1. Did
flight have any influence outside of aviation?
If so, how?
Yes, flight had a tremendous impact outside of
aviation, especially on the artists and intellectuals worldwide. Like everyone else, they too became
enthusiastic about flight! Not only did
several, like Anatole France and Henri Bergson, flock to Issy-les-Moulineaux (a
commune in the southwestern suburban area of Faris, France – one of Paris’s
entrances) to watch flying, but many also incorporated the idea or excitement
of flight into their work.
For example, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who
were cubist painters at the time, started constructing model airplanes. In fact, Braque’s sculptures accurately
reminded Picasso of biplane wings. To
show what he believed was the importance of aviation in terms of a nation’s
defense, Picasso created one of his masterpieces, “Still Life: Our Future Is in the Air,” in 1912. Furthermore, Gabriele D’Annunzio, an Italian
poet and novelist, flew at Brescia with Glenn Curtiss and Mario Calderara,
recalling his experience as “divine and at the moment inexpressible.” Thus, he was certain that aviation was going
to transform the world – it just needed a poet who was “capable of singing this
new epic.”
That poet or songwriter – Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti – did just that, plus more. In
fact, he established the new artistic movement known as “Futurism.” Through this movement, he encouraged artists
of all kinds to participate in technologies capable of shaping the future.
The first to follow suit was the Russian writer,
Vasily Vasilyevich Kamensky. He moved to
Paris, where he bought a monoplane, learned to fly, and participated in
competitions until he was seriously injured.
After that, he lectured on Futurist poetry and airplanes. In addition, he also helped commission
Kazimir Malevich to turn aviation into a theatre production. In 1913, the “Victory over the Sun,” a play
of Futurist poetry, prose, and song was performed on stage in St.
Petersburg. Yet, the real influence
outside of aviation came with popular culture.
At the fore front of popular culture was Tin Pan
Alley. As a songwriter, he wrote dozen
of tunes revolving around flight. For
instance, he wrote the classics, “Come Josephine in My Flying Machine” and
“Take Me Down to Squantum, I Want to See Them Fly.” Joining Alley’s ride on the coattail of the
aeroplane craze was George M. Cohan who produced the famous playwright, The Aviator.
As if all of these pieces of work were not enough,
several items, such as clocks, plates, and cigarette cases were emblazoned with
airplane pictures. Children toys even
screamed aviation. From a wide range of
aeronautical games to the aviator dolls, flight was being celebrated by everyone,
everywhere. Thus, flight influenced all
things outside of aviation, whether it was seen at one’s profession in his or
her work or at one’s home in his or her décor or child’s toys.
2. How did
this new field of aviation affect science?
Although the foundation for aerodynamics had begun
at about the same as the first airplanes took to the air, this new field of
aviation gave researchers and scientists ideas or theories to test and
explore. The English physicist, John
William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, was the first to ignite such interest in
1878. He discovered that when cylinders
are placed in a fluid stream, they experience only resistance or drag. Yet, if you spin it clockwise, it will
produce a lifting force.
Even though the theory of how the latter event
works is still debatable, two other pioneering aerodynamicists developed a way
to actually calculate the amount of force that the spinning cylinder could
produce. In 1902, Wilhelm Kutta, a
German mathematician, studied Otto Lilienthal’s gliding experiments, where he
presented a paper on how to reach such calculations. Likewise, between 1902 and 1909, the Russian
scientist, Nikolai E. Joukowski submitted his work on the topic. Thus, together they laid the foundation for
the “circulation theory of lift.”
Extrapolating on their work, two others
successfully explained how air circulation around either a cambered or curved
wing could in fact yield such lift.
First, Frederick Lanchester, who was an English engineer and amateur
mathematician at the time, established himself as an automotive pioneer. He then experimented with model aircrafts in
1891. Finally, in 1894, he published his
paper on flight theory, along with his most significant book, Aerial Flight – a book of two volumes (Aerodynamics and Aerodometics).
Unlike Lanchester who found it difficult to
express his ideas and findings in mathematical terminology, the German
scientist, Ludwig Prandtl did not. As he
was studying air flow via industrial vacuum systems, he took up an interest in
fluid dynamics. He later submitted an
eight page paper or “one of the most important fluid dynamic papers ever
written.”
By determining the boundary layer, Prandtl
proposed the idea that “friction held a very thin layer of fluid motionless on
the surface of the wing.” Yet, anywhere
beyond this so called layer, surface friction was observed. Despite this being a cornerstone of the
circulation theory of lift proposed by Kutta and Joukowski, it was only the
beginning. Prandtl went on to supervise
the creation of the first wind tunnel and to be credited as the world leader of
aerodynamic research, where he helped merge theoretical science with practical
engineering. Thus, this new field of
aviation affected science by giving it its wings, and thereby, allowing
scientists and researchers from all over “to fly” - to accomplish the
unimaginable.
5. In your opinion,
did the Wright Brothers’ patent suits affect the progress of aviation?
Beginning on August
18-19 of 1909, the Wrights filed a complaint bill against Glenn Curtiss and the
Herring-Curtiss Company, sparking the patent suits’ era. In the bill, they prohibited Curtiss and his
company from producing, selling, and even showcasing aeroplanes that were
similar to those of the Wrights’ patents.
In similar fashion, they prevented the Aeronautic Society of New York
from displaying any of Curtiss’s planes.
Yet, it was only the beginning.
The Wright Brothers’
went further to prohibit others from seeing their patents and from exhibiting
their airplane models if they had any resemblance to those of the Wrights’
models. Because of such secrecy and
actions, most argue that the Wright Brothers’ patent suits affected the
progress of aviation within the United States of America. Thus, it is no wonder why we were behind in
constructing, selling, and implementing planes, especially in wars.
In my opinion, I have
to agree with the majority of the people – I too believe that their actions
halted our aviation progress as a country, which can be further proven by
looking at the various statistics provided on page 147. For example, “the United States boasted a
grand total of six serviceable military airplanes, 260 less than France and 8
less than Japan.” Not only were we
behind at the start, but we also lagged between the years of 1909 to 1917. Within those 9 years, the Wright Company or
the Wright Brothers’ company were only able to sell 26 aircraft to its largest
consumer – the US army. Thus, they only manufactured
and sold roughly 3 per year to them.
Although I do feel
that the Wright Brothers’ patents affected America’s progress of aviation, I
can sympathize with the brothers in understanding why they choose to act the
way that they did. Think about it. If you invented something, then you would not
want the world “copying” you and potentially constructing a better model of
your original invention. Thus, I do
believe that the Wright Brothers’ patent suits affected the progress of
aviation, but at the same time, I can understand why they chose to let it.
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