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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

The air flow from the wing of this agricultural plane is made visible by a technique that uses colored smoke rising from the ground. The swirl at the wingtip traces the aircraft's wake vortex, which exerts a powerful influence on the flow field behind the plane.
The air flow from the wing of this agricultural plane is made visible by a technique that uses colored smoke rising from the ground. The swirl at the wingtip traces the aircraft's wake vortex, which exerts a powerful influence on the flow field behind the plane.
Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Understanding the motion of air (often called a flow field) around an object enables the calculation of forces and moments acting on the object. Typical properties calculated for a flow field include velocity, pressure, density and temperature as a function of position and time. By defining a control volume around the flow field, equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy can be defined and used to solve for the properties. The use of aerodynamics through mathematical analysis, empirical approximation and wind tunnel experimentation form the scientific basis for heavier-than-air flight.

External aerodynamics is the study of flow around solid objects of various shapes. Evaluating the lift and drag on an airplane, the shock waves that form in front of the nose of a rocket is an example of external aerodynamics. Internal aerodynamics is the study of flow through passages in solid objects. For instance, internal aerodynamics encompasses the study of the airflow through a jet engine.

The ratio of the problem's characteristic flow speed to the speed of sound comprises a second classification of aerodynamic problems. A problem is called subsonic if all the speeds in the problem are less than the speed of sound, transonic if speeds both below and above the speed of sound are present (normally when the characteristic speed is approximately the speed of sound), supersonic when the characteristic flow speed is greater than the speed of sound, and hypersonic when the flow speed is much greater than the speed of sound. Aerodynamicists disagree over the precise definition of hypersonic flow; minimum Mach numbers for hypersonic flow range from 3 to 12. Most aerodynamicists use numbers between 5 and 8. (Full article...)

Selected image

JF-17 at the IDEAS 2008 defence exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan
JF-17 at the IDEAS 2008 defence exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan
Credit: Paki90
JF-17 at the IDEAS 2008 defence exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan

Did you know

...that Swedish adventurer Saloman Andrée died in 1897 while trying to reach the geographic North Pole by hot-air balloon? ...that on May 3, 2002 a military MiG-21bis aircraft crashed into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight? ... that Walter Borchers was one of three brothers, all three received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Jeana Yeager (born May 18, 1952 in Fort Worth, Texas) is an aviator, most famous for flying with Dick Rutan on a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Voyager aircraft from December 14 to December 23, 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds and covered 24,986 miles (40,211 km), more than doubling the old distance record. She received the US annual Harmon Trophy for outstanding international achievements in the aeronautics, and is the first woman recipient of the Collier Trophy for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety" of aircraft.

Despite her surname, Jeana Yeager is not related to Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier in level flight.

Selected Aircraft

The Pregnant Guppy was a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft built in the USA and used for ferrying outsized cargo items, most notably NASA's components of the Apollo moon program. The Pregnant Guppy was the first of the Guppy line of aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines, Inc. The design also inspired similar designs such as the jet-powered Airbus Beluga, and the Boeing 747 LCF designed to deliver Boeing 787 parts.

  • Span:141 feet, 3 inches.
  • Length: 127 feet.
  • Height: 31 feet, 3 inches.
  • Engines: 4 3500hp P&W R-4360.
  • Cruising Speed: 250 mph
  • First Flight:September 19, 1962
  • Number built: 1
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

October 13

  • 2012 –Syria bans Turkish civilian aircraft from flying over its territory.[1]
  • 2011 – Airlines PNG Flight 1600, a de Havilland Canada DHC-8, crashes near the mouth of the Gogol River, Papua New Guinea, killing 28 of 32 on board.
  • 2003 – OH-58D Kiowa (93-0991) from C Troop, 1–17th Cavalry Regiment crashes inside Iraq, pilots survive.[2]
  • 1992 – Antonov An-124 Ruslan, SSSR-82002, believed destined for Aeroflot, on test flight by Antonov/Aviastar, suffers nose cargo door failure during high-speed descent (part of test program) resulting in total loss of control. Airframe comes down in forest near Kiev, killing eight of nine crew.
  • 1984 – Landed: Space Shuttle Challenger STS-41-G at 16:26:33 UTC KSC. Mission highlights: Earth Radiation Budget Satellite deployment; First flight of two women in space Ride and Sullivan; First spacewalk by US woman, Kathryn Sullivan; First Canadian in space Marc Garneau.
  • 1982 – A JASDF McDonnell-Douglas F-4EJ Phantom II, 47-8343, crashes into the Sea of Japan near Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.
  • 1977 – Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737, is hijacked by four Palestinian members of the PFLP, who kill the captain; subsequently, German police commandos from GSG 9 storm the aircraft, killing three of the hijackers and capturing the fourth, with no other casualties.
  • 1976 – A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia killing 100 (97, mostly children, killed on the ground).
  • 1973 – Aeroflot Flight 964, a Tupolev Tu-104, crashed while on approach to Domodedovo International Airport, Moscow, Soviet Union. All 122 passengers and crew on board were killed.
  • 1972 – Aeroflot Flight 217, an Ilyushin Il-62, crashes on approach to Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, USSR. All 174 passengers and crew on board are killed.
  • 1972 – 1972 Andes flight disaster / Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: A Fairchild Hiller FH-227D, T-571, c/n 572, carrying a rugby union team from Montevideo to a match in Santiago, Chile, crashes in a remote region of the Andes on the Chile-Argentina border. Of the 45 on board, 12 died in the crash, five died by the following morning, and one died from his injuries a week later. The survivors were eventually forced to resort to cannibalism to live, feeding off the bodies of the dead that had been preserved by the freezing temperatures. On 12 December, the remaining survivors sent three of their own to find help. After sending one of the party back to the crash site to preserve rations, the remaining two found help. The 14 survivors remaining at the crash site were rescued in a mission that ended on 23 December. The story would spawn a critically acclaimed book in 1974, along with several film adaptations.
  • 1964 – Queen Elizabeth was flown from London to Ottawa on the first Air Canada DC 8 sporting the new tiles and paint scheme.
  • 1956 – The first CP-121 Tracker was delivered to the RCN for duty on HMCS Bonaventure.
  • 1955 – A Boeing B-47B-40-BW Stratojet, 51-2231, of the 320th Bombardment Wing, crashes while taking off from March Air Force Base, California. Capt. Edward A. O'Brien Jr., pilot, Capt. David J. Clare, co-pilot, Major Thomas F. Mulligan, navigator, and Capt. Joseph M. Graeber, chaplain are all killed.
  • 1954 – Royal Navy Lt. B. D. Mcfarlane has extraordinary escape when his Westland Wyvern TF1, VZ783, 'X', of 813 Squadron, suffers power failure on take-off from HMS Albion in the Mediterranean Sea due to unforeseen tendency of the turboprop engine to suffer fuel starvation in high-G catapult launch. Aircraft goes into water off the bow, is cut in half by the ship, pilot ejects underwater using Martin-Baker Mk.2B ejection seat, survives with slight injuries.
  • 1943 – The Italian royal government declares war on Germany. Its air force will be constituted as the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force and fight on the Allied side for the remainder of World War II, while Italian aircraft which fight for Benito Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic on the Axis side will be constituted as the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (National Republican Air Force).
  • 1943 – Nine Japanese four-engine bombers attack Attu. It is the last Japanese air raid against the Aleutian Islands.
  • 1931 – Canadian pilot Godfrey Dean performs the first loop in an autogyro, at Willow Field, near Philadelphia.
  • 1923 – Alexis Maneyrol – French Aviator is killed at Lympne Air Races, Kent.
  • 1914 – The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts air-to-air combat for the first time, as a naval airplane joins three Imperial Japanese Army airplanes in an attempt to attack a German reconnaissance plane during the Siege of Tsingtao. The German aircraft escapes.
  • 1902 – Over Paris, Hungarian-born French diplomat Herlad de Bradsky and electrical engineer Paul Morin fly an airship of their own design on its first test flight. At an altitude of about 600 feet (183 m), the gondola separates from rest of the airship and the two men fall to their deaths.

References

  1. ^ Anonymous, "Syria Bans Turkey Civilian Flights Over Its Territory," BBC News, 14 October 2012, 2:06 p.m. EDT.
  2. ^ Scramble. No. 296. January 2004. p. 15 http://www.scramble.nl/mag/scramble296-english.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-12. During a crash landing somewhere in "CENTCOM theatre of operations" (exciting word for Iraq) a Kiowa of the US Army received A Class damage. The accident happened in so-called "brown-out conditions". Other informstion states that this accident took place on the 13th of October {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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