Century Of Flight Research Articles

Misunderstanding Flight Part 1: A Century of Flight and Lift Education Literature

The science education literature is littered with “new”, “correct”, “novel”, “explanations”, “theories”, and “approaches” to aerodynamic lift. One might infer from reading the growing number of these articles that there is a fundamental gap in classical physics, where our scientific prowess has failed us. In fact, if you read popular sources, you would believe “no one can explain why planes stay in the air”. This is a disconcerting thought to have while sitting inside a modern engineering marvel provided by Boeing or Airbus. However, rationally, since you are sat in that fuel-efficient and safe aeronautical wonder, the logical conclusion is that some are obviously aware of why planes stay in the air. In this paper, a century of educational literature on the topic of aerodynamic lift and flight is presented. The body of literature encompasses 140 articles, commencing in 1920. It is obvious from the content contained within them that there is more of a misunderstanding rather than an understanding of flight in the education context. There are two paradigms treated as mutually exclusive: those using Bernoulli and those using Newton. Throughout the literature, there are gems lost in the rubble; if the reader does not have an understanding, how will they know what is worth reading? This review attempts to clarify what is worth reading, by presenting a qualitative overview of aerodynamics education in undergraduate engineering, to understand why these opposing camps exist in the literature.

Texas Takes Wing: A Century of Flight in the Lone Star State by Barbara Ganson (review)

McComb reviews Texas Takes Wing: A Century of Flight in the Lone Star State by Barbara Ganson

Texas Takes Wing: A Century of Flight in the Lone Star State by Barbara Ganson (review)

Reviewed by: Texas Takes Wing: A Century of Flight in the Lone Star State by Barbara Ganson J’Nell Pate Texas Takes Wing: A Century of Flight in the Lone Star State. By Barbara Ganson. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014. Pp. 310. Illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index.) Beginning with the first airplane flight in Texas, that of French aviator Louis Paulhan on February 18, 1910, author Barbara Ganson carries the story forward to 2010. She worked on a special aviation collection for the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin for the 2010 centennial of flight in Texas. The first military airplane flight in Texas arrived less than two weeks after Paulhan’s [End Page 337] four separate flights that totaled less than an hour in the sky. Lt. Benjamin D. Foulois flew a Wright Flyer at Fort Sam Houston on March 2, 1910, a nice commemoration of Texas’ Independence Day in San Antonio that may or may not have been on purpose. With good flying weather and plenty of wide open spaces, Texas by 1922 possessed more landing fields for aircraft (162) than any other state. During World War II Texans constructed approximately 70 military airfields across the state, and Texas became one of the major training centers for pilots, including those of our allies. Even the headquarters for all pilot training in the nation during the war was in Fort Worth. The book’s nine chapters are arranged loosely in chronological order from the early days to World War I, barnstormers, record setters, and flying services between the wars, and then Texas activity during World War II. Later chapters discuss aircraft designers, manufacturers, the Cold War, and the space age. Within each chapter the author takes a topical, encyclopedic approach with each entry set off by italics. Some topics seem to receive more coverage than necessary, while often important persons or events receive only brief attention. Even so, the author has assembled a tremendous amount of information, some of it new or little known. Hopefully, this will encourage other researchers to engage in future study. Emphasis is on people, and the author was fortunate to interview in person many of those active in Texas’s aviation history. Some are native Texans, while others engaged in aviation careers in the state. To tell these stories she made use of numerous manuscript collections from museums and libraries not only in Texas, but throughout the nation. From these sources she gleaned a large number of photographs that appear throughout the book. Ganson asserts that Texas “has been at the forefront of aircraft manufacturing in the United States” (168), and in an extensive epilogue she sums up the contributions of Texas and Texans in the fields of general, industrial, and commercial aviation. Of Texas’s 387 airports, Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport is the third busiest in the United States, and Alliance Airport, also in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, “serves as an inland port for international trade” (185). Texas is the home of more major U.S. airlines than any other state. Among four appendices in the book, the first one cites a timeline of important aviation events in Texas from 1910 to 2010. While a few events and persons were omitted, the author reached her goal of making available a great deal of information on the aviation role that Texas has played during the last century as “Texas Takes Wing.” [End Page 338] J’Nell Pate Fort Worth, Texas Copyright © 2014 The Texas State Historical Association

Texas takes wing: a century of flight in the Lone Star State

Texas takes wing: a century of flight in the Lone Star State

Reconsidering a Century of Flight (review)

Reconsidering a Century of Flight (review)

A Narrative for Our Time: The Enola Gay "and after that, period"

For a little while in the fall of 2003, during the run-up to the centennial of flight on 17 December and the opening of the National Air and Space Museum's satellite in Virginia, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, historians whose names have often graced the pages of Technology and Culture began to turn up with unusual regularity on television and radio and in the popular press: among others, Roger Bilstein, Robert van der Linden, Richard Hallion, Bayla Singer, Joe Corn, John Anderson, Peter Jakab, and, perhaps most ubiquitous, Tom Crouch. Several had written books whose publication coincided with the centennial—Hallion's Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity through the First World War, for example, and Crouch's Wings: A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age. A feature article in the December Smithsonian, "Taking Wing: A Century of Flight," [End Page 373] quoted a half-dozen historians on the significance of Kitty Hawk but gave pride of place to Crouch: "Aviation is the definitive technology of the 20th century," he said. "Flight symbolized our deepest aspirations, like freedom and control of our destiny."

Next Century Aerospace Traffic Management: The Sky is No Longer the Limit

About 100 years ago, on 17 December 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright first flew the Wright Flyer and so began the first century of powered flight. Unfortunately, no one thought to invent an airspace management system to manage all of the aircraft flights that ensued from the Wright’s invention! As new aircraft were designed, improved, and built, the need soon arose to have some kind of order, management, and direction in how these aircraft were operated in the air and on the ground. Thus began the air traffic control system, born out of necessity, and evolving through reactions to aviation incidents and events. The paradigm of air traffic management has never changed: the safe, expeditious flow of air traffic through the airspace. The evolution of aviation over the past 100 years has been phenomenal, but much of the air traffic management vision took place over 50 years ago. As we enter the next century of flight, we see a vision for aeronautics that is even more spectacular than the changes we experienced during the first century: aircraft that can change shape, heal themselves, and fly (maneuver) like a bird as well as personal air vehicles allowing people to fly “door-to-door.” Such remarkable advances in vehicle technology will completely change the air traffic management problem. Highways in the sky are already congested, and the significant addition of air vehicles with the envisioned operating characteristics will create a very complex airspace volume. Although there is surely enough air space to use, air traffic will require significant management to maintain safety, security, order, and efficiency that will provide enough flexibility to allow people and goods to be moved at will. We now have the opportunity to utilize technology to fix the airspace management system of today providing adequate capacity to meet demand during the early part of this century. Moreover, we have the opportunity to set the stage for the aerospace management system of the future that will keep safety, security, capacity, and efficiency paramount and allow the growth of aviation to continue unimpeded. Now is the time for the United States to set the course for the future of aeronautics and continue to maintain world leadership in aeronautics. The sky is no longer the limit.

Flight in America: The First Century of Flight in America . By Jeremiah Milbank, Jr. 248 pp. Illustrated. Princeton University Press. 1943. $2.75.

Flight in America: <i>The First Century of Flight in America</i> . By Jeremiah Milbank, Jr. 248 pp. Illustrated. Princeton University Press. 1943. $2.75.

The First Century of Flight in America

JOSEPH CONRAD, in his Nostroms, wrote “The Air of the New World seems favourable to the art of declamation” . Judging by Mr. Milbank's book, the air of the New World, and particularly the air of New Jersey, has been very favourable to the art of reclamation of early American aeronautical history. The First Century of Flight in America An Introductory Survey. By Jeremiah Milbank Jr . Pp. x + 248 + 24 plates. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press ; London: Oxford University Press, 1943.) 18s. 6d. net.

The First Century of Flight in America. Jr. Jeremiah Milbank Princeton University Press. 1943. $2.75.

The First Century of Flight in America. Jr. Jeremiah Milbank Princeton University Press. 1943. $2.75.

The First Century of Flight in America.

The First Century of Flight in America.