Men have wanted to fly for more than two thousand years. Observations of flying birds gave man the idea of human flight. Every nation has many legends and tales about birdmen and magic carpets.
One of the most famous Greek legend is the legend of Daedalus and his son Icarus who made wings and fastened them on with wax. Daedalus landed in safety, Icarus was not so careful and he flew closer and closer to the sun. The wax melted, the wings came off and he fell into the sea.
The first scientific principles of human flight appeared in the 14-th century. The problem was studied by the great scientist Leonardo de Vinci. He observed the flight of birds, studied the air and its currents and designed a flying machine the wings of which were operated by a man.
But the first actual flight which man made was that in the balloon. In October 1783 the Montgolfier brothers in France sent two men almost 25 meters up in a balloon which descended 10 minutes later, about 2.5 kilometers away.
The first Russian aircraft designer was Alexander Mozhaisky. His airplane, a monoplane, with two light steam engines was tested on August I, 1882. With the first Russian pilot, I.N. Golubev the plane rose into the air and flew a distance of 200 metres before it landed.
At that time the same work was being conducted by Otto Lilienthal, a remarkable German inventor. In 1891 he made his flight in a glider covering 35 metres. In 1903 two Americans, the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, built their aeroplane. It flew only 32 metres but it was the first aeroplane with an internal combustion engine that was a big step forward.
In the following years aviation made big advances. In 1908 Henry Farman, in France, made a circular flight of one kilometre. A year later Bleriot crossed the English Channel. In 1913 a Russian student Lobanov invented aeroplane skis and this enabled to land and take off in winter.
In 1913 the Russian designer Igor Sikorsky built the world's first multiengined heavy aircraft. That same year the Russian pilot Nesterov executed the first loop. Another Russian pilot, Artseulov, in 1916 proved that a pilot can take his plane out of a corkscrew.
At the beginning of the 20-th century the dirigible was invented. The most known inventor of a dirigible is Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a retired German army officer. His famous " Graf Zeppelin" in 1929 began a cruise which took 21 days 8 hours and 26 minutes to circle the world.
An outstanding event in the history of aviation took place in Petersburg in 1913. That year a heavy multiengined aeroplane "Russky Vityaz» was constructed. It weighed 4,940 kg and had a 1,440 kg useful load. On August 2, 1913 with seven passengers on board it set up a world record by remaining in the air for 1 hour 34 minutes. Its top speed was over 90 km/hr.
In 1914 an improved version of the multiengined heavy bomber of the Ilya Murometz type was built. It weighed 3,000 kg and had a 1,760 kg useful load, a maximum cruising range of 700 km and a top speed of more than 110 km/hr.
Among the pioneers of aviation are the names of aircraft designers Tupolev, Polikarpov, Sukhoi, Arkhangelsky, Ilyushin, Yakovlev and others; the pilots Vodopyanov, Doronin, Kamanin, Lyapidevsky and some others - the first Heroes of the Soviet Union who were awarded this title for saving the passengers and the crew after ice-breaker Chelyuskin had been crashed by ice. In 1937 the world applauded the daring non-stop flight by Chkalov and his crew to the USA via the North Pole on the ANT-23. In 1938 Soviet aviatrixes Grisodubova, Raskova and Osipenko made a non-stop long-distance flight to the Far East and became the first Heroes of the Soviet Union among women.
And, of course, it is necessary to mention the names of the outstanding Russian scientists who considerably contributed aviation. It is the great Russian scientist M.V.Lomonosov who developed the scientific principles of flight of bodies heavier-than-air and built the first helicopter model in the world.
The Great Russian scientist D.I.Mendeleyev is the author of man outstanding researches in aeronautics. He developed the principles of the stratostat design with a pressurized cabin.
S.A.Chaplygin, the outstanding scientist in mechanics, is one of the founders of the modern aviation theory and the pioneer in aerodynamics of high speeds.
Special services in science belong to another famous scientist who is called "father of Russian aviation". And this is N.E.Zhukovsky. He was the first to develop a scientific wing theory and the principles of airscrew design. From that time aerodynamics has been a science combining theoretical knowledge with practical experiments. All modern aerodynamical calculations are based on his outstanding theoretical works.
N.E.Zhukovsky is the founder of the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (Z.A.G.I) which became the leading centre of the aeronautics and aeronautical engineering.
The rapid development of aviation began after the World War II. But this is another story.
Exercises
I. Ответьте на вопросы:
1. Was it interesting for you to read this text?
2. Did you read about the history of aviation at school?
3. When did the first scientific principles of human flight appear?
4. Who was the first to study the problem of human flight?
5. Describe the flying machine designed by Leonardo de Vinchi.
6. What was the first actual flight man made?
7. Why was it impossible to fly in a balloon?
8. Who was the first Russian aeroplane designer?
9. What plane was designed by him?
10. What distance did the plane cover?
11. Who designed the first glider?
12. What is glider?
13. What event took place in Petersburg in 1913?
14. How long did “Russky Vityaz” stay in the air?
15. Who is called “the father of Russian aviation”?
II. Переведите слова, обращая внимание на словообразующие элементы:
observe – observer – observation
safe – safely – safety – unsafe
science – scientist – scientific
design – designer
fly – flight
invent – inventor – invention
construct – constructor – construction
improve – improvement
weigh – weight - weightless
develop – development
III. Найдите в тексте эквивалент следующим словосочетаниям:
полет человека, поток воздуха, конструктор самолета, конструкция крыла, модель вертолета, мировой рекорд, максимальная скорость, беспосадочный полет, паровой двигатель, лыжи самолета.
IV. Переведите на английский язык:
1. Научные принципы полета человека изучались великим ученым Леонардо де Винчи.
2. Леонардо де Винчи изучал потоки воздуха и создал первую летающую машину.
3. Первый фактический полет был сделан на воздушном шаре в 1783 г.
4. Этот полет длился только 10 минут и высота полета была 25 метров.
5. Первым русским конструктором самолета был Александр Можайский.
6. Он сконструировал моноплан с двумя паровыми двигателями в 1882 году.
7. Большим шагом вперед было создание первого самолета с двигателем внутреннего сгорания, сконструированного двумя американцами, братьями Райт.
8. Ученые и конструкторы многих стран работали над созданием и совершенствованием летательных аппаратов.
9. Первый в мире многомоторный самолет был сконструирован русским конструктором Игорем Сикорским.
10. В начале 20го столетия был изобретен дирижабль.
11. В 1913 г. в Петербурге был сконструирован тяжелый многомоторный самолет «Русский витязь».
12. Полет «Русского Витязя» продолжался 1 час 34 минуты, его скорость была 90 км/час.
13. В 1937 году русский летчик Чкалов со своим экипажем совершил беспосадочный полет в США через Северный полюс.
14. Ломоносов построил модель первого вертолета.
15. Менделеев разработал конструкцию стратостата с герметизированной кабиной.