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aviation Dictionary a·vi·a·tion (āa'vēe-āa'shə?n, ăav'ēe-)
Directory > General Reference > Dictionary > aviation
Encyclopedia aviation, operation of heavier-than-air aircraft and related activities. Aviation can be conveniently divided into military aviation, air transport, and general aviation. Military aviation includes all aviation activity by the armed services, such as combat, reconnaissance, and military air transport. Air transport consists mainly of the operation of commercial airlines, which handle both freight and passengers. General aviation consists of agricultural, business, charter, instructional, and pleasure flying; it includes such activities as the operation of air taxis, as well as aerial surveying and mapping. See also air, law of the; air navigation; airplane; airship. Early Interest in Human Flight Interest in aviation can be traced back as far as Leonardo da Vinci; a human-powered aircraft based in part on his designs, Daedalus 88, flew 72 mi (115 km) in 1988. However, real progress toward achieving flight in heavier-than-air machines only began in the middle of the 19th cent. In 1842 the Englishman W. S. Henson patented a design for a machine that closely foreshadowed the modern monoplane; another Englishman, John Stringfellow, developed a model plane said to be the first power-driven machine to fly; and a third Englishman, F. H. Wenham, devised the first wind-tunnel experiments. In France, Alphonse Penaud made successful flying models of airplanes, while Clément Ader actually achieved flight (over a distance of about 150 ft/45 m in 1890 and about 300 yd/280 m in 1897) in a power-driven monoplane fashioned after a bat. In 1894 a plane built in England by Sir Hiram S. Maxim, operated by steam engines and carrying a crew of three, rose into the air from the track on which it was being tested. In the United States, S. P. Langley, Octave Chanute, and Otto Lilienthal made notable contributions to the early development of the airplane. The Birth and Development of the Airplane Finally, on Dec. 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first piloted airplane off the beach near Kitty Hawk, N. C. Henri Blériot and Glenn H. Curtiss made significant improvements in airplane design and, as more powerful engines became available, flew successively longer distances. In 1909 Blériot flew across the English Channel; ten years later a Curtiss-designed flying boat crossed the Atlantic Ocean. At first aviation development was motivated by the large prizes put up by publicity-seeking newspapers; but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 provided far greater motivation for aviation research and development (see air forces. The cessation of hostilities made available a large number of aircraft that could be bought cheaply, and the result was a great deal of aviation activity; barnstorming and stunt-flying kept aviation before the eyes of the public for a time, but the real stimulus was the initiation of airmail service in the mid-1920s. The intrepid airmail pilots caught the fancy of the public, and out of this group came the famous solo fliers Lindbergh, St-Exupéry, and others. During the 1930s aviation continued to expand. Technological improvements in wind-tunnel testing, engine and airframe design, and maintenance equipment combined to provide faster, larger, and more durable airplanes. The transportation of passengers became profitable, and routes were extended to include several foreign countries. TransPacific airmail service, begun by Pan American Airways (later Pan American World Airways) in 1934, was followed by the first transoceanic aviation service for passengers, on the China Clipper, from San Francisco to Manila (to Hong Kong in 1937). In 1939 the first transatlantic service carrying both mail and passengers was inaugurated. The Era of Mass Commercial Aviation The outbreak of World War II interrupted commercial air service, but by 1947 all the basic technology essential to contemporary aviation had been developed: jet propulsion, streamlining, radar, and metallurgy. Perhaps the greatest example of this transition from military technology to commercial applications is the Boeing Company, a minor military contractor which became the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. Commercial jet transportation began in 1952, when the British Overseas Airways Comet first flew from London to Johannesburg. Though this service was short-lived, by 1960 several commercial jet aircraft were in service; today virtually all commercial air routes are flown by jet or turboprop aircraft. The latest significant development in aviation has been the introduction of fly-by-wire control systems, which rely on computers and electronics rather than cables to operate aircraft control surfaces. The result has been the explosive growth of commercial aviation, from jumbo jetliners to overnight package services, while general aviation has lagged behind. This growth has not been without some major problems. Jet aircraft use more fuel and require longer runways and more durable construction materials, and their sheer numbers create special problems for air-traffic control. In addition, the takeoff and landing of jet aircraft over populated areas create locally dangerous levels of noise pollution.
Directory > General Reference > Encyclopedia > aviation WordNet Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words. The noun aviation has 4 meanings: Meaning #1: the aggregation of a country's military aircraft Meaning #2: the operation of aircraft to provide transportation Meaning #3: the art of operating aircraft Meaning #4: travel via aircraft
Directory > Language > WordNet > aviation American History Aviation Americans have always been fascinated by the possibility of flight. On June 24, 1784, only seven months after Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis D'Arlandes became the first human beings to fly, thirteen-year-old Edward Warren rose above the streets of Baltimore aboard a balloon constructed by Peter Carnes, a lawyer and tavern keeper from Maryland. During the next century, balloons became a familiar sight, but the gaily decorated gasbags were captives of the wind. Navigating in air with the freedom of the birds came only with the invention of the airplane. During the 1890s Octave Chanute and Samuel Pierpont Langley helped set the stage for achieving winged flight. In 1896, Langley, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, launched a series of large, steam-powered model aircraft on flights of up to three-quarters of a mile over the Potomac River. Several months later, Chanute, a civil engineer, led a band of assistants into the dune country east of Chicago, where they flew a series of manned gliders, including an advanced biplane. Wilbur and Orville Wright, the proprietors of a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, wrote to Langley and Chanute in 1899-1900, requesting information on aeronautics and announcing their decision to conduct their own tests. They made the world's first powered, sustained, and controlled flights with a heavier-than-air flying machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. Unwilling to risk unveiling their technology without the protection of a patent and a contract for the sale of airplanes, the Wrights did not make their flights in public until 1908. By that time, photographs and descriptions of their machine had inspired other pioneers to follow their lead. Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a motorcycle builder from New York, emerged as their most important American rival. Flying in a competition in France in 1909, Curtiss won the first James Gordon Bennett trophy competition with a speed of forty-six miles per hour. In spite of the Wrights' legal efforts to curb his activity, Curtiss had, by 1914, established himself as the most successful of all American aircraft manufacturers. American aeronautical hegemony was short-lived, however. With war looming, European leaders were quick to recognize the military potential of the technology and to encourage its development by sponsoring speed, altitude, and distance competitions, establishing aerial units in their armed forces, and creating laboratories to conduct research and development programs. During World War I, the nation that had given birth to the airplane only fourteen years before scarcely qualified as a third-rate aeronautical power. American pilots flew into combat aboard airplanes designed and, for the most part, manufactured in Europe. In spite of some success in the production of training craft and engines, the performance of the fledgling aircraft industry was disappointing. Postwar congressional investigations underscored the problems of a limited market and high research and development costs faced by airframe and engine manufacturers. Recognizing the growing importance of the airplane to national defense and prestige, federal officials took a series of steps between 1915 and 1940 designed to strengthen and regulate the aviation industry. Established by Congress in 1915, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (naca) conducted programs of research and development that by 1925 had demonstrated the value of basic research. Technical reports issued by the agency introduced U.S. aircraft designers to a host of improvements, including revolutionary airfoils; improved propellers, engines, and instruments; and various streamlining techniques. Specialists experimented with wing flaps and other high-lift devices and explored innovative construction techniques and new materials. American engineers made use of the information provided by the naca, university researchers, and organizations dedicated to flight research. By the 1930s, a new generation of low-wing, streamlined, all-metal airplanes were flowing off their drawing boards. Aircraft like the Boeing 247, the Douglas DC-3, and the Sikorsky, Martin, and Boeing flying boats marked the return of the United States to a position of world aeronautical leadership. Congressional leaders had taken steps to ensure that there would be a market for the new airplanes. The Kelly Air Mail Act of 1925 authorized the use of private companies for the delivery of air mail. Most American airlines trace their lineage back to contract mail carriers; postal subsidies were an important source of income during the years when paying passengers were few and far between. The government also regulated commercial aviation. The Air Commerce Act of 1926 created a Bureau of Aeronautics within the Commerce Department, which had limited regulatory authority and was charged with establishing aids to aerial navigation. The Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 and the Civil Aeronautics Board and Civil Aeronautics Administration (1940) worked to improve passenger safety, route markings, and air traffic control systems. The time between the wars was the golden age of American aviation. The products of companies like Lockheed, Boeing, Douglas, and Northrop were instantly recognizable by small boys from coast to coast. The pilots who flew higher, faster, and farther--fliers like Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Doolittle, Wiley Post, Richard Byrd, and Howard Hughes--were the heroes of what everyone referred to as the air age. The airplane, an instrument of commerce, also gave birth to total war during the years 1939-1945. Traditional definitions of the battlefield lost their meaning in an age when fearful destruction could be rained on the enemy's heartland. Attacks from the sky directed against Guernica (1937), Nanking (1937), Warsaw (1939), Pearl Harbor (1941), and a hundred other places climaxed with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs in 1945. From the great carrier battles of the Pacific to the fierce combat fought four miles up in the sky over Europe, the products of American aircraft builders carried the day. Traditional piston-engine, propeller-driven aircraft technology reached its height during the Second World War. But far more revolutionary was the turbojet engine, which opened the way to much higher speeds. After the war the pressure of international tension between the United States and the Soviet Union led to increased defense spending and a drive for supremacy in the field of aerospace technology. The steady flow of military funding for flight research and development resulted in a string of technological triumphs, from the first faster-than-sound flight by the Bell X-1 in 1947 to the launch of the first successful U.S. satellite by a modified army ballistic missile in 1958. The real impact of the airplane on the postwar world, however, came in the field of commercial transportation. By 1950 the airliner was well on the way to replacing the railroad and the ocean liner as the primary means of long-distance travel. The entry of the first turbojet airliners into scheduled service in 1952 literally accelerated the pace of the air transport revolution. The first three decades following the end of World War II were especially good years for the American airframe and engine industry, with the jet-propelled products of Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas, Lockheed, and other U.S. firms dominating the international air routes. The result of the postwar air transport boom was nothing short of a social revolution. Regional and local airlines and air freight operations joined the giant international air carriers to create an aerial network linking every corner of the globe. The economic, social, and political consequences included the creation of global markets, opportunities for global travel undreamed of a generation before, and increasing cultural homogeneity. For U.S. carriers, however, the era of growth and optimism came to an end in the 1970s, as the industry became plagued by a seemingly endless stream of problems. The airlines suffered from labor unrest at every level from the cockpit to the control tower, corporate mismanagement, airport congestion, skyrocketing fuel costs, increasingly crowded skies, and public concern over issues ranging from safety and service to air and noise pollution. Industry leaders also had to accommodate to a changing political environment. The proponents of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 hoped to encourage competition and increased efficiency by decreasing government controls and abolishing the Civil Aeronautics Board, for forty years the principal regulatory agency in the field of commercial aviation. Initially, the measure did attract new competitors into the field and led to lower ticket prices. But deregulation brought with it a new set of difficulties. Increasingly congested hub airports, circuitous routing, greater passenger crowding, the loss of service to small towns, discriminatory and rapidly changing fare structures, longer working hours for flight crews, and the temptation to risk operating with narrower safety margins were but a few of the problems the industry struggled with. Beyond its importance to national defense and the movement of freight and passengers around the globe, the aerospace industry became the single most important factor driving technological advance in a wide variety of fields. The great breakthroughs in materials science and technology, electronics, and computer sciences were inextricably linked to the needs of aviation and space flight. In eight short decades after Kitty Hawk, the aerospace enterprise changed the world in myriad ways and enormously expanded our vision of the possible. Bibliography: Roger Bilstein, Flight in America, 1900-1983 (1984); C. H. Gibbs-Smith, Aviation: An Historical Survey (1985). Author: Tom D. Crouch See also Armed Forces; Earhart, Amelia; Lindbergh, Charles A.; Wright, Wilbur, and Wright, Orville.
Directory > General Reference > American History > aviation Contents
Wikipedia @import url(http://www.answers.com/main/content/wp/css/common.css); @import url(http://www.answers.com/main/content/wp/css/gnwp.css); Aviation
Avia
This article is part Modes... See also...
Commercial Aviation Commercial Aviation or Commercial air transport is offered by airlines, companies such as American Airlines, Royal Brunei, British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines or Cargolux and Delta Airlines operating passenger or cargo flights. This type of aviation started after World War I using mostly ex-military aircraft for the purpose of transporting people and goods for profit. A profitable cargo was air mail, which was the means by which governments subsidized air travel. Between October 1929, when the Graf Zeppelin inaugurated the first commercial transatlantic service, and May 6,1937, when the Hindenburg burned, airships were a major mode of long-distance air travel. After World War II the introduction of Jetliners allowed large numbers of people to be quickly transported.
General Aviation General Aviation is a term comprising all of aviation other than military and scheduled air transport (airlines), and includes privately owned aircraft, charter services, business owned aircraft, such as "bizjets," and many more types of working aircraft that are not, strictly speaking, for transportation. General aviation (GA), contrary to popular opinion, is not exclusively non-commercial. Although a large part of General Aviation consists of recreational flying, an equally large part involves important, commercial activities. These include flight training, shipping, surveying, agricultural application, air taxi, charter passenger service, corporate flying, emergency transport, police, firefighting and more. Ultralights are increasingly becoming a part of the highly regularised civil aviation system, and are often considered a part of general aviation.
Military Aviation Military aviation includes combat activities as well as flight missions that support military activities.
See also
Directory > General Reference > Wikipedia > aviation
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Aviation". Misspellings aviation Common misspelling(s) of aviation
Translations Translations for: Aviation Nederlands (Dutch) Français (French) Deutsch (German) Ε?λ?λ?η?ν?ι?κ?ή? (Greek) Italiano (Italian) Português (Portuguese) Р?у?с?с?к?и?й? (Russian) Español (Spanish) Svenska (Swedish) 中?国?琣? (Simplified Chinese) 中?國?疏? (Traditional Chinese) 日?本?畢? (Japanese) ا?ل?ع?ر?ب?ي?ه? (Arabic) ע?ב?ר?י?ת?? (Hebrew)
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