How aircraft fly

At the last meeting we looked at the subject of aviation starting from the earliest recorded glider flight by Abu Ibn Firnas in sometime around the year 870.  Next was Eilmer of Malmsbury who lept from the tower of Malmsbury abbey, around the year 1,000, flew about 200 feet and broke both legs, Hezarfen Ahmed Ceiebi is reported to have flown across the Bosporus a distance of over 3 km around 1630.

Sir George Caley was the first person to use maths and engineering to understand aerodynamics and the forces acting on an aircraft.  He bult a glider that had controls and achieved the first fully controlled manned flight. In the early 1800’s.  Many of the aviators used the papers Caley had written to develop powered aircraft.

We briefly discussed the Montgolfier brothers and the first ballon flight on 21 November 1783.

The first powered flight took place just south of Kitty Hawk North Carolina on 17 December 1903.  The craft was built by Orville and Wilbur Wright.

• We also looked at the following YouTube videos:
  • 1st Heavier Than Air Flying Machine | Sir George Cayley Glider | Flight Invention History
  • The First Flight: Unveiling the 1903 Wright Flyer
  • Wing lift Holger Babinsky
  • Aircraft Systems - 02 - Flight Controls - YouTube
  • The wings on this Airbus flex way more than they should
  • Bird Strike Jet Engine Test
  • Sully (2016) - Plane landing on Hudson Scene
  • The Death-Defying Mechanics of Fighter Jet Ejections | Cars Insider
• And there was a recent BBC Panorama programme on iPlayer: Can scientists save the world?