Reaching Higher
When man first began to experiment in the world of aviation, the goal of reaching higher was simply to get off the ground. Today engineers and scientists have developed ways to send vehicles, such as satellites, into space and control them remotely or autonomously. Tomorrow we will look for ways to go even “higher” and hope to develop vehicles that can propel us outside our galaxy in an effort to explore other stars. Click on a topic to learn about the accomplishments that have helped our world reach higher.
Early Flight
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the 1903 Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. It flew forward without losing speed and landed at a point as high as that from which it started. With Orville Wright as pilot, the airplane took off from a launching rail and flew for 12 seconds and as distance of 37 maters (120 feet). The airplane was flown three more times that day, with Orville and his brother Wilbur alternating as pilot. The longest flight with Wilbur at the controls was 260 meters (852 feet) and lasted 59 seconds. The flyer, designed and built by the Wright Brothers was one step in a broad experimental program that began in 1899 with their first kite and concluded in 1905, when they built the first truly practical airplane. The basic problems of mechanical flight, lift, propulsion and control were solved by the Wright design.
Throughout the past 100 years, since the Wright Brothers first lifted off the ground, the field of aviation has grown by leaps and bounds. The advancements in creating high-performance airplanes have allowed us to expand out commercial travel and strengthen our military force. Planes like the F/A-18 Hornet, F-22 Raptor, and the SR-71 Blackbird demonstrate the cutting edge technology, analysis and testing that helps to create these high-performance airplanes.
The F/A-18 “Hornet” is a single-or two-seat, twin engine, multi-mission fighter/attach aircraft carriers or land bases. The F/A-18 fills a variety of roles: air superiority, fighter escort, suppression of enemy air defenses, reconnaissance, forward air control, close and deep air support, and day and night strike missions. The F/A-18 Hornet sports two F414-GE-400 after-burning turbofan engines capable of 22,000 pounds of static thrust each. The F/A-18 can reach a speed of Mach 1.7 and fly as high as 36,089 feet. The unique design of this aircraft and others like it has given our military great advantage in the sky with the craft’s fast motion and quick maneuverability. This plane and others like it would have never lifted off the ground without the aid of structural dynamics engineers to ensure their dependability.
High-Performance Planes
Satellite Vehicles
We can travel the world in high-altitude aircraft, but we can also travel higher in spacecraft — 285 miles higher to be exact. The International Space Station (ISS) represents a permanent human presence in space. It has been manned with a crew of at least two since November 2, 2000. The space station is located in low Earth orbit at an altitude of approximately 362 to 475 km (217 to 285 miles). Once assembled, the ISS will be the larger than a football field – the largest spacecraft ever built. With an acre of solar panels, ISS generates a total power of 110 KW.
Fragile satellites are carried aloft by expendable launch vehicles and the Space Shuttle. A satellite must be lightweight, but it must also be designed to withstand the vibration environment during launch. While it is operating on-orbit, the forces acting on the satellite are generally small in magnitude. Despite low force level, the success of many missions is dependent on the dynamic responses of the satellite to these small forces. For instance, the micro-gravity experiment for crystal growth on the ISS is very sensitive to low vibration levels and the imaging of the stars from the Hubble Space Telescope requires that the instruments have negligible vibration levels.