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Air transport: a timeline
1783 The Montgolfier brothers launched the first hot air balloon
1852 The first airship, fitted with a steam engine was flown by Henri Giffard from Paris. The airship could only fly forward.
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1903
The Wright Brothers made the first engine powered flight in 'The Flyer'. It flew for 12 seconds and travelled 37 metres.
1915 The first all metal plane was built by a German, Herman Junkers. It travelled at 170 km an hour.
1926 The first sea plane
Having one or two floats in place of the usual undercarriage this plane took off from, and landed on, water.
1930s Flying boats were used to cross oceans because aircraft could not carry enough fuel to travel long distances non-stop. Flying boats could fly between seaports and islands, refuelling as they went. They didn't need runways, and it was thought to be safer to fly across water in an aircraft that could float. Flying boats have floats where the undercarriage would be on a land-based aircraft.
In the 1930s the use of twin (two) engines enabled planes to carry passengers.
1940 The first practical helicopter which could carry passengers, was developed.
On a helicopter the wings are called rotor blades. As they spin, the rotoe blades lift the helicopter into the air. Changing the position of the rotor makes the helicopter tip forwards or backwards. The tail rotor blade stops the helicopter from spinning around in a circle.
This flying boat, 'Spruce Goose' was built of wood in 1947. It only flew once, over a distance of about 2 kilometres. It is the largest plane ever built.
1950s
Early jet liners carried about 40 passengers, and had jet engines with propellers called turbo-prop engines.
By 1952 jet passenger planes had turbo-jets and no longer needed propellers.
How does the jet engine work?
Air is sucked into the front of a jet engine and is compressed (squashed) by powerful fans, called turbofans. The compressed air is mixed with fuel and ignited. As the fuel burns, hot gases rush out of the back of the engine, pushing the aircraft along. As the gas leaves the engine, it spins turbines which make the turbofans at the front of the engine work.
1969 Commercial jet liners were able to carry over 400 passengers
1968
The Russian built Tupolev Tu-144 was the first supersonic passenger aircraft. It flew on December 31, 1968; two months ahead of the first flight for the Concorde SST. Concorde flew at speeds of up to 2100 kilometres per hour carrying 100 passengers.
Concorde Dimensions:
62.19 metres long, 11.23 metres high, 25.6 metres wing span
Crew: 2 pilots, 1 flight engineer, 6 cabin crew.
After a disasterous crash in 2000, and other matters, Concorde was taken out of service in 2003.
1981 The first re-usable space vehicle, the space shuttle 'Colombia' was launched.
2005 The largest passenger aircraft, (so far!) the double-decked, Airbus A380 can carry more than 800 passengers.
You can watch a video of it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pkukKiRhBA
If you use any of this information in your own work acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
Thomas, Ron & Sydenham, Shirley Air transport: a timeline [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2009).
updated March 2009 © kidcyber