More than one century ago we manage to fulfill our dream of achieving our first flight in
a manned heavier than air aircraft, an amazing machine capable of transporting one or even
two men onboard over the air at about 34 mph, speed that would double in less than a year.
But what benefits would this technology bring to humankind?
At the time nobody was still sure during the first years, but with record after record
being broken by new airplanes regarding speed, altitude and flight duration, this beautiful
machine started to exhibit a potential for practical tasks, and also getting attention
from the military, who soon will be making an extensive use of the newly invented machine
called the airplane.
We’ll also see how this flying machine evolved in several stages into what we know today
as fighter jets, the most technologically advanced flying machines, get ready for an
amazing story about aviation.
Welcome to Joyplanes.
*The great War*
The year is 1914 and the world is in conflict, the first world war started only 11 years
after the first flight made by the wright brothers, some improvements have been made
to the flying machines, and in the military found them useful for recognizance missions
which until then were made by men with horses, very slow, less range and more limitations
than using an aircraft, despite some opposition of traditionalist on the military the airplane
was getting its way in for it’s clear advantages against the enemy, that’s how it started,
military airplanes were used to fly over enemy lines and spy on them, taking pictures was
the primary way of recognizance,
but it wasn’t easy, flying in the early days with no navigation instruments and really simple maps
in places you’re not familiar with was a real challenge.
Soon after, the enemy started using the new technology as well, one of the first air-to-air
battles were made with hand guns carried by the pilots, when two pilots of recognizance
airplanes from opposites sides encounter each other in mid-flight,
later these type of battles
were given the name of dogfight.
It wasn’t long after experimentation was being made to accommodate machine guns on
the aircraft, this raised another problem, if the machine gun was positioned right in
front of the pilot it was convenient for aiming and shooting at the same direction of the
flight, but it meant that the bullets would strike the propeller making it unusable, the
pusher airplanes however didn’t have this problem, but these airplanes are not as efficient
as the tractor configuration, another way was mounting the gun on top of the wings,
but it was really hard for the pilot to aim and shoot, an ingenious solution was done
in the Fokker Eindecker, it was the first aircraft to be fitted with a synchronization
gear, which made possible firing through the propeller without making any damage.
Dropping small bombs by hand was another alternative.
As the flying machines progressed so did the defense mechanisms with anti-aerial artillery.
*Escaping tragedy*
Being taken down by the enemy was a high probability if you were an inexperienced pilot, and the
problem then was that if your machine was going down, you were going down with it as
well even if you survived the first attack.
A terrible way to die and an awful loss for the air force who couldn’t afford losing
more pilots.
The use of parachutes was very controversial, although it was invented long before airplanes
and it was a clear option, the only personnel allowed to use parachutes were the observers
in Balloons, these balloons were used to observe the battlefield and guide artillery on the
ground, they used a highly flammable gas, and they were often shot down bursting into
flames and falling down the sky, the parachute was the only device that secured the lives
of the occupants.
For the aviators in the other hand, they had several problems, in most of the aircraft
the cockpit was tiny, there was no space for extra equipment and certainly the emergency
exiting maneuver was going to be very difficult in such a space, more over, the high command
though that the use of a parachute will encourage the pilots to jump and escape in critical
situations instead of facing the enemy.
They also said that a heavy parachute would affect the fuel efficiency and performance
of the aircraft.
In other words they didn't care about the lives they were in charge of, The German air
service, in 1918, became the world's first to introduce a standard parachute and the
only one at the time.
Later parachutes will become a standard in every country.
*Power*
Engines never stopped evolving during the war
and so the construction techniques
but the airplanes were always made out of wood cover by fabrics, the most common type was
the biplane for its great strength and already familiar structure, engineers started to understand
even more the aerodynamics, they discovered that a monoplane was a lot more efficient
than the biplanes or triplanes, and some monoplanes were successfully deployed in the front lines
of the war, but these kinds of airplanes needed a complex array of struts and wires to maintain
the structural strength of the wings, specially in highly demanding maneuvers, this was solved
with the use of new materials and construction techniques, like metal aloes and internal
structures inside the wing so no struts or wires were required, but the machine is nothing
if you don’t have a good pilot, one of the most prominent fighter pilots of the WWI was
Manfred von Richthofen, better know as the red baron, he was a German Air Force pilot
during World War I.
He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat
victories, most of he's victories were made using his albatross biplane, although he’s
mostly associated with the triplane which he did use by the end of his career but not
as much as the biplane Albatros D series, we can make a video only about Manfred von
Richthofen in the future.
Airplanes extended the range of the war and now cities hundreds of miles away from the
battle front are exposed to these deathly machines, even before the airplanes bombardments
were possible with lighter than air aircraft, like the zeppelins, but these zeppelins were
slower and bigger than the airplanes, making them an easy target.
*EVOLUTION*
Towards the end of the first world war the maximum speeds recorded for an airplane is
150 mph.
By now, not much more funding is available for the development of military aviation,
so during the 20s civil aviation took over the challenge of the speed and distance records.
A prominent event was the Schneider Trophy, It was intended to encourage technical advances
in civil aviation but became a contest for pure speed, the race was significant in advancing
aeroplane design, particularly in the fields of aerodynamics and engine design, the race
would feature seaplanes.
The last Schneider event was held in 1931, and the winner was the British team with the
Supermarine S.6B reaching speeds of 380 mph or 610 km/h.
These planes are far more advance than any military aircraft at the time.
The most important changes on the new fast aircraft are the engine power, cylinder disposition,
and aerodynamics in general, making the planes slim to offer less resistance to the air,
this presented many other problems like the engine cooling.
The most common type of engine was the radial type, where all the cylinders were exposed
to the direct airflow, this was at the cost of more air drag and therefore was not possible
to reach faster speeds, the inline cylinder engines in the other hand could present less
aerodynamic drag but air cooling was less ideal, so additional liquid cooling systems
had to be developed by using radiators.
In the Supermarine S.6B the engine oil was cooled by a set of pipes on both sides of
the fuselage, and another radiator on the wings for the liquid engine cooling.
*Faster is better*
Germany didn’t take part on the Schneider races, because after the great war it was
agreed they wouldn’t manufacture aero-engines beyond a fixed size, so they don’t have
high speed aircraft yet, until the Nazi regime takes part in 1933 when the old treaties are
ignored, competitions on aircraft design are held to select the best fighter airplane,
and the winner is a low wing monoplane designed by Willy Messerschmitt, the BF-109, the British
also had a formidable counterpart introduced one year later, the Supermarine Spitfire a
new generation of fighter airplanes that will change the course of the upcoming WWII war,
the Hawker Hurricane was also a simple but great British fighter plane, the simplicity
relies on the use of the classic wood and fabric construction, and because of this it
was faster and cheaper to manufacture.
The united states had the F2A Buffalo when entered the war, but it was an outdated war
bird being overweight and unstable, specially when compared with its Japanese opponent the
Mitsubishi A6M Zero, but the F4F Wildcat took it’s place in battle and it was later replaced
by the F6F Hellcat, of course later designs were created like the mustang P51 and many
others.
Throughout the history of military aviation one characteristic was predominantly important
for air superiority, and it was the speed, a faster speed means that you can reach your
target and get out of faster, that’s why faster was better.
*The dawn of aerospace tecnology*
Germany was very advanced in aerial technology, they started experimenting with rockets, and
unmanned flying bombs, they also created the Me 163 Komet, basically an airplane with a
rocket for an engine, it was the only rocket-powered fighter aircraft ever to have been operational
and the first piloted aircraft of any type to exceed 621 mph or 1000 km/h in level flight.
The problem was it’s short flight time, but a new generation of engines was going
to revolutionize aviation and make possible even greater speeds.
The jet engine.
The Heinkel He 178 was the first turbojet powered aircraft ever to fly, but the most
common operational jet-powered aircraft during the WWII was the Me 262.
After the war, the development in aviation was pretty advance, but the quest for speed
continued, with the introduction of the transistor now computers onboard or avionics was possible
for a more coordinated and precise control over the ever-increasing complexity of the
Flight systems, now these computers onboard help the pilot fly these machines.
If you want to see more about the fastest airplanes in the world we’ve made another
video on that, the link is on the screen and the description of this video.
Today we don’t only have really fast state-of-the-art aircraft, but we’ve built rockets, spacecraft
of many kinds, satellites and much more, we’ve done this in less than 100 years when we still
used to dream of flying like the birds.
If you liked this video, now you can consider supporting us on Patreon, but we’ll be happy
if you only subscribe to the channel.
I usually make videos about RC aircraft and aviation in general, but every now and then
a video like this is released, so stay tuned for more and stop dreaming about flying, wake
up and make it a reality.