Editing History of aviation (section)

==Lighter than air==

===Beginnings of modern theories===
[[Francesco Lana de Terzi]] proposed in ''Prodromo dell'Arte Maestra'' (1670) that large vessels could float in the atmosphere by applying the principles of a vacuum. Lana designed an airship with four huge copper foil spheres connected to support a rider's basket, a tail, and a steering rudder. Critics argued that the thin copper spheres could not sustain ambient air pressure, and further experiments proved that his idea was impossible.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-24 |title=Francesco Lana-Terzi, S.J. |url=http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/scientists/lana.htm |access-date=2024-11-21 |archive-date=24 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424104423/http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/scientists/lana.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Using a vacuum to create lift is called a [[vacuum airship]], but it is still impossible to build with the materials available today.

In 1709, [[Bartolomeu de Gusmão]] approached [[John V of Portugal|King John V of Portugal]] and claimed to have discovered a way for airborne flight.

Due to the King's illness, Gusmão's experiment was rescheduled from its initial 24 June 1709, date to 8 August. The experiment was carried out in front of the king and other nobles in the [[Casa da Índia|Casa da India]] yard, but the paper ship or device burned down before it could take flight.'''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Louro |first1=F.V. |last2=Melo De Sousa |first2=Joao M. |date=2014-01-10 |title=Father Bartholomeu Lourenço de Gusmão: a Charlatan or the First Practical Pioneer of Aeronautics in History |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/6.2014-0282 |journal=52nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting |location=Reston, Virginia |publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |doi=10.2514/6.2014-0282|isbn=978-1-62410-256-1 }}</ref>'''

=== Balloons ===
{{Main|History of ballooning}}
 {{multiple image | direction = vertical | width = 340 | footer = Lithographic depiction of pioneering events (1783 to 1846) | image1 = Early flight 02562u.jpg | image2 = Early flight 02561u.jpg }}

In France, five aviation firsts were accomplished between 4 June and 1 December 1783:
* On 4 June, a crowd gathered in [[Annonay]], France, to witness the unmanned hot air balloon display by the [[Montgolfier brothers]]. Their 500-pound balloon ascended to nearly 3,000 feet and traveled over a mile and a half. It stayed in the air for ten minutes before tipping over and catching fire.'''<ref>{{Cite web |last=texte |first=Compagnie générale maritime Auteur du |date=1930-12-23 |title=L'Atlantique : journal quotidien paraissant à bord des paquebots de la Compagnie générale transatlantique : dernières nouvelles reçues par télégraphie sans fil |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5042330w/f11.image.r=Montgolfier%20Brothers?rk=21459;2# |access-date=2024-11-21 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Gillispie |first=Charles Coulston |title=The Montgolfier brothers and the invention of aviation, 1783-1784: with a word on the importance of ballooning for the science of heat and the art of building railroads |date=1983 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-08321-6 |location=Princeton, N.J}}</ref>'''
* On 27 August, [[Jacques Charles]] and the [[Robert brothers]] unveiled the first unmanned hydrogen balloon from Paris' [[Champ de Mars]]. It landed almost an hour later in [[Gonesse]], where terrified farmers mistook it for a monster and destroyed it.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-06-02 |title=Early Balloon Flight in Europe |url=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Early_Balloon_Flight_in_Europe/LTA1.htm |access-date=2024-11-21 |archive-date=2 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080602012700/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Early_Balloon_Flight_in_Europe/LTA1.htm |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>
* On 19 October, in front of 2,000 spectators, [[Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier]] and the [[Marquis d'Arlandes]] boarded the Montgolfier aircraft as the first people. Later that day, [[Giroud de Villette]], another pilot, took to the skies much higher.'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gillispie |first=Charles Coulston |title=The Montgolfier brothers and the invention of aviation, 1783-1784: with a word on the importance of ballooning for the science of heat and the art of building railroads |date=1983 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-08321-6 |location=Princeton, N.J |pages=}}</ref>'''
* On 21 November, the Montgolfiers launched the first free flight with human passengers. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, along with the [[François Laurent d'Arlandes|Marquis François d'Arlandes]], successfully petitioned for the honour. They drifted {{convert|8|km|mi|abbr=on}} in a balloon powered by a wood fire.<ref name=":3" />
* On 1 December, Jacques Charles and the [[Robert brothers|Nicolas-Louis Robert]] launched their manned hydrogen balloon from the [[Jardin des Tuileries]] in Paris, as a crowd of 400,000 witnessed. They ascended to a height of about {{convert|1,800|ft|m}}[15] and landed at sunset in [[Nesles-la-Vallée]] after a flight of 2 hours and 5 minutes, covering 36&nbsp;km. After Robert alighted Charles decided to ascend alone. This time he ascended rapidly to an altitude of about {{convert|9,800|ft|m}}, where he saw the sun again, suffered extreme pain in his ears, and never flew again.

Ballooning became a major interest in Europe in the late 18th century, providing the first detailed understanding of the relationship between altitude and the atmosphere.

Non-steerable balloons were employed during the [[American Civil War]] by the [[Union Army Balloon Corps]]. The young [[Ferdinand von Zeppelin#Army career|Ferdinand von Zeppelin]] first flew as a balloon passenger with the Union [[Army of the Potomac]] in 1863.

In the early 1900s, ballooning was a popular sport in Britain. These privately owned balloons usually used [[coal gas]] as the lifting gas. This has half the lifting power of hydrogen so the balloons had to be larger, however, coal gas was far more readily available and the local gas works sometimes provided a special lightweight formula for ballooning events.<ref>Walker (1971) Volume I, Page 195.</ref>

=== Airships ===
{{Main|Airship|Zeppelin}}{{Unreferenced section|date=December 2024}}[[File:Le premier circuit fermé en dirigeable, 25 sept 1885, Commandant P. Renard, Gallica.jpg|thumb|''La France'' flying in 1885]]
Airships were originally called "dirigible balloons" and are still sometimes called dirigibles today.

Work on developing a steerable (or dirigible) balloon continued sporadically throughout the 19th century. The first powered, controlled, sustained lighter-than-air flight is believed to have taken place in 1852 when [[Henri Giffard]] flew {{convert|15|mi|km}} in France, with a [[steam engine]]-driven craft.

Another advancement was made in 1884, when the first fully controllable free-flight was made in a French Army electric-powered airship, ''[[La France (airship)|La France]]'', by [[Charles Renard]] and [[Arthur Krebs]]. The {{Convert|170|ft|m|adj=on}} long, {{Convert|66000|cuft|m3|adj=on}} airship covered {{convert|8|km|mi|abbr=on}} in 23 minutes with the aid of an 8½ horsepower electric motor.

However, these aircraft were generally short-lived and extremely frail. Routine, controlled flights did not occur until the advent of the [[internal combustion engine]].

[[File:Santos-Dumont flight around the Eiffel Tower.jpg|thumb|left|Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901]]
The first aircraft to make routine controlled flights were [[non-rigid airship]]s (sometimes called "blimps".) The most successful early pioneering pilot of this type of aircraft was the Brazilian [[Alberto Santos-Dumont]] who effectively combined a balloon with an internal combustion engine. On 19 October 1901, he flew his airship ''Number 6'' over Paris from the [[Parc de Saint Cloud]] around the [[Eiffel Tower]] and back in under 30 minutes to win the [[Deutsch de la Meurthe prize]]. Santos-Dumont went on to design and build several aircraft. The subsequent controversy surrounding his and others' competing claims with regard to aircraft overshadowed his great contribution to the development of airships.

At the same time that non-rigid airships were starting to have some success, the first successful rigid airships were also being developed. These were far more capable than fixed-wing aircraft in terms of pure cargo-carrying capacity for decades. Rigid airship design and advancement was pioneered by the German count [[Ferdinand von Zeppelin]].

Construction of the first [[Zeppelin]] airship began in 1899 in a floating assembly hall on [[Lake Constance]] in the Bay of Manzell, [[Friedrichshafen]]. This was intended to ease the starting procedure, as the hall could easily be aligned with the wind. The prototype airship ''[[Zeppelin LZ1|LZ 1]]'' (LZ for "Luftschiff Zeppelin") had a length of {{convert|128|m|ft|abbr=on}}, was driven by two {{convert|10.6|kW|hp|abbr=on}} [[Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft|Daimler]] engines and balanced by moving a weight between its two [[nacelle]]s.

Its first flight, on 2 July 1900, lasted for only 18 minutes, as ''LZ 1'' was forced to land on the lake after the winding mechanism for the balancing weight had broken. Upon repair, the technology proved its potential in subsequent flights, bettering the 6&nbsp;m/s speed attained by the French airship ''La France'' by 3&nbsp;m/s, but could not yet convince possible investors. It was several years before the Count was able to raise enough funds for another try.

The German airship passenger service known as [[DELAG]] (Deutsche-Luftschiffahrts AG) was established in 1910.

Although airships were used in both World War I and II, and continue on a limited basis to this day, their development has been largely overshadowed by heavier-than-air craft.