Page 12 - Volume 18 Number 9

I’ve got a birthday coming up, which is making me a little nostalgic, so I began to reminisce about my first aviation experiences in the mid 1960’s, and then the circumstances that have made my career possible, which lead in turn to the pioneers who have brought aviation to where it is today.The Wright brothers were truly some of the most brilliant men in aviation history and to whom we all owe a great deal; after all, society, not just aviation, wouldn’t be what it is today without them. Of course, someone else would have solved the problems of flight eventually, but who knows when that would have been. With no previous aviation knowledge, they solved all the basic principles of flight between 1898 and 1905, teaching themselves to fly. They were the only people on the planet in possession of a practical, controllable heavier-than-air aircraft through about 1908/1909.The Wrights started by identifying the basic problems; lift, thrust, and control. Dealing with control first, they were able to solve the challenges of aerodynamic control, particularly roll. Using a wind tunnel of their own design, they went on to discover basic airfoil shape and aspect ratio. Later, through actual practice, they identified the aerodynamic stall and adverse yaw. But, perhaps one of their greatest leaps came in the realization that10 • TWIN & TURBINEpropellers were a rotating airfoil, not just a basic airscrew.Once the basics of flight were known, others quickly eclipsed the Wrights. I believe the next great leap of progress came when Jimmy Doolittle made the first advances into instrument flight and navigation, using a Sperry gyroscope. Jimmy Doolittle was also largely responsible for high-octane aviation fuel as well.In the mid 1920’s, England’s Frank Whittle began work on turbine engines, taking out the first patent on a practical jet engine in 1930. Later, the work of Germany’s Hans von Ohain brought the first operational jet fighter. The jet engine completely transformed aviation to the present day.We owe much to the pioneers who have made aviation what it is. By the early 195 0’s, aerodynamics and airplane design had become fairly well understood. In fact, or perhaps in my opinion, airframes have not changed substantially since the swept wing was introduced on the MiG-15 and F-86. Transport aviation, as we know it today, began with the Boeing Dash 80/707 and later the DC-8.Since the 50’s, most advances have been in engine design and avionics, where great strides have taken place. There have been changes in structures as well, with the adventof carbon fiber construction. GPS has since revolutionized navigation, to the point that governments are planning to shut down much of their ground-based navigation and air traffic control infrastructure – perhaps a good thing, perhaps not so much... I guess time will tell.On one hand, the investment of governments around the world in aviation infrastructure has greatly facilitated the business of aviation, particularly transport aviation and the airlines, while on the other hand, government over- regulation is limiting access to the world’s airspace, particularly in the private sector, as a result of the increasing cost of operation. In the very near future, if not already, it is foreseeable that only the very wealthy will be able to afford to operate a business jet.Most of the above references aviation’s designers and innovators, but there have been a number of pilots that have contributed much as well; those daring men and women who have pushed the envelope, breaking distance, speed, and altitude records. Pilots who set off into what was basically the unknown, clearing the way for the rest of us. A few names come immediately to mind; in addition to Jimmy Doolittle, mentioned previously, near the top of the list is Charles Lindbergh, who made a number of contributions after his first solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927. Lindbergh pioneered many of PanAm’s transoceanic routes; he single- handedly nearly doubled the range of the P-38 in the Pacific, just by altering its cruise power setting; he increased the bomb load of the Corsair. Interestingly enough, heSEPTEMBER 2014PossibiliBy Russell Smitht