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The Evolving Aircraft: Aviation Keeps Climbing Altitude
The Evolving Aircraft: Aviation Keeps Climbing Altitude
Connor Spiers, Age 11
St Paul's Camden
Introduction
“Aviation keeps climbing altitude” -Connor Spiers. This collection of stories is about the anthology, and the improvement of aircraft around the world. This will include the first powered flight in an aeroplane, first crossing of the English Channel, the first rocket in space, first hot air balloon, and the first commercial jet flight.
First Rocket Ever
1232. The war against the Mongols has been harsh. So we, the almighty Chinese, have devised to fire “flaming arrows”. These arrows will use a fuel that will burn and push the arrows into the Mongols territory. We are trying to push the Mongols back and away. We finally used the “flaming arrows” in the battle of Kai-Keng.
I was out fighting and I suddenly heard a loud bang, and then whistling. I looked up and saw flaming balls of fire. Then fell in a graceful arc, then smashing into the Mongols army huts. The huts caught fire and I could hear screams. The fire grew. I yelled an order to stay away from the fire, but to move into the Mongols territory.
First Manned Hot Air Balloon
21 November 1783. As Jean and I went into the basket of the hot air balloon, I knew that history was being made. The hot air balloon was made by the Montgolfier Brothers, and Jean and I were picked because we were important. I was an army general. We heated the balloon so that we could rise up, because hot air go’s up. When we lifted off the ground, I felt the weird but wonderful sensation of being weightless. We rose 3,000 feet (about 1 kilometre) above the great city of Paris, for about 25 minutes. We could see all of Paris from up here, it was amazing! After we were done, we let all of the hot air out of the top of the balloon, letting all of the hot air out, because hot air goes up, and that lets the cold air get in, making us go down. After we landed we started talking about the adventure in the sky. Everyone thought that it would be amazing to fly because you don’t have to walk all over the place!
First Powered Flight
December 17, 1903. Watching my brother step into the cockpit of our first flyer, I had never been more excited and worried that all our preparations and calculations could be wrong. I don’t know what I would do without Orville. I made sure the cable was safe and strong, before giving the thumbs up to my brother. He started the engines and I could hear the roar and feel the wind. Orville looked at me and nodded. I let the cable loose and Orville roared down the track which we designed. The plane we designed had two main wings on top of each other and two smaller wings (also on top of each other) in front. It had a huge propeller behind the pilot. Orville took off and started flying! He only stayed in the air for twelve seconds, but he covered one hundred and twenty feet! After Orville landed, I ran over too him and told him how this could change the world, having a aeroplane that can fly that far! Afterwards, Orville was saying that it was difficult to control. We left to work out how we can make it sturdier and easier to control.
First Crossing over the English Channel in an Aeroplane
July 25, 1909. I started up the engine and prepared to take off in the flyer I designed myself. I wanted to be the first person to fly across the English Channel. I felt the now familiar feeling of rushing through the air that comes with takeoff and I felt the familiar feeling (yet again!) of becoming weightless. During the flight over the English Channel, I experienced turbulence and my visibility declined. ‘I am alone. I can see nothing at all.’ I muttered to myself. When I landed in England, near Dover, I felt kind of happy and relieved that I had finished the flight. That was the place where I completed history.
First Commercial Jet Airliner
After months of preparation, years of planning, my team and I were ready to present to the world the first jet airliner. The de Havilland Comet! This amazing plane has only two jet turbines on each wing, but they are not underneath them, (Authors note: the Comet is not like an Airbus or Boeing) they are inside the wing. The plane rolled out of the shed, drawing gasps from the crowd. It also has a long, thin metal pole out the front of the plane. It has 24 seats for the passengers, and has two pilots in the cockpit. But the first jet airliner, that’s an achievement!
First Rocket in Space
Watching the little rocket rise was one of the greatest things I have seen in my life. Knowing that it was going to be the first artificial object in space, I obviously felt great pride as I was included in designing and making the satellite. I watched it ascend using the RD-108 engine which my team designed. As it flew out of sight, I turned to the control room to try and hear if Sputnik would (later) use its instruments to ping back to Earth. We will receive the pings with dish’s on the ground.
First Supersonic Jet Airliner
December 31, 1968. The crowd screamed when Tupolev rolled out of the shed. It was ready for commercial use already. The plane looked like a Concorde, with the nose able to go down, a sleek body with a straight up tail fin. It also has a delta shaped wing. The engines are big and underneath, looking like big square holes underneath the wing. When the nose is lowered, two small wing looking pieces of metal come out, kinda making it look like a bird. It has multiple wheels at the back, while the front has only two. Watching them roll, I had a feeling of pride. I couldn’t wait to see how it held up in flight.
First Rocket Powered Aircraft
I could hear the roar of the engines as the plane powered up. The plane was the Heinkel He 176. It is the first EVER mainly rocket powered plane. That means that the plane is solely dependent on liquid rocket fuel. It is basically a rocket with wings. It has an enclosed cockpit, and looks stout and fat. The wings sorta stick out of the side, and are exceptionally long. The plane surged forward, screaming down the runway before taking off. I couldn’t believe the speed I was going at! That definitely was an experience I would never forget in my life.
The Concord
2 March 1969. The second supersonic aircraft was going to take off today. The plane looked a lot like the Tupolev supersonic airliner. The Concorde ( as it was called) was a joint operation of the English Aerospace industry, and the French Aerospace Industry. It was said to be able to go over Mach 1, breaking the speed of sound. I was preparing to go to the cockpit. As I sat down in the pilot's seat, I felt a surge of pride about this beautiful creation. It was to go so fast, hence getting you places faster, even if it is very far away. I felt so proud and lucky that I would be the first to fly The Concorde.
Elon Musk’s Starship
May 11 2021. The starship that I had funded for my company, SpaceEx, will fly to the altitude of 10 kilometres. The spacecraft took off. It shot up like a rocket ( the reason for that: it was a rocket). In a few minutes, it reached an altitude of 10km. Flight Control then shut down all three Raptor engines. The spacecraft hovered for a second, then started falling. It flipped onto its side, which was what we wanted. The spacecraft fell for about one minute, then, using the flaps on each side of the rocket, and using half of the Raptor engines again, we flipped the spacecraft straight up, then softly floated down to the launch pad. The SN15 (which was the name of the spacecraft) did the flip relatively close to the ground. If you were to watch the landing, it would look like a half bottle flip. There was a small fire at the bottom of the SN15, but it was quickly extinguished before any damage was done. It was the first successful landing that my starship rockets have done. Other SN’s crashed and burned on the landing pad. The SN10 was close, but several minutes later, it exploded because of a fire at the bottom. The landing pad was actually three hundred metres away from the launch pad. It was supposed to be a sort of hop, which is what I have tried to do for multiple times now. I had tried it with a ship called the starhopper, all of the other SN’s, and finally I nailed the landing for a SN. This is Elon Musk, signing off.
Explaining Aerodynamics
The rules of aerodynamics allow a plane to fly. When something flies through the air, they have four things that are involved. The first one is thrust. You need thrust to get off of the ground. Thrust pushes the object forward. The second thing is drag. Drag is the opposite of thrust. Drag tries to slow you down. Because something is moving through the air, the air will slow down the plane. Air pushes against the plane and pulls it back. The third is weight. Another thing that affects the plane badly is weight. The weight pulls the plane to the ground. That is because gravity pulls down everything. Plane manufacturers make the plane as light as they can to minimise the power of weight. Lift is the last one. Lift is something you need in a plane, but too much of it can be deadly. Lift makes the plane go up into the sky. Lift makes the plane rise up to whatever the plane's maximum ceiling ( ceiling is how high a plane can fly without killing the crew or passengers) . If you have too much lift, you could 1. Go into space and destroy the plane and kill yourself. Or 2. The air will get too thin and your lungs won’t be able to take in enough oxygen and your body shuts down, and then you suffocate. Planes control their lift and thrust by slowing down or speeding up the propeller or jet turbines. The slower the propeller or jet turbines spin, the less thrust there will be and the weight will take hold and pull the plane down. Drag also helps because the drag slows the plane down when the thrust disappears. So planes have to keep their speed at a certain speed or they will either crash or fly off into space!
Untitled document (2).pdfArtist's Statement
Artist's Statement
Connor Spiers, Age 11
St Paul's Camden
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