Aviation Facts

May 16 - 22 has been designated National Trans-portation Week, and since aviation is such a major part of that vital industry Tidbits is taking the opportunity to present some facts about the history and progress of air travel. Buckle up.

FIRST FLIGHT

• You can't really have a discussion about aviation facts without some well-deserved recognition to the Wright Brothers. While we're all familiar with the name and their contribution to the world of flight, their breakthrough journey into the field of aviation was actually a rather zig-zagged path. Years before their legendary first flight at Kitty Hawk, the pair started their own weekly newspaper, the “West Side News,” in Dayton, Ohio in 1889. Three years later, with the trend of bicycle-riding spreading across the country, Orville and Wilbur opened a successful bike shop, not only repairing, but selling their own designed and hand-built bicycles.

• They also became fascinated with the flight of birds and the ease with which their wings allowed them to soar freely through the air. With both men posessing a natural gift for tinkering, the two worked on fabricating wing designs that could imitate a birds’ techniques for flight. They experimented with gliders for years, even fashioning a wind tunnel for testing the capabilities of different wings and tail designs. Eventually,they needed a way to propel the wings through the air, enabling their invention to fly.

The Wright Brothers created a wind tunnel to help them experiment with different wing and tail designs.

• They found a small, lightweight engine that generated about 12 horsepower, the equivalent of about two or so of today's lawn mower motors. On December, 17, 1903, the brothers set off for Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where they flew the first controlled flight of a power-driven airplane. The 600-pound device was constructed of spruce with muslin covering the wing frames.

The Wright Brothers flew the first controlled flight of a power driven airplane.

• There were four flights that day, two by each brother. Orville flew first for a distance of 120 feet in 12 seconds with a speed of 6.8 mph. The second flight was 175 feet; the third, 200 feet at a height of about ten feet above the ground. The final flight, piloted by Wilbur, covered a distance of 852 feet with a flight time of 59 seconds. The success of these flights were an aviation breakthrough that forever changed the course of world history.

CHARLES LINDBERGH

• Although U.S. Airmail system got its official start with regularly scheduled deliveries in 1918, pilots had been flying mail since 1911. In those early days, mailbags were dropped from the plane to the ground, where they were picked up by the community’s postmaster. By the mid-1920s, postal pilots were delivering 14 million letters annually. The job was certainly not without its risks – between 1918 and 1927, 34 airmail pilots were killed in crashes.

• In 1919, New York City hotel owner and flight enthusiast Raymond Orteig offered a prize of $25,000 to the first pilot to fly nonstop between New York and Paris. Several adventurous contenders accepted the challenge and tragically lost their lives. Eight years later in 1927, a 25-year-old airmail pilot named Charles Lindbergh fired up his monoplane and departed from Long Island’s Roosevelt Field. His plane, the “Spirit of St. Louis,” was just under 28 feet long with a wingspan of 46 feet. Half of the plane’s weight consisted of the 450 gallons of fuel in its oversized tank. He took to the air at 7:52 AM on May 20, 1927, and landed at Le Bourget Field outside of Paris 33 hours, 29 minutes, and 30 seconds later, having flown more than 3,600 miles across the Atlantic. An enthusiastic crowd of more than 100,000 awaited his arrival at the field. His fuel tank still held 85 gallons of gas.

• Before achieving fame, Lindbergh had been raised on a Minnesota farm and studied mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin before dropping out to follow his dream of flying. His first solo flight was at age 21, and he quickly became a daredevil pilot performing at fairs and air shows.

• Lindbergh trained in the U.S. Army as a reserve pilot, then began a career as chief pilot for an aircraft company that provided airmail service between Chicago and St. Louis. After his historic flight to Paris he was immediately thrust into the spotlight as a national hero. But his fame tragically led to the heartbreaking kidnapping and death of his 20-month-old son. As a result, Lindbergh and his wife moved to Europe to avoid the relentless frenzy of media attention. There, he joined forces with a French surgeon to invent an early prototype of an artificial heart. Lindbergh later served on the board of directors for Pan-American World Airways.

AIRCRAFT DEVELOPMENT

• Boeing debuted the first commercial passenger plane in 1933, the 247, an airliner that could cruise at 155 mph. Almost immediately, United Air Lines purchased 60 of the airplanes, which which had seating for ten passengers.

The first commercial passenger plane, the Boeing 247, sat 10 passengers and had a cruising speed of 155 mph.

• To compete with Boeing, the Douglas Aircraft Company introduced the DC-3 in 1936, more than doubling the seating capacity to 21.

• As technology and material components improved over the years, so did aircraft design and flight capabilities. Boeing introduced the massive 747 jetliner in February of 1969. This first of the wide-body planes had a wing span of 195 feet, 8 inches and a length of 232 feet. It was an increase of 79 feet in length over the previous Boeing 707, and boasted seating for 450 passengers with an impressive cruising speed of over 600 mph.

Boeing's enormous 747 jetliner was introduced in 1969; seating 450 passengers, with a cruising speed in excess of 600 mph.

AVIATION FIRSTS

• In 1947, U.S. Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager piloted the first manned airplane to exceed thespeed of sound, reaching Mach 1.07 (700 mph) at an altitude of 45,000 feet. He was flying a rocket engine-powered Bell X-1 aircraft above the Mojave Desert. Yeager went on to become a fighter pilot in Vietnam, flying 127 combat missions, and rising to the rank of Brigadier General.

• In 1906, while racing a car at 100 mph, Harriet Quimby was exhilarated by the thrill of speed, which led her to enroll in New York’s Moisant School of Aviation. In 1911, she became the first American woman to earn a pilot’s license. The following year, she accomplished another first – the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Sadly, less than three months later while participating in an aviation meet in Massachusetts, her aircraft abruptly and unexpectedly pitched forward. The plane was not equipped with safety harnesses, and both Quimby and her male passenger were ejected from their seats and fell to their deaths.

The first woman to receive a pilot's license was French Baroness Madame Raymonde de Laroche, in March 1910.

• Quimby, however, wasn’t the world's first woman to receive a pilot’s license. That honor belongs to French Baroness Madame Raymonde de Laroche, a gifted engineer who earned that distinction in March, 1910. She took honors for a non-stop flight of four hours, followed by a women’s altitude record of 15,700 feet. With hopes of becoming the first female test pilot, she was piloting an experimental aircraft when it crashed on its landing approach, tragically killing the 36-year-old aviation pioneer. 

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