tethered and free balloons during the war to
direct artillery fire, to observe enemy positions and movements, to communicate
range to battery positions, to verify damage, and to defend airways.
1. Combatant Air Forces: All combatant
nations entered the war with small air forces of a few hundred or less
operational airplanes.
- Russia: The Russian Army and Navy
began the war with aircraft of many different models, including the domestic
Sikorsky aircraft as well as many foreign types, some built in Russia under
license, but with few combat-ready airplanes.
With the
outbreak of war in Europe,
A history
of early Japanese aviation appears in Robert C. Mikesh and Shorzoe Abe,
Japanese Aircraft, 1910-1941 (London: Putnam and Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute
Press, 1990).
2. Slowly Expanding Air Forces: The myth
of a short war slowed the initial expansion and development of military programs,
including aviation.
- Race to the Channel: Germany invaded
Belgium and France as it raced Allied forces to the English Channel and its
strategic ports, and during this early movement both sides relied upon aircraft
mostly for reconnaissance, but naval aviators of both sides fought in the air
and raided coastal installations.
- Airfields: Since airfields were
still basically fields, the two sides used existing airfields and established
hastily prepared fields as the ground forces changed positions until the front
stabilized.
- Expansion: As the expected short war
turned into a long war, the combatant nations expanded the numbers and
capabilities of their aircraft and airmen.
3. Military Aviation Developments:
Military aviation technology, techniques, and tactics developed while the
combatant nations fought.
- Aerial Combat: Reconnaissance pilots
quickly began carrying pistols and hand bombs, and they soon flew aircraft with
installed machine guns for aerial combat.
- Bombing: Despite few and ineffective
bombs early in the war, pilots increasingly in 1915 attacked enemy trains that
carried troops and supplies to the front.
- Artillery: A 1915 innovation was
artillery spotting, whereby personnel in aircraft communicated by radio with
artillery forces on the ground, in order to guide the guns against enemy
targets.
- Communications: The weight of radios
initially prompted attempts at other means of air-to-ground communications, but
the war effort supported development of the aviation radio and its increasing
use in reconnaissance and artillery-spotting airplanes, and by war’s end the
use of radio interception and direction finding.
- Forward Firing: French pilot Roland
Garros had metal deflector plates attached to his propeller blades so he could
fire a machine forward without destroying his propeller, and, inspired by that
innovation, Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker devised for the Germans a machine gun
synchronized with the propeller so that the gun fired between the blades. This
synchronized forward firing was soon copied by other combatants.
- Gentleman’s Warfare: Pilots were
officers and gentlemen, sportsmen too, who with forward firing could engage in
one-on-one dog fights in the air, popularly conceived as sporting events, but
increasingly deadly as planes and pilots adapted to combat roles.
- Fighter Planes: Aircraft makers
responded to improvements in anti-aircraft guns and the synchronized machine
gun by building airplanes that could fly higher, climb quicker, turn sharper,
loop, circle, and dive, as well as shoot, strafe, and bomb: They designed the
early fighter planes.
- Bombers: Caproni in
- Flying Boats: Flying boats defined
by hulls and seaplanes defined by floats patrolled and protected coasts, ports,
and convoys, as well as pursued, torpedoed, and bombed enemy targets with such
effectiveness that their development and production increased as the war
continued year after year.
1. Production in General:
2. British Production: The war stimulated
British production, and the British government began to ration raw supplies to
manufacturers and to control the distribution of supplies and laborers among
the many private firms and the government aircraft factory.
3.
- Airplanes Made in the USA: The
United States tried to limit the number of airplane models in production for
the Army Air Service in order to standardize equipment for not only production
but also training, combat, and maintenance, yet the resulting De Havilland
D.H.4 airplanes reached the front too late and in too few numbers to affect the
war.
- Spruce Production: To ensure an
adequate supply of spruce for Allied production of airplanes, then largely made
of wood, the United States Army established a Spruce Production Division and
organized soldiers, loggers, and lumbermen in the
Treaty of
- The Air Clauses: The Treaty of
Versailles contained several air clauses that prohibited
- Aerial Navigation Clauses: The peace treaty also placed German civil aviation under the direction of Allied and Associated Powers.
CONCLUSION
Aircraft
became stronger, faster, more specialized, and more important tactically and
strategically during the war as the aircraft industry in the various nations
organized large-scale production, but the cancellation of contracts and the
surplus of military equipment at the end of the war curtailed the industry.
PEACETIME AVIATION (1919-1927)
INTRODUCTION
War
veterans and war surplus equipment dominated the immediate postwar period of
aviation, when civil and military aviators flew long-distance routes, airship
construction resumed on a ship-by-ship basis, barnstorming and aerial
competitions raised public awareness of aviation, and, as new postwar pilots
and equipment became available in the mid-1920s, commercial airlines and
airmail services established operations in many countries.
1. Navy Flight across the Atlantic: The
United States Navy sent three planes over the Atlantic Ocean in the spring of
1919, and one flew all the way to Europe: the Navy-Curtiss NC-4 (pronounced
Nancy-four) flying boat, with a crew of five commanded by A.C. Read, made that
first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, albeit with naval surface support en
route and albeit in steps, starting 8 May and finishing 31 May 1919.
2. Alcock-Brown Crossing: The London Daily
Mail again offered a prize for the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, now
to be completed within 72 consecutive hours: British war veterans John Alcock
and Arthur Whitten Brown flew a modified Vickers Vimy (designed as a World War
I bomber) to victory in that competition on 14-15 June 1919.
3. Airship Roundtrip: During the period
2-13 July 1919 the British-made rigid airship R-34, with Edward M. Maitland in
command of the 30-man crew, became the first lighter-than-air craft to cross
the Atlantic Ocean, the first aircraft of any type to cross the Atlantic east
to west (against the prevailing winds), and the first aircraft to make a
roundtrip flight over the Atlantic.
4. Australian Flight: Four Australians,
led by brothers Ross and Keith Smith, flew a Vickers Vimy from England to
Australia over a 28-day period in November-December 1919 and over a route of
more than 11,000 miles (18,000 km); they won a prize offered for the feat, and
they united distant parts of the British Empire by air.
5. Other Long-Distance Flights: H.N.
Wrigley and A.W. Murphy flew the first transcontinental flight across
6. Research and Development: Robert H.
Goddard in the United States, Hermann Oberth in Germany, and Robert
Esnault-Pelterie in France promoted space flight in the years following World
War I—Goddard and Oberth by conducting research and developing rocket
technology and Esnault-Pelterie by lecturing, and all three by publishing.
1. Zeppelins: German airship technology
heavily influenced postwar airship development, first with the construction and
commercial flights of the LZ 120 Bodensee (Lake Constance) and LZ 121 Nordstern
(North Star) in 1919 and then through the Allied confiscation and distribution
of German airships, like the naval L 72 that became the French Dixmude.
2. R-38: Short Brothers began construction
of the rigid R.38 at Cardington, but the British government completed the
construction after nationalizing the Cardington plant into the Royal Airship
Works; a test flight became the worst aerial disaster to date, when on 24
August 1921 the R.38 crashed and killed 44 airmen.
3. Roma: The United States Navy bought the
Italian-made semi-rigid Roma and crashed it in February 1922, with a loss of 34
airmen. The R.38 and Roma crashes convinced airship interests in the
4. Shenandoah: The United States Navy
built the ZR-1 Shenandoah at the Navy Aircraft Factory in
5.
6.
1. Gliding: Restricted by the Allies from
powered flight after
- The Allies
prohibited military aviation and restricted civil aviation in postwar
- Allied
restrictions also did not apply to aeronautical research, and there German
engineers and scientists excelled at home—at universities like Göttingen and at
research laboratories like the Deutsche Versuchasandstalt für Luftfahrt (DVL,
German Aviation Experimental Establishment) in Berlin-Adlershoft. Organizations
like the German Scientific Association for Aeronautics and, established in
1927, the Society of Space Navigation (Verein für Raumschiffahrt, VfR)
encouraged these efforts. The research programs provided the foundation for the
state-of-the-art aircraft
- Training in
2. Barnstorming: Barnstorming in
affordable war-surplus aircraft, like the Curtiss Jenny trainer, became the
passion of fliers and audiences in the
3. Army World Flight: To improve the image
and funding of military aviation, the United States Army’s Air Service competed
for records in altitude, speed, endurance, and distance; for example, in 1924
it achieved the honor of sponsoring the first flight around the world.
- The Plan: The Army carefully planned
the flight, from the construction of four specially made Douglas World Cruisers
and the selection and training of the two-man crews, to the coordination of
international cooperation and the creation of a surface-support infrastructure
all along the route.
- The Competition: Teams from
- The Route: The Army World fliers
departed
- The Flight: Four planes departed
4. Billy Mitchell: William “Billy”
Mitchell (1879-1936) actively promoted a strong air force independent of the
other military services, but in 1925 an Army general court martial found him
guilty of insubordination for his criticism of the War Department, specifically
for blaming the War Department for the crash of the airship Shenandoah.
5. Speed: The speed record when World War
I broke out was nearly 127 miles per hour (204 km/h) and after the war the
record steadily climbed to nearly 298 miles per hour (480 km/h) in 1927; in
addition to absolute speed, pilots raced at international meets, in national
races, and at local air shows during this period.
6. Polar Flights: Two aerial teams reached
the North Pole in 1926: the first on 9 May was the Richard E. Byrd Arctic
Expedition consisting of Byrd and his pilot Floyd Bennett in the Fokker
Trimotor Josephine Ford, and the second on 12 May was the Roald
Amundsen-Lincoln Ellsworth Expedition in the Italian-made, semi-rigid airship
N1 Norge (Norway), piloted by Umberto Nobile and carrying a total of 16 persons
on the flight.
7. Research and Development: The de
Havilland Moth biplane, Juan de la Cierva’s autogiro, helicopters of various
inventors in several countries, the Wright patent for the split flap, and A.A.
Griffith’s description of an axial-flow turbojet engine were among the products
of postwar research and development.
1. Latécoère:
2. Aerial Diplomacy: The Allies enforced
the prohibition against German military aviation and imposed restrictions on
German civil aviation, so
3.
- Before Restrictions: In
1919, before the Allies imposed restriction upon German civil aviation, more
than 50 German companies applied for airline licenses, Deutsche Luft-Reederei
(D.L.R.) and a few others entered service, and the DELAG airship company flew
passengers on board the Zeppelin Bodensee.
- With Restrictions: With
Allied restrictions, the German airlines pooled and merged to serve continental
destinations, and German aircraft makers established foreign plants to get
around the restrictions placed on Germany.
- After Restrictions: As
restrictions expired, Deutsche Luft Hansa (D.L.H.) formed in 1926.
4. Imperial Airways: Several conservative
Brititsh airlines merged and established Imperial Airways in 1924, and that
airline, as the name implied, concentrated service on routes between Great
Britain and its imperial outposts, like India and South Africa, while ignoring
continental Europe.
5. Africa, Asia,
6.
- Airmail: The Army Air
Service proved the feasibility of airmail service by carrying the mail from May
to August 1918, then the Post Office Department’s Air Mail Service assumed
responsibility for carrying mail, expanded the airmail routes, built airways
along the air routes, and experimented with instruments, equipment, and
techniques.
- Legislation: The Air Mail Act of
1925 (Kelly Act) and the Air Commerce Act of 1926 (Bingham Bill) provided for
the privatization of airmail and for government subsidies to airlines that won
airmail contracts.
- Airlines: Numerous companies formed
to bid on the new federal airmail contracts, and those that won contracts—11 in
1926—carried the mail, often carried passengers too, and sometimes also carried
cargo.
CONCLUSION
The postwar
years were a period of transition from war status to peacetime practices, from
war surplus to new products, and from government and military aviation to
private and commercial aviation.
INTRODUCTION
Charles
Lindbergh’s historic solo and nonstop flight across the
1. Orteig Prize: Raymond Orteig offered a
prize of $25,000 for the first nonstop airplane flight between
2. Nonstop Transatlantic Flight: On 20-21
May 1927 Charles Lindbergh flew a specially built Ryan monoplane named The
Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic Ocean nonstop from
3. Goodwill
ADVENTURE, EXPLORATION, AND SPORT
1. Dole’s Pacific Air Race: Only two
airplanes finished the Dole Pacific Air Race from
2. Atlantic Crossing: Italian pilot
Francesco de Pinedo flew across the South Atlantic Ocean, female pilot Amelia
Earhart flew solo nonstop across the
3. German Flights: German aviators and
German aircraft (airplanes and airships) made newsworthy and record-setting
flights during the Golden Age of Aviation, including transoceanic flights;
Claude Dornier designed all-metal flying boats that opened many air routes.
4. Round the World: The 1929
circumnavigation of the globe by the airship Graf Zeppelin, Wolfgang von
Gronau’s 1932 flight around the world in the Dornier Do X, Wiley Post’s 1931
and 1933 flights around the world in a Lockheed Vega, and Howard Hughes 1938 flight
in a Lockheed 14 demonstrated the capabilities of aviation equipment on a
global scale.
5. Polar Flights: Richard Byrd, who had
organized the first aerial expeditions to reach the North Pole in 1926, also
organized the first flight to reach the South Pole; that was in 1929. Airmen
and explorers of various nations explored the polar regions during the 1930s.
6. Italian Distance Flights: Italo Balbo
demonstrated the equipment and skill of Italian aviation by leading a squadron
from
7. MacRobertson Air Race: A British racer
won the MacRobertson Air Race from England to Australia, but commercial
airliners from the United States captured the world’s attention for placing
second and third against specially made racing planes.
- Sir
MacPherson Robertson offered a ten-thousand-pound prize for the winner of an
airplane race from
8. Altitude Flights: Airplanes and
balloons set altitude records in the 1930s, and Wiley Post designed a pressure
suit for his planned flights in the stratosphere.
9. Speed Flights: In addition to speed
races, pilots flew to establish absolute-speed records, which rose from 278 mph
(448 km/h) in 1927 to 469 mph (755 km/h) in 1939.
10. French Raids: French raids began as
exploration of air routes and became sporting and news events in which pilots
raced for the fastest time between distant terminals.
11. Light Airplanes: The airplane production
industry produced new light planes, like the British de Havilland D.H. 60 Moth
and the American Taylor and Piper Cubs, for the emerging class of private
pilots in addition to sportsmen and women.
12. Autogiros: Drawn forward by propellers
powered by an engine and lifted by rotors turned by the forward movement, the
autogiro—often a Cierva machine built under license—entered production in
Europe and in the
13. Homebuilt Aircraft: Homebuilding
aircraft is as old as aviation, as the Montgolfier balloon of 1783 and the
Wright Flyer of 1903. Plans facilitated homebuilding airplanes soon after the
Wright brothers’ demonstration flights of 1908-1909, and special homebuilding
kits became available in the 1920s.
- Flying Fleas: Henri Mignet built his
own little airplanes and inspired a European homebuilding movement with his 8th
and 14th designs, the HM.8 and HM.14, “fleas” of the sky.
- Homebuilt Movement: Largely based on
plans published by Henry Mignet, the French organized the Réseau des Amateurs
de l’Air and the British organized a Pou (or “Flea”) Club in the 1930s.
14. Gliding: Gliding became a German craze
in the late 1920s and the 1930s, when Young Flier, Sturmvogel (Storm Bird), and
other gliding groups sponsored the making and flying of gliders, and German
pilots became pioneers in riding the thermals.
COMMERCIAL AIRLINES AND AIRLINERS
1. Aéropostale: The French airline
Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, successor of the airmail Ligne (line) of
Latécoère, flew European, African, and South American routes in the late 1920s
and early 1930s, but failed amidst an airmail scandal in 1931.
2. French Aviation: Air
3. Deutsche Luft Hansa: The German
national airline Deutsche Luft Hansa participated in the rise of
- Transoceanic Routes: In the absence
of colonial posts to use as air bases,
- International Cooperation: To
further expand German aviation, Luft Hansa joined ventures with Spanish, South
American, French, and even Chinese partners.
4. British Airlines: Continuing its
conservative approach, the British national Imperial Airways carried up-scale
passengers in luxury planes between distinguished points in the
5.
- Air Commerce Act: The Air Commerce
Act of 1926 stimulated the development of airways, the mapping of airways, the
aeronautical study of weather, and the implementation of air regulations by the
Department of Commerce, the Weather Service, and the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
- Jeppesen: Elrey B. Jeppesen
(1907-1996) in 1934 initiated an aviation publication business to provide
pilots with aeronautical charts, landing procedures for various fields, and
other flight-related information.
- Airmail Scandal: In 1934 President
Franklin D. Roosevelt canceled all airmail contracts and ordered the Army to
fly the mail amid a scandal over perceived excessive government subsidies; Congress
investigated. Equipment operators (airlines) separated from equipment makers
(manufacturers) in order to receive federal contracts.
- Pan American: Organized in 1927, Pan
American Airways became the premier American airline operating internationally—fame
cemented by its opening transpacific service in 1936 and transatlantic service
in 1939.
6. Airships: The
- German Airships: Graf Zeppelin
rolled out of the construction hangar in 1927, flew around the world in 1929,
and carried passengers on transatlantic flights in the 1930s, but it withdrew
from service when the newer Hindenburg crashed in 1937 and destroyed public
support for airships.
7. Commercial Aviation: Airlines dominated
commercial aviation at the same time that aerial mapping, aerial photography,
aerial tourism, air ambulance, bush flying, charter, crop dusting, flying
physicians, forestry applications, and taxi service used small planes in
commercial operation.
AVIATION RADIO AND MILITARY AVIATION
1. Aviation Radio: The U.S. Army developed
military radios, like the radio navigation system used by Lieutenant Jimmy
Doolittle in his historic demonstration of instrument flight of 1929, but the
U.S. Department of Commerce developed radio navigation and radio communication
systems for commercial aviation.
2. Early Radios: The weight of early
airplane radios limited their installation and applications initially to large
military and commercial airplanes.
- Four-Course Radios: A radio beacon
on the ground broadcast two Morse code signals (the letters A and N, dot dash
and dash dot respectively) on four courses radiating out from the ground
station or marker, and the pilot aligned the plane with the on-course signal of
one of the radials; each radial was marked by a continuous hum where the sound
of the two letters merged.
- Accidents: Accidents illustrated how
the four-course radio navigation system worked and failed to worked, as in the
1933 Boeing 247 crash approaching Burbank’s Union Terminal that killed filmmaker
Martin Johnson.
3. Pacific Radios: Pan American installed
a new short-wave, high-frequency radio system in the Pacific that provided
long-range aid to aerial navigation, as opposed to the short-range capabilities
of the low-frequency four-course radio system, but confusion during the 1930s
over the developing radio systems contributed to crashes—like that of Amelia
Earhart in 1937.
4. Military Aviation: During the relative
peace of the 1930s the airplane gradually acquired greater military interest.
- Chaco War: Both
- Fascism: The rise of Benito
Mussolini’s Fascist dictatorship in
- Abyssinia:
- Spanish Civil War:
- Nazi
- Sino-Japanese Conflict:
- Military Expansion: The major
nations of the world expanded their military air forces in the late 1930s.
CONCLUSION
With
accidents and airline scandals as exceptions, aviation experienced a Golden Age
in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s as the industry expanded
domestically within many countries and grew internationally, as the designs and
production of airplanes increased applications and safety, and as the
infrastructure of air navigation and air regulations developed.
INTRODUCTION
World War
II involved specialized aircraft produced in large numbers by various combatant
nations, and many makes of familiar names domestically became known
internationally.
1.
2. The Phony War: The winter of 1939-1940
provided a lull in the fighting and grounded many aircraft.
- Winter War: The Soviet invasion of
3. The
- Dunkirk: Pushed to the sea (the
English Channel) by advancing German forces, the British Expeditionary Force
and France’s Northern Army evacuated 300,000 men from Dunkirk to the safety of
England across the channel—under the aerial protection of British Spitfires and
other fighter planes.
- Mediterranean Region: Concurrent
with the
- French Governments: After the fall
of
4.
5.
- Lend-Lease Act: The Lend-Lease Act
of March 1941 permitted the
- National Defense: National defense
of the neutral
6. Spreading War: As the Allies blocked
fascist expansion into the British Isles and in
- Operation Barbarossa: The German
invasion of the Soviet Union, known as Operation Barbarossa, opened on 22 June
1941 with air attacks on Soviet airfields and aircraft along a long front from
the Baltic Sea in the north to the
- Ferry Routes: As the war continued,
the
7. A Pacific War: The Japanese attack on
the Hawaiian, Wake, Guam, and Midway islands and the Japanese invasion of the
8. Training: Training began as war
preparedness with civil aspects and became a war emergency led by the military.
- Civilian Pilot Training: In the
- Commonwealth Air Training: The
British Commonwealth established over a hundred training centers in
- Soviet Women Pilots: After
- WASPs, WAVES, Etc.: In the United
States females supported military aviation by joining the Women’s Army
Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), the Aircraft Warning Service, the Air WACS (Women’s
Army Corps air arm), the naval Women Appointed (later Accepted) for Volunteer
Emergency Service (WAVES). Female pilots flew military, but not combat,
missions through the Women’s Flying Training Detachment, Women’s Auxiliary
Ferry Squadron, and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).
1. Helicopters: The European-invented
helicopter was further developed and placed into production by the Sikorsky
company in the
- Federal Aid: The 1938 Dorsey Bill
offered the prospect of government contracts for the production of a helicopter
that could meet military specifications.
- Sikorsky Helicopter: Russian émigré
Igor I. Sikorsky experimented with his VS-300 prototype in 1939-1940, but lost
the competition for the first Army contract awarded under the Dorsey Bill.
- Competition: Laurence Le Page,
Haviland Platt, W. Wallace Kellett, Harold F. Pitcairn, Frank N. Piasecki,
Arthur M. Young, and young Stanley Hiller, as well as Igor Sikorsky and others,
developed helicopter concepts.
- Sikorsky Development: While Sikorsky
continued experimenting with the VS-300, he developed the VS-316, better known
as Army model XR-4, which entered production as the two-seat Army YR-4 in 1943.
- Sikorsky Production: The Sikorsky
company, a division of United Aircraft Corporation, produced over a hundred
R-4s, 65 larger R-5s, and some R-6s during World War II.
2. Jets: The war stimulated development of
service jet engines, though the basic jet engine had been invented in
- Frank Whittle: Frank Whittle
(1907-1996) developed a jet engine in
- Hans von Ohain: Han von Ohain
(1911-1998) developed a jet engine in
- Technology Transfer: Under attack by
the German Luftwaffe,
3. Rockets: Having worked on rocket power
for airplanes before the war, Wernher von Braun in
- Peenemünde: Von Braun directed the
German rocket research station at Peenemünde near the
- Vengeance Weapons: During the war
the Germans developed, produced, and deployed the jet-powered V-1 flying bomb
(a cruise missile) and the rocket-powered V-2 ballistic missile.
- V-2: The V-2 was a rocket-propelled
guided missile first launched against
4. Radar: Radar was a defensive weapon the
British called reflected direction finding and the Americans called radio
direction and ranging (from which the acronym radar came); the British placed
radar into operation in 1939.
5. Development Projects: Wartime research
and development produced faster aircraft, improved automatic flight control
systems (like the “formation stick”), and other technology.
- Deicing: Deicing equipment improved
in response to wartime needs.
- LORAN: During the war the
6. Production: The war demanded increased
production in many countries, but the
- Job Shop: The job shop or “European”
method of production common in aviation before the war involved small-scale and
intermittent production adequate for low-volume demand.
- Line Production: The mass-production
techniques of the assembly and factory lines involved progressive and sequenced
tasks and allowed wartime production on a large scale.
- Female Workers: As in World War I,
female workers filled new and vacated jobs in factories short of male labor due
to military service during the war.
1. Introduction: The Western or European
Theater of the war had a Western Front west of
2. Southern Front: The Southern Front
dominated combat in 1942-1943 as the Allies tried to defend and retake North
Africa and to defeat fascist
- El Alamein: In October and November
1942 the Allies, heavily supported from the air, inflicted heavy losses on Axis
forces and prompted an Axis retreat in
- Operation Torch: The
- Operation
3. Western Front: The Western Front
encompassed the maritime battle for the North Atlantic, the Allied bombing of
- Bombing
- Vengeance: Germany sent about 8,000
V-1 jet-powered missiles with high-explosive warheads against London in the
summer of 1944, and that fall Germany launched abut 1,000 V-2 rocket-powered
guided missiles carrying warheads against London.
- D-Day: The Allied invasion of
German-occupied western Europe began with a landing at
4. Eastern Front: Soviet resistance to the
German invasion begun in 1941 stopped German expansion in Europe and thereby
prevented Germany from fighting an isolated Britain, as the United States
continued to supply Great Britain and now also provided war materials to Soviet
forces.
5. Closing the Ring: In 1945 the Allied
nations closed the ring around
1. Introduction: Just as
2. Surprise Attack: The surprise of 7 and
8 December 1941 was not that
- Pearl Harbor: The Japanese naval air
forces disabled the aerial defense capabilities in
- Malaya: The Japanese invasion down
the Malayan peninsula culminated in the capture of the British
3. Changing Tide: Having destroyed most of
the defensive aircraft in
- Doolittle’s Raid: General James H.
“Jimmy” Doolittle led a squadron of raiders against
- Midway: Attacking the Aleutian
Islands failed to divert
4. Allied Offensive: Having stopped the
Japanese at the Coral Sea and Midway, the Allies went on the offensive at
- Divine Wind:
In 1947 the United States Navy issued a report published as U.S. Naval Aviation in the Pacific.
The section on “Lesson Learned” lists:
1. Control
of the air was prerequisite to control of the sea.
2. Control
of the sea permitted the concentration of carrier air power to control the air,
and the construction of bases necessary for continued local control of the air.
3. Local
control of the sea permitted the landing, support, and supply of amphibious
forces on hostile shores.
4. General
control of the sea was decisive against an enemy dependent on ocean commerce
for vital supplies.
5. Control
of the sea, including the landing of military forces on a hostile shore, was
properly a naval function achieved by air, surface, and submarine forces acting
in concert.
6. Naval
aviation was an integral part of the naval forces and, as such, possessed the
especially designed planes and equipment and employed the special tactics
necessary to fulfill its role.
7. With
control of the sea gained and maintained by the Navy, it was possible for land
forces to conduct large-scale offensive operations and for strategic bombing to
destroy the enemy’s industrial potential at will.”
- These
lessons are reprinted as “Naval Lessons in the Pacific” in The Impact of Air
Power, National Security and World Politics, edited by Eugene M. Emme
(Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1959).
5. Strategic Bombing: Like the Allied air
war against Germany, the Allied air war against Japan relied upon strategic
bombing: “The air attack on Japan was directed against the nation as a whole,
not only against specific military targets, because of the contributions in
numerous ways of the civilian population to the fighting strength of the enemy,
and to speed the securing of unconditional surrender.”
- B-29 Bomber: The Boeing B-29
Superfortress was a high-altitude, high-speed, long-range heavy bomber readied
for service in the Pacific in 1944, first from bases in
- Firebombing: Like firebombing of
German cities, the Allied firebombing of Japanese cities destroyed civil,
industrial, and military targets effectively with only moderate Allied losses.
- Assessment: Strategic bombing burned
more than 60 Japanese cities and lowered Japanese morale while also destroying
property and disrupting production of war materials.
- Atomic Bomb: The United States Army
Air Forces used the B-29 to carry and drop atomic bombs on
- Debating the Bomb: An unconditional
surrender was apparently achievable soon without use of the atomic bombs, but
the decision makers at the time believed using the atomic weapon could hasten
the end of the war and save Allied, mostly American, lives.
6. Peace:
CONCLUSION
During
World War II, Allied nations fought and won a war against aggressive
imperialism, extreme militarism, and ultra nationalism of three authoritarian
regimes, and aircraft were integral to the conduct of the war.
INTRODUCTION
World War
II ended with the postwar rule of
1. International Aviation: International
discussions regarding the options for postwar civil aviation covered proposals
for internationalizing civil aviation, plans for imperial air networks,
bilateral talks on landing rights, questions about monopoly versus competition,
regulation by national governments or international organization, regional or
global agreements, bilateral or multilateral treaties, open airspace or
national sovereignty over airspace, who should operate airports, and reciprocal
air rights versus exclusionist or protectionist policies.
- Five Freedoms of the Air: The five
rights were (1) the freedom to fly over foreign territory without landing; (2)
the freedom to land for technical, non-traffic, non-commercial reasons; (3) the
freedom to load passengers, mail, and cargo in the airline’s country of origin
and disembark them in a foreign country; (4) the freedom to take on board
passengers, mail, and cargo in a foreign country and to transport them to the
airline’s country of origin; and (5) the freedom to transport passengers, mail,
or cargo from one foreign country to another foreign country beyond the
airline’s country.
- Air Transit Agreement: The Chicago
Conference multilaterally agreed to the rights of overflight and technical
landing (numbers one and two).
- Air Transport Agreement: The Chicago
Conference failed to adopt the commercial clauses (three, four, and five)
partly for fear of domination of commercial aviation by the
- ICAO: The International Civil
Aviation Organization recognized the need for international standardization for
the cause of safe, efficient, and economical civil aviation.
- The
Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed at
- In the
first chapter, the convention covers general principles like sovereignty,
territory, civil and state aircraft, and misuse of civil aircraft. The second
chapter discusses flight over territory of contracting states, including right
of non-scheduled flight, scheduled air services, cabotage, pilotless aircraft,
prohibited areas, landing at customs airport, applicability of air regulations,
rules of air, entry and clearance regulations, prevention of spread of disease,
airport and similar charges, and search of aircraft. The nationality chapter
covers nationality of aircraft, dual registration, national laws governing
registration, display of marks, and report of registrations.
- To
facilitate air navigation, the convention includes articles on the facilitation
of formalities, customs and immigration procedures, customs duty, aircraft in
distress, investigation of accidents, exemption from seizure on patent claims,
and air navigation facilities and standard systems. Furthermore, the convention
defines the conditions to be fulfilled with respect to aircraft, like documents
carried in aircraft, aircraft radio equipment, certificates of airworthiness,
licenses of personnel, recognition of certificates and licenses, journey log
books, cargo restrictions, and photographic apparatus.
- The second
part of the convention established the International Civil Aviation
Organization and defines its objectives, the rules of the assembly and council,
and general procedures.
- IATA: Successor of the International
Air Traffic Association, the International Air Transport Association formed in
1945 to establish traffic and fares standards for international airlines.
- Bermuda Agreement: The 1946
agreement reached at
2. Infrastructure: The expanded wartime
participation of governments in civil aviation continued into the postwar
period.
- Civil Aeronautics Administration:
The Civil Aeronautics Administration decentralized by delegating tasks to
regional offices and designees for factory standards, aircraft inspectors, and
flight instructors.
- Phonetic Alphabet: Based on the
wartime United Nations (allied and associated nations) phonetic alphabet, the
International Civil Aviation Organization studied the existing phonetic
alphabet and introduced changes in 1952 to standardize an international
phonetic alphabet, which was lightly modified thereafter.
- Landing Systems: The military ground
controlled approach (GCA) and the civil instrument landing system (ILS), as
well as European landing systems, competed to become the postwar standard, but
a combined system evolved.
- Navigation Aids: Like LORAN, the
very-high-frequency omnidirectional range (VOR) navigation aid was developed
into an operational technology during the war and adapted for civil use in the
1950s; but the civil distance measuring equipment (DME) system competed with
the naval tactical air navigation (TACAN) system throughout the 1950s.
3. General Aviation: The
- Home builders: The British Ultralight
Aircraft Association, French Réseau du Sport de l’Air, and the American
Experimental Aircraft Association represented the homebuilders during the
postwar period.
- Agriculture: Evidence of the
expanding use of aircraft by agriculture is the establishment of the Flying
Farmers and Ranchers in the postwar 1940s.
1.
- Competition: Major airlines competed
for speed and service; nonscheduled airlines and freight lines utilized war
surplus equipment; and local-service airlines became “feeders” to the larger
airlines.
- Airways Crisis: The volume and type
of air traffic overwhelmed the facilities and equipment installed along the
federally maintained airways by the mid-1950s.
- Crisis Resolution: Lack of funds,
competing technologies, and lack of agreement on a new and modern air
navigation and traffic control system led to gradual upgrading of equipment and
systems rather than a single solution to the crisis.
- Federal Aviation Agency: In 1958 Congress
passed legislation creating a Federal Aviation Agency, to replace the existing
Civil Aeronautics Administration, and this FAA became fully operational on 1
January 1959.
2. European Airlines: Postwar European
airlines—national flag lines plus secondary airlines—initially bought U.S.-made
equipment because the
- British Airlines:
British airlines purchased U.S.-made equipment while domestic efforts focused
on designing a British transport for British production.
- Comet: The British de Havilland
company produced the world’s first commercial jetliner—the Comet, a prototype
of which first flew in 1949 and a service version inaugurated commercial jet
service in 1952.
- Comet Crashes: Six Comets crashed in
1953-1954, and 111 people died in Comet accidents: this forced the grounding of
the aircraft until studies revealed that metal fatigue was at fault, so the
aircraft and inspection procedures were modified.
- British Leadership:
- French Airlines: Air
- Soviet Airlines: Aeroflot placed the
world’s second jetliner into service in 1956; it was the Tupolev Tu-104, but
the national airline also used war-surplus Lisunov Li-2s (Soviet-made DC-3s).
- German Airlines: Postwar
- European Lines: European nations,
except poor
3. Latin American Airlines: The Allied war
against the Axis Powers affected airlines with German investments, German managers,
or German partners.
- Axis Influence: The
-
4. Africa and Asia: Pan American, British
Overseas, Air France, and KLM dominated air travel to imperial outposts in
Africa and
1. Introduction: While the Soviet Union
tried to extend the protective shield of satellite countries around the
superpower, and to spread international communism, the United States pursued
policies of containment (contain communism within Soviet-occupied lands) and
deterrence (deter acts of aggression by threatening devastating nuclear
retaliation).
2. Nuclear Weapons: U.S. President Harry
Truman favored nuclear weapons and strategic bombing as “cheap alternatives” to
fighting costly ground wars.
3.
- Vittles: Operation Vittles, to the
- West Berlin: Airlift planes landed at
Tempelhof in the American sector of West Berlin, at Gatow Field in the British
Sector, Tegel Field built in the French sector to relieve congestion at the
other two fields, and on
- Soviet Response: Soviet planes
occasionally harassed the airlift transports, even shot down two British
planes, but accidents due to fatigue, weather, inexperience, and aircraft
operation limitations caused more deaths (75 fatalities during the entire
airlift).
4. Korean War: Annexed by Japan in 1910,
Korea became a spoils of war at the end of World War II, a spoils partitioned
into a communist North and anti-communist South, but with nationalists in both
parts wishing to unite the country under one rule or the other.
- Bombing:
- Jet Fighters: The Korean air war
included jet fighters on both sides: the Soviet-made Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
fighters versus American-made Boeing Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, Republic F-84
Thunderjet, and North American F-86 Sabre fighter planes.
- Other Aircraft: The
United Nations forces supporting
5. French Colonial Wars: After World War
II
- American Aircraft: In 1949 the
- Dien Bien Phu: The French plan to
use the
6. Limited Wars:
7. Atoms for Peace: President Dwight D.
Eisenhower proposed peaceful uses of atomic power in 1953.
8. Nuclear Plane: Atomic-powered airplanes attracted research and development funds in several countries, but failed to develop into operational aircraft.
What was
- Throughout
this period
ROCKETS, MISSILES, AND SATELLITES
1. Introduction: Rockets, missiles, and
satellites carried vacuum tubes and electronic components.
2. Air Defense: To defend the
- SAGE: MIT developed the
Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) and expanded the digital Whirlwind
computer then in development from simply a Navy airplane simulator to a machine
that processed data like that from SAGE’s radar sensors in real time and that
possessed the brand new magnetic flux core memory.
- Electronics: Transistors were
smaller in size than vacuum tubes, and transistors were solid-state devices
(with no moving parts), and the next generation of electronics technology—the
integrated circuit—was also smaller than its predecessor.
- Bombers: While the
3. Rockets and Missiles: The United States
and the
- Soviet Rocket Program: Sergei
Korolov led the Soviet team working with captured German V-2 rockets, and the
Soviet Union developed defensive missiles and installed them around
- Soviet Missile Program: Like the
- Satellites: The Soviet Union and
- Sputnik: On 4 October 1957, as a
scheduled event of the International Geophysical Year, the
- Vanguard: The
- Explorer I: The Explorer I satellite
launched on board an Army Redstone rocket became the first
- Geophysical Year: The Soviet Union
achieved the first successful launch and two more satellites in orbit during
the 18-month International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958, and the
4. Research Planes: Airplanes specially
made for research helped the
- Supersonic Flight: The
“First of the Spacemen”: Air Force test pilot Iven “Kinch” Kincheloe flew the rocket-powered Bell X-2 to a record altitude of 126,200 feet on 7 September 1956.
CONCLUSION
By the late 1950s aviation had expanded into
aerospace—air and space.
SPACE AGE
AVIATION (1959-1989)
INTRODUCTION
The Cold
War tested military preparedness, military capabilities in limited wars, the
propaganda skills of both sides, and each side’s ability to fund the space
race, science and technology race, and arms race that were major campaigns in
the ideological conflict.
1. Satellites: Satellites led the way into
space for many nations, first the Soviet Union, then the
- Communication
Satellites: Providing relay of information, communication satellites began as
experimental spacecraft, but soon led to the creation of national and
international telecommunication networks, like the U.S. Comsat, Soviet Molniya,
the West’s Intelsat, and the East’s Intersputnik.
- Observation
Satellites: Satellites could observe the weather, the planet’s surface and
surface activities such as floods, and subjects of defense interest.
2. Probing Space: Space probes went near,
to the Moon, and far, to the planets near, like Mars and Venus.
- Moon
Probes: The Soviet Union’s Luna series of probes achieved many firsts and the
Zond spacecraft continued the Soviet exploration, while the Pioneer and Ranger
probes took the
- Mars: The
U.S. Mariner probes achieved the first flybys and first orbit of Mars, and both
the Soviet Mars probes and U.S. Vikings made landings on the Red Planet.
- Venus: The
Soviet Venera and Vega probes performed the first flybys and landings on Venus,
and the U.S. Pioneer orbiters and atmospheric probes also reached the second
planet from the Sun.
- Deep Space:
The Space Race changed the scale of the term deep space from anything beyond
the Earth’s gravitation field to space beyond the Solar System.
- Sun: Some
lunar probes had also provided data on the Sun, and the
- Planetary
Probes: Pioneer and Voyager probes flew by Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager 2
also reached Uranus and Neptune.
- Comets: The
International Cometary Explorer (ICE) encountered the comets Giacobini-Zinner
and Halley, and five other space probes also observed Halley’s return in 1986.
3. Manned Space Flight: The two
superpowers raced to beat each other in achieving space feats.
4. Soviet Space Program: Sergei Pavlovich
“SP” Korolev led the Soviet rocket and manned spaceflight programs for decades,
and his R-7 rocket launched Sputnik, Vostok, and Voskhod flights.
- Vostok: The
manned Vostok (East) spacecraft carried the first person—Yuri Gagarin, the
first woman—Valentina Tereshkova, and other Soviets into space in the early
1960s.
- Voskhod:
The Soviets launched the first multi-crew spacecraft, the two Voskhod (Rise)
capsules in 1964 and in 1965, and on the latter flight performed the first
extravehicular activity (EVA or spacewalk).
- Soyuz: The
Soviet lunar program started late—in 1964, developed new spacecraft—the Soyuz,
built new boosters—the oxygen-kerosene fueled NK-33, lost its program’s leader,
SP Korolev, to death in 1966, witnessed the fatal landing of the first Soyuz
astronaut, Vladimir Komarov, in 1967, and endured funding shortages and
bureaucratic delays, until it was finally canceled in 1974.
- Salyut: The
Soviets launched the world’s first space station, Salyut 1, in 1971, and
continued the Salyut space station program through Salyut 7, which was in
service from 1982 to 1986.
- Mir: The
second generation of Soviet space station was Mir (Peace), launched in 1986,
used for years, and finally abandoned in 2000.
- Buran:
Buran (Snowstorm), the Soviet reusable spacecraft program, built one Buran
spacecraft, which successfully passed the test launch of an unmanned spacecraft
in 1988, but never reached operational status; Boris Yeltsin canceled the
program after the collapse of the
5.
- Mercury:
Begun in 1958, the Mercury Project took the first
- Gemini:
Like the Soviet Voskhod program, Gemini was a transitional program to send
people into space during the interim between the Mercury and Apollo programs;
the ten manned Gemini missions all landed in water.
- Apollo: The
Apollo program tested spacecraft by orbiting the Earth and later orbiting the
Moon, and then achieved its mission of landing men on the Moon six times
starting with Apollo 11 in 1969 and concluding with Apollo 17 in 1972.
- Skylab:
Launched by the
- Space
Shuttle: The Space Transportation System (STS) program built five reusable
spacecraft, or space shuttles—Columbia, Challenger, Enterprise, Discovery, and
Atlantis; the Columbia initiated shuttle flights in 1981, and the Challenger
exploded shortly after launch on the 25th shuttle mission in 1986. (The sixth
shuttle, the Endeavour, is discussed in chapter 10 of the textbook, in its
chronological context.)
6.
- Europe: The
nations of
- Southern
Space: African and South American nations, notably
1. Deterrence: East and West relied upon
deterrence—the threat of massive nuclear retaliation—to prevent the other from
starting a war.
- Conventional Weapons:
The
- Missiles: Both the
Soviet Union and the United States placed intercontinental ballistic missiles
into military service in 1959, and both further developed the technology
subsequently; other nations also developed missile capabilities.
- Nuclear Weapon Tests: The Soviet Union and United States conducted hundreds of nuclear tests—in the atmosphere until the Moscow Treaty was signed in 1963, and thereafter underground (and a few underwater); the United Kingdom, China, France, and India also tested nuclear devices, China and France continuing atmospheric tests after other nations moved underground.
2. Hot Spots: The East and West challenged each other by air, near borders, and in limited wars.
- U-2 Incident: On 1 May
1960 a Soviet surface-to-air missile downed the Lockheed U-2 spy plane flown
for the Central Intelligence Agency by Air Force pilot Francis Gary Powers;
this proved that the United States was spying and that the Soviet Union had
greater missile capabilities than was previously known.
- Bay of Pigs: The
- Cuban Missile Crisis:
The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. came to the brink of war in October 1962 over the
secret installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba near the U.S. border, but the
leaders negotiated a peaceful solution in which the Soviet Union publicly
removed missiles from Cuba and the U.S. secretly removed missiles that it had
placed in Turkey near the Soviet border.
- Vietnam War: In an
effort to contain communism, the
- Middle East: Fighter
planes were used heavily in the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of
1973—both occurring in the Middle East, where East and West competed for
influence and where Palestinians and Israelis fought repeatedly over the
division of
3. Limited Wars: Limited wars on the
Asian, African, and South American continents involved local issues as well as
the Cold War competition between political and economic systems.
- Afghanistan: The Soviet Union
used Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot fighter-bombers to support ground units, Mil Mi-8
Hip helicopter transports, and Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships in
Afghanistan—the “Russian Vietnam.”
4. Defense Systems: The superpowers
developed defense systems in case deterrence failed.
- Early Warning: Radar and
communication were the keys to identifying incoming enemy weapons.
- Anti-Ballistic Missiles:
Both the Soviet Union and the United States developed anti-ballistic missile
(ABM) systems that used missiles to intercept inbound missiles, and the Soviet
system reached operational status prior to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of
1972, which halted further development.
- MRV and MIRV: To foil
the Soviet anti-ballistic missile defense by making effective defense too
expensive, the
- Strategic Defense
Initiative: Rejecting mutually assured destruction as effective deterrence, and
rejecting deterrence with the implied high loss that would result should
deterrence fail, President Ronald Reagan launched a research and development
program to enable the U.S. to install a space-based defense program.
5. The End: As the Berlin Wall came down
in 1989, and as communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed, the financially
bankrupt
1. Engine Development: The jet engine
provided an aerodynamic puzzle in place of the mechanical monster that the
piston engine had become as size grew with power.
- Turbojet: The gas
turbine engine brought a degree of simplicity to engine development. It essentially consisted of a single shaft
with a compressor at one end and a turbine at the other, with flame cans in
between to create a jet of expanding gasses for thrust.
- Turbofan: The turbofan,
also called fanjet or bypass jet, allowed some air to bypass the combustion
section of the engine, which reduced heat and noise and increased efficiency.
- Turboprop: The turboprop
engine combined gas turbine and propeller technology, which enabled it to
operate at lower altitudes and on shorter airfields than the standard jet
engine.
2.
- Boeing: Boeing produced
military jet aircraft prior to introducing the four-engine Boeing 707 jetliner
that entered service in 1958. Boeing followed with the smaller three-engine
727, which entered service in 1964; the twin-engine 737, which entered service
in 1968; the jumbo four-engine Boeing 747, which entered service in 1970; and
the newer technology twin-engine 757 and 767, both of which entered service in
1982.
- Douglas and McDonnell:
- Convair and Lockheed:
Convair produced the Convair 880 and 990 jetliners and Lockheed the L-1011
jetliner, but, as makers of commercial airliners, these two companies failed to
survive the transition into the Jet Age.
- Airline Deregulation:
The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 phased out the authority of the Civil
Aeronautics Board and opened the airline industry to competitive forces that
brought frequent flier programs, code sharing arrangements, and hub-and-spoke
route systems to a shrinking number of large airlines but a growing number of
local and regional airlines in the
- Controllers Strike: When
the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, a labor union, went on
strike in 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired over 11,000 striking controllers.
3. European Aircraft: In a commercial
airline market dominated worldwide by Boeing, European companies tried to
compete.
- Great Britain: Few
British manufacturers survived the transition to the Jet Age; de Havilland
survived by merging with Hawker Siddeley in 1962, and the British Aircraft
Company (BAC) became British Aerospace.
4. Supersonic Transports: Three major
efforts began in the 1960s to develop and produce a supersonic civil transport,
and two produced aircraft that went into service.
- SST: The
- Concorde: The British
and French cooperatively designed and produced the Concorde, which entered
service in 1976, but never achieved commercial success beyond the
- Tu-144: The Tupolev firm
began work on a supersonic transport in 1961, first flew the prototype in 1968,
first flew at supersonic speed in 1969, and placed the aircraft into mail and
cargo service in 1975 and passenger service in 1977; Aeroflot withdrew the
Tu-144 from service in 1984.
5. Terrorism: Terrorism threatened air
travelers and airlines with hijackings and bombings, notably the bombing that
destroyed Pan American flight of a Boeing 747 over
1. Private Aircraft: Often following the
lead of homebuilt planes, private aircraft incorporated new composite and alloy
materials.
- Homebuilts and
Experimentals: Designers such as Pitts, Christen, Bede, and Van Grunsven
provided affordable access to aviation, supplying plans, parts, and kits to
help individuals build their own aircraft.
- Sports Planes
Extraordinaire: Burt Rutan and Paul MacCready designed and built innovative
state-of-the-art aircraft such as Rutan’s VariEze, Long-EZ, and Voyager, and MacCready’s
Gossamer Condor, Gossamer Albatross, and Solar Challenger.
- Gliding and Soaring:
Gliding became popular again in the 1970s, and gliding and soaring adopted new
materials and construction techniques.
- Airships and Balloons:
Advertising, atmospheric research, and sports flying dominated ballooning and
airship activities around the world, as the U.S. Navy discontinued airship use
in 1962 and various commercial proposals, like airship logging, failed to
attract many customers.
- Helicopters: Helicopters
entered air taxi and charter service, as well as personal use.
2.
- Grumman and Gulfstream:
Grumman made the turboprop Gulfstream I and jet Gulfstream II or G-II for
private use before merging in 1978 with American Jet into Gulfstream American
and producing the G-III and G-IV.
- Learjet: Bill Lear
developed the Learjet line of corporate jets, starting with the Lear 23 that
entered service in 1963; Lear merged with Gates Rubber into Gates Learjet in
1969 and continued developing and producing Learjets.
- Cessna: Cessna made
private aircraft, such as the Cessna 172, 182, and 150 models, and business
planes, such as the Cessna 300 and 400 and the Citation series, all of which
sold well on the world market.
- Piper: Piper made the
light and popular Super Cub until 1982, dedicated the PA-25 Pawnee to
agricultural spraying, and added turbocharged aircraft, such as the Piper
Arrow, to its line of products, but the product liability crisis of the 1980s
dealt the company a hard blow.
- Beech: Beech made proven
products such as the Model 18 Twin Beech and the Model 35 Bonanza and, in 1959,
introduced the Model 33 Debonair, in 1968 the Model 36 Bonanza, in the 1960s
the popular Travel Air and Baron series, and in 1970 the King Air 90; in 1981
Beech became a subsidiary of Raytheon.
3. Competing Manufacturers: Like U.S.-made
aircraft, aircraft made in Europe,
- Dassault: Avions Marcel
Dassault began manufacturing business planes in the 1960s with the Fan Jet
Falcon, and the Falcon 20/200, added the larger Falcon 30 in the early 1970s
and the intercontinental Falcon 50 in 1976, and thereby became the preeminent
business aircraft maker in
- De Havilland Canada:
Long since independent of the British de Havilland company, the Canadian
namesake joined Bombardier and later, in 1986, Boeing; it developed and
introduced the Turbo Beaver and the Twin Otter bush transports in the 1960s and
the DHC-7 or Dash Seven in the 1970s.
- Morane-Saulnier and
Socata: Morane-Saulnier of
4. Pilot Training: After the postwar slump
of the 1950s, student starts in the
5. Air Shows: The Experimental Aircraft
Association’s air show in
MODERN
AEROSPACE (1990-PRESENT)
INTRODUCTION
Aviation
and aerospace became increasingly international as manufacturers shared costs,
risks, and markets, as commercial airlines joined international networks from
code-sharing to industry associations, as private and business pilots flew
across borders, and as military forces and space programs of various nations
cooperated on large missions.
GENERAL AND COMMERCIAL AVIATION
The general
aviation industry had been in decline since a peak in the late 1970s. For
example, the number of planes shipped dropped from 17,877 in 1978 to less than
a thousand planes (928, to be specific) in 1994. Then the industry began to
recover.
1. Revitalization: Addressing the product
liability crisis in the
- Planes: As the industry
began a recovery, shipments of general aviation aircraft gradually rose from fewer
than a thousand in 1994 to 2,816 planes in 2000. Shipments consisted mostly of
single-engine piston-powered planes, but also included a growing number of
turboprops and jets.
- Pilots: In the
- Research and
Development: NASA’s Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) and
Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) and the Federal Aviation
Administration’s Capstone program developed technologies and the infrastructure
to help support the development of general aviation aircraft.
2. International Production: The
3. Flight Records: Pilots and equipment
makers still sought records for the first, the fastest, the farthest, or the
highest.
-
- Balloon Race: The last
great balloon challenge was a flight around the world, which attracted numerous
teams—at least seven in late 1998; Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian
Jones of England won in the Breitling Orbiter 3 in March 1999.
- High Flight:
AeroVironment, Paul MacCready’s company, designed and flew high-altitude
aircraft, notably the manned Solar Challenger and the unmanned Pathfinder and
Helios.
1. Airliners: Airbus successfully
challenged Boeing’s long-held dominance in airliner production and sales, and
Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas in a merger that left Boeing as the sole
2. Airlines: Bilateral and multilateral
agreements shaped the internationalism growing in the commercial aviation
industry.
- Air Afrique: The
11-state Air Afrique failed in 2002.
- United Airlines: As United
Airlines expanded in the 1990s from a national airline to an international
airline, the company became financially troubled. It entered bankruptcy
protection in 2002.
3. Terrorism: Growing terrorist activity
around the world included attacks against airlines.
- September
11, 2001: Despite previous attempts by people to hijack airliners for the purpose
of crashing them into buildings, the terrorist attacks against the
- Missiles: Portable,
shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missiles threatened the safety of air travel
and the operations of airlines.
- Recovery: After the
events commonly called September 11, security became a key to airline recovery.
1. Manufacturers: Lockheed Martin, Boeing,
Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics emerged as the big five in
- Fighters: The Joint
Strike Fighter in the United States and the Eurofighter in Europe demonstrated
the consolidating aerospace industry, but the military market remained
competitive as illustrated by the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18E/F
Super Hornet that was introduced into service in 1997, the Boeing F-22 that
remains under development as Aviation History goes to press, the Saab Gripen
that became operational in 1995, Dassault’s Rafale and Mirage, and various MiG
and Sukhoi fighters.
- European
Self-Sufficiency: European nations cooperated through the 1990s to develop a
European airlifter, a turboprop military transport that became designated
A400M. In 1999 the program moved to the newly formed Airbus Military Company.
- Helicopters: European
manufacturers cooperated on a number of Eurocopters, including the NH90, BO105,
AS532 Cougar, and AS-565 Panther.
- Missiles:
2. War Experience: Wars tested equipment,
personnel, and policies.
- Israel-Lebanon War:
After a brief conventional war in 1982 drove the PLO from southern
- Gulf War: After
- Bosnian War: The ethnic
war on the
- Kosovo Conflict: The
United States conducted many air raids against Serbian targets, but the
civilian fatalities were high and the strikes less effective than planned.
- Afghanistan: The United
States-led coalition against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan used
overwhelming force led by air strikes, heavy bombing, and unmanned aerial
vehicles such as the Predator, but peace proved difficult to maintain.
- Second Iraq War: When
Iraq refused access to United Nations weapons inspectors and when President
Bush accused Iraq of harboring weapons of mass destruction, the United States
used missiles, bombing, and unmanned aerial vehicles in a preemptive strike
that toppled the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein.
- Space Defense: Satellite
intelligence, communication, and navigation were important factors in the many
wars.
1. Exploration: Planetary and lunar probes
and space observatories explored the mysteries of space.
- Mars: Russian and
American probes failed and succeeded in missions of the 1990s; ESA and NASA
sent probes to Mars to coincide with the Red Planet’s close encounter with
Earth in 2003, the closest in over 50,000 years.
- Galileo: Launched in
1989, Galileo became the first spacecraft to encounter an asteroid, and also
the second spacecraft to encounter an asteroid; it achieved Jovian orbit and
surveyed Jupiter and its moons till 2003.
- Space Probes: Examples
include Magellan’s exploration of Venus, the international studies of Jupiter
conducted by Ulysses, two Japanese probes that explored the lunar environment,
and the European Space Agency’s SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research
in Technology 1) lunar mission launched in 2003.
- Observatories: The
Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, was the first high-powered
observatory placed into space, but others followed to observe different parts
of the spectrum of space for astronomical study.
2. Satellites: Many nations pursued
satellite technology and satellite launch capabilities, particularly for
communication, intelligence, and Earth observation.
3. Space Programs:
- Mir: The Soviet and then
Russian space station Mir remained operational from the launching of the core
in 1986 until the station was abandoned in 2000.
- Space Shuttle: At the
end of the 1980s the space shuttle had completed 32 launches and suffered one
catastrophic loss (the Challenger in 1986), and by early 2003 the space shuttle
had launched a total of 107 times and suffered a second catastrophic loss (the
Columbia in 2003). The shuttles were grounded from the February 2003 loss of
the
- Columbia Accident: The
Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded that a piece of insulating foam
broken off an external fuel tank during launch was the physical cause of the
accident, but that history and culture of the manned space program contributed
to the accident.
- European Space Agency:
Formed out of the merger of European space programs in 1975 and representing 15
nations, the European Space Agency developed the Ariane launch vehicles. Ariane
4 was in use from 1984 to 2003, and Ariane 5 entered use in 2001. These
vehicles launched many satellites for paying customers as well as member
states, and one launched the SMART-1 lunar probe in 2003.
- Commercial Space Flight:
The X Prize Foundation offered a monetary prize for the first privately funded
venture to place a manned spacecraft at least 62 miles above Earth and return
the person safely twice within a 14-day period. Paul Allen’s Mojave Aerospace
Ventures team, led by designer Burt Rutan, won the international competition in
2004.
- International Space
Station: The
- Spaceplanes:
4. The Future? The future is the domain of
forecasters, policy analysts, strategic planners, corporate executives, and
government officials, but not historians who specialize in the evidence and
analysis of past events.
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