Jump to content

Portal:Aviation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portal topics - (Random portal)

Activities
Culture
Geography
Health
History
Mathematics
Nature
People
Philosophy
Religion
Society
Technology
Main page   Categories & Main topics  


Tasks and Projects

The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

The air flow from the wing of this agricultural plane is made visible by a technique that uses colored smoke rising from the ground. The swirl at the wingtip traces the aircraft's wake vortex, which exerts a powerful influence on the flow field behind the plane.
The air flow from the wing of this agricultural plane is made visible by a technique that uses colored smoke rising from the ground. The swirl at the wingtip traces the aircraft's wake vortex, which exerts a powerful influence on the flow field behind the plane.
Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Understanding the motion of air (often called a flow field) around an object enables the calculation of forces and moments acting on the object. Typical properties calculated for a flow field include velocity, pressure, density and temperature as a function of position and time. By defining a control volume around the flow field, equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy can be defined and used to solve for the properties. The use of aerodynamics through mathematical analysis, empirical approximation and wind tunnel experimentation form the scientific basis for heavier-than-air flight.

External aerodynamics is the study of flow around solid objects of various shapes. Evaluating the lift and drag on an airplane, the shock waves that form in front of the nose of a rocket is an example of external aerodynamics. Internal aerodynamics is the study of flow through passages in solid objects. For instance, internal aerodynamics encompasses the study of the airflow through a jet engine.

The ratio of the problem's characteristic flow speed to the speed of sound comprises a second classification of aerodynamic problems. A problem is called subsonic if all the speeds in the problem are less than the speed of sound, transonic if speeds both below and above the speed of sound are present (normally when the characteristic speed is approximately the speed of sound), supersonic when the characteristic flow speed is greater than the speed of sound, and hypersonic when the flow speed is much greater than the speed of sound. Aerodynamicists disagree over the precise definition of hypersonic flow; minimum Mach numbers for hypersonic flow range from 3 to 12. Most aerodynamicists use numbers between 5 and 8. (Full article...)

Selected image

Credit: U.S. Air Force
The Ryan X-13 Vertijet was designed to explore the feasibility of a pure-jet vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fighter aircraft. Here, the X-13 is about to moor itself to a dual-role flatbed transport/launch trailer.

Did you know

...that sailplane winglets were first successfully implemented by American inventor Peter Masak? ...that the Blohm und Voss Bv 144 was an attempt by Nazi Germany to develop an advanced commercial airliner for post-war service? ... that the first exhibition at the Boeing Galleries was a series of photographs taken from helicopters and hot air balloons?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Amelia Earhart, c. 1928
Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897 – missing as of July 2, 1937), daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart, was an American aviator and noted early female pilot who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight in 1937.

By 1919 Earhart had enrolled at Columbia University to study pre-med but quit a year later to be with her parents in California. Later in Long Beach she and her father went to a stunt-flying exhibition and the next day she went on a ten minute flight.

Earhart had her first flying lesson at Kinner Field near Long Beach. Her teacher was Anita Snook, a pioneer female aviator. Six months later Earhart purchased a yellow Kinner Airster biplane which she named "Canary". On October 22, 1922, she flew it to an altitude of 14,000 feet, setting a women's world record.

After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Guest, a wealthy American living in London, England expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean, but after deciding the trip was too dangerous to make herself, she offered to sponsor the project, suggesting they find "another girl with the right image." While at work one afternoon in April 1928 Earhart got a phone call from a man who asked her, "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?"

Selected Aircraft

The VZ-9 Avrocar (full military designation VZ-9-AV) was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War.[1] The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer. Two prototypes were built as "proof-of-concept" test vehicles for a more advanced USAF fighter and also for a U.S. Army tactical combat aircraft requirement.[2] In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in 1961.

  • Diameter:18 ft (5.486 m)
  • Height: 3 ft 6 in (1.1 m)
  • Engines: 3 x Turbomeca Marboré Continental J69-T-9
  • Max Speed: 300 mph (482 km/h)
  • First Flight: 12 November 1959
  • Number built: 2
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

April 22

  • 1999 – A Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24MR Fencer disappears from radar at 1140 hrs. while descending through cloud during a coastal surveillance flight. Wreckage found ~9 miles (15 km) from Novorossiysk and 25 miles (40 km) from Anapa. Both crew, Lt. Col. A. Kovalenko and Maj. A. Malkerov, did not eject and are KWF.
  • 1996 – The prototype Lockheed Martin RQ-3 DarkStar crashes shortly after take off on its second flight due to incorrect aerodynamic modeling of the vehicle's flight control laws.
  • 1992 – The YF-22 prototype is damaged beyond repair
  • 1982 – During the Falklands War, British SAS troops deployed from HMS Antrim, attempt to reconnoitre Fortuna Glacier on South Georgia island in preparation for recapture by UK forces but are hit by bad weather. One Westland Wessex HAS.3 and two Westland Wessex HU.5 helicopters (XT464 and XT473) of 845 Naval Air Squadron attempt a rescue in difficult conditions. After loading the troops, one Wessex 5 crashes on the glacier but all aboard survive. The personnel are then redistributed onto the other two helicopters, whereupon the second Wessex 5 also crashes on lift-off, leaving seventeen stranded on the glacier (thirteen SAS and four helicopter crew). The Wessex 3 navigator Lt. Chris Parry, returning to the glacier as nightfall comes on, loads 17 into a helicopter able to carry 5, returns to the Antrim, which is pitching in a rough sea, and pilot Lt. Cmdr. Ian Stanley crashes the Wessex onto the deck, concluding the rescue of the seventeen stranded men, who would likely have perished had they not been evacuated from the glacier. Pilot Stanley and two other airmen are awarded the DSO for the rescue operation, although the Ministry of Defense suppresses news of the loss of three helicopters.
  • 1974 – Pan Am Flight 812, a Boeing 707-321B, crashes into mountainous terrain 42.5 nautical miles (78.7 km) northwest of Denpasar, Bali. All 107 passengers and crew on board are killed.
  • 1971 – Britain and France give the go-ahead for four more Concordes, bringing the total to ten.
  • 1958 – The prototype for the Boeing Vertol 107-II makes its first flight in Philadelphia. The Vertol 107 and its military cousin the CH-46 Sea Knight continue to serve around the globe.
  • 1946 – First flight of a tailless glider developed at National Research Council, Ottawa from a design by Prof GTR Hill. Flight was made from Namao, Alberta. The glider was piloted by S/L R. Kronfeld, RAF in a towed flight by an RCAF Douglas Dakota piloted for F/O Robertson.
  • 1944 – (22–23) Aircraft from eight U. S. Navy escort aircraft carriers support U. S. amphibious landings at Hollandia.
  • 1943 – The Air Cadet Corps was made a component of the RCAF by Order-in-Council.
  • 1942 – A B-24 Liberator of the Combat Crew Training School crashes near the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico while returning to Kirtland Field in Albuquerque, killing all nine people on board.
  • 1939 – Canadian pilot Marion Orr took her first flying lesson, to receive her private pilot’s license the following January. A couple of years later Marion began to operate a flying club. During World War II she got a job ferrying military aircraft for the RAF in England.
  • 1939 – First flight of Lockheed Vega Starliner five/six-seat low-wing cabin monoplane with retractable landing gear and an unusual powerplant

References

  1. ^ Yenne 2003), pp. 281–283.
  2. ^ Milberry 1979, p. 137.
Edit today's anniversaries – April Archive – All anniversaries...


Purge server cache

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Aviation&oldid=1257586536"