Airplanes - Physics for Game Programmers - page 273

Historical Stuff
One of the biggest obstacles to the development of heavier-than-air flight was that it was widely
considered to be physically impossible. Famous scientists came up with elaborate “proofs” of
why it couldn't be done. In the 1890s, a German mechanical engineer named Otto Lilienthal
dispelled this motion by building and flying a series of gliders, one of which flew a distance of
244 meters (800 feet). Being an aviation pioneer was a dangerous pastime, however. Otto died
in 1896 from injuries he sustained from a crash in one of his gliders.
The glider development performed by Lilienthal inspired two American bicycle repair
shop owners, Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright brothers wanted to take the glider concept
a step further and construct a powered aircraft. The Wright brothers were remarkably system-
atic in their approach. They conducted research in propeller shapes. They developed valuable
tables of wind pressure and drift. They designed, built, and tested numerous airplane prototypes
until they finally achieved sustained powered flight on December 17, 1903 near Kitty Hawk,
North Carolina. The airplane, shown in Figure 10-1, only flew a distance of 120 feet on its first
flight, but the era of powered flight had begun.
Figure 10-1. The 1903 Wright Flyer (Photo courtesy of U.S. Library of Congress)
Once the “genie was out of the bottle” and people saw that powered flight was possible,
airplane development proceeded at a rapid pace. Less than 15 years after the first powered
flight, airplane technology and performance had progressed to the point where airplanes were
used in combat in World War I. Aeronautical advancement continues even today with the
development of new supersonic jet fighters and fuel-efficient passenger planes.
Airplane Terminology
Before we get into detail about the physics of airplanes, let's spend a little time defining some
airplane terminology. A typical propeller-driven airplane is shown in Figure 10-2. The fuselage
is the body of the airplane. It houses the cargo and/or passenger compartments as well as the
engine. The wing is the generally flat structure that generates most of the lift that allows the
airplane to fly. The airplane in Figure 10-2 has its wing on top of the fuselage, but wings can be
located in the middle or bottom of the fuselage as well. The tail is located at the back of the plane