Monday, December 1, 2003

99 years and 350+ days

.FLYINGHEAD 100 YEARS OF FLIGHT
.TITLE 99 years and 350+ days
.AUTHOR Matthew Justice
.SUMMARY It’s now time to celebrate the 100 years of powered flight and the accomplishments that the Wright brothers gave to aviation. Although, the fundamentals of powered flight, such as lift, drag, bank and roll have not changed, much has changed dramatically. This article showcases discussion and some great pictures by Matthew Justice.
.FEATURE
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 About this special series
This article is one in our series honoring 100 years of flight. Be sure to read the fifteen articles across all our magazines for some amazingly powerful stories in honor of this special anniversary. Links to all the articles in the series are included at the end of this article.
.END_SIDEBAR

I’m writing this on December 4, 2003. It’s now time to celebrate the 100 years of "powered" flight and the accomplishments that the Wright brothers gave to aviation. Although, the fundamentals of powered flight, such as lift, drag, bank and roll have not changed the cockpit design has changed dramatically. Aviation and aviation technology has changed so dramatically in just the last 10 years, it hard for me to imagine where we will be in another 99 years.

It has been a common practice for aircraft to require 3+ pilots (operators) in the cockpit; this usually consisted of a Captain, First Officer and Flight Engineer. As the years have passed, airspace congestion, security, and the overall demand for air travel have increased exponentially. With this being said, it is now common for larger and more complex aircraft (such as the Boeing 777) to be flown by only 2 pilots.

This is due largely to the automation of the cockpit and flight operations. Newer aircraft have onboard computers, advanced monitoring systems, moving maps, collision avoidance, electronic checklists and real-time weather. Aircraft are now flying throughout the world using traditional navigation systems coupled with GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) technology. As we move to the next phase of accuracy with GPS (better know in the flying world as WAAS), pilots will be able to navigate and fly approaches with GPS as their only means of navigation.

We have seen a growth in UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) being used for surveillance and combat, while being controlled by a pilot and a joystick hundreds of miles away. Many experts think this is the next step towards the single pilot (or no-pilot) cockpit. I’ve included a number of flight photos with this articles, and I’ll kick them off with Figure A, a picture of the Global Hawk UAV.

.FIGPAIR A Here’s a view of the Global Hawk UAV.

You can see a different view in Figure B.

.FIGPAIR B Here’s another view.

Let’s take a look inside the National Air and Space Museum at the Wright Flyer, in Figure C.

.FIGPAIR C Take a look at the Wright Flyer.

You can see a different view in Figure D.

.FIGPAIR D Here’s another view.

Moving forward in time brings us the Spirit of St. Louis, also on display in the Smithsonian, and shown in Figure E.

.FIGPAIR E The Spirit of St. Louis is also on display.

You can see a great shot of the stealth fighter in Figure F.

.FIGPAIR F Heads up, it’s the stealth fighter.

And, finally, step into the cockpit in Figure G.

.FIGPAIR G Are you ready to step into the cockpit?

There has been an explosion of handheld technology in aviation. Handheld technology typically consists of using a Palm OS, Pocket PC or advanced mobile phones with special software to accomplish a variety of goals. For several hundred dollars, a pilot can now get a single device that can be used for any (or all) of the following: moving map, flight calculator, logbook, reference library, training aid, flight planner, weather tool and the list goes on.

This technology is growing and offers many advanced features to pilots of any level, see http://www.palmflying.com, a site I run that focuses on all aspects of handheld aviation.

.BEGIN_KEEP
As an aviation enthusiast, technology developer and part-time pilot, I am making the trip (on December 17th) to the Outer Banks of North Carolina (Kitty Hawk) to celebrate the monumental anniversary of the first powered flight and the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers. While there, I hope to reflect on where we started, where we have been and where we are going.

.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on handhelds and flight, se http://www.palmflying.com.

.H1 About this series
This week, we’re running fifteen articles celebrating the anniversary of flight across all our magazines. Be sure to read them all; they are each quite exceptional:

.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Read The twelve seconds that changed history by Mardell Haskins.
.BULLET Read An out of this world experience with Burning Blue by Dave Spragg.
.BULLET Read The Centennial by Marilyn Dash.
.BULLET Read Thanks, Wilbur and Orville by James Aronovsky.
.BULLET Read The Oshkosh Fly-In by Dennis Deery.
.BULLET Read The spirit is born by Kathy Walker.
.BULLET Read 99 years and 350+ days by Matthew Justice.
.BULLET Read First flights by John I. Williams, Jr.
.BULLET Read The British Chairwoman’s Challenge by Mardell Haskins.
.BULLET Read The Wonder Machine by Stephen Till.
.BULLET Read Faster than the sun by Mick Moignard.
.BULLET Read Tiger cruise by Jon Canfield.
.BULLET Read The age of romance by Mardell Haskins.
.BULLET Read Aviation firsts by Mardell Haskins.
.BULLET Read The World War II years and beyond by Mardell Haskins.
.BULLET And read my editorial Celebrating flight across the years and across the magazines.
.END_LIST

Next week, we resume our regular coverage.
.END_SIDEBAR

.BIO Matthew Justice is a programmer living in Austin, Texas. He have worked for many years developing software applications for both the commercial world and aviation market. In his my limited spare time he likes travel, flying and is the senior webmaster for PalmFLYING.com.
.END_KEEP