How We Learned To Fly

this video was sponsored by the realistic free-to-play online game war thunder by clicking the link in the description you get a great head start into the game with a free premium tank or aircraft in three days of premium time find out more after the vid humans can't fly never could but we always wanted to people would see ducks soaring past the horizon and think why can't I do that so people built things to let them fly just like ducks it took time a long time so let's look at the evolution of people flying otherwise known as aviation looking back some of the ideas seem dumb but keep in mind the ideas of lift and buoyancy weren't common-sense like they are today they needed to be developed but that didn't stop people from trying for a long time people quite literally strapped wings to their arms and jumped off stuff this wasn't a good idea people way too much and we can't flap our arms fast enough to achieve lift it's sad but true but other ideas came around as early as the 6th century people were flying kind of in China there are reports of men being strapped to kites and flown into the air of course being kites they were still tethered to the ground in some respect but we should applaud them for trying in the early 11th century some people attempted to build primitive gliders they would jump off tall things and soar briefly before crashing back down into the earth many of you probably know about da Vinci's aerial screw design which did not work and would not work therefore I won't be discussing it in detail sorry da Vinci fans but if we talked about every failed design we would be here for a very long time the issue with making flight practical was to be able to rise into the sky and come back down safely thus far it seemed near impossible but luckily some people discovered that if something could be lighter than air it would rise up this would lead to balloons now the early days of the balloon saw people still having somewhat limited understanding of how to achieve flight in the 17th century in Italian with the name I cannot pronounce created an inter design several balls would have the air within them removed creating a vacuum this lack of air would allow the balls to rise and hopefully somebody could go along for the ride of course this didn't work nor whatever there were issues of finding a material that could withhold the vacuum inside and not collapse amongst other problems but it was a start other considerations were for wider than air gases to fill up the balloons hydrogen helium what-have-you but it seemed as though the guess when it quite stayed in the balloon it would just stripped away but we were getting close in 1782 two French brothers the Montgolfier brothers to be exact found that fire appeared to create lift in some regard at least they thought it was the smoke that provided the force which is incorrect but they got on the right track eventually the following year they developed the first hot air balloon the heat from a fire would expand the air within the balloon allowing it to lift off the ground as the balloon would rise it would be caught in different air currents if you understood the current you could change direction balloons were all well and good but it would be much nicer if you could freely change direction so following this we began to see something new the airship now airships range in function and design but they all operate under the same principle fill a giant area with a lighter than air gas put an engine on board to allow for poulsen and have fun also they have rudders like a ship so they really were airships now even in the early 1800s people had ideas of attaching engines to balloons that they could use to propel themselves in a specific direction it wasn't until 1852 though that these dreams were realized this was one Henri Giffard took to the skies and his gif our dirigible he flew about 17 miles which is quite impressive considering it was such a new idea the biggest issue though was the three horsepower engine that wasn't powerful enough to allow the craft to fly against the wind so while it was steerable it couldn't actually returned to the place it took off from if there was too much wind in the way but it wouldn't be too long before this issue was solved in 1884 the airship known as la France took off full a few miles and returned back where it started this was a big deal for obvious reasons now for the rest of airship history I covered this topic in another video so if you're interested go check that out now as the 20th century approached dreams of heavier-than-air flight seemed more feasible actual vehicles that flew under their own power and achieve lift themselves rather than the gas in a giant balloon now people had been designing these flying machines for a long time and none worked the aerial steam carriage from 1842 is a good example even though it had a lot going for it engines weren't quite there yet now here you might expect me to jump straight to the Wright brothers but I won't let's talk about a bit more controversial figure Gustave Whitehead a German inventor who had moved to the u.s. he claimed to have flying machines that took off years before the Wright brothers Scientific American wrote that such designs were assumed to take flight and Whitehead claimed his craft the Whitehead number 21 actually flew so did it well that's a hard question there is no hard proof that it flew no images such a momentous occasion seems like it wards being well documented because of that we probably won't ever know for sure so yeah now let's talk about the Wright brothers they worked at a bike shop and had interest in the idea of flying simple enough they developed several gliders which gave them a good handle on the whole aviation thing using this knowledge they developed a simple airplane unlike others at the time they focused on controlling the plane in three ways the pitch yaw and roll pitch would be the rising and falling y'all was turning side-to-side and roll was well rolling this first plane was aptly named the flyer equipped with a 12 horsepower engine it took flight on December 17 1903 if full of modest 120 feet on its first successful run this was a momentous occasion in the history of aviation planes had the capacity to travel quickly and maneuver in a way unlike any previous aircraft but this was still early days to turn the plane a technique called wing warping would be used this is when cables are attached to the wings to physically bend them obviously a far cry from what we would expect but we had to start somewhere right anyway the Wright brothers show that flying machines were feasible and a whole new culture of enthusiasts bill airplane sprouted but it was really just that enthusiast at this point many people saw airplanes as interesting and novel but not practical oh how wrong they would turn out to be new ideas would begin to sprout up improving the overall design of airplanes stuff that improved maneuverability however in these early days planes couldn't take off entirely from their own power they would need to be catapulted forward to achieve the speed they needed to take flood soon technology would luckily advanced to a point where this was no longer necessary airplanes were flying longer distances with a greater rate of success than ever before joysticks are being added to maneuver the plane better than previous technique in 1907 the first monoplane was produced an airplane with just one wing this was special since previous crafts were biplane the two wings system allowed more left when paired with these archaic engines but now since engines were getting better planes were getting faster for example the first monoplane could hit 60 miles per hour by this point the technology was becoming more practical for common use and of course this technology would begin its implementation in war not that war though oh yeah the first use of an airplane in war was in the Italo Turkish war in 1911 airplanes were too light and fragile to have mounted guns so the pilot just dropped some grenades down but of course they would also be used in that war World War one at the start they functioned as reconnaissance vehicles they allowed the army to gain knowledge about the whereabouts and activities of the enemy it was simple and somewhat friendly as the enemy pilots would simply wave at each other as they passed much of the focus was on airships Zeppelin's these could and drop bombs on cities making them a threatening weapon in the Germans arsenal as tensions rose as they tend to do in war the pleasantries between airplanes faded and they were replaced with pistol fire and throwing objects at other pilots this wasn't particularly effective for the reasons the solution to this was machine guns attached to the plane now the biggest issue here was making sure the machine gun wouldn't shoot the propeller directly in front of it one way to solve this was to mount it in a position where it could be attended by another man on board but there is also a more interesting fix available synchronized the gun and a propeller to ensure they won't strike each other it offered the ability to simply point the plane where you want to fire as bombing raids got underway by German air ships planes became integral and attempting to take these behemoths down at the same time we would see specialty bomber planes enter the picture they needed to be significantly larger to accommodate the bombs the First World War really solidified airplanes in common use the technology developed as rival nations try to outdo each other and sped up an already quickly moving industry following the war airplanes would start to reach their true potential the first crossing of the Atlantic in 1919 but at the same time some were looking in a different direction what if you could have an aircraft that didn't need a landing strip to take off yes this would be rotorcraft as opposed to the fixed-wing vehicles that were successful they would allow pilots to take off anywhere and maneuver around with greater ease now this wasn't an entirely new concept attempts as such an idea where around four decades prior but without much success there is issues with stability since these giant spinning blades create a torque effect this was counteracted with more rotors moving in opposite directions by the 20s rotor craft were taking off and flying for a good couple minutes they were separated by different categories most notably Auto gyros and helicopters helicopters used the rotor for both lift and propulsion an autogyro uses the rotor for lift and something else is used for propulsion it's simple enough eventually more standard designs for both begin to arise you could counter the torque effect with the tail rotor this increased stability early more successful rotor craft look very similar to airplanes at the time complete with wings and a front propeller the outside of helicopters planes for making their own advancements new and improved engines carried much larger airplanes than ever before they're becoming aerodynamic sleek a far cry from the wooden craft just a few decades prior now these new advancements would be necessary as over in Europe war was brewing because of how far aircraft had come since World War one it was apparent that controlled the skies would be key to achieving victory aircraft carriers would transport planes all across the world allowing huge numbers of planes to find their way to the enemy biplanes were nearly gone by this point as the single wing of the monoplane allowed for less drag better maneuvering the global conflict would solidify standards of aircraft today landing gear that can be withdrawn back into the craft it was standard to have an encased cockpit rather than exposing pilots to the open air bombers were arguably the most frightening vehicle of the war cities were devastated by these craft that flew overhead the b-17 would destroy access production sites with ease airplanes were not novelty they were necessary now for helicopters they were finally reaching levels of practicality while not integral to combat they functioned as important rescue vehicles where landing a conventional airplane was otherwise impossible and of course world war ii saw the first implementation of jets i made a video about the first of these in another video so go check that out well not necessarily the most important craft during the war itself a post-war world would find great use for them development and jets made it so these aircraft began to slowly replace everything else in 1950 the first dogfight between two Jets took place in the Korean War the jet was here to stay and it was apparent the technology could go far beyond anything before it well thinks up maybe one thing rockets were fast faster than Jets at least so it's not a huge surprise that the first aircraft to break the sound barrier was the rocket-powered bell x-1 piloted by Chuck Yeager in 1947 so why wasn't this the future well Rockets burn fuel fast very fast since they only worked for a couple of minutes that wasn't the most ideal propulsion method for aircraft back to the Korean War for a second helicopters were really hitting their stride with their use as mobile medical facilities the injured could be more easily reached intended to than ever before helicopters were also seeing use in combat as assault vehicles with guns attached in rocket pods it was also easy for troops to fire their own weapons while inside but war ends in the advancements made an aviation would begin to reach the mass public one example of this was the start of commercial jet powered airliners first flying in 1949 the first taking passengers in 52 the D H 106 comment was one of a kind previous commercial airplanes were noisy with giant propellers making it less than an ideal experience the jet engine allowed transport in a relatively relaxing environment and of course it was fast nearly 500 miles per hour whereas the piston powered craft would barely exceed 300 the success of the comet would lead to more commercial jet airliners now something I haven't mentioned yet is stealth aircraft simply put it's any aircraft that is designed to be very hard to spot with radar technology commonplace it wasn't too hard to identify when the enemy was about to attack but there is a way around it this was the f-117 Nighthawk it was designed to absorb the reflect radio signals in such a way that it would be impossible to know a full-sized aircraft is in the vicinity very sneaky now for the most part the biggest leaps in aviation history are kind of over not to say there isn't any more innovation but the first 50 years after the Wright brothers took off standardized aircraft in their use in society today much of what came from aviation in the latter half of the 20th century was going faster going higher and solidifying the standards of commercial air travel computers and new technology would make flight more stable safely was vastly improved standards and features that other channels can tell you about because it's very complicated in this video is long enough we live in an era where aircraft could fly to the edge of space go several times the speed of sound and take us all over the world within a few hours it took a long time to get to this point and we can only guess where it will go next this is Tyler of Knowledge Hub special thanks to war thunder for sponsoring this video all my friends play war thunder they really do always on Steam now you can join them where thunder is a realistic free-to-play vehicle combat game you can fight with millions of other people and combine battles on land air and sea it has more than 1,000 historically accurate tanks aircraft and ships from 30s through the 90s oh boy it's on PC ps4 and Xbox one so you don't have an excuse speaking of joining you actually get a good head start by clicking the link down below you get a free premium tank or aircraft in three days of premium time just for registering this is Tyler of knowledge hub

Channel: KnowledgeHub

Views: 433,768

Rating: 4.8900785 out of 5

Keywords: The History of Flight, How We Gained Flight, KnowledgeHub War Thunder, KnowledgeHub flight, history of air travel, air travel, wright brothers, knowledgehub, alternatehistoryhub, knowledge hub, knowledgehub how we learned to fly, how we learned to fly, first planes, WWI planes, WWII planes, early planes, war thunder, war thunder planes, war thunder choppers

Id: wqngy3ZJlWc

Length: 15min 44sec (944 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2018

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Can you give the exact time? I can't seem to hear it.

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