Overview:
Great progress was made in the field of aviation during the 1920s and 1930s,
such as Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight in 1927, and Charles Kingsford
Smith's transpacific flight the following year. One of the most successful designs of this period
was the Douglas DC-3, which became the first airliner that was profitable carrying
passengers exclusively, starting the modern era of passenger airline service.
By the beginning of World War II, many towns and cities had built airports,
and there were numerous qualified pilots available. The war brought many innovations
to aviation, including the first jet aircraft and the first liquid-fueled rockets.
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Solar:
NASA's Helios researches solar powered flight. After WW II, especially in North
America, there was a boom in general aviation, both private and commercial,
as thousands of pilots were released from military service and many inexpensive
war-surplus transport and training aircraft became available. Manufacturers
such as Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft expanded production to provide light aircraft
for the new middle-class market.
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Jets:
By the 1950s, the development of civil jets grew, beginning with the de Havilland
Comet, though the first widely-used passenger jet was the Boeing 707, because
it was much more economical than other planes at the time. At the same time,
turboprop propulsion began to appear for smaller commuter planes, making it
possible to serve small-volume routes in a much wider range of weather conditions.
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Airframes:
Since the 1960s, composite airframes and quieter, more efficient engines have
become available, and Concorde provided supersonic passenger service for more
than two decades, but the most important lasting innovations have taken place
in instrumentation and control. The arrival of solid-state electronics, the
Global Positioning System, satellite communications, and increasingly small
and powerful computers and LED displays, have dramatically changed the cockpits
of airliners and, increasingly, of smaller aircraft as well. Pilots can navigate
much more accurately and view terrain, obstructions, and other nearby aircraft
on a map or through synthetic vision, even at night or in low visibility.
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Space Ship One:On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded aircraft to make a spaceflight, opening the possibility of an aviation market capable of leaving the Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, flying prototypes of aircraft powered by alternative fuels, such as ethanol, electricity, and even solar energy, are becoming more common and may soon enter the mainstream, at least for light aircraft.(Content by Wikipedia 2010) |
Summary:Aviation and aerospace often seem inseperable. The ability to send traveling passengers to different destinations quickly and safely is certainly tantalizing. A destination with a great view is certainly a selling point of any travel agent. So in multiple interests such as engineering, science, research, development, and tourism, we arguably have hundreds of billions of dollars available. So one goal of aviation and aerospace endeavors should be to sell the best views and technologies and tap those hundreds of billions of dollars. |
Pic Group:
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