A Thought on the National Aviation Day 2019*

Image: Wright Brothers' first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina  

By Tenzin Choephel** 

In 1895, Lord Kelvin, the renowned Scottish scientist, declared that Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. Less than eight years later, Wright brothers made their first flight over the sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their flight lasted for only about twenty something seconds, but it was able to demonstrate the possibility of a machine that is heavier than air to get off the ground in a sustained manner. The brothers laid the framework for what a working airplane should look like in terms of propulsion, aerodynamics, controls and structures. 

Numerous iterations later, engineers were designing and flying small propeller-driven airplanes successfully, followed by larger and more mature airplanes that carried more people and stuff. Introduction of gas turbine engines ushered in the jet age that expanded the flight envelope of the airplanes in terms of speed, altitude and efficiency. In the meantime, rocket propulsion allowed humans to fly an aircraft faster than the speed of sound for the first time in history. Rapid innovations in the design of large airplanes, first propeller-powered and then jet-powered, helped energize the era of commercial aviation. The biggest commercial airplane today can carry 600 times more people than the Wright brother’s first airplane that flew in Kitty Hawk. All these happened within a century!