Tiffany Geier- Wings #1

2. Why did it take man so long to realize the dream of flight?

It took man so long to realize the dream of flight because the technology that these kinds of project required were not quite available yet. The advanced knowledge of physics and engineering took longer to come about. Complex means of gathering and collecting data were not readily available for so long either. Not only did the technology need to catch up but so dd the mindsets of most people. The idea of using the wing was far from coming about as well as the idea of being able to build a heaver than air flying machine. These things seemed nearly impossible to most people. Indeed the materials may have been there all along for earlier peoples but the more advanced technology research and basic understand of the air was not quite around, causing the dream of flight to takere longer to come into perspective.

3. When dd the era of modern aviation begin and why?

The era of modern aviation without a doubt began with the work of Sir George Cayley at the start of the nineteenth century. Sir Cayley's glider was the earliest ancestor to the modern day airplane. He was the first to develop the concept of fixed wings on his craft. His gliders were also the first crafts capable of human flight.  The vast amount of study and research he did on air and air pressure was extremely significant as well. He came up with a method to measure the performance of the aircraft too.

5. Why did Wilber and Orville Wright achieve success before their contemporaries?

Wilber and Orville were the first to gain such a success for a number of different reasons starting from their childhood. They were very curious boys growing up and always interested in creating and figuring out how things worked. Rebuilding the helicopter toy that their father bought for them over and over along with watching birds and how they are able to soar with their wings was also quite helpful growing up. The brothers had the drive to figure it out with good materials to work with. Since they had their own bicycle shop they were able acquire parts from the shop to help them n the construction of their aircraft. Just the basic understanding of the bicycle and building them greatly helped the Wrights in their studies and calculations as well. They developed the wind tunnel to help in studying the air and various air speeds and pressures. Most importantly they ran into several failures but they never gave up. They learned from those failures and the failures of other craftsmen before them and continued to study and and research different options and experiment until they finally created the best working model.