Breve historia da aviaçao

Brief History of Aircraft Design As an additional aid in establishing the context for your study of aircraft design, consider briefly its history. This section will acquaint you with the most significant personalities, aircraft, and events in the history of aviation and aircraft design. As you read, note how aircraft designs were equally influenced by customer needs and available technology. Also note the profound influence aircraft designs have had on the recent history of the world. 1.1 Early Years Man’s early thinking about flying was undoubtedly inspired by watching and seeking to imitate birds. The first men to fly were probably Chinese, flying in large manned kites perhaps as much as two millennia ago. Kites are aircraft which generate lift from pressure changes as air flows past them, but which are tethered to the ground and rely on the wind to provide the necessary air flow. They were probably developed originally as toys, but some inspired ancient engineer recognized their military potential. Manned kites were developed to meet military needs for elevated platforms from which to observe their enemies. Kites may also have been used to drop soldiers or spies behind enemy lines. In Europe, small kites were developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but practical man-carrying kites were not used militarily until the early 1900s. Most Europeans who thought about manned flight imagined flapping-wing vehicles called ornithopters with human muscle providing the motive power. In the late fifteenth century, the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci made many sketches of such vehicles and the mechanisms needed to translate human arm and leg motions into the flapping of wings. Unfortunately, all of these dreamers and experimenters did not have sufficient knowledge of aerodynamics to do analysis to determine if a man could generate the power those vehicles would require to sustain flight. They also failed to understand the requirements for stability and control.