1. What impact did flight have on life in the twentieth
century?
Flight had a huge impact on life in the twentieth century;
in fact, behind computers, I think the flight was the most important invention
of the twentieth century. Flight changed almost everything; from how we travel
to the way we fight wars. Flight probably had the biggest impact on warfare;
planes were a huge part of World War I and II, as well as the Cold War. During
the first and second World Wars, air dominance was essential. During the First
World War, if you did not dominate the air, you were vulnerable from an attack
from above. It was the same during the Second World War, but to an even larger
extent. Planes were used to a devastating effect during the Second World War.
Planes dropped bombs on Germany, to literally bomb them into surrender; and on
the other side of the world, planes were used to extend the reach of the navy.
Not to mention that the first and second hydrogen bombs were dropped by plane. Thanks
to planes we and the Soviets were under constant threat of being attacked
during the Cold War.
There were more positive aspects of life that were created
or enhanced by flight. Flight enabled people of travel from one part of the
world to another in a reasonable amount of time. The world got smaller; people
could now live thousands of miles apart and still be able to talk face to face
in a matter of hours. Business could now be cared out internationally with
relative ease. Planes helped advance materials and other technologies that are
now enjoyed. Without planes we would not have had the Apollo moon landing, one
of the most important events in the twentieth century. Without flight, the
world would be drastically different place.
2. Why did it take so long for man to realize the dream of
flight?
For centuries, man has possessed the materials required to
create a device or machine capable of flight, so why did it take so long to
realize the dream of flight? The materials required to create a machine capable
of flight were available all the way back in Egypt. The thing missing was the know-how
and drive to create this machine.
In the centuries leading up to the Wright brother’s first
flight, many advancements took places that aided in the creation of the first
flying machine. Without these advancements, the knowledge required to create
the flying machine would have been missing. The Wright brothers just put all of
these advancements together. They used the current knowledge of the forces
acting on a wing and even created some of their own equations and numbers. The
knowledge about how the forces acting on a wing or aircraft act on the machine.
There were many people that tried but
failed; they needed the knowledge that came with the equations and data
developed in the mid to late 19th century.
5. Why did Wilbur and Orville Wright achieve success before
their contemporaries?
There were several people racing to create a flying machine,
some even receiving government help, so why were the Wright brothers the first
to succeed. The Wright brother were the
first to successfully achieve flight, they had spent all of their own money on
this aircraft and were self taught in the aerodynamics of flight. There were
many people that had much more education and more funds but they did not succeed.
The Wright brothers were driven; they were fascinated with flight from a young
age. This fascination carried right on through adulthood, they knew that flight
was capable; they just need to make a machine capable of flight.
They possessed the drive and willingness to risk it all that
it took to create a flying machine. They held the knowledge of how to properly
balance an inherently unstable machine, the bicycle. They did the research;
they contacted people that had data or knowledge about aerodynamics that they
needed to create the flying machine. When the data proved to be wrong they did not try and figure out what they did wrong; they went about creating the data they
needed, that was correct. The main reason that the Wright brothers achieved success
before anyone else was because they were driven with a passion created during
childhood. They never doubted that it could be done, they just needed to figure
out how to do it, and they knew that.
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