World War II forced people and governments to think in global terms leading to wartime development of bombers capable of non‑stop flight over thousands of miles and to post‑war trans‑continental and trans‑ocean aircraft. Lindberg’s flight, like that of Curtiss, was prompted by a prize from the printed media, illustrating the role of newspapers and magazines in spurring technological progress.īy the late 1930’s the public began to see flight as a way to travel long distances in short times, national and international airline routes had developed, and planes like the “China Clipper” set standards for range and endurance. In 1927 Lindberg’s trans-Atlantic flight captured the public’s imagination and interest in long range flight increased. In the United States, however, with little government interest in promoting air travel for the public until the late 1920’s, long range aircraft development was more fantasy than fact. Sikorski’s early designs are good examples. Some larger planes had even been built as passenger carrying vehicles before the conflict. After the war, European governments subsidized the conversion of these giants into passenger aircraft. In war, bombers needed long ranges to reach enemy targets beyond the front lines and by the end of World War I huge bombers had been developed in several countries. The Wright’s subsequent patent suits aimed at reserving for themselves the sole rights to design and build airplanes in the United States stagnated aircraft development in America and shifted the scene of aeronautical progress to Europe where it remained until after World War I.Īs aircraft and aviation continued to develop, range and endurance became the primary objective in aircraft design. Curtiss went on to outperform the Wrights and others in aviation meets in America and Europe. Curtiss became the top aviator in America and the Wrights were furious, leading to numerous legal suits as Wilbur and Orville sought to prove in the courts that Curtiss and Bell had infringed on their patents. Curtiss, who had worked with Alexander Bell and others to develop their own airplanes, made the flight with newspaper reporters watching and with movie cameras recording the flight. It was Glenn Curtiss, a builder of motorcycle engines and holder of numerous world speed records in motorcycle racing, who, in July of 1908, made the first public one-mile flight. In 1908, however, Scientific American magazine challenged aviation experimenters to produce an aircraft or “aero-plane” which could fly, in public view, over a distance of one mile! While the Wright’s claimed to be able to make such a flight, their obsession with secrecy as they sought military sales and their egotistical belief that no one else could approach their expertise in aviation led them to ignore the prize offered by Scientific American for the one mile public flight. The Wright’s famous first flight was shorter than a football field and even for a couple of years after December of 1903 they were content to circle around the family farm The Wright’s home built engines couldn’t run for long periods of time and they simply didn’t envision the need or desire for flights over distances of over a few miles. In the earliest days of powered flight the primary concern was getting the aircraft into the air and back down safely (with safely meaning the ability to limp away after the “landing”). Range and Endurance Introduction A Little Background
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