THE WINGED TITANS

A historic glimpse of global giants in the aviation world

- KHURSHEED MISTRY

The dream of human flight in all probability began with observing birds flying unfettered in the sky; the story of the invention of the airplane however, began as early as the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, with dedicated research into aerodynamics. Early scientists and mathematicians such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, and Isaac Newton who were ahead of their times contributed and provided an in-depth insight into understanding the symbiotic relationship between resistance and factors such as the surface area of an object exposed to the stream and the density of a fluid. Mathematicians Daniel Bernoulli, Leonhard Euler and John Smeaton explained the relationship between pressure and velocity and provided information that enabled a later generation of engineers and experimenters to calculate aerodynamic forces. In the 18th century, an English Baronet George Cayley, bridged the gap between physical theory, engineering research, and flying. His detailed study and compilation of aerodynamic data in the design of the winged aircraft using instruments provided crucial research into ballistics. It was in the 1870s, that Otto Lilienthal continued and undertook studies of wing designs and his measurements of the forces operating on a cambered wing at various angles of attack, thus providing accurate data for Octave Chanute and the Wright brothers to calculate the performance of their own wings. Having published the results of his research, Lilienthal designed, built, and flew a series of monoplane and biplane gliders and clocked about 2000 flights between 1890 and 1896. After two years of rigorous experimenting with gliders, it was deduced that there was a specific need to pay more attention to the wing design to ensure a smooth flight. Beginning in 1901, the Wright brothers designed their own wind tunnel to gather the information that calculated the values of lift and drag for an entire series of airfoils at various angles of attack and to me