Invention of the Airplane

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

Most Americans learn that the Wright brothers invented the first airplane in 1903, but this didn't quite match with what I (along with all other Brazilians) thought, which is that Brazilian engineer, Alberto Santos Dumont invented the first airplane in 1906 when living in France. We (Brazilians) argue that the Wright brothers' airplane was actualy propelled by a mechanism not completely contained in the aircraft, but was propelled by a sort of slingshot which pushed the airplane on a track. Santos Dumont's airplane was completely self-propelled, it could maneuver freely and under control, as opposed the Wright flyer, which was almost just a motorized glider. Dumont's airplane flew much higher and much faster than what the Wright brothers had flown in 1903, and what they flew at the time that Santos Dumont built his first airplane.

Does anyone here have any knowledge or opinions on the subject? It's rather interesting, isn't it? Were there any others who also may take credit for this invention?

Here's a link on the subject:
http://www.thefirsttofly.hpg.ig.com.br/pioneer2.htm

[Marxist in Nebraska]

I do not know much about this... airplanes are not a subject of much research for me.

If what you say is true, the Wright brothers' aircraft is still an airplane, is it not? I was not aware of anything in the definition of "airplane" that said the craft had to propel itself into the sky and fly at a certain altitude. The Wright brothers still have the first airplane to successfully fly, but this Brazilian inventor had an aircraft which was apparently much better. One could argue the Brazilian is a better engineer, but there is no argument that he came first.

[Sabocat]

The Wright Brothers airplane, flew under it's own power, was controlled by a pilot and sustained level flight. This airplane below, flew 3 times that day.

[Invader Zim]

From my time when I had to teach kids history of flight, I saw that a French man actually beat the Wright brothers to it, but the press refused to cover it due to the mans past failures, therefor he had no proof, so the Wright brothers claimed victory.

[Sabocat]

Here' some interesting stuff on "First in Flight"


http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~robodyne/inv...ld/iwstring.htm (http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~robodyne/inventors-world/iwstring.htm)




First Powered Flight



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OK, so I was wrong! Those of you who read my editorial, in the spring edition of Inventors World, may remember that I claimed powered flight to be less than 100 years old. It could be argued that the Frenchman, Clement Ader, beat the Wright Brothers to it with the 'Eole' - a steam-powered aircraft which flew, after a fashion, in 1890. However, the plane's wheels lifted only a few inches off the ground and this hardly constitutes sustained and controlled flight. I then received a letter which advised me of an even earlier British effort...

This story was too good to miss - possibly another British first! It transpires that the author of the letter - Adam Hart-Davis - is involved with the making of a new television series called 'Local Heroes', due to be shown on BBC2 in the autumn. There are six half- hour programmes each of which includes stories about invention pioneers from around the country and will feature a vast number of their inventions - including...well, I'll let Adam take up the story...

The First Powered Flight - 1848

When I ask people "Who invented the aeroplane?" they usually say "The Wright Brothers." In fact the world's first powered flight took place not in America in 1903, but at Chard in Somerset 55 years earlier, and the man who made it happen was John Stringfellow.

John Stringfellow was born in Attercliffe, Sheffield, on 6 December 1799. When he was a teenager his family moved to Nottingham, and he went into the lace industry. He became a Bobbin and Carriage Maker, and later, when the Luddites began to make trouble, moved south to work in one of the two lace mills in Chard. He developed amazing skill at making steam engines, and in about 1842 he teamed up with William Samuel Henson, who was interested in aeronautics, and had already taken out a patent for a plane. Henson had tremendous ambitions. He not only applied for a patent on a 'Locomotive Apparatus for Air, Land, and Water' but also tried to set up an airline! He made a model of the plane in the patent, and tried to fly it in London, but it was a complete flop - literally.

So Henson came back to Chard, and together they worked on a new plane with a 20-foot wingspan and a wonderful Stringfellow steam engine. But it took two years to build, and by 1845 Henson was losing his enthusiasm. He moved back to London, got married, emigrated to America, and patented a new safety razor.

Stringfellow carried on alone, and when the 20-footer was finished he got workmen to carry it up to Bala Down, located about 1/2 mile west of Chard, for testing. He was so upset by people making fun of his work that he did this secretly, at night, and tried the first flight under cover of darkness. But the silk fabric, wet with dew, drooped and became so heavy the machine could not fly. He tried by day, every day for seven weeks, and finally had to admit defeat.

Then, for the first time, Stringfellow designed his own aircraft from scratch. The wingspan was 10 feet. The spars were of wood and the fabric of silk. The steam engine and boiler, with paper-thin copper walls, was carried in the gondola below the fuselage. The total weight of the craft was probably about 9lbs. By the summer of 1848 she was ready to fly.

The two propellers were huge, with helical pitch, and rotated in opposite directions to give lateral stability. His aircraft had no vertical fin, and he knew it would tend to veer left or right at the slightest disturbance. That is why he flew it inside one of the lace mills, where the air was still.

The space was so narrow - about 17 feet between the wall and the central row of pillars - that he had little room for error; so he launched the aircraft by allowing it to run for ten yards down a wire. This ensured that the machine started flying in exactly the right direction, and at a reasonable speed.

According to his son Fred's eyewitness account, the first flight was a bit of a disaster. The aircraft rose sharply from the end of the wire, stalled, and dropped back on its tail, which broke. But a later flight was a spectacular success; the plane flew for more than 10 yards before punching a hole in the canvas screen at the end of the mill.

In January 1995 we tried to replicate that first powered flight. Model aircraft specialist Charlie Newman built a full-scale model of Stringfellow's aircraft, and we went back to the same mill to try it out. To find out what happened, watch 'Local Heroes' on BBC2 in October.

© Adam Hart-Davis 1995

[Marxist in Nebraska]

Interesting story about Stringfellow... I had never heard that before...

[Invader Zim]

Adam Hart-Davis is likr the most irritating person on TV with the exception of David Dickinson...

[Nobody]

I heard a Aussie or New Zealander flew in 1901 or something like that.

[Urban Rubble]

HAHAHA. MY LAST NAME IS STRINGFELLOW. I AM THE GREATEST MAN ALIVE.