March of Aviation

[Music] of all living creatures it is the bird alone that man has envied and struggled to be like he has dreamed of flying building gliders and artificial Wings making seemingly fantastic plans the discovery by an Eng scientist in 1766 that hydrogen gas was at least seven times lighter than air started the realization of this dream and 17 years Gass filled bag lifted a man high above a field near Paris the balloon had come dreams and work continued and in 193 Orville Wright made the first flight in his heavier than air machine and soon with his brother Wilbur had made this plane with a tower and weight starting device their success gave impetus to experiments in both hemispheres in less than 2 years Wilbur Wright made a flight of more than 11 miles and by 1910 this Curtis Wright Pusher type plane had been built at martique France hry fob with a plane mounted on three pontoons was the first to succeed in taking off from the water in 1912 Henry farman Built This Plane for the British known irreverently as the flying bathtub and believed to be the world's first Army bomber it still carried the propeller well back between fuselage and tail 4 years before this plane appeared the United States Army recognizing the possible military value of airplanes drew a list of requirements for a plane practical enough to be considered by it this plane must carry two persons have a speed of at least 40 m an hour and be able to carry fuel for a flight of 125 mil by July 199 the rght brothers flyer had fulfilled requirements and our war department signed a contract for the purchase of one heavier than air flying machine at this time the English Channel was spanned in a flight of 23 minutes in 1911 Gail Brath Rogers succeeded in traveling by airplane from New York to California the purely experimental stage of Aviation was over airplanes had gone to work then in 19 14 the heavy clouds of War gathered over Europe and for 4 years there was room in the skies only for war Birds but Aviation was given an impetus it had never had before developments were rapid to Sopwith a British designer developed this grandfather of all Pursuit planes with amazing ability to climb but it also had the unfortunate characteristic of shedding its wings particularly a forc to lose altitude quickly during 1917 and 1918 the famed Red Knight of Germany Eric f Roven flew many hours in a German triplane never in combat but in observation he could gain altitude quickly and watch battles below out of danger of the enemy the first airplane to have a separate Gunner cockpit was this Austrian Albatross which was used by the central powers from the first year of the war by 1917 Uncle Sam had been drawn into the storm and was training pilots in this JN 4D a sturdily built plane lovingly known as Jenny and used after the war for barn storming by many a demobilized soldier the TM snipe was a fast little British fighter plane with a 125 horsepower gnome rotary motor and this French sped was one of the most successful planes used by the Allies in 19177 and 18 it was developed by a patriotic group of outstanding French aeronautical Engineers who gave the design to their country at first planes were used chiefly for observation it actually was the custom for German and Allied Flyers to salute each other if their paths crossed then Pilots less sporting than the others began carrying revolvers for shots at enemy pilots in the air soon machine guns were synchronized with the engines this se5 with 175 horsepower Hispano sua motor and two machine guns fired by an automatic button on the joystick was Britain's great defender of democracy then as the hurricane is today and was used effectively against this foker D7 Germany's plane with revolutionary all steel tubing fuselage designed by Dutch born Anthony fulker whose genius was first backed by the Germans but who later became an American citizen with the first transatlantic flight made in this Douglas nc4 our Navy demonstrated to an amazed world the strides Aviation had continued to make after the turn of Peace the ship left Rockaway New York May 16th 1919 going to New Finland and from there to the azors making the 1380 M ocean hop in 15 hours 13 minutes it then continued to Lisbon Portugal and from there to Plymouth England the ship was powered by three tractor Liberty engines and a pusher the first commercial use of the Liberty motor the great Ally of our aviators in the first world war was in this Douglas mail plane but war was not forgotten by Builders of airplanes who by 1930 had produced this Keystone long range heavy lifting bomber harbinger of the new and fiercer breeds of War birds so soon to fill our skies successful experiments to increase the range of military planes by refueling in Flight had been made by our army and as a result endurance records were made broken and remade planes remaining in the air for hundreds of hours an interesting development of this area was the auto gyro invented by Juan deera of Spain employing horizontal rotary air foils and capable of almost vertical Landing demonstrated by aviator who landed in his father's Potato Patch winning Fame for his plane but parental wrath for himself it was hailed as the commuters airplane because of the small Landing space required but it was unable to cope with conventional types of speed and interest in it soon waned development of the balloon paralleled that of the airplane and the dirigible or balloon that could be steered reached its peak in such beautiful ships as the Mak count Zeppelin of Germany was their great designer and his ships crossed the ocean many times these large ships are now extinct prey to their own size but smaller non-rigid blimps are proving their value and Convoy Duty and let us not forget their cousin The Barrage balloon great protector of London from Air Raids Michelle deer of France set a world's record in 1936 by flying 360 M an hour in his kudon in air races at Los Angeles early planes had carried but one or two persons but as lifting ability increased and public confidence grew the giant airliners such as this Douglas DC3 were developed for commercial passenger service and in 1937 the calonia pride of Great Britain was the first plane to carry mail and passengers from England to the United States safety smoothness Comfort were the words that characterize these new planes built for the traveling public but designs for luxury airliners for hurried businessmen and impatient vacationers were soon pushed from the drawing boards of aeronautical draftsmen for again warbirds swarmed in stormy skies one of the bravest of these is this Lockheed P38 a highly maneuverable two-fisted fighter with a top speed of more than 400 mph it is armed with 50 caliber machine guns and is excellent for observation work Giants among warbirds are the bombers tough to brush through heavy machine gun fire strong to carry several thousand pounds of bombs and equipped with instruments to tell the plan's speed and altitude the speed of winds and cross drifts and the bomb site a calculating machine to make use of the findings of the other instruments to tell the bombarder the exact instant to release his deadly eggs this British fery battle is a heavy duty general purpose plane and the volti V12 is an attack bomber used by United States forces it has a flying range of 270 Mi a top speed of 243 mph the P40 carrying but one man designed for the most exacting Pursuit missions has been the pride of the American volunteer Flying Tigers a source of power to Russian pilots flying land lease equipment though Wars are life and death struggles between nations manufacturing the airplanes with which they are fought has long been an international business producing articles of Commerce entering regular channels of trade with spices hats and gowns designs as well as planes being sold this commercial type transport plane manufactured in the United States first of its kind to have retractable tricycle landing gear with many of our best instruments on its board found its buyer in Japan and has helped build up the fleets of transports carrying Japanese soldiers over L Western Pacific this Flying Fortress Envy of every armed nation is generally recognized as the world's finest long-distance bomber it has a wing span of 150 ft weighs more than 22 tons when fully loaded and carries a crew of from 6 to 9 men but in spite of War there is a tiny flow of normal life maintained a small gate through which peace May sometime find an entry Portugal first European country visited by an American transatlantic flight has continued through months of War to receive this Yankee Clipper on its scheduled commercial flights Herald of giant birds of Peace whose wings will someday replace those that cast Shadows of fear upon the world