Wings #5 Jonathan Smithers

1. Summarize the new aviation technologies that emerged as a result of WWII.

Probably the most important aviation technology that came out of World War II was the jet engine. The jet engine can trace its all the way back to the 1800’s, when Benot Fourneyron to create a high-speed water turbine.  One of the first countries to actually have jet engines were the Germans. They had jet engines and jet aircraft before any other country. Van Ohain tested his He-S.1 in March of 1937. The British tested their first jet engine only one month later. The Germans also made the first jet powered aircraft, the He 178. This was the first aircraft to be powered by only a jet engine, a turbo jet to be specific. Throughout all of World War II and since there has been a battle between nation to see who can fly farther, faster, and higher.

The helicopter was another technological innovation that came out of World War II. The first helicopters developed were autogiros, these have a set of unpowered rotors and a powered propeller. The propeller pushes the aircraft forward the movement of the aircraft causes the rotor to begin to rotate. The rotation of the rotor is what generates the lift that get the aircraft off of the ground. These autogiros were developed before the start of World War II, the helicopter design that we see today was not developed until the mid to late 1930’s. The first practical helicopter was the Fa-61. Some of the first helicopters the United States developed were developed and/or tested at Wright Field.

There were many other technological advances in aviation to come out of World War II, such as advanced avionics and semi-intelligent bombs. Aviation during World War II had huge advances in technology.

5. How did the U.S. view the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik and what was the reaction?

The US viewed the launch of the Russian satellite as a slap in the face. America thought that we were so far ahead of everyone one, technology wise, and then the Russians beat us to space. NASA was formed from the NACA, with the sole purpose of beating the Russians in the space race.

7. What effect did the invention of the computer have on aviation technology?

The invention of computers had a huge impact on the development of aviation. Designing an airplane is extremely intensive. There are numerous calculations that have to occur in order to accurately define the performance of a specific airplane design. Before computers, all the calculations had to be done by a human; this could take anywhere from days to months, depending on the required accuracy and detail in the final result. Even with a human taking a very long time to compute the performance of an airplane, this results could not be 100% accurate. This inaccuracy is caused by a human’s inability to perform multiple calculations that all affect other calculations that are all happening simultaneously. The computer solved many of these problems. A computer is able to perform the extremely complex calculations that are required to calculate the flow of air over an aircraft. Computers allowed the people designing the airplanes to not concern themselves with the calculations. Computers allowed people to design more aerodynamic and faster aircraft.