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Air Travel (Summary)

These days most people like air travel, because it is fast, comfortable and safe means of journey. It takes a few hours to travel to a place thousand of kilometres away. But there is not much excitement in it because we can not see much of the world from the height at which aeroplanes fly.

Endeavours of fly have been made by man since long the first man who tried to fly was a Frenchman, Pilatre de Rozrer, who went up in a hot-air balloon on October 15, 1783. He had another person with him Marquis d’ Arlandes who fed dry straw to the fire which filled the balloon with hot air. In the same year of December 1st, 1783 two other Frenchman went up in a balloon filled with hydrogen which is lightest of all gases.

The balloon flights were quite an important step towards the invention aeroplane. But balloons where found to be useless for his purpose unless they were made navigable. Mechanical power was needed for this purpose. An Englishman achieved remarkable success in this regard in 1848. He made an aeroplane fitted with a steam engine, but it proved too heavy to fly. In 1852 a Frenchman installed a steam engine in an airship but it also did not work swiftly. The French engineers Renard and Kerb used electric power in their airships, but batteries were too heavy.

The solution was provided by the invention of internal combustion engine in 1876 by a German named Otto. This piston – driven, engine worked on vaporized petrol. In 1886 Wolfert a German installed this engine in an airship, designed by count Vonzeppline whose first airship was manufactured in 1908. These airships were known as “Zeppelins”. London was bombed by Germans with these airships during First World War. With this engine the potentialities of aeroplanes for heavier than air machines has become evident. In 1896 an American Langley successfully flew a model aeroplane. Two American brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright turned their attention towards solving the problems of control. The Wright brothers made a successful attempt on December 17, 1903. Their 13 attempts failed but with 14th attempt they became successful and flew across the English Channel.

Developments in this regard continued in 1909 a Frenchman Bleriot designed an aeroplane and flew across the English Channel. A rapid development in the designs and manufacture of air craft took place during the First World War. It was development of fighter planes in 1916. Ever since then the development of planes have been in direction of high speed and high altitudes.

Air ships were used for passenger services after First World War. But were abandoned due to unsafe conditions. The giant hanger at Karachi is relic of those days. When the Second World War started, the regular aeroplane flights for passengers has become quite common. After the end of war there had been two developments the invention of Radar and Jet propulsion. The Radar has made it possible to avoid air collisions, while the jet propulsion has given aeroplanes quite a high speed.

Now the problem for air navigation is to cross the limit of speed of sound. It is expected that in a few years the speed of aeroplanes will approach 3260 kilometres per hour.

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