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Introduction to Aviation
By Fred Mabonga AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2015 Fred Mabonga
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4969-6995-8
CHAPTER 1
About Aviation
Aviation can be defined as the flying or operating of aircraft. It involves the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft. In the modern-day concept, aviation refers especially to heavier-than-air aircraft.
According to researchers aviation is derived from the word avis, the Latin word for bird. Aviation activities revolve around the aircraft. Aircraft is defined as an airplane, helicopter, or other machine capable of flight. Synonyms for aircraft include airplane, aeroplane, plane, and ship. These words are used in different parts of the world to refer to aircraft.
An aircraft is a machine that can fly by getting support from the air or atmosphere. It overcomes gravity by using static or dynamic lift of its structure or, in some cases, the downward thrust from jet engines.
Therefore, aviation refers to activity around aircraft. Aircraft are normally flown by pilots on board the aircraft. However, aircraft can also be unmanned and may be remotely controlled.
Aircraft operations are usually classified by their intended use. For example, aircraft may be classified for purposes of private use, aerial work, or public transport (passengers and cargo).
CHAPTER 2
Aviation History
Humans first achieved flight using hot air balloons. A scientist by the name of Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier is believed to have launched the first hot air balloon in Paris, France, September 19, 1783. de Rozier was a French national. He was a teacher of chemistry and physics. This balloon was known as Aerostat Reveillon. In this balloon were a sheep, a duck, and a rooster. The balloon was in the air for fifteen minutes before crashing to the ground. de Rozier worked with another French national by the name of Marquis d'Arlandes to launch the first manned balloon on November 21, 1783. Two French brothers named Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier manufactured this balloon. de Rozier later died while attempting to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon. He and his companion on that flight, Pierre Romian, were the first humans to die in an air crash.
The first people to successfully fly across the English Channel were Jean Pierre Blanchard, a French balloonist, and John Jefferies, his American co-pilot, in 1785. At the time, the English Channel was considered great distance to cover by flight, so this was a historical event.
Fixed-wing aircraft
The story of the aviation industry as we know it today started at the beginning of the twentieth century. On December 17, 1903, the first powered, piloted aircraft took off.
Brothers Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright are credited with this first flight. The Wright brothers were inventors. They designed and built the aircraft that became known as e Flyer. Its main parts were the structure, motor, and propeller, and it weighed about 700 pounds (which is equivalent to about 320 kilograms).
To launch e Flyer, the Wright brothers built a movable downhill track to help the aircraft gain enough speed to take off. After two attempts, Orville Wright took The Flyer for a sustained, twelve-second flight December 17, 1903. With this, history was made. This was the first successful, powered, and piloted flight in history. The aircraft flew at a height of twenty feet and took place at Kitty Hawk, a beach in North Carolina, United States.
On November 9, 1904, the first flight lasting more than five minutes was achieved by Wilbur Wright in an aircraft known as e Flyer II.
From here onwards, it became known that it was possible to build an aircraft and actually fly it. Many other inventors started to design and build aircraft. This aircraft-building trade spread across nations. Many different types of aircraft were built for various purposes, including air transportation for private use, air transportation for hire and reward, air ambulances for speedy transportation for medical purposes, aerial photography, aerial mapping, and weapons of war.
World War I (1914 to 1918)
World War I was fought mostly by soldiers in trenches. This was the first major war where airplanes were used. Balloons had been used for observation purposes, including artillery spotting, reconnaissance, and strategic bombing, in earlier wars. As aeroplanes were just coming into military use at the beginning of the war they were used mainly for reconnaissance. Pilots and engineers were learning on the job, and they later developed many specialised aircraft types, such as fighters, bombers and ground-attack aeroplanes.
Pilots were able to acquire specialised skills as fighter pilots. The impact of aircraft on the course of war was mainly tactical rather than strategic. Most importantly was the direct cooperation with ground forces, especially ranging and correcting artillery fire. The first signs of the strategic roles of aircraft in future wars became apparent at this time.
These events led to the rapid development of aviation industry with players from different parts of the world.
World War II (1939 to 1945)
By the time the Second World War started, the aircraft industry and aviation in general had developed dramatically in relation to the end of World War I.
The use of the aircraft as a weapon fuelled the technological development of the aircraft. The countries with air power were perceived to be much stronger militarily. This was due to the added advantage of being airborne and therefore higher than the firing power on the ground. The speed and agility of aircraft was also key.
The countries involved in the manufacture of aircraft invested resources in research and development and intensified the production of more advanced aircraft for both military and civil use.
New aircraft were developed to carry more passengers and travel at higher speeds for longer distances. The carriage of cargo by air became a faster way to transport trade goods and became an advantage for landlocked countries. Heavy loads were lifted by air for military and commercial civil purposes alike. Air transportation technology developed at a higher pace.
Modern aviation
After World War II, the aviation technology developed into other forms of research, eventually leading to the development of rockets and aerospace vehicles used for space exploration. Humans landed on the moon in 1969, just sixty-six years after the Wright brothers' first flight.
Other developments also included the jet engine and the helicopter. Helicopters have greater agility with the ability to perform vertical take-offs and landings as well as hover.
Helicopters now perform many civil and military roles. They are able to hover, fly backwards and sideways, and perform other desirable manoeuvres. Helicopters are also known as rotary wing aircraft or choppers. The aeroplane is also known as the fixed wing aircraft.
Fixed wing jet aircraft were also designed to be able to hover, fly backwards and sideways, and perform other desirable manoeuvres mainly for military purposes.
The 1980s saw further development of aviation, and manufacturers in the United States and Europe were competing to develop more advanced aircraft and aviation support systems such as air traffic management systems.
The 1990s and the early part of the twenty-first century saw further development of modern aviation, making air transportation a highly technical and efficient business. This development included the design and production of unmanned air vehicles (UAV), which are remotely piloted aircraft. These are utilised for both civil and military purposes.
Another aircraft designed after World War II was the reusable space shuttle. It is able to take off vertically using rocket launchers. It is then able to land back on earth as a conventional aircraft would.
By the twenty-first century, the major aircraft manufacturers were located in the United States, Europe, Russia, Brazil, and China.
By 2011, the largest passenger aircraft was the Airbus A380. It is a double-decker, wide-body, four-engine jet aircraft manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. This aircraft is assembled in Toulouse, France. This aircraft can carry up to 555 passengers.
A typical operational seating is 525 passengers in three classes. The aircraft is capable of flying 8,500 nautical miles or 15,700 kilometres nonstop, carrying more people at a lower cost and with less impact on the environment than preceding aircraft types.
The largest cargo aircraft in the world is the Antonov An-225 Mriya. It was designed by the Soviet Union in the 1980s. It has six jet engines, and with a gross weight of 640 tonnes, it is the heaviest aircraft ever manufactured. It is also the biggest in size by length and wingspan. It holds the world's record for airlifted payloads at 189,980 kilograms.
CHAPTER 3
Aviation Regulations
In the early days of flying, there were no regulations governing the operation of aircraft. Anyone could build an aircraft and fly it without any input from any controlling authority.
By the 1940s, many aircraft were in operation all over the world. Many were in civil operations and the military. Others were private operators for personal business and pleasure.
As aircraft developed and more players got involved in the manufacture and operation thereof, incidents and accidents increased. Aircraft could collide mid-air, crash to the ground, and cause damage to property as well as death.
As the incidents and accidents involving aircraft increased, there was alarm among the residents of the countries involved in the manufacture and operation of aircraft. There had to be some control or order to the way aircraft were operated. Regulations governing the operation of aircraft were necessary
Since the aircraft operation went beyond national borders in various countries' air space, there had to be some form of control involving several countries.
The major countries that operated most aircraft in the world decided to have a meeting to decide how to develop the control of aircraft movement.
Before the Second World War, the control of aviation was achieved through the Paris Convention of 1919. Its governing body was called the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN). At this point in time, there were only fifty sovereign states in the world; ICAN included thirty-three of these states. The next organised control was during the Havana Convention of 1928. The Havana Convention was ratified by only eleven states.
During the Second World War, the technological advancement of aviation was very significant. Its use developed the technical and operational possibilities for air transport the world over. Significantly large numbers of people and goods were transported over long distances. Infrastructure to support these operations was also developed.
By 1942, it was already apparent that civil air transportation was going to be critical in international relations after the war. There were already discussions in Canada to form an international civil aviation control mechanism.
The Quebec Conference was held in Quebec City in Canada from August 10 to 14, 1943. It was hosted by Canada's prime minister at the time, William Lyon Mackenzie King; Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill both attended. Post-war aviation policy was discussed, as was the need to form an international organisation to handle international civil aviation. It became apparent that after the war the aviation industry would play a major role in the peace that would follow.
On September 11, 1944, the United States extended an invitation to fifty-three governments for an international civil aviation conference to be convened in Chicago in November 1944 to make arrangements for the immediate establishment of provisional world air routes and services. It was also to set up an interim council to collect, record, and study data concerning international aviation and to make recommendations for its improvement.
The most important result of the conference was the drawing up of a convention on international civil aviation. is became known as the Chicago Convention, the original text of which was in English, French, and Spanish. This became the charter of a new body established to guide and develop international civil aviation.
On December 7, 1944, the conference concluded with the signature of a final act that was a formal and official record summarizing the work.
The organisation was named the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO). It was established by the Chicago Conference, as an interim body pending the ratification of a permanent world civil aviation convention. Canada was selected to host the headquarters. The Canadian government chose Montreal for PICAO's headquarters, as it was at that time the leading metropolis of the country; it was also the main hub for international civil air transport.
PICAO later became the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). ICAO is now an aviation agency of the United Nations.
The aims and objectives of ICAO are stated in the Chicago Convention. They are to foster the planning and development of international air transport so as to ensure the safe and orderly growth of international civil aviation throughout the world.
Therefore, with the birth of ICAO, it became possible to control aviation.
ICAO
ICAO seeks to encourage the art of aircraft design and operation for peaceful purposes; encourage the development of airways, airports, and air navigation facilities for international civil aviation; meet the needs of the people of the world for safe, regular, efficient, and economical air transport; prevent economic waste caused by unreasonable competition; ensure that the rights of contracting states are fully respected and that every contracting state has a fair opportunity to operate international airlines; avoid discrimination between contracting states; promote safety of flight in international air navigation; and generally promote the development of all aspects of international civil aeronautics.
By 2011, ICAO had 191 member states throughout the world. They are also known as contracting states.
Each state establishes and operates a state civil aviation authority (CAA). The CAA uses the ICAO standards and recommended practices (SARPs). Each state CAA develops the national aviation regulations based on the SARPs as the minimum standard and are adapted to the local operating environment.
New developments in aviation regulation issues governing aviation are disseminated to the aviation industry. ICAO continuously researches and disseminates any new information to the industry through the member states CAAs. These documents are known as annexes to the convention.
CHAPTER 4
Aircraft Manufacture
Aircraft manufacturing has come a long way since the days of the Wright brothers, who were themselves inventors, manufacturers, pilots, and aircraft-maintenance engineers.
An aircraft manufacturer is as a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft and aircraft parts.
Aircraft manufacturing falls under the aerospace industry. Aerospace is a high technology industry and includes designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining missiles, rockets, and/or spacecraft.
To make an aircraft, the manufacturers have to source a number of parts to be able to construct the aircraft. ere is a large network of specialized parts manufacturers and suppliers throughout the world that support the requirements of these manufacturers.
Aeroplanes used by airlines for commercial operations for passengers or cargo are also known as airliners. These are medium to large aircraft.
General aviation aircraft are usually smaller aircraft than airliners. General aviation includes all nonscheduled civil flying, both private and commercial. General aviation can also include business flights, private aviation, flight training, air charter, ballooning, parachuting, aerial photography, hang-gliding, gliding, foot-launched powered hang-gliders, air ambulances, crop dusting, charter flights, traffic reporting, police air patrols, and forest fire fighting.
So much has changed in aviation since the 1944 Convention on International Civil aviation. There have been technological developments and regulatory changes aimed at the improvement of aviation safety.
In modern aviation, the aircraft manufacturing industry is strictly regulated by the civil aviation authority (CAA) of the state where the manufacturing takes place, also known as the state of manufacture. This regulation includes the manufacture of parts and accessories that go into the manufacture of an aircraft, covering outsourced and contracted work.
In regulating the manufacturers, the CAAs follow the ICAO standards and recommended practices. This is because ICAO is committed to encourage the art of aircraft design and operation.
The aircraft manufacturing process involves complying with the following:
- The facility must be approved by the state CAA as suitable for the manufacture of aircraft. The process of approval includes demonstration to the CAA of the capability of the facility to manufacture aircraft in accordance with procedures, rules, and processes.
- The manufacturing facility is approved for each particular type of aircraft that is to be manufactured there.
- For each aircraft type, the initial design, also known as the prototype, is required to be approved by the state CAA.
- For each aircraft type, the manufacturing process is to be approved by the state CAA.
- For the prototype, the state CAA has to approve the initial test flight and certification issued for the type.
- Any subsequent modifications to the type are to be approved by the state CAA.
- To maintain the approval, the manufacturer is subjected to routine audits by the state
- CAA.
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Excerpted from Introduction to Aviation by Fred Mabonga. Copyright © 2015 Fred Mabonga. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
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