| Aerospace Three devices important to aviation were invented in Europe in the Middle Ages and were highly developed by the 15th century: the windmill, an early propeller; the kite, an early airplane wing; and the model helicopter. During the 15th century Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci designed flapping wing machines called ornithopters. Discovered in the late 19th century, his work inspired engineers, although it had little technical value. |
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| In about 1800 in England, the concept of the modern airplane, with wings and a propelling device, was developed. By the mid-19th century a patented design established the form of the airplane: a fixed wing monoplane with propellers, fuselage, wheeled landing gear, and a rear elevator and rudder for flight control. In the late 19th century German aeronautical engineer Otto Lilienthal made thousands of successful flights in hang gliders he designed. Around the same time American inventor Samuel Pierpont Langley made the first successful, unmanned flight of any mechanically propelled heavier-than-air craft. |
| American aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright of Dayton, Ohio, are considered the inventors of the first successful, manned heavier-than-air flying machine. From the Wright brothers' primitive wind tunnel aerospace has depended on scientific research for the knowledge that could be translated into airborne and space going machinery. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA; established 1915) began the first important programs in aeronautic research in the U.S. Work done by NACA, and in the laboratories of aircraft manufacturers, culminated in the 1930's in a new generation of efficient and reliable metal airliners. The biplane, an aircraft with double-decker wings, reached the peak of its development during the 1920s and 1930s. It was eventually overtaken by the monoplane, whose single wing gave it great advantages in speed, simplicity, and visibility for the pilot. The now classic DC-3, with its wing flaps, retractable gear, and controllable pitch propellers, set the standard for air travel for many years to come. |
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| World War II forced the urgent development of many technologies that would characterize the aerospace industry of the postwar years. Rocketry grew dramatically, along with advanced electronics, such a British invention called radar, and jet powered aircraft, which were first used during the war by both Britain and Germany. System Engineering and Operations Research became essential for manufacturing the complex and interdependent products that would soon be required of the industry. |
| In 1958, NACA became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which now included space exploration vehicles and the development of long-range ballistic missiles. New generations of civilian jet transports not only utilized advanced electronic instrumentation, but also created new demands for navigational equipment and air traffic control. As a results new systems were evolved using advanced electronic techniques. Jet fighters and bombers, now flying at supersonic speeds, were equipped with increasingly sophisticated electronics, becoming integrated weapons systems. |  |
| Thinkquest Team 18033 |
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