The Plane
History of the Plane's Design
How different designs throughout history led to better, safer, and more effective air-travel.
The Wright Brothers
In the early 1900s in North Carolina, Wilber and Orville Wright create the first design of the modern plane as we know it.
Specifications
One of their first designs had a 12-horsepower internal combustion engine, 120 feet long. Before this, people had only flown balloons and gliders. After lots of testing and improvement, the design was functional, though it was extremely unsafe and flawed.
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Turbojet Engine
Sir Frank Whittle, an aviation engineer and pilot received his first patent on a turbojet engine in 1930. He created the first one in 1935 and by 1940 he was given permission to test the engine and develop a small engine aircraft to accompany it. The first successful flight of this aircraft, the pioneer, happened on May 15, 1941.
Significance
Jet engines move the airplane forward with a great force that is produced by a tremendous thrust. The causes the plane to fly very fast. Whittle's engine featured a multistage compressor, and a combustion chamber, a single stage turbine and a nozzle.
The DC-3
The DC-3 is often called the "plane that changed the world." It was the first aircraft to allow airlines to make money off of carrying passengers
Significance
The DC-3 had a 50% greater passenger capacity than its predicessor, the DC-2, yet it cost only 10% more to operate. It was also safer as it was built of an aluminum alloy that was stronger than materials used in other aircrafts. This plane could travel coast to coast in only 14 hours.