Aviation

V

World War I and After

During the period before World War I the design of both the aeroplane and its engine showed considerable improvement. Pusher biplanes—two-winged aeroplanes with the engine and propeller behind the wing—were succeeded by tractor biplanes, with the propeller in front of the wing. Only a few types of monoplanes were used.

During World War I both aeroplanes and lighter-than-air craft were used by the belligerents. The urgent necessities of war provided the impetus for designers to construct special planes for reconnaissance, attack, pursuit, bombing, and other highly specialized military purposes. Because of the pressure of war, more pilots were trained and more planes built during the 4 years of conflict than in the 13 years since the first flight. Huge biplane bombers with two, three, or four engines were introduced by the contending forces. In Europe, the rotary engine was favoured at first, but was succeeded by radial-type engines. In Britain and the United States, water-cooled engines of the V type predominated.

Many of the surplus military planes released after the war were acquired and operated by wartime-trained aviators, who “barnstormed” from place to place, using such fields as were available. Their operations included practically any flying activity that would provide an income, including carrying passengers, aerial photography, advertising (usually by writing names of products on their aeroplanes), flight instruction, air racing, and exhibitions of stunt flying. Surplus wartime aircraft were used to inaugurate the first regular passenger service between London and Paris in 1919.

Transoceanic flying began with the flight of the NC-4, the initials denoting Navy-Curtiss. This huge flying boat flew from Rockaway Beach, Long Island, to Plymouth in England, with intermediate stops including Newfoundland, the Azores, and Lisbon, in Portugal; the elapsed time was from May 8 to May 31, 1919. The first non-stop transatlantic flight was made by the British aviators John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown. They flew from St John’s, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland, on June 14-15, 1919, in a little over 16 hours, winning a substantial prize offered by the London Daily Mail.

Notable flights following World War I included a non-stop flight of 1,170 km (727 mi) from Chicago to New York in 1919 by Captain E. F. White of the US Army. In 1920 the British pilots Major Quintin Brand and Captain Pierre Van Ryneveld flew from Cairo to Cape Town, South Africa. In the same year, five US Army Air Service planes, each carrying a pilot and a co-pilot-mechanic, with Captain St Clair Streett in command, flew from New York to Nome, Alaska, and returned. Lieutenant Oakley Kelly and Lieutenant John A. Macready made the first non-stop flight across the North American continent, on May 2-3, 1923, from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, to Rockwell Field, San Diego, California. The first complete round-the-world flight was made from April 6 to September 28, 1924. Four Liberty-engined Douglas Cruisers, each with two men, left Seattle, in Washington State, and two returned. One plane had been lost in Alaska, the other in the North Sea; there were no fatalities.

Between June 30 and October 1, 1926, Alan Cobham flew from London to Sydney, and back via Melbourne and Adelaide, a distance of 42,960 km (26,700 mi). The first non-stop solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean was the flight of the American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh from New York to Paris, a distance of 5,810 km (3,610 mi), covered in 33y hours on May 20-21, 1927.

The first non-stop westward flight by an aeroplane over the Atlantic was on April 12-13, 1928, by the Germans Captain Herman Köhl and Baron Guenther von Hünefeld, and Captain James Fitzmaurice, an Irishman. They flew from Dublin to Greenly Island, Labrador, a distance of 3,564 km (2,215 mi). Between May 31 and June 9, 1928, Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles T. P. Ulm, Australian fliers, with the Americans Harry W. Lyon and James Warner, flew the Southern Cross from Oakland, California, to Sydney, a distance of 11,910 km (7,400 mi), with stops at Hawaii, the Fiji Islands, and Brisbane. Three American fliers, Amelia Earhart with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, crossed the Atlantic from Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, to Burry Port, Wales, on June 17-18; and from July 3 to 5 Captain Arturo Ferrarin and Major Carlo P. Del Prete, Italian army pilots, made a non-stop flight of 7,186 km (4,466 mi) across the Atlantic from Rome to Point Genipabu, Brazil.

There were numerous competitions for various classes of aircraft, notable among which was the Schneider Trophy for the fastest seaplane. This was finally won outright by Britain in 1931 with the Supermarine S6B aircraft, which incorporated airframe and engine design features later used in the Spitfire fighter.

The late 1920s and early 1930s saw many record-breaking flights. The first solo flight from Britain to Australia, taking 15 days, was made by the Australian Bert Hinkler in February 1928. He was followed by Amy Johnson in 1930, who failed to beat his record. Jim Mollison, who married Johnson in 1932, flew from Australia to England in ten days in 1931. In 1934 a De Havilland 98 Comet won a race from London to Melbourne in just under three days, being closely followed by a Douglas DC-2 airliner carrying passengers and mail. Meanwhile, in 1933 a British team using Westland PV3 and Wallace biplanes had successfully flown over Mount Everest.

Commercial air transport gradually developed during the 1920s, especially between European nations and their colonies. In the United States the early emphasis was on the carriage of mail rather than passengers, but an extensive network of routes was established.

Between 1930 and 1939 commercial air transport was greatly expanded, and in the United States passenger operations became widespread. Imperial Airways operated the route to India with land planes and opened up the route to South Africa with flying boats. By 1937 there was considerable interest in commencing flights across the North Atlantic, mostly with flying boats. Many records were broken during proving flights for the new airline routes around the world. In 1938 the American industrialist Howard Hughes flew round the Northern hemisphere in 3 days, 19 hours, and 8 minutes in a Lockheed 14-N Super Electra. He stopped to refuel only at Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Fairbanks, and Minneapolis on his trip, which began and ended in New York. Other types of record were established. In 1938 Mario Pezzi of Italy flew a Caproni Ca 161-bis biplane to a record altitude of over 17 km (10.5 mi).

As World War II approached, the European nations put much of their effort into the development of combat aircraft. The United States therefore gradually gained ascendancy in commercial aviation. On the foundations of the US air-transport industry were built the military-transport commands that played a decisive role in winning World War II.

Largest of all international airlines in operation when World War II began was Pan American Airways, which, with its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, served 47 countries and colonies over 132,000 km (82,000 miles) of routes, linking all continents and spanning most oceans.

VI

World War II

The demands of World War II greatly accelerated the further development of aircraft. Important advances were achieved in the development of planes for bombing and combat and for the transport of parachute troops, tanks, and other heavy equipment. Aircraft became a decisive factor in warfare. Aircraft production expanded rapidly and many aircrew were trained. Radar and navigational aids were greatly developed.

The most significant development of all was jet propulsion. It was originally proposed by Frank Whittle in Britain. However, it was Germany that developed and flew the first jet-propelled aircraft, the Heinkel He 178, powered by an HeS 3B engine developed by Hans von Ohain. The aircraft first flew in August 1939, just one week before the outbreak of war. The first British jet, the Gloster E28/39, powered by a Whittle engine, did not fly until May 15, 1941. That year also saw the introduction of the tail-less Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-propelled fighter. The first operational jet aircraft was the Messerschmitt Me 262 twin-engined fighter, closely followed towards the end of 1944 by the Gloster Meteor, of similar configuration.

Many World War II combat aircraft became legends. British planes included the Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, Fairey Swordfish, Avro Lancaster, and De Havilland Mosquito; American examples included the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and North American P-51 Mustang.

VII

After World War II

In 1945 military aircraft production was sharply curtailed, but commercial aircraft orders increased considerably. International services were resumed at the end of 1945 and very soon domestic and international operations reached high levels. In particular, regular flights across the North Atlantic were introduced, using coastal airports to minimize flight distances. Among these were Gander in Newfoundland, Shannon in Ireland, and Prestwick in Scotland. The decision was taken to build a new international airport near Hounslow in west London; this was the airport that became known as Heathrow.

The experience gained in the production of military aircraft during the war was utilized in civil-aircraft production following the close of hostilities. Larger, faster aircraft, with such improvements as pressurized cabins, were made available to the airlines. Improved airports, more efficient weather forecasting, additional aids to navigation, and public demand for air transport all aided in the post-war boom in airline passenger travel and freight transport.

Experimentation with new aerodynamic designs, metals, power plants, and electronic inventions resulted in the development of high-speed jet planes designed for transoceanic flights, supersonic aircraft, experimental rocket planes, STOL craft, and the space shuttle.

Supersonic combat aircraft armed with advanced guided missiles became commonplace. The advent of efficient, jet-powered airliners opened up the possibility of low-cost flying, and air travel rapidly became the preferred form of travel for all but the shorter journeys or ones by sea including car passage. In Europe especially a new type of operation was introduced, with the advent of cheap charter flights to desirable holiday locations, especially around the Mediterranean.

The rapid expansion of commercial transport and the air transport industry introduced the need for national and international organizations to control it. In the United Kingdom the Civil Aviation Authority was created from the earlier Air Registration Board and Air Traffic Control Authority, and in the United States, the Federal Aviation Authority was created in 1958, to be replaced by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1972.

It was not until 1947 that an organization was established to handle the problems of large-scale international air travel: the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an affiliate of the United Nations, with headquarters in Montreal, Canada. Working in close cooperation with ICAO is the International Air Transport Association, which also has its headquarters in Montreal and comprises about 100 airlines that seek jointly to solve mutual problems. Another such organization is the Fédération Aéronautique International.

After World War II there was a marked increase in the use of company-owned aeroplanes for the transport of executives. In fact, by the early 1980s such craft comprised more than 90 per cent of all aircraft active in the United States. In the US air transport industry, deregulation (begun in 1978) resulted in mergers of airlines, and fluctuating air fares and “price wars”. Three major US airlines ceased operations in 1991: Pan American and Eastern, both of which had been flying since 1928, and a relative newcomer, Midway, which was founded in 1979.

Elsewhere strong competition and the recession of the early 1990s resulted in cooperative agreements and in some cases substantial subsidies by governments to national airlines. In the United Kingdom the decision was taken to privatize the main operator, British Airways, which provided an incentive to achieve high efficiency.

The advent of the long-range Boeing 747-400 opened up the possibility of commercial flights with non-stop stages of one third of the way across the world. However, the first non-stop round-the-world flight without refuelling was achieved in December 1986, not by an airliner, but by the specially designed ultra-light experimental aircraft Voyager. Composed mostly of lightweight plastic composite materials, the plane weighed only 4,420 kg (9,750 lb) at take-off with 4,500 litres (990 gal) of fuel in its 17 fuel tanks. It weighed 840 kg (1,858 lb) on landing. The pilots, Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager, flew 40,254 km (25,012 mi) in 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds at an average speed of 186.3 km/h (115.8 mph), establishing a distance and endurance record. The previous distance record of 20,169 km (12,532 mi) had been set in 1962.

In July 2002, a hypersonic jet engine, designed to reach a speed of Mach 7.6 (over seven times the speed of sound) on its descent, was successfully tested in the Australian desert. The X-43A, an unmanned hypersonic aeroplane designed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), reached a speed of Mach 7 in its only flight in March 2003, making it the fastest aeroplane yet built. The X-43A used a scramjet, of the kind tested in Australia in 2002, to achieve its speed. A scramjet (the name is derived from “supersonic combustion ramjet”) burns hydrogen but takes oxygen from the air, unlike rocket engines, which have to carry their own supply of oxygen. Innovation in this area has the potential to reduce dramatically the time of long-haul flights.

At the end of the 20th century aviation found itself in a fluid situation. The reduction of tension between the major powers resulted in cutbacks in the production and development of new military aircraft other than joint ventures such as the Eurofighter. After the early 1990s recession, which reduced demand for new airliners, many famous aircraft manufacturers were forced to merge or move into other manufacturing activities. In the late 1990s, companies like Boeing and Airbus experienced an upturn in demand for new airliners. However, even these companies did not escape the detrimental effect on the industry of a global economic slowdown, reinforced by the loss of public confidence in air travel following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. By the end of the year several flag carriers had either been declared bankrupt or were facing imminent collapse and the industry was predicting that most national carriers would fall into bankruptcy, merger, or takeover within the next decade. Nonetheless, several of the smaller budget airlines were reporting booming business. An era of aviation history came to an end in April 2003 when British Airways and Air France announced that the supersonic airliner Concorde would be retired. Confidence in the aeroplane, which had made its first commercial flights in 1976, had been shaken after a crash near Paris in 2000.

See also Aerospace Medicine.