McDougle - Wings #1

1.  Flight impacted many different areas of human life.  It had an enormous impact on how people connected to and communicated with the rest of the world.  One example would be the impact flight had on warfare.  Wars were no longer isolated, and no country or city was safe from attack, even if they were far across the ocean.  As a result, war became more destructive and erratic, rather than being able to predict the opponents next move.  The text states that the top news stories from the twentieth century were a direct result of the invention of the airplane.  These stories include the atomic bombing in Japan, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Moon landing.  It seems that flight may have increased violence in the world, especially when referencing the top news stories, but flight also increased exploration and innovation.  Flight has allowed individuals to travel across the world both as tourists and for business.  This travel was able to help with the sharing of cultures and commerce.   It allowed for providing international aid to remote countries suffering from disaster.  Flight played a role in most every aspect of the modern life.  Whether negative or positive, flight had an incredible impact on the twentieth century that cannot be argued.

2.  The text states that ancient people did not work towards flight due to “a failure of the imagination.”  They understood that birds and other creatures could fly, but there was no example of any natural “lighter-than-air” flight for them to attempt to research and duplicate.  The technologies including knowledge of physics and tools used to eventually create flight, took centuries to develop and improve and test.  Although it is believed that ancient peoples did not attempt to create winged flight, they could have utilized balloons based on the concept that hot air rises.  They also had the materials, such as lightweight fabrics, to produce balloons although they would not have had the synthetic materials to create other flying structures.  Yet, they did not attempt to fly.  It was not until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that even the balloon was surmised by philosophers.  This is when the study of air and other gases began.  Man was not able to conceptualize flight earlier, due to the lack in technological development that takes time to theorize and build.

3.  The era of modern aviation began in the early 1800s.  George Cayley was born in England and received extensive science and math training from tutors.  He was a scientist and inventor, but his greatest interest was in successfully creating flight for humans.  He utilized existing research in order to begin developing flying machines.  He created the first successful glider that was able to carry a person several yards following a running start.  Cayley published work on wing shapes and other research he had completed in order to begin sharing his projects.  He continued to improve his glider throughout his lifetime, then created an additional aircraft that contained a structure for the pilot, wheels, paddles, and a steering mechanism.  Cayley was able to begin the modern aviation era by utilizing scientific research and new technologies.  He was able to determine basic rules that could be applied in aerodynamics, and built the first successful glider.