Famous Firsts
Hugh Robinson, Aviation pioneer invented basic aircraft arresting gear system for carrier landings. First used landing on a ship in San Francisco Bay after takeoff from shore.
Seat belts were first adopted in 1913 when W. D. Billingsley was ejected from a Wright seaplane from1600' AGL.
In the 1920's Maj. William C. Ocker and Capt. Carl J. Crane did pioneering work toward instrument flying and developed an instructional curriculum
David McCampbells was the first naval aviator to land on an aircraft carrier at night.
Chandelle is French from montrer en chandelle, which means climb around a candle.
Armed Pilots
Pilots carrying mail had to be armed en route by order of the U.S. Postal Service in the 20s and 30s.
Barry Schiff thinks that pilots sit on the left because of ships passing left side to left side. This is not so. The left to left passing of ships came from ancient times when the right side of the ship used a protruding steering oar called a steerboard. The left to left passing protected this particular oar which was also under the captain's direction. Captains to this day have their post and cabins on the right side of ships.
January 25, 2004
Barry Schiff wrote:
Hi,
From your web site:
"Barry Schiff thinks that pilots sit on the left because of ships passing
left side to left side. This is not so. The left to left passing of ships
came from ancient times when the right side of the ship used a protruding
steering oar called a steerboard. The left to left passing protected this
particular oar which was also under the captain's direction. Captains to
this day have their post and cabins on the right side of ships."
Nevertheless, ships do pass left to left (whatever the original reason for
this might have been). According to the U.S. Navy, the tradition for pilots
sitting on the left originated with this tradition for the very reason that
it is easier for pilot to see one another that way. BWTFDIK?
Take care,
-- Barry
Gene's reply:
Barry,
My wife says that I will argue with God, too.
"Barry Schiff thinks that pilots sit on the left because of ships passing
left side to left side." My argument is about why 'captains' sit in the left seat of aircraft, not aircraft passing aircraft as do ships..
Long before side-by-side seating ever existed you will see in old pictures and movies that the pilots seated in tandem still 'mounted' the aircraft from the left side.
With tandem seating there is no visual advantage to either side. I just viewed a foot high stack of aircraft picture books and found very few pictures showing pilots in the process of boarding an aircraft. Those that I did find (5) were all on the left side.
The airplane pilot on the left side derived from the need to mount a horse from the left side in order to maintain an effective sword hand while mounting. Cavalry men were the first who were volunteered into becoming pilots. Hence, the left side mounting of aircraft from habit. Hence, left patterns. Left or right patterns made no 'visual' difference to tandem seating. The first side-by-side seating involved only passengers and gradually grew into two side-by-side pilots as well. It was not until side-by-side seating of pilots you had to determine who was PIC by the seat occupied. By tradition and habit, the guy who boarded or sat on the left won.
Honored to have received an email from you,
Gene Whitt
Incidental item:
Helicopter 'captains' sit on the right. Igor Sikorsky self-taught himself to fly his design of a controllable helicopter in a single-centered seat.. When it came time to teach others, he used a side-by-side seating configuration. As the PIC he chose to sit on the left side as was typical in aircraft.. Therefore all of his students had to learn from the right side. So when they became instructors in helicopters, they followed Sikorsky and taught from the left side. The dictum holds true, you tend to teach as you are taught.
Air pockets
Term coined by Charles Willard in 1910. "The air was as full of air pockets, as a Swiss cheese is full of holes."
N-numbers
An international convention Paris in 1919 assigned the letter N to all U. S aircraft. N was selected because of the Curtiss NC-4 that first flew across the Atlantic.
Hop
The term `hop' meaning a local flight came from abbreviated log book entries in "high operational patrol".
First stall strips were used by Messerschmidt.
What is peculiar about the space shuttle orbiter's landing gear? It cannot be retracted.
Leonard M. Greene invented the stall warner prior to 1950.
First bomb dropped from an aircraft was in 1910 at Tanforan Racetrack near San Francisco.
First aircraft carrier takeoff occurred in San Francisco Bay.
First pilots license was issued to Glenn in 1911. Prior law was that of gravity.
First airmail flight and delivery was between Petaluma and Santa Rosa. Three emergency landings enroute.
First gyroscopic attitude indicators were tested on Blimps.
Mayday is the English word that sounds just like the second French word of the phrase "venes m'aider", which means "come help me".
Hangar--Comes from the French word 'hangar' meaning shed or outhouse
Wifferdill
I'm told that "wolferdale" is an aviation (perhaps military aviation) term meaning a 270 turn. Is this correct?
Lee Whitt
Lee,
Never heard of the term. Would appreciate any verified use of term for my oddities file. I'll shoot it into the newsgroups for a check.
"Michael A. Pilla" <mpilla@mitre.org>
Subject: Re: wolferdale
Gene, You're probably referring to "Wifferdill" or "Whiferdill"; I've seen both spellings. It is the English term for either an Immelman turn or a Chandelle turn, IIRC.I.e., a one-half loop followed by a roll at the top (180o) for the Immelman and a sharp pull up, rolling, maximum performance turn (also 180o) for the Chandelle. I wish I had my flight maneuver manuals with me; could give you the precise definition.
Michael Pilla
Could it be "whifferdill"? I used to fly with an ex-usaf cfi, and he used that term to describe any of several "playing-around" maneuvers (wing-overs, steep turns, etc.)
Hundred Octane Aviation Fuel
Early fuel had low anti-knock ability. This came along with a widely variable quality standard which, like wine, were
identified by their place of manufacture. Fuel of the 1900-1910 would have had an octane rating of about 40 had such a rating existed. Fifty octane was achieved in the 1920's. By definition knock occurs after the spark; preignition occurs before the spark. In 1912 the difference was recognized in England and determined to be related to the chemistry involved.
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Knock and preignition were once considered one and the same. In 1917 they were distinguished. Additives were used to control knock but costs and side effects were often prohibitive to future improvement. Finally in 1921 tetraethyl lead was found along with a bromide to give antiknock improvement without damage to the spark plugs. By 1930 octane rating had reached 87 at high power. To maintain a standard each fuel batch had to be blended and mixed according to the time of year and the source of the base oil. By 1934 100 octane fuel was being produced that gave a 30% increase in engine power with no increase in engine temperatures. This industrial prescience assured U.S. fuel dominance during All airline pilot training, commercial pilot training, air force pilot training, fighter pilot training, pilot training schools, flight training schools, flight attendant training, helicopter flight training, accelerated flight training, airline flight training, flight training florida, flight attendant training schools, instrument flight training, cpl flight flying school training training, flight training simulator, flight training academy, atp flight training, helicopter flight training schools, california flight training, professional flight training, data flight training, orlando flight training, corporate flight attendant training, flight nurse training, warrant officer flight training, flight training device, lufthansa flight training, flight training san diego, alien alien flight flight training, military pilot training, sport pilot training and private pilot training.
A one-cylinder engine was created to test the effects of variable compression. This made it possible to test various fuels for their anti-knock capability. Initially heptane was found to be bad and toluene best. By 1926 iso-octane was found to be appreciably better and a range of anti-knock capability was created with heptane at zero and iso-octane at 100 Iso-octane was both expensive and hard to produce. Knock was never fully understood until internal engine photos at 400,000 frames per second and computer simulations in the 1990's. Interestingly of all machines, only airplanes have their own fuel
In 1930 the military specified that aviation fuel would be 80/87. The fuel had two octane ratings. The 87 was for full power rich operations while for leaned cruise 80 was the norm. This dual octane continues to exist even today. In the late 1930s light weight and compact engines were being developed with compression ratios that required fuels not subject to detonation. 100 octane began as a scientific curiosity by blending 70 octane with chemicals such as tetraethel lead and hydrogen to get the higher octane.
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