![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Hiller aviation museum
Oct. 25th, 2009 11:40 pmThere wasn't much to the jetpack exhibit, but I did learn a couple of interesting things:
- Balloon-launched gliders were around prior to manned flight. I knew that pilots were playing around with gliders prior to the Wright Brothers' flight, but I had no idea they were this bold. Gliders back then were just some wood and canvas, and yet some bold pilot was willing to go a few thousand feet up in a balloon and then cut the cord and glide down in their creaking contraption. This allowed for much longer flights than the prevailing method at the time, which involved having the glider towed into the air by a guy on horseback. It's funny to think of the age of horses and the age of airplanes overlapping, but they did.
- There was a ridiculously fast amount of aircraft innovation after the Wright Brothers' flight in 1906. Within five years, air shows around the country featured pilots doing acrobatics. Within six years, there was a navy aircraft carrier (with a wood deck!) Within twenty years, planes could fly across the Atlantic without refueling. Within thirty-five years, there were jet engines.
- There are working helicopters that have jet engines at the rotor tips instead of an engine that turns the rotors. This design has some advantages but is kind of insane. I wouldn't want to see what the failure mode looks like. Apparently the jet engines were subjected to a force of 1000G.
- Balloon-launched gliders were around prior to manned flight. I knew that pilots were playing around with gliders prior to the Wright Brothers' flight, but I had no idea they were this bold. Gliders back then were just some wood and canvas, and yet some bold pilot was willing to go a few thousand feet up in a balloon and then cut the cord and glide down in their creaking contraption. This allowed for much longer flights than the prevailing method at the time, which involved having the glider towed into the air by a guy on horseback. It's funny to think of the age of horses and the age of airplanes overlapping, but they did.
- There was a ridiculously fast amount of aircraft innovation after the Wright Brothers' flight in 1906. Within five years, air shows around the country featured pilots doing acrobatics. Within six years, there was a navy aircraft carrier (with a wood deck!) Within twenty years, planes could fly across the Atlantic without refueling. Within thirty-five years, there were jet engines.
- There are working helicopters that have jet engines at the rotor tips instead of an engine that turns the rotors. This design has some advantages but is kind of insane. I wouldn't want to see what the failure mode looks like. Apparently the jet engines were subjected to a force of 1000G.
