Podcasts about sir george cayley

“Oh come on, surely it was the Wright Brothers who did this!” In his lecture Dr John Ackroyd FRAeS tries to persuade us that Sir George Cayley, not the Wright Brothers, defined the concepts behind the aeroplane and flew it in 1804. After exploring Sir George's early life and some of his non-aeronautical designs of early tractors, engines and artificial hands, Dr Ackroyd explores Cayley's key breakthrough, his discovery in 1799 that flapping wings would not lead to flight and what was needed was a complete separation of the lifting from the propulsion system. Dr Ackroyd then analyses Cayley's results from his glider flights, experiments and concepts using modern aerodynamic techniques and compares Sir George's achievements to those who came after. He also explores how Sir George learnt from aerodynamic shapes found in nature and that the challenges facing aviation could be divided into the four basic areas which remain the fundamentals of aeronautics today: aerodynamics, structures, flight dynamics and propulsion. The recording concludes by showing how Cayley's work influenced and compared to the work of future generations, most notably how the Wright Brothers built on Cayley's work to be the first to conquer the challenge of powered flight. The lecture was specially recorded to mark the 250th Anniversary of Sir George Cayley's birth and was produced by Peter Laws CEng MRAeS. Find out more about Sir George Cayley by visiting www.aerosociety.com/cayley250

So much of automotive history is the passing of things and people. On this day the last Plymouth Superbird was made, Sir George Cayley, the father of aerodynamics passed, the Silver Bridge that joined Point Pleasant West Va, and Gallipolis, Ohio collapsed, on the bright side Charles Duryea was born! I am going to focus on a death that I am torn about. One hand says it shouldn't have happened as it did, the other understands the thinking behind it.Show Artwork is Peter Gregg during the 1968 Darlington 250, Gregg finished 7th, 11 laps down in the NASCAR Grand Touring race.www.nodrivinggloves.com#cars #car #collectorcars #oldcars #cartalk #electriccars #ev #hotrod #carhistory #automotivehistory #automobile #thisdayinautomotivehistory #thisdayinhistory #classiccars #onthisday #NaPodPoMo #ithappenedtoday #december15 #24hrslemans #petergregg #suicide

Humans have probably considered flight since they found birds. As far as 228 million years ago, the Pterosaurs used flight to reign down onto other animals from above and eat them. The first known bird-like dinosaur was the Archaeopteryx, which lived around 150 million years ago. It's not considered an ancestor of modern birds - but other dinosaurs from the same era, the theropods, are. 25 million years later, in modern China, the Confuciusornis sanctus had feathers and could have flown. The first humans wouldn't emerge from Africa until 23 million years later. By the 2300s BCE, the Summerians depicted shepherds riding eagles, as humanity looked to the skies in our myths and legends. These were creatures, not vehicles. The first documented vehicle of flight was as far back as the 7th century BCE when the Rāmāyana told of the Pushpaka Vimāna, a palace made by Vishwakarma for Brahma, complete with chariots that flew the king Rama high into the atmosphere. The Odyssey was written around the same time and tells of the Greek pantheon of Gods but doesn't reference flight as we think of it today. Modern interpretations might move floating islands to the sky, but it seems more likely that the floating island of Aeollia is really the islands off Aeolis, or Anatolia, which we might refer to as the modern land of Turkey.  Greek myths from a few hundred years later introduced more who were capable of flight. Icarus flew into the sun with wings that had been fashioned by Daedalus. By then, they could have been aware, through trade routes cut by Alexander and later rulers, of kites from China. The earliest attempts at flight trace their known origins to 500 BCE in China. Kites were, like most physical objects, heavier than air and could still be used to lift an object into flight. Some of those early records even mention the ability to lift humans off the ground with a kite. The principle used in kites was used later in the development of gliders and then when propulsion was added, modern aircraft. Any connection between any of these is conjecture as we can't know how well the whisper net worked in those ages. Many legends are based on real events. The history of humanity is vast and many of our myths are handed down through the generations. The Greeks had far more advanced engineering capabilities than some of the societies that came after. They were still weary of what happened if they flew too close to the sun. In fact, emperors of China are reported to have forced some to leap from cliffs on a glider as a means of punishment. Perhaps that was where the fear of flight for some originated from. Chinese emperor Wang Mang used a scout with bird features to glide on a scouting mission around the same time as the Icarus myth might have been documented. Whether this knowledge informed the storytellers Ovid documented in his story of Icarus is lost to history, since he didn't post it to Twitter. Once the Chinese took the string off the kite and they got large enough to fly with a human, they had also developed hang gliders. In the third century BCE, Chinese inventors added the concept of rotors for vertical flight  when they developed helicopter-style toys. Those were then used to frighten off enemies. Some of those evolved into the beautiful paper lanterns that fly when lit.There were plenty of other evolutions and false starts with flight after that. Abbas ibn Ferns also glided with feathers in the 9th century. A Benedictine monk did so again in the 11th century. Both were injured when they jumped out of towers in the Middle Ages that spanned the Muslim Golden Age to England.  Leonardo da Vinci studied flight for much of his life. His studies produced another human-power ornithopter and other contraptions; however he eventually realized that humans would not be able to fly on their own power alone. Others attempted the same old wings made of bird feathers, wings that flapped on the arms, wings tied to legs, different types of feathers, finding higher places to jump from, and anything they could think of. Many broke bones, which continued until we found ways to supplement human power to propel us into the air. Then a pair of brothers in the Ottoman Empire had some of the best luck. Hezarafen Ahmed Çelebi crossed the Bosphorus strait on a glider. That was 1633, and by then gunpowder already helped the Ottomans conquer Constantinople. That ended the last vestiges of ancient Roman influence along with the Byzantine empire as the conquerers renamed the city to Instanbul. That was the power of gunpowder. His brother then built a rocket using gunpowder and launched himself high in the air, before he glided back to the ground.  The next major step was the hot air balloon. The modern hot air balloon was built by the Montgolfier brothers in France and first ridden in 1783 and (Petrescu & Petrescu, 2013). 10 days later, the first gas balloon was invented by Nicholas Louis Robert and Jacques Alexander Charles. The gas balloon used hydrogen and in 1785, used to cross the English Channel. That trip sparked the era of dirigibles. We built larger balloons to lift engines with propellers. That began a period that culminated with the Zeppelin. From the 1700s and on, much of what da Vinci realized was rediscovered, but this time published, and the body of knowledge built out. The physics of flight were then studied as new sciences emerged. Sir George Cayley started to actually apply physics to flight in the 1790s.  Powered Flight We see this over and over in history; once we understand the physics and can apply science, progress starts to speed up. That was true when Archimedes defined force multipliers with the simple machines in the 3rd century BCE, true with solid state electronics far later, and true with Cayley's research. Cayley conducted experiments, documented his results, and proved hypotheses. He finally got to codifying bird flight and why it worked. He studied the Chinese tops that worked like modern helicopters. He documented glided flight and applied math to why it worked. He defined drag and measured the force of windmill blades. In effect, he got to the point that he knew how much power was required based on the ratio of weight to actually sustain flight. Then to achieve that, he explored the physics of fixed-wing aircraft, complete with an engine, tail assembly, and fuel. His work culminated in a work called “On Aerial Navigation” that was published in 1810.  By the mid-1850s, there was plenty of research that flowed into the goal for sustained air travel. Ideas like rotors led to rotor crafts. Those were all still gliding. Even with Cayley's research, we had triplane gliders, gliders launched from balloons. After that, the first aircrafts that looked like the modern airplanes we think of today were developed. Cayley's contributions were profound. He even described how to mix air with gasoline to build an engine. Influenced by his work, others built propellers. Some of those were steam powered and others powered by tight springs, like clockworks. Aeronautical societies were created, wing counters and cambering were experimented with, and wheels were added to try to lift off. Some even lifted a little off the ground. By the 1890s, the first gasoline powered biplane gliders were developed and flown, even if those early experiments crashed. Humanity was finally ready for powered flight. The Smithsonian housed some of the earliest experiments. They hired their third director, Samuel Langley, in 1887. He had been interested in aircraft for decades and as with many others had studied the Cayley work closely. He was a consummate tinkerer and had already worked in solar physics and developed the Allegheny Time System. The United States War department gave him grants to pursue his ideas to build an airplane. By then, there was enough science that humanity knew it was possible to fly and so there was a race to build powered aircraft. We knew the concepts of drag, rudders, thrust from some of the engineering built into ships. Some of that had been successfully used in the motorcar. We also knew how to build steam engines, which is what he used in his craft. He called it the Aerodrome and built a number of models. He was able to make it further than anyone at the time. He abandoned flight in 1903 when someone beat him to the finish line.  That's the year humans stepped beyond gliding and into the first controlled, sustained, and powered flight. There are reports that Gustave Whitehead beat the Wright Brothers, but he didn't keep detailed notes or logs, and so the Wrights are often credited with the discovery. They managed to solve the problem of how to roll, built steerable rudders, and built the first biplane with an internal combustion engine. They flew their first airplane out of North Carolina when Orville Wright went 120 feet and his brother went 852 feet later that day. That plane now lives at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC and December 17th, 1903 represents the start of the age of flight. The Wright's spent two years testing gliders and managed to document their results. They studied in wind tunnels, tinkered with engines, and were methodical if not scientific in their approach. They didn't manage to have a public demonstration until 1908 though and so there was a lengthy battle over the patents they filed. Turns out it was a race and there were a lot of people who flew within months of one another. Decades of research culminated into what had to be: airplanes. Innovation happened quickly. Flight improved enough that planes could cross English Channel by 1909. There were advances after that, but patent wars over the invention drug on and so investors stayed away from the unproven technology.  Flight for the Masses The superpowers of the world were at odds for the first half of the 1900s. An Italian pilot flew a reconnaissance mission in Libya in the Italo-Turkish war in 1911. It took only 9 days before they went from just reconnaissance and dropped grenades on Turkish troops from the planes. The age of aerial warfare had begun. The Wrights had received an order for the first plane from the military back in 1908. Military powers took note and by World War I there was an air arm of every military power. Intelligence wins wars. The innovation was ready for the assembly lines, so during and after the war, the first airplane manufacturers were born. Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker was inspired by Wilbur Wright's exhibition in 1908. He went on to start a company and design the Fokker M.5, which evolved into the Fokker E.I. after World War I broke out in 1914. They mounted a machine gun and synchronized it to the  propeller in 1915. Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the Red Baron, flew one before he upgraded to the Fokker D.VII and later an Albatros. Fokker made it all the way into the 1990s before they went bankrupt. Albatros was founded in 1909 by Enno Huth, who went on to found the German Air Force before the war. The Bristol Aeroplane Company was born in 1910 after Sir George White, who was involved in transportation already, met Wilbur Wright in France. Previous companies were built to help hobbyists, similar to how many early PC companies came from inventors as well. This can be seen with people like Maurice Mallet, who helped design gas balloons and dirigibles. He licensed airplane designs to Bristol who later brought in Frank Barnwell and other engineers that helped design the Scout. They based the Bristol Fighters that were used in World War I on those designs. Another British manufacturer was Sopwith, started by Thomas Sopwith, who taught himself to fly and then started a company to make planes. They built over 16,000 by the end of the war. After the war they pivoted to make ABC motorcycles and eventually sold to Hawker Aircraft in 1920, which later sold to Raytheon.  The same paradigm played out elsewhere in the world, including the United States. Once those patent disputes were settled, plenty knew flight would help change the world. By 1917 the patent wars in the US had to end as the countries contributions to flight suffered. No investor wanted to touch the space and so there was a lack of capital to expand. Orville Write passed away in 1912 and Wilbur sold his rights to the patents, so the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, stepped in and brought all the parties to the table to develop a cross-licensing organization. After almost 25 years, we could finally get innovation in flight back on track globally. In rapid succession, Loughead Aircraft, Lockheed, and Douglas Aircraft were founded. Then Jack Northrop left those and started his own aircraft company. Boeing was founded in 1957 as Aero Products and then United Aircraft, which was spun off into United Airlines as a carrier in the 1930s with Boeing continuing to make planes. United was only one of many a commercial airline that was created. Passenger air travel started after the first air flights with the first airline ferrying passengers in 1914. With plenty of airplanes assembled at all these companies, commercial travel was bound to explode into its own big business. Delta started as a cropdusting service in Macon, Georgia in 1925 and has grown into an empire. The worlds largest airline at the time of this writing is American Airlines, which started in 1926 when a number of smaller airlines banded together. Practically every country had at least one airline. Pan American (Panam for short) in 1927, Ryan Air started in 1926, Slow-Air in 1924, Finnair in 1923, Quantus in 1920, KLM in 1919, and the list goes on. Enough that the US passed the Air Commerce Act in 1926, which over time led to the department of Air Commerce, which evolved into the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA we know today. Aircrafts were refined and made more functional. World War I brought with it the age of aerial combat. Plenty of supply after the war and then the growth of manufacturers Brough further innovation to compete with one another, and commercial aircraft and industrial uses (like cropdusting) enabled more investment into R&D In 1926, the first flying boat service was inaugurated from New York to Argentina. Another significant development in aviation was in the 1930s when the jet engine was invented. This invention was done by Frank Whittle who registered a turbojet engine patent. A jet plane was also developed by Hans von Ohain and was called the Heinkel He 178 (Grant, 2017).  The plane first flew in 1939, but the Whittle jet engine is the ancestor of those found in planes in World War II and beyond. And from there to the monster airliners and stealth fighters or X-15 becomes a much larger story. The aerospace industry continued to innovate both in the skies and into space.  The history of flight entered another phase in the Cold War. Rand corporation developed the concept of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (or ICBMs) and the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into space in 1957.  Then in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first landing on the moon and we continued to launch into space throughout the 1970s to 1990s, before opening up space travel to private industry. Those projects got bigger and bigger and bigger. But generations of enthusiasts and engineers were inspired by devices far smaller, and without pilots in the device.

Airplane Stories and Histories by Norman CurreyAIRPLANE STORIES AND HISTORIES chronicles two hundred years of aviation highlights including the exploits of pioneers such as Sir George Cayley, the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Wiley Post, Amelia Earheart, R. J. Mitchell, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, Allan Loughead, Frank Whittle, and Kelly Johnson. Notable events and developments are discussed, first Atlantic flights, World War airplanes, jet engine development and post-war designs. It concludes with a discussion of new designs..NORMAN CURREY was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1926. He graduated as an aeronautical engineer in 1948 and was astress engineer on the de Havilland Comet. He went to Canada and helped design the Jetliner and Arrow. He spent 30 years at Lockheed, working in the C-130 JetStar, C-5 and special projects. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Roya Aeronautical Society, and has lectured in the U.S. and abroad. He is also the author of Aircraft Landing Gear Design: Principles and Practices, AIAA1988https://www.amazon.com/Airplane-Stories-Histories-Norman-Currey/dp/1998784142/ref=monarch_sidesheethttps://www.booksidepress.com/http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/3923bsp1.mp3   

What role will unmanned aerial vehicles play in the years ahead? In 2002, Prof Ian Poll took the long view of UAVs, by drawing lessons from such figures as Sir George Cayley, the Wright Brothers and Samuel Langley. Arguing that the UAV is a concept whose time had come, he explored the key issues facing the exploitation of military and civil unmanned flight in 2002, pointed out opportunities and made predictions for the future. Prof Ian Poll FREng FRAeS gave the Royal Aeronautical Society's 91st Wilbur & Orville Wright Lecture on 5 December 2002. The lecture was introduced by the then President, Lee Balthazor FRAeS, and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

Britain’s higher education institutions have not only educated many of the world’s top aviation professionals, but academics both inside and outside aero engineering departments have made a ‘mind blowing’ contribution to the science that underpins aeronautics. Starting with the work of Sir Isaac Newton and the education of Sir George Cayley, Prof. Poll takes us on a journey exploring the late nineteenth century disagreement between Sir George Stokes and Lords Rayleigh and Kelvin on the possibility of flight, the work of the American Samuel Langley, the establishment of the Aeronautical Research Council and the creation and development of aeronautics departments across the UK including at Imperial College, Queen Mary College, Cambridge University and the establishment of the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield. He concludes by looking at the challenges facing aerospace academics in the twenty-first century. Prof Ian Poll FEng FRAeS gave the 2009 RAeS Handley Page Named Lecture on 26 June 2009. The lecture was introduced by the Society’s then President, Dr Mike Steeden, and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

The fascinating stories of the men who dreamed to conquer powered flight, those who harnessed the new technology and were tested by the early months of World War I are told by Peter Reese in this podcast. The path towards manned flight was far from straightforward. Starting with the gifted inventor Sir George Cayley, the father of modern aerodynamics, Reese moves to those who made further steps towards flight, such as Henson, Stringfellow and Pilcher, before examining the work of the Wright Brothers. Peter Reese then asks why Britain, the leading nation in science and technology during the nineteenth century, fell so far behind in the first years of the twentieth century and examines how Britons tried to catch-up with their foreign counterparts before World War I. Here he examines the work of pioneers such the early aircraft builders like Samuel Cody, Geoffrey de Havilland and “Tommy” Sopwith, test pilots Benny Hucks and Edward Busk and those who moved public opinion such as journalists Lord Northcliffe and C. G. Grey, before examining how Britain faced the test of aerial warfare. The podcast was produced by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and recorded specially for the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Podcast series during 2019.

Covering 2000 years of history in 40 minutes flat, John Ackroyd outlines the scientific and the practical paths to achieving powered flight. Starting with the theoretical achievements made by, amongst others, Sir Isaac Newton and Sir George Cayley, and the developments in aerodynamic knowledge brought by experiments of the whirling arm and an understanding of fluid flow, John Ackroyd moves onto looking at the late nineteenth century aircraft concepts of John Stringfellow, Horatio Philips, Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher, Sir Hiram Maxim and Samuel Langley. Serendipity, Ackroyd argues, brought the two paths together to enable the Wright Brothers to fly. The lecture concludes with a question and answer session. The lecture was part of a seminar, "The beginnings of powered flight: The Wright Brothers contribution to aviation", which was organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 10 May 2003. The podcasts were edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and they were digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

An old idea for which the best years may still lay ahead. Jack Northrop dreamt of aircraft where everything not absolutely essential for flight was eliminated. Leonardo da Vinci’s theoretical flying machines from the 15th century, Sir George Cayley’s Governable Parachute of 1852, the Wright Brothers’ Flyer of 1903 and virtually ever other flying machine all have one thing in common: they all have tails of one sort of another which are used to stabilize and control their flight. Northrop, contrarily, didn’t believe a tail was necessary. In fact, he believed anything other than the wing actively worked against the elusive goal of all aircraft designers: to find the most efficient means of getting an aircraft aloft and then keeping it there. *     *     * Listen to the rest by clicking the play button, above. The text version of this essay can be found on Medium where it was published contemporaneously. The key image for this episode is of the first flight of the all-jet powered YB-49 on October 21, 1947. (credit: AFFTC History Office)

Holder of GB’s first pilot’s licence and an eminent aero historian tells the story of British aeronautics up to 1910. Charles Gibbs-Smith explains the work of the early British pioneers including Sir George Cayley, John Stringfellow, W. S. Henson and Percy Pilcher, together with the work of the Wright Brothers. Lord Brabazon of Tara, holder of Aviators’ Certificate No. 1, then colourfully explains how he and his contempories brought powered flight to Britain and gives a colourful insight into the early years of flying in the UK. This is the first episode of Powered Flight, the British contribution to flying. It was first broadcast by the BBC Overseas Service in 1959. The recording was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS, was licenced from BBC/Getty Images and was digitised and released thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation and a bequest from E. H. J. Pallett.

Foundations of Amateur Radio What is amateur radio? What's not part of the hobby and what is? The more you dig into this, the deeper the rabbit hole goes. I'll start with an analogy to set the scene. In aviation, Sir George Cayley was the first person to investigate heavier-than-air flying vehicles. He invented the aeroplane in 1799. The first full-sized glider, built in 1849 carried the first person in history to fly, the ten-year-old son of one of his servants. Since then the Wright brothers made their flight at Kitty Hawk. We saw the invention of commercial aviation, the turbo prop, the jet engine, the space-shuttle, helicopters, drones, rockets, hot-air balloons, the Hindenburg, the Goodyear blimps, hang-gliders, gyro-copters and many, many other contraptions. Each of those are considered aviation and the person controlling the device is considered a pilot. In amateur radio we talk on the radio. We also create repeaters and talk on them. We link them together using what ever technology is available. We make it possible to connect to such networks using software such as Echolink, AllStar Link, IRLP and other internet based systems. We create digital networks with DMR, use WSPR to exchange information, make contacts using CODEC2, have contests using CW and Morse code. We build software defined radios where we use computers to decode and encode radio signals, test back scatter using all manner of signal processing, use packet radio, RTTY, Hellschreiber and bounce signals off the moon and nearby meteors or an overflying aircraft. We make auto-tuners with a Raspberry-Pi or an SWR meter with an Ardiuno. We build valve based amplifiers and program mp3 voice-keyers, GPS lock radios, map propagation using the internet and have a rag chew on the local 2m repeater. We investigate 13cm propagation, do experiments with amateur television and we set up radio stations on top of mountains, in light houses and on remote islands. All of this is amateur radio, and frankly I've only just scratched the surface. There are heated discussions about if a linked repeater using the internet to create the link is real amateur radio or not, whether using your mobile phone as a node on the Echolink network is real amateur radio or not, if using a computer to create contacts on a digital mode such as JT65 is real radio or not. Each of these questions highlights a misconception about our hobby. There are no boundaries in amateur radio. We're a bunch of inventors, mavericks, people who attempt the unthinkable, try the impossible and make progress. There are people who are passengers on planes, and there are people who fly them. There are people using technology and there are people who invent it. We have a unique perspective as a community. We have the ability to imagine something that doesn't yet exist. Why would you spend any energy on whether that thing is real amateur radio or not? Amateur radio is a myriad of things, some of them related to antennas and radio spectrum, some not. This hobby is what you make of it, so go forth and invent something, try something, get on air and make some noise! I'm Onno VK6FLAB

C. H. Gibbs-Smith gives a Royal Aeronautical Society Historical Group lecture on 9 October 1973 on Sir George Cayley.

Howard Torode, Chairman, Tehcnical Committee, British Gliding Association and Afandi Darlington, Senior Inspector of Air Accidents (Engineering), AAIB speak about gliding and soaring having held a mutual relationship with mainstream aviation developments ever since the experiments of Sir George Cayley in 1852, through to the birth of modern aviation in the 1900’s and to the present day. This lecture discussed the experiences of sailplane designers throughout the twentieth century, in pursuit of higher aerodynamic performance, and compare these with parallel application of similar technologies in mainstream aircraft design. Howard and Afandi drew on well known aerospace design philosophies, and showed examples of how they have been equally applied to the design of sailplanes, including the benefits and lessons learnt. The lecture also demonstrated how the continuing technological developments have enabled sailplane pilots to continue to expand their wide soaring horizons. The speakers concluded with a forward look at how sailplanes might be developed into the future using both evolutionary and disruptive technology.

Wing loading is a function of velocity only: the higher the wing loading, the faster a bird must fly. Detour into some history of the science of flight: Sir George Cayley, the father of aerodynamics, introduced the fundamental idea of sustentation accomplished by moving a fixed surface through the air, and the separation of sustentation and propulsion. 19th Century flight theories: centred on the question of the power required for flight: a simple analysis leads to the relationship between power loading and wing loading. Scaling arguments leading to the relationship between wing loading and weight. The Great Flight Diagram, including ever creature or machine that flies on a wing loading / speed vs. weight logarithmic plot.