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“I believe I can fly,” said Kelly. Indeed, flying has always been a dream for mankind, and the airplane, strongly inspired by how birds fly, represents the realization of this dream. How can a device that weighs several tons fly?
History of the airplane.
The brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright have been known throughout the world for their contribution to the invention of the airplane between 1900 and 1901. The most famous but not the only ones. We can talk about people like Alberto Santos-Dumont who made the first successful flight of the airplane, Emma Lilian Todd who studied and designed airplanes for a long time, and also Victor Tatin who participated in the invention of airplanes. It was not until May 5, 1952, that the first commercial flight took place between London and Johannesburg. The Comet flew a distance of 11,000 km in 23 hours. Indeed, since 1952 the functioning of the plane has evolved a lot.
How does the plane fly?
Aerodynamics is the principle on which the operation of aircraft has been based. The air flowing around an object has an impact on this object. Aerodynamics allows us to study this flow to use it in aviation. The range and the drag are the two fundamental principles on which the aviation world has been based. To make it simple, the force that the air exerts on an object can be broken down into two components: the range which is the component perpendicular to the wind, and the drag which is the component parallel to the wind.
What will the plane of tomorrow look like?
For the future, researchers want to have a more environmentally friendly aircraft, which pollutes less. New models are appearing more and more everywhere. A new design and better performance. The airplanes of the future could perhaps (in a distant future) run on water or hydrogen.