The Story of Flying 0746080689, 9780746080689

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Some of the titles ovoiloble in USBORNE YOUNG READING: SERIES ONE l,'4;t''t rit

Fl;tns Lesleg Sims

Ittustroted bg Stephen Cortwright

Reoding Consultont: Alison Kettg Universitg of Surreg Roehompton

Contents Chopter

1

Into the skg

3

Chopter 2 The first ptones

T2

A lot of hot oir

28

Chopter

3

Chopter 4 Helicopters

Chopter

5

Ftging for fun

Chopter 5 Into spqce

)6 4T

t6

Chopter

1

Into the skg

ff}.

Not

so tong o9o, peopte were stuck

on the ground. Theg coutd ontg wqtch os birds soqred obove them. But some men were determined

to flg. 3

In 1487, on Itotion inventor nomed Leonordo do Vinci drew ptons for o flging mochine. He wos sure it would flg. Ho, ho, Leol It's your silliest ideo yetl

But he couldn't buitd one thot worked, so no one betieved him. 4

Twentg geors loter, cr mon cotted John Domion decided to copg the birds. "I shq[[ flg from Scottond to Frqnce!" he declored.

S7eoring o poir of wings mqde from reot feothers, he ctimbed to the top of o tower.

5

But John Domion didn't reoch Fronce. He didn't even reoch the next vittoge. Insteod, he dived heodfirst into o dung heop. ,:, /

,.

,l'

A French inventor, Ctement Ader, decided to copg bots. He buitt on enormous poir of bot wings ond stuck them to o steom engine. ,i.

But thot didn't work either. 6

Some people ottoched wings to

their bikes. Did you ever see o bird with wheels?

v"' But theg coutd never pedol fost enough to tift off.

Inventors reotized theg woutd need more thon o few feothers or o bike to flg. Theg woutd need o speciottg buitt mqchine.

In the 18r0s, scientist Sir George Cogteg buitt the verg thing. B

It

wqs o gtider thqt wos putted

down o stope. \7hen cr gust of wind cought under it, the glider rose into the oir.

x

Sir George's coochmon sot in the

glider for its first flight. He didn't wqnr o second trip.

I

The probtem with Sir George's gtider wos thot it needed wind to flg. \7hen Fetix du Tempte buitt his, he odded on engine. It ron down o rqmp to gother speed... ond it flew! But not for [ong. The engine wcrs too heovg ond it soon croshed , to the ground. ,,|.,-

Thot's torn it!

Yet stitl inventors refused to give up. One dog, theg were sure, someone woutd buitd o ptone thqt worked.

Chopter

2

The first ptones

rilTitbur ond Orvitte S7right were brothers who tived in Americo. Theg buitt bikes, but whot theg reottg wonted to buitd were ptones. 12

Their first mochine wos o glider like Sir George's. In q strong wind, it coutd tift off the ground on its own.

Orville ond N7itbur flew... ond croshed... ond flew... ond croshed. But ol,[ the time, theg were

leorning obout flging.

-4

r3

Then theg built plones with engines. These hod spinning btodes cotted propellers. The blodes will push the oir bock ond thot will pull the plone forword,

Finottg, theg hod o ptone theg were sure woutd flg. TheU were so excited theg tossed o coin to see who woutd flg first. \Vilbur won. 14

He croshed!

It took ;

Jr;

r,

o,.

.h. plor,..

Then, on December 17 , 1903, it wcrs Orvitle's turn. Genttg, he ctimbed into the cockpit ond storted the engine. The ptone took off... ond it flew!

i t5

I 'i

,

I

ai'i

,

trtb it

But toking off wosn't os easg

it

sounds. The

os

\Tright brothers hod

to buitd cr uock ond putteg sgstem to hetp. \Teights were fixed to cl rope which wos tied to the ptone.

Mechonics storted the engine, the weights dropped ond the ptone shot otong the lounching trqck. This hetped buitd up speed to lift the ptone into the oir.

could use o rope to pull me olongl I

Soon, lots of peopte were buitding ptones. Most designers used engines devetoped from cors.

In 1 909, the world's first-ever oirshow wcrs hetd in o fietd neor Rheims, in Fronce. Yes! I mode it up here!

Look of oll those plones still on

the ground.,,

IB

Although 38 ptones took port in the show, ontg 23 mqnoged to toke off. There were o[[ kinds of competitions to see who coutd flg the highest, longest or fqstest.

How did he ever think thol would toke off?

-:-1 \

t9

I i

Henri Formon won the non-stop flging prize. He flew 180km (lL2 mites) in just over three hours, without stopping to refuet.

The prize for speed went to the Curtiss Golden Flger, flown bg Gtenn Curtiss, which reoched on incredibte 7)km (41 mr\es) on hour.

The lorgest ptone ot the oirshow wos the Breguet I. It wos os heovg os cr fullg grown horse ond os wide os o greot white shork from winqtip to rn,ingtip.

And they said wc"c

it

tco heow to tcke off

,

21

Mong pitots hod built their own plones using o wood or metql frome, which theg covered in ctoth. And most of them hod stuck to the \flright brothers' tried ond trusted design: the biptone.

You

con't

beot two wings on eoch sidel

** &4 "ryxm*

. fl

But the stqr of the Rheims qirshow wcrs the pitot Louis Bt6riot. On[g o month eqrlier, he hod flown his singte-winged monoptone crcross the Engtish Chonnel ond won f 1,000. Eleventh time lucky!

He hod set off from o fietd in Fronce ot down, excitedtg climbing into the cockpit of his Bl1riot XI. It wos the eteventh ptone he'd built. Hotf on hour loter, he'd londed in Dover in time for breokfost.

23

For o while, the excitement of flging shook the wortd. But, bg T9L4, pl,ones were no longer so new. Besides, with the First \,)7ortd \ilfor breoking out, peopte hod other things on their minds.

Pitots begon to flg spging trips ocross enemg [ond. Loter, theg even fought eoch other in mid-oir.. though some pitots didn't hove much to ottock with.

24

"\7e

need ptones

buitt for

fighting !" theg cried, so ptone buitders stuck guns on the front. Theg went on to buitd bombers plones with guns thot could drop bombs too. Reody,,, oim,,, fire!

In Itolg, ptone designers buitt Copronis, which were enormous bombers. These hod guns on the bock os wetl qs the front ond corried enough fuel to flg otl dog.

Theg olso hqd flops on the wings crnd three extro rudders on the tqit, otl to hetp the pitot steer os he soored over enemg [ond.

26

"Copronis qre good," thought Anthong Fokker in Hottond, "bur I ccrn buitd better!" And he produced o triptone, with three wings on eoch side. Not ontg coutd it turn more quicklg, it wos on incredibtg fqst flger. You'll never

cotch me!

"I wq.nt one!" cried the Red Boron, who wos o terrifging Germqn pitot. He wenr on to shoot down cr record S0 enemg ptones from his Fokker triptone.

27

Chopter

3

A tot of hot oir

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