Honors Engineering: Week Fourteen

For my final blog post, I decided to take a look back at all of my previous posts and just list our some of the information I found over the weeks.


Important people in aeronautical history:

• Leonardo da Vinci: Invented the first real flying machine and helicopter.
• Marquis de Bacqueville: Created imitation flapping wings and flew from his house to the Garden of Tuileries.
• Sir George Cayley: Built a glider and skimmed the ground and sailed from hilltops.
• The Wright Brothers: First successful flight of an airplane with an on board motor.
• Paul Cornu: Created first successful helicopter.
• Charles Lindbergh: First person to make a non-stop flight across the Atlantic ocean while flying solo.
• Amelia Earhart: First woman to attempt to make a non-stop flight across the Atlantic ocean while flying solo.

Big moments in flight history:

• 1500: Leonardo da Vinci sketched (and built?) a parachute, ornithopter (flying machine) and helicopter.
• 1742: Marquis de Bacqueville created imitation flapping wings and flew from his house, (on the Seine) to the Garden of Tuileries. The wings ceased to act mid-flight, ending in apparent disaster.
• 1890: Sir George Cayley built a glider with a 300 foot wing surface and skimmed the ground and sailed from hilltops.
• 1842: Henson patented a monoplane to be driven by a steam engine. Wing span was 140 feet.
• 1900: Wilbur and Orville Wright begin experimenting with glider with a front rudder. The glider hovered for just over a minute.
• 1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright tested a biplane glider which flew for 59 seconds, covering 852 feet. The plane weighed 750 pounds, first successful sustained flight in the world.

Important aspects in flight:

• Balance
• Gravity
• Acceleration
• Weight Displacement
• Force

Different types of air crafts:

• Fighter-planes
• Non-fighter planes
• Transport planes
• Helicopters

Honors Engineering: Week Thirteen

This week I decided to continue on my talk of helicopters from last week. I thought that I would go a bit more in depth as to the history of the helicopter.

I mentioned previously that Leonardo da Vinci was the first noted inventor of the helicopter. As it turns out, that information isn't entirely accurate. The helicopter can be traced back as far as 400 BC. In China, children would play with small bamboo toys very reminiscent to da Vinci's first helicopter design(s).

After da Vinci, the helicopter went through several revisions. One well known contributor to the helicopter was Thomas Edison. He attempted putting an internal combustion engine into the machine, but unfortunately the air craft exploded. The internal combustion engine was redesigned later by Ján Bahýľ.

The first successful flight of a helicopter was conducted by Paul Cornu on 13 November 1907. The contraption lifted up 1 foot. There had been one flight previously which lifted up 2 feet, but it was so unsteady it could not be counted as "successful".

Honors Engineering: Week Twelve

This week I decided to look into Helicopters. Helicopters are interesting because in many ways they are much more difficult to fly and build compared to an airplane.

The helicopter was initially imagined by Leonardo da Vinci. He based its design off of that of a screw. A screw has threads on it that continue to descend at a constant rate. He decided to take that idea and applied it to a flying machine. The threads on the screw became the propeller of the helicopter, since air would continue to circulate around the propeller at a constant rate, allowing it to remain airborne. It is not certain that this design worked, or was even built, but it is rumored that da Vinci did in fact build the machine, and that it hovered successfully.

The helicopter has been designed and redesigned several times now, but it still a tricky machine to opperate. The helicopter depends less on thrust and gravity, and more on balance. Considering the somewhat awkward shape of the helicopter, it is easy to understand why balancing an object such as itself would be a difficult task to complete successfully. It is very front heavy and has a long tail sticking out at the back.

The helicopter depends very heavily on the gyroscope. The gyroscope was initially thought of in 1817 by Johann Bohnenberger, and was later redesigned by Walter R. Johnson. The gyroscope is basically an internal compass or a guidance system. It assists in balance and guidence, which is why it helps the helicopter so greatly.

Honors Engineering: Week Eleven

This week I decided to talk a bit about my 24 Hour Engineer. My friend Eric Harmatz is an aerospace engineering major at Embry-Riddle University in Florida. He used to go to High Tech High Media Arts with me and graduated last year, (2010).

Throughout the entire time I have known Eric, he has been in love with airplanes. He would try to adjust as many of his class projects and assignments in order to make them about airplanes or flying. A few years ago in engineering class, he created a miniature helicopter with an on-board computer. This may sound easy enough, but getting this to balance without the help of a remote control proved to be an incredibly difficult task.

Already, Eric has started working in project groups at college designing small air crafts. Eric has always been a fan of flying because his grandfather was a pilot, (as were both of mine, so I can understand his fascination with air crafts). He started working on his pilots license while in high school and should be receiving his official license this May.