Joseph Bradley-Hutchison
Dawne Dewey
UH 4000
Wings Reading Assignment #5
1.
Summarize the new aviation technologies that emerged as
a result of WWII.
As a result of the Allied victory
in WWII, new technology was discovered, which allowed for aviation to further
their technology. Other than some
interesting armor units discovered in the aftermath of the Nazi defeat the
allies found workable fighting jets, the Arado 234 bomber, and the
rocket-propelled Me 163 interceptor.
Even though jet technology may have started in America early in 1918,
discoveries such as the Ho IX V2, which was able to reach a high speed of 497
mph that surpassed the earlier American attempts at building a workable jet
plane (Crouch, 443-445). As jet
technology was being recovered from the ruins of the Third Reich, so were new
forms of missile technology as well.
The Nazi technology was “a treasure
trove” of missile technology along with aerodynamic data on supersonic and hypersonic
flight. Moreover, they possessed
the men who designed these missiles themselves. This led to the advancements in surface-to-surface,
surface-to-air, and air-to-air missiles.
Furthermore, it brought a dozen of new topics to the future innovations
of aviation such as propulsion, electronic systems, missile guidance, and
several more innovations that would push aviation to the forefront of advanced military
technology (Crouch, 444). It was amazing
that despite the advancing Nazi technology they were not able to obliterate the
allied armies during the war, but from their defeat emerged the advancement in the
American aviation field. The Nazis
largely contributed to the advancement in all of these aspects of aviation
after the war, and largely showed the potential they could have had if they
were able to prolong the war.
2.
Discuss the beginning of supersonic flight research in
the United States and whether or not this technology was a priority.
As early as 1918, high-speed flight
was already becoming a reality based on the work of Frank Caldwell. He was able to find that the planes
could only reach a max speed of 125 mph, but found within some wind tunnel
experiments that the tips of the propeller were able to reach speeds of 650
mph. This drove his research while
being a MIT graduate doing research on McCook Field, and he was able to show
how a plane could reach supersonic speeds. At relatively low speeds air becomes an incompressible
fluid, but when high speeds are reached the atmosphere begins to compress that
creates a cone shaped from the tip of the plane to its rear. Caldwell showed this through his wind
tunnel experiments, and when the first aircraft in 1930 was able to reach a
speed of 400 mph it was no longer a hypotheses but a reality (Crouch 445-446). Despite this innovation the U.S. army
continued to refuse its significance.
The U.S. Air Corps saw the idea of
supersonic speed as impracticable and impossible. They rejected the idea during the 1920’s, and it was not
until 1941 that the idea would have any consideration. They began to look at the Royal Air
Force in the midst of the Second Great War for an example of a working jet
airplane, which led to General Arnold and a team of army aviation specialists
to design the first workable American engine and jet airplane (Crouch,
451-452). It seemed that jet
technology was not a priority in the 1920’s when research began in this field,
but as soon as the Second World War was beginning interest began to arise
amount the Air Core officials.
Before the war, it was probably more important to create quantity,
rather than quality. In the sense
that there must have been such a high demand for planes at the time among
military and commercial businesses that innovation was put on halt, while workable
planes continued to be produced on a high scale. By the outbreak of the war, aviation technology around the
world seemed to soar with each new design, which required the U.S. Air Core to
pick back up the earlier innovation that they rejected. Thus, they tried to keep up with their
competition by having large numbers of planes, and tried to surpass them in
technology to keep the American Air Core in the forefront of aviation
technology during the war.
3.
What role did the helicopter play in the development of
aviation technology?
The helicopter’s role in aviation
was very simple because it was a new form of technology that went straight
up. No longer was taking off and
landing such a serious issue with this new form of technology, which played a significant
role in the advancement of rotary-wing machines. However, the actual flying of these machines was very
difficult and seen as impossible by many before the Second World War. Regardless, popular enthusiasm began to
soar about the use of helicopters in the post-war era, and could provide a form
of personal transport desired by many Americans at the time (Crouch, 464-465,
470).
Helicopters were able to go
straight up and hover, which provided key advantages to both commercial and
military use of these machines.
For the military, it provided a means of landing troops in specific
destinations and offered a quick retreat for them in battle with medical
officers on board, while for ordinary citizens it provided a form of wonder in
transportation. It provided
commercial pilots a new machine to master, and provided passengers a new window
to look out from. Its commercial
use soared along with its manufacturing aspects during the post-war era, and
despite the critics, helicopter technology paved a new avenue of aviation technology
unique from the airplane (Crouch, 470-474). Aircrafts continued to become more advanced, but the
helicopter was a new breed on its own.
It allowed for great wonders to be observed by the passenger, while
giving the army a vast avenue of battlefield strategy. The role of the helicopter was unique
from other airplanes for all of these reasons, and more importantly, this innovation
allowed for aircrafts to not just simply flying forward but upward. Giving a new spin on the future of
aviation, and pushing the potential for new aircraft designs to emerge.
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