The Development of Aviation - Essay Example

Development of Aviation The Second World War marked significant changes in the developmentof aviation. Owing to progress in technology, increasing demand, and war, the pace of aviation advancement increased at that time (Higham 196). The increase was so significant that the Second World War has been considered the watershed in history of aviation development ever since (Barsness, “Air Transportation in the Post World War II Era”). Both military and commercial aviation got a stimulus to rapid development and the whole aircraft industry was subject to drastic changes. The goal of this paper is to trace the history of aviation from the time of the Second World War till now. Just as war is thought to be one of the major contributors to the development of aviation, aviation advancement is deemed inseparable from military aviation progress. Historically, the First World War was the time when military aviation was born, while the Second World War became the period when the use air power for military purposes came of age. Dugdale-Pointon in “A Brief History of Air Warfare” compares the two periods in the following way: “Whereas aircraft development in the First World War had been evolutionary although rapid, the Second World War saw truly revolutionary development” (Dugdale-Pointon, “A Brief History of Air Warfare”). At that time, it was the monoplane became the dominant interest, which led to advances in speed and fire power design. Indeed, fire power and speed increased to such extent that a propeller driven aircraft could now destroy the sound barrier in a dive. In relation to this, the role of personalities decreased whereas the role of technology soared. The end of the war saw the first jet planes come of age which were used in the front line service to fight the enemy. These were German Me 262 and the British Meteor (Dugdale-Pointon, “A Brief History of Air Warfare”). Other significant developments in the sphere of military aviation were the use of bombers and radars. Bombers, used for large scale bombings of enemy’s cities, evolved as massive machines with manifold guns and engines. These were machines developed in Great Britain and the United States alike: the British Lancaster and the U.S. Flying Fortress and Super Fortress. As for radars, they grew important due to their possibilities of effective and coordinated air defense. Along with the spread of radars, a new type of aircraft known as Night Fighter was invented that hunted the bombing raids during night. Besides, transportation aviation developed at the time of war with the extensive use paratroopers, which were first utilized with the airborne invasion of the island of Crete by the German arm back in 1941. The use of transport planes DC-3 and Ju-52 was popular since it enabled quick resupply of forces and allowed to conduct large-scale war operations (Dugdale-Pointon, “A Brief History of Air Warfare”). Additionally, helicopters started to be used during the Second World War, yet their impact was minimal at that time. Namely, those were the U.S. Sikorsky R-4 in 1942 and German Flettner FI 282. The advances in the sphere of military aviation in the course of the Second World War, which enabled to carry both cargo and passengers on lengthy over-land and over-water flights, boosted the development of commercial aviation. The boom of commercial aviation was possible above all to the potential of ex-military aircrafts for carrying passengers and cargo. For example, massive bombers such as Lancaster were subject to conversion to commercial aircrafts. Discussing the situation in the post Second World War period, Richard Barsness from the Northwestern University, USA comments that U.S. air transportation actively developed in three major directions. Those were technology, air industry structure, and market. In terms of technology, American manufacturers came out with a range of developments since they had an opportunity to work on production and improvement of commercial aircraft. The improved model of Douglas DC-3 known as Douglas DC-4 came into use as well as Lockheed Constellation. Significant progress of U.S. aircraft designers and manufacturers enabled the States to have a competitive advantage over foreign suppliers of planes. Barsness believes that this also helped the U.S. to act as a major generator of international air operations standards and a major supplier of aircrafts (Bursness, “Air Transportation in the Post-World War II Era”). The second field of aviation development was that of market. The demand for productive aircraft rose as prosperity came back to many Western European countries. Indeed, the planes with fast improving pressurized cabins, which were faster and lager in size were on demand. Travel by air became especially popular with the possibility of longer-range services. Travelling by plane required fewer stops or could even be done entirely non-stop. Besides, it became possible to cover long distances with the utmost comfort. The third field of aviation development was the industry structure change. During 1950’s charter service, which had been almost nonexistent in the period before the war, turned into the principal segment of the airline industry. The traffic became especially heavy within Europe, across the Atlantic, and between Africa and European countries. In the States, Pan American lost its priority as an international airline company, with new players coming into international market. Those were TWA, Braniff, and Northwest. One of the most important factors in the development of aviation in the period after the Second World War was the growing popularity of jet planes. In Soviet Union, Aeroflot launched regular services by jet planes back in 1956. It used the Tupolev Tu-104 planes. With the introduction of the Boeing 707, which was characterized by enhanced comfort, better safety and innovativeness, the Jet Age began, the name applied to the period of mass travel by air on commercial basis. During the period of the Cold War major advances were made in the aircraft industry. Back in October 1947 the first attempt was successfully made to take the rocket-powered aircraft Bell X-1 to fly through the sound barrier. That was done by Chuck Yeager, a noted U.S. test pilot. Other significant developments in the subsequent decade were the launch of the regular passenger service by the Comet, the jet-powered aircraft, in 1952; the launch of the first artificial satellite into the Erath’s orbit by the USSR in 1957; the launch of the U.S. satellite in 1958; and the development of the first winged plane that achieved Mach 4, 5, and 6 and was able to fly higher than 30, 500 meters (Rouch, “History of Aviation Timeline”). In the 1960s, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel in a spaceship to the outer space (1961); First American Spacewalk took place (1965); Neil Armstrong allegedly stepped on the moon and walked there (1969); the first flight of Concorde, the prototype of Supersonic transport plane, took place. In the 1970s, the first earth-orbiting space station known as Skylab was launched (1973), and Viking 1 Spacecraft landed on the surface of Mars and took pictures (Rouch, “History of Aviation Timeline”). The last quarter of the 20th century was comparatively scarce in innovations and developments. Researchers admit few developments in the field of distances, speed, and technology progress. Instead, avionics (i.e. electronic equipment used on board of aircrafts, satellites, and spaceships) got developed. Some other achievements in the 1980s were the successful launch of the first large rocket ship known as Space Shuttle (1981) and the launch of the Pioneer-10, which was able to operate beyond the planets (1983). Some other developments were related to refinement of human mastery of aviation. For example, in 1986, the first around-the-world flight was made without a refuel, which took 9 days, by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager; in 1999 Bertrand Piccard circled the world in his balloon; in 1994, Vicki van Meter who was 12 at that time became the youngest pilot to deliver the transatlantic flight in a Cessna 210; in 1996, Dr Shannon Lucid established the record of living in space – 188 days (Rouch, “History of Aviation Timeline”). The development of aviation in 2000s saw the focus on improvement of already existing technologies and enhancing safety standards in relation to the terrorism concerns brought by the September 11 attacks. To specify, in 2002, Australians conducted the first successful test flight of the hypersonic scramjet engine; in 2003, the first manned flight to space was delivered by the Chinese; the same year the First Centennial Celebration took place (Rouch, “History of Aviation Timeline”). Additionally, the 2000s saw the development of subsonic military aviation. In particular, successful attempts were made to launch unmanned aircrafts known as UAVs (abbreviated from unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Specifically, in 2001 the unmanned aircraft called Global Hawk flew from the States to Australia without refueling and without making stops; in 2003 the first flight over the Atlantic took place which was entirely autonomous and was made by an unmanned aircraft monitored remotely (“Global Hawk: High-Altitude, Long-Endurance Science Aircraft”). Culturally, significant changes in the U.S. aviation took place in the period following the end of the Second World War. In particular, the desegregation took place in the Air Forces in 1948 with the issuance of Truman’s Executive Order. In the subsequent decades, the gender issue became one of the civilian problems in relation to flight attendants’ employment terms. The gender issue was successfully resolved so that by the 1990s women were even allowed to combat flying (Higham 126). In summary, the Second World War provided enormous potential for development of aviation in the United States and other countries. Just as the countries restored their prosperity after the war, the demand on air travel rose. Significant developments and achievements were made in the next two decades after the war, while the last quarter of the previous century was mostly devoted to improvement of what has already been achieved. The first decade of the 21st century saw the enormously widespread use of planes across the globe. The major developments were made in the military aviation in the sphere of unmanned flights and in the sphere of safety/security enhancement. Works Cited Barsness, R. “Air Transportation in the Post World War II Era: Commentary”. N.d. Web. 24 Nov 2012, < http://www.thebhc.org/publications/BEHprint/v007/p0029- p0032.pdf>. Dugdale-Pointon, T. (30 March 2007) “A Brief History of Air Warfare”, 27 April 1996, Web, 24 November 2012, . Rouch, M. “History of Aviation Timeline”. Artwork by Rouch. N.d. Web. 24 Nov 2012. < http://www.rouch.com/aviation_history.html>. Read More