The Conquest of Air
Roger Bacon was an English monk who thought seriously about flight. He watched how birds flew and thought that perhaps men could also fly like birds by using large artificial wings. The design for the first bird like machine had flapping wings. We now know that a machine like that cannot fly because a man’s body is very much heavier than a bird’s body.
Serious experiments with flight began in the eightieth century in France. They were trying to fly with the help of balloons. Two Frenchman experimented with silk balloons filled with hot air. They sent up a sheep, a cock and a duck in a basket hung from a balloon. After flying for a few minutes, the balloon got caught in a tree but the passengers were safe. This experiment caused great excitement all over Europe.
Two months later, two young French men using a large balloon rose up in the air. They were carried a distance of six miles across Paris and landed safely. They were the first men to fly. It was found that hydrogen could be used in balloons. Hydrogen was lighter than air and one could stay up longer in the sky in a hydrogen balloon. However, flying in balloons was very unsatisfactory. The balloon could not be steered. It merely away with the wind. Balloons burst, crashed, caught fire and accidents began to happen.
Three man who flew in a balloon were lost for many years and their bodies could be found only after thirty-three years. That was one of the worst accidents.
A plan for an airship was in the mind of engineers. The first practical airship was built by Count Zeppelin, a German army officer. It was made of aluminum, having every large cigar shaped body inside which there were compartments filled with hydrogen. It had propellers driven by petrol engines. In only 1900 this airship was flown over the lake Constance the Count Zeppelin developed large airship which could carry passengers and goods. In 1929, the huge German airship, Graf Zeppelin. flew around the world in twenty-one days.
But the airships on account of their huge size could not be controlled in a strong wind. There was greater danger from fire as hydrogen easily catches fire. Thirty-six lives were lost when a German airship crashed at Lakehurst, New Jersey in the U.S.A.
An English scientist took the first steps towards the invention of an aeroplane. He built his first glider and foretold that with a suitable engine to drive a propeller a glider could be made to fly.
The Wright brothers perfected the first flying machine starting with a machine that flew for a few seconds; they conquered the air by flying twenty-five miles in half an hour. Thus the conquest of air was completed.
