Zeppelin

A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship, which was named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (July 8, 1838 – March 8, 1917).

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On retiring from the army in 1891, von Zeppelin devoted himself to the study of aeronautics, and his first airship was built and tested in 1900.

Von Zeppelin’s first rigid airship, the LZ-1, made its maiden flight over Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany on July 2, 1900. The Zeppelin airship had an engine and a propeller which meant the aircraft could be directed.

The first flight of LZ 1 over Lake Constance (the Bodensee) in 1900

Zeppelins were originally used for public transport. They were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG (DELAG), the world's first airline in revenue service. By mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights.

During World War I, a number of Zeppelin airships were employed in bombing England. Great Yarmouth was the first British town to be bombed by a Zeppelin, on January 19, 1915. London suffered its first raid on May 31 of that year.

The most intense of all the Zeppelin attacks during World War I was on September 2, 1916, when fourteen Zeppelins dropped 35,000 lb. of bombs on London and elsewhere.

Cow intestines used for sausage skins were so vital in making gas bags for German Zeppelins that during World War 1 the Kaiser banned Germans from eating sausages.

A Zeppelin flying over SMS Seydlitz

The German LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin became the first commercial passenger transatlantic flight service in 1928. The hydrogen-filled airship was named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

The  Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin II airships were the largest aircraft (in terms of length and volume) to take to the skies. Built in Germany between 1932 and 1938, each was 245m (803ft) long.

The Hindenburg airship caught fire and was destroyed while trying to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing over 30 people on board.

The Hindenburg Zeppelin, named after the late German president Paul von Hindenburg, was almost named Hitler but was refused by Adolf due to his dislike of large aircrafts. He later said he was glad the aircraft didn't share his name after the famous Hindenburg Disaster of 1937.

The Hindenburg disaster in 1937, along with political and economic issues, hastened the demise of Zeppelins. Sometimes, they are still used as tourist attractions, or for advertising.

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The rock band Led Zeppelin got their name from a fellow musician, who predicted the group would go down like a "lead balloon."

When Led Zeppelin played together for the first time in front of a live audience in Gladsaxe, Denmark, in 1968, they used the name 'The Nobs'. This was because Eva von Zeppelin, granddaughter of the inventor of Zeppelin airships, threatened to sue them for tarnishing the family name.

Source History

Wilbur Wright

EARLY LIFE 

Wilbur Wright was born near Millville, Indiana, on April 16, 1867.

Wilbur Wright in 1905

He was the older of the two flight pioneering Wright Brothers and had four other siblings.

His father Rev Milton Wright, was an editor, clergyman and later a non-conformist Bishop.

Wilbur was named for Willbur Fisk a clergymen that Milton Wright admired. His neighbors knew him and Orville simply as "the Bishop's kids", or "the Bishop's boys".

Because of their father's position as a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, he traveled often and Wilbur and his siblings frequently moved — twelve times before finally settling permanently in Dayton, Ohio in 1884.

Wilbur was an athletic child. He first developed his interest in aviation during three years of reclusiveness after being badly injured in an ice hockey game, when another player's stick hit him in the face. He lost his two front teeth in the accident.

The player who knocked his teeth out, Oliver Cook Haugh, grew up to become a notorious Midwest serial killer.

Wilbur in 1876

EARLY CAREER

Wilbur did not go to college; he started a newspaper instead with his brother Orville. After that, they started a shop where they built and repaired bicycles.

By the 1890s, the Wrights were interested in flight, especially the gliders of Otto Lilienthal. In 1896 they set about designing a kite big enough to carry a man and spent three summers testing and perfecting it.

By 1901 they testing gliders in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where there were strong and steady winds. They also made over 200 small versions of the wings and built a wind tunnel for model airplanes to test how well different wing shapes would lift an aircraft. The data it generated was critical to their first powered flight two years later.

Wilbur just after landing the 1901 glider

FLIGHTS 

After the success of their gliders, the brothers decided to build a flying machine with an engine in their bicycle shop. No manufacturer would provide them with an engine, so they had to build their own.

Orville and Wilbur Wright designed and built the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air airplane in Dayton, Ohio. The brothers took to the air for the first time making two flights each from level ground into a freezing headwind gusting to 27 miles per hour (43 km/h) at a North Carolina beach on December 17, 1903.

Two years later Wilbur Wright piloted Wright Flyer III in a flight of 24 miles in 39 minutes, a world record that stood until 1908.

Wright Flyer III

On May 22, 1906, the Wright brothers were granted a patent for their "Flying-Machine”.

The local newspaper editor decided not to cover their historic first manned flight in 1903. It took five years for the American public and newspaper reports to catch on, even ignoring reports in Europe where Wilbur had been demonstrating his flights and they were well known.

The Wright Brothers brought great attention to flying by Wilbur's flight around the Statue of Liberty in New York in 1909.

In 1909, the Wrights won the first US military aviation contract when they built a machine that met the requirements of a two-seater, capable of flights of an hour's duration, at an average of 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) and land undamaged. $30,000 of the federal budget was reserved for military aviation. That year the Wrights were also building Wright Flyers in factories in Dayton and in Germany.

The Wright Brothers had a college-educated sister, Katherine, who kept their affairs in order so they could focus on making the first plane. Katherine later became an international celebrity when she accompanied her famous brothers in Europe.

The Wright brothers formed the Curtiss-Wright Corporation with Glenn Curtiss for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes on November 24, 1909.

The Wright Brothers only flew together on the same flight one time, a six-minute flight on May 25, 1910 near Dayton. They'd promised their father, Milton, they would never fly together to avoid the chance of a double tragedy and to ensure one brother would remain to continue their flight experiments.

PERSONAL LIFE 

The Reverend Milton Wright preached a sermon as an Evangelical United Brethren Bishop in which he said, "If God wanted to fly he would have given us wings". Three months after preaching his sermon, his sons, Orville and Wilbur Wright built and flew their first self-propelled plane. The brothers were nominal Protestant; they didn't attend church, but refused to work on Sundays.

Wilbur Wright was a baggy trousered thinker. He loved reading and writing and contributed stories to his clergyman father's magazine Religious Telescope.

Neither Wilbur nor his brother Orville ever married. They lived together and even shared a bank account.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH

In 1912 Wilbur Wright fell ill after eating a dish of Boston seafood during a business trip. His brother Orville, who ate the same meal, also fell sick and barely survived. After returning to Dayton in early May 1912 Wilbur fell sick again and was diagnosed with typhoid fever. He died, at age 45, at the Wright family home on May 30, 1912.

Orville Wright

EARLY LIFE 

Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio, on August 19, 1871.

Orville Wright

He had five other siblings including his older brother Wilbur.

His father the Rev Milton Wright, was an editor, clergyman later a non-conformist Bishop. He once preached a sermon saying, "If God wanted to fly he would have given us wings". Three months later his sons Orville and Wilbur had made their first powered flight.

He was named for Orville Dewey, a clergymen that Milton Wright admired.

Orville's father once gave him a toy helicopter invented by Alphonse Penaud.

Orville and his brother Wilbur demonstrated their mechanical abilities at an early age. As young boys they were fascinated with flight playing with kites and their toy helicopter.

One of his friends and classmates in high school was future poet and writer Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Orville Wright was expelled from elementary school during his sixth grade for mischievous behaviour.

Young Orville

EARLY CAREER 

After reconditioning an old printing press Orville and his brother Wilbur started a newspaper West Side News. In April 1890 they converted the paper to a daily, The Evening Item, but it lasted only four months. They then focused on commercial printing.

Orville Wright and his brother Wilbur opened a bicycle repair shop in 1892. Soon they were manufacturing their own cycles. (The Wright Cycle Exchange, later the Wright Cycle Company)
Supported by the income from their bicycle shop, they started developing their motor driven flying machine.

Wright Brothers bicycle By 350z33 at English Wikipedia,

In 1901, the Wright brothers built their own wind tunnel out of wood, old hacksaw blades and bicycle spokes; they used it to test more than 200 wing shapes hand made from pieces of sheet steel and wax. The data it generated was critical to their first powered flight two years later.

FLIGHTS 

Orville Wright along with his brother, Wilbur Wright flew the first successful, albeit brief, "flying machine" in 1903.

The brothers were inspired by the way buzzards spread their wings to design their flying machines. They realised that the bird retained balance in the air by twisting the tip of its wings so they created a wing warping method based on this observation.

The Wright brothers didn't like to fly together in fear of both of them dying in an accident. They wanted at least one of them to survive to carry on research. They drew lots to see who would make the first powered flight and Orville won.

Orville Wright's first flight in his Wright Flyer One at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was on December 17, 1903. It flew for 12 seconds at a height of 500 feet and covered 37,120 feet. The flight was witnessed by four men and a boy.

First flight of the Wright Flyer, December 17, 1903, Orville piloting, Wilbur running at wingtip.

The Wright Flyer One was a biplane glider fitted with a 12 hp motor and linen covered wings. It did not have an undercarriage and carried only one person lying prone. The glider was based on the design of a bicycle with wings and engine. It launched off wooden rails.

After four flights by the Wright Brothers a gust of wind overturned and wrecked their wooden flier. However they stuffed all the pieces into barrels and shipped them back home to their bicycle shop. The original machine is now in The Science Museum, London.

Orville Wright did not actually sit in the Wright Flyer during its first flight. Instead, he lay flat on the lower wing in the middle of the airplane.

In 1905 the Wright Brothers built their Flyer 111. It was the first practical plane capable of flights over half an hour and could do a figure of eight.

On May 22, 1906, the Wright brothers were granted a patent for their "Flying-Machine".

The brothers first became famous in 1908 and 1909 when, weary of continuing doubt about their claims for a powered, heavier-than-air flying machine, they took their aeroplane on tour.

The world's first mortality in an airplane crash was on September 17, 1908 when Orville Wright's US War Department test plane crashed to the ground at Fort Myer on 17/9/1908. Orville's passenger, Lieut. Selfridge was killed and Orville had a broken leg, hip and ribs. The flying machine innovator laid for many days in a delirium and his recovery was delayed by his intense grief for "poor Selfridge".

Fort Myer crash. Photo by C.H. Claudy.

When offered a plane for military use, the American army was so sceptical of the brothers' claims that they refused to see a flight demonstration for five years. It took the world's first flying accident in 1908 for the Wrights to become front page news in the USA rather than flights of fancy and the army and manufacturers to catch the vision. Finally in 1909 they received an order from the American army for the first military aircraft.

Orville Wright and his English friend Alec Ogilvie remained in the air nine minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider, at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina on October 24, 1911. This broke the Wright brothers' previous flight record for a glider of 1 minute 12 seconds set in 1903 with their 1902 glider. The new record stood for ten years until broken in Germany.

The 1911 glider over the Kill Devil Hills. Library of Congress Wright Collection.

The Wright Brothers had a college-educated sister, Katherine, who kept their affairs in order so they could focus on making the first plane.

LATER CAREER 

The Wright brothers formed a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes on November 24, 1909.

Wilbur died from typhoid fever in 1912 after a bout of food poisoning, an event Orville never completely recovered from. Orville barely survived the dish of Boston seafood which had brought on the food poisoning.

After Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912 Orville devoted himself to research in his Dayton mansion and was rarely seen in public. He sold his interests in the airplane company in 1915.

The Wright brothers' status as inventors of the airplane was subject to counter-claims by various parties. After Wilbur's death, Orville spent a lot of time on the patent suits involved.

In May 1896, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley had successfully flown an unmanned steam-powered fixed-wing model aircraft. For years, Orville argued with officials of the Smithsonian Institute over whether the Wrights or Langley had built the first plane. In 1942 the Smithsonian officials made a public apology to Orville.

Howard Hughes gave Orville Wright his last flight on a Lockheed Constellation. Orville said the wingspan on the Constellation was longer than their first flight.

PERSONAL LIFE 

Both Orville and Wilbur hated making speeches. One day at a luncheon attended by a number of inventors, Wilbur was called on by the toastmaster "There must be some mistake" said Wilbur " Orville is the one who does the talking" The toastmaster turned to him. Orville stood up and announced "Wilbur just made the speech."

Wright brothers at the Belmont Park Aviation Meet in 1910 near New York

Orville Wright was a snazzy socked dandy.

Sweet toothed Orville Wright eschewed alcohol.

Orville Wright had an artistic bent and also played the mandolin.

Neither Orville nor his brother Wilbur ever married.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH 

Orville Wright was still alive when the sound barrier was broken in 1947 by Chuck Yeager in his Bell X-1 airplane.

Orville Wright died from a heart attack while fixing the doorbell to his home in Oakwood, Ohio on January 30, 1948. Mahatma Gandhi died the same day.

Orville Wright, 1928

Orville Wright's home in Dayton has been preserved by the city. The airfield where they made experimental flights in Dayton is now part of the Wright-Patterson Airforce base.

Ohio has license plates reading "Birthplace of Aviation" and North Carolina reads "First in Flight" because the two states both claim the Wright Brothers as their own. The Wrights performed the first controlled, powered flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C. but built their plane in Ohio.

Neil Armstrong took the wood from the propeller of the Wright Brothers' first plane to the moon.

Source PBS

Spitfire

The Submarine Spitfire fighter aircraft was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The British single-seat plane was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft.

Spitfires were supplied to allies such as France and Russia. Others later ended up in service as far afield as Indonesia, Israel and Thailand. 

The Spitfire was almost christened the Shrew. Sir Robert McLean, boss of manufacturers Vickers-Armstrong, eventually used his daughter Ann's nickname. Ann McLean, who played a major role in its development, was known as a "right little spitfire."

Staffordshire-born engineer Reginald "R.J. "Mitchell (1895-1937) was chief designer of the Spitfire, but didn't live to see the plane's success. Diagnosed with cancer, he worked until weeks before his death.

Spitfire LF Mk IX, MH434  Bryan Fury75 at French Wikipedia

The Spitfire was built in greater numbers than any other British aircraft during the Second World War and was the only fighter which remained in production throughout the conflict.

The first plane shot down by a Spitfire was an RAF Hurricane in 1939 in a friendly fire incident known as the Battle of Barking Creek.

The plane was so feared by the Luftwaffe that many Nazi crews claimed to have been shot down by one when they had really been downed by the slower, more numerous, Hurricane.

When Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring asked his flying ace Adolf Galland what he needed to win the Battle of Britain, he replied: "A squadron of Spitfires."

After D-Day, flying ace Johnnie Johnson organised a supply run of Spitfires with barrels of beer slung under each wing to bring the "necessities of life" to pilots on front-line airfields in Normandy.

Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk XIIs of 41 Squadron in April 1944

The sensational disclosure was made in the House of Commons on March 21, 1945 that at one time during the war Britain had only one drop hammer capable of forging the crankshaft of a Spitfire engine. MPs had guessed there were times when our resources were thin during the dark days, but probably had not thought we were as short as this.

Spitfires were occasionally painted pink to blend in with the sunset and sunrise when used for low-level reconnaissance flights.

Silk Scarves were obligatory for Spitfire pilots because constant turns of the head to look out for enemy fighters quickly caused a rash when wearing a cotton shirt

Alex Henshaw, MBE (7 November 1912 – 24 February 2007) was a test pilot for Vickers Armstrong during the Second World War. Between 1940 and 1946, Henshaw flew a total of 2,360 Spitfires and Seafires, more than 10% of total production.

In all, 20,351 Spitfires were produced for the RAF during the Second World War, in 24 different versions, at a cost of around £12,600 each.

There are 54 Spitfires in airworthy condition worldwide, although many air museums have examples on static display,

Experts say those Spitfires found in Myanmar would be worth at least £1million each to collectors nowadays, such is the rarity of the much-loved aircraft.

Source Daily Mail

Pilot

FAMOUS PILOTS IN HISTORY

While test piloting a new French-built Wright biplane on September 7, 1909, Eugene Lefebvre crashed at Juvisy, France when his controls jammed. Lefebvre died, becoming the first pilot in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.

Eugène Lefebvre in 1909

John Moore-Brabazon learned to fly in 1908 in France in a Voisin biplane. He became the first resident Englishman to make an officially recognized aeroplane flight in England on May 2, 1909, at Shellbeach on the Isle of Sheppey with flights of 450 ft, 600 ft, and 1500 ft.

On March 8, 1910, Moore-Brabazon became the first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom and was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1; his car also bore the number-plate FLY 1.

Only four months later, his friend Charles Rolls was killed in a flying accident and Moore-Brabazon's wife persuaded him to give up flying.

John Moore-Brabazon in his Voisin Bird of Passage in 1909

French aviatrix Baroness Raymonde de Laroche was the first woman to receive a pilot's license. She received ticket No. 36 on March 8, 1910.

In 1911, Harriet Quimby earned the first US pilot's license issued to a woman. A magazine writer, she got ticket No. 37, making her the second licensed female pilot in the world.

Less than a year later, Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. She flew from Dover, England and landed at Hardelot, France, in a Blériot monoplane on April 16, 1912. She stated that her trip was splendid in spite of fog. Her accomplishment received little media attention, however, as the sinking of the RMS Titanic the day before consumed the interest of the public and filled newspapers.

Harriet Quimby

Quimby continued piloting aircraft until she was killed in a flying accident over Dorchester Bay during a Harvard-Boston aviation meet on July 1, 1912. She was tossed from her airplane after it unexpectedly pitched forward.

The first pilots recruited by the British military in 1911, the Air Battalion Royal Engineers (which evolved into the RAF), had to weigh a maximum of 161 lb (11st 7lb), be under 30, a good sailor and map reader — and already have earned a Royal Aero Club certificate from a private flying school.

On April 26, 1912, Fesa Evrensev, a young Turkish military pilot, took his inaugural flight over Turkish skies. Years later, the Turkish Airline Pilots Association (TALPA) established April 26th as "Pilots' Day" in Turkey to commemorate this historic event and celebrate the role of pilots. In 2013, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) recognized the significance of this date and decided to adopt April 26th as World Pilots' Day, honoring pilots worldwide.

During World War I German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down another plane in aerial combat in 1915.

The Victoria Cross medal awarded to legendary World War I fighter pilot Major Edward Mannock, was auctioned, along with his Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order, for £132,000 in 1992. Mannock, who notched up 73 kills, was awarded more medals for bravery than any other World War I pilot — in spite of less than perfect eyesight.

Manfred von Richthofen, or the Red Baron — the ‘ace of aces’ World War I German fighter pilot credited with 80 Allied kills — was shot during an air battle over the Somme in northern France by a bullet fired from the ground on April 21, 1918. He managed to land his trademark red triplane, but died of the single wound. Von Richthofen's last word, to an Australian sergeant on the battlefield, was: "Kaputt."

Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.

After he was shot down and killed, the Red Baron was given full military honors by the Allies, including a full military funeral with wreaths near Amiens, a 25-man firing party, a dozen reporters and a cinematographer present.

Bessie Coleman was the first woman of African-American descent, and also the first of Native-American descent, to hold a pilot license. Because African Americans, Native Americans, and women had no flight training opportunities in the United States, she saved up money and obtained sponsorships to go to France for flight school. Coleman earned her license from France's well-known Caudron Brother's School of Aviation in just several months getting her pilot license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921

Coleman became a high profile pilot in notoriously dangerous air shows in the United States. Popularly known as Queen Bess and Brave Bessie, Coleman died in a plane crash in 1926 while testing a new aircraft.

Amy Johnson was a pioneering English aviator, who flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s. This included becoming the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia.  Flying G-AAAH, the first of two aircraft she named "Jason", she left Croydon in South East England, on May 5, 1930 and crash landed in Darwin, Northern Territory, on May 24, 1930 after flying 11,000 miles (18,000 km).

Tom Dobney had just turned 15 when, flying solo in a Tiger Moth in 1941, he became the youngest RAF pilot in World War II. Dared by a fellow pupil at Nuneaton Grammar, he’d falsified his birth certificate to enlist. Dobney was discharged when his parents found out, but joined up again when he turned 18.

Germany’s top fighter ace of World War II was Erich Hartmann, nicknamed "The Black Devil", who shot down 352 allied aircraft, almost all Russian. He crash-landed his aircraft 14 times. After the war Hartmann spent ten years in a Russian prison before being freed.

Erich Hartmann

In 1927, a 12-year-old boy rode along with stunt pilot Doug Davis, throwing Baby Ruth candy bars down over a racetrack as part of a promotion. The boy loved the experience, and would grow up to be Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

24-year-old Chuck Yeager was a veteran Second World War pilot who in 1947, became the first person to break the sound barrier when he piloted the Bell X-1 rocket research aircraft to a level-flight speed of 670 mph.

Chuck Yeager broke two of his ribs two nights before one of his test flights. Worried an injury would have him removed, he told almost no one and sneaked a broom handle into the plane to help him seal the hatch. He then proceeded to become the first human being to break the sound barrier.

Long before creating Star Trek, 26-year-old Gene Roddenberry was a co-pilot aboard a Pan Am plane in 1947 that crashed in the Syrian Desert. With several broken ribs, he helped save 22 people and eventually led them to safety.

Emily Howell Warner was the first female commercial airline pilot in the US. On February 6, 1973, Howell Warner served for the first time as second officer on a Frontier Airlines Boeing 737. The flight departed from Denver's Stapleton Airport for Las Vegas.

This marked an opening for American women in one of the last sex-segregated occupations in the civilian aviation industry. When Howell Warner was hired there were no other women working as pilots for the major commercial airlines. By 1978, there were about 300 female commercial pilots in the United States.

In 1976 Howell Warner was the first woman to become a US airline captain.

The singer-songwriter John Denver had a great passion for flying. He had built his own experimental aircraft, a Long-EZ, in the early 1980s. On October 12, 1997, Denver took his Long-EZ up for a flight from his home in Aspen, Colorado. He was flying alone, and he was planning to fly to Pacific Grove, California, to visit his wife and children. However, Denver's plane crashed shortly after takeoff. He was killed in the crash.

The NTSB investigation determined that the crash was caused by pilot error. Denver had failed to extend the aircraft's landing gear, and he had also failed to follow the proper takeoff procedures. The NTSB also found that Denver was not qualified to fly the Long-EZ. The FAA had revoked his flight status in 1992 for failing to maintain sobriety. Denver had been suffering from depression and anxiety, and he had been abusing prescription drugs.

The Dutch king King Willem-Alexander secretly piloted KLM’s fleet of commercial Fokker 70 planes as a "relaxing hobby" for 21 years before "retiring" in 2017. He would welcome passengers "on behalf of the captain and crew" in order avoid announcing his name.

FUN PILOT FACTS

The actor Morgan Freeman turned down a drama scholarship because he dreamed of being an Air Force fighter pilot. He spent four years as a tracking radar repairman. At age 65, he finally earned his private pilot license.

John Travolta has been a fully licensed pilot since age 22. He owns several planes including a Boeing 707 and even has a taxiway leading straight to his door in Florida. He says his acting career has funded his passion for aviation.

Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor's brother is a pilot in the RAF, and his callsign is "Obi-Two."

Gary Barnhill was a fighter pilot who was rescued in Vietnam, but never had a chance to thank the helicopter pilot who rescued him. (Or even knew who it was). Years later as a co-pilot for TWA, his flight engineer turned out to be his rescuer.

English is the universal "language of the skies". All pilots must learn and speak English, regardless of their origin.

There is an FAA regulation called the 'Sterile Cockpit Rule', requiring flight crews to only discuss topics related to the flight below 10,000 feet.

According to the Geneva convention, an ejected pilot in the air is not a combatant and therefore attacking him is a war crime.

In Saudi Arabia women are allowed to fly aircraft, though they must be chauffeured to the airport because it's illegal for them to drive a car.

Around 56 per cent of British airline pilots admit to having fallen asleep on the job, and 29 per cent say they've woken up to find their co-pilot asleep.

Most pilots aren't allowed to have a beard because of the shape of an oxygen mask.

Most airlines have a rule stating that pilots and copilots cannot eat the same meal to avoid food poisoning.

Source Daily Mail

Parachute

HISTORY

The oldest parachute design appears in an anonymous manuscript from 1470s Renaissance, showing a free-hanging man clutching a cross bar frame attached to a conical canopy.

The oldest known depiction of a parachute, by an anonymous author (Italy, 1470s).

A decade later, a more sophisticated parachute was sketched by Leonardo da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus. Leonardo's canopy was held open by a square wooden frame, which alters the shape of the parachute from conical to pyramidal. Leonardo said of it "If a man has a tent 12 braccia wide and 12 high covered with cloth, he can throw himself down from any great height without hurting himself."

The feasibility of Leonardo's parachute design was successfully tested in 2000 by Briton Adrian Nicholas and again in 2008 by Luigi Cani.

The modern parachute was invented in the late 18th century by Louis-Sébastien Lenormand. He used his 14-foot contraption with a rigid wooden frame to make the first recorded public parachute jump, when he leaped from the tower of the Montpellier observatory, in France, on December 26, 1783.

Among the crowd that witnessed the feat was ballooning pioneer Joseph Montgolfier. Lenormand's intended use for the parachute was to help entrapped occupants of a burning building to escape unharmed.

Lenormand jumps from the tower of the Montpellier observatory,  Wikipedia

Two years later, in 1785, Lenormand coined the word "parachute" from the Latin prefix para- ‎(“protection against”) (as in parasol) and the French word chute ‎(“fall”).

Also in 1785, balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard (1753-1809) demonstrated the parachute as a means of safely disembarking from a hot-air balloon. Blanchard's first parachute demonstrations were conducted with a dog as the passenger.

Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first jump from a balloon with a frameless parachute on October 22, 1797. He was dropped from about 1,000 meters (3,200 feet) over Monceau Park in Paris in a 23-ft.-diameter parachute made of white canvas with a basket attached. Garnerin was airsick on the way down as his invention lacked the hole in the top to steady it.

First use of a frameless parachute, by André Garnerin in 1797. Wikipedia

When Jean Genevieve Garnerin jumped from a hot air balloon with a parachute on October 12, 1799, she became the first ever female parachutist.

Robert Cocking was a British watercolour artist who tried to invent an improved parachute design. He was so convinced of his invention that on July 24, 1837, he tested it himself, hanging below a balloon and releasing the parachute in the height of 5,000 ft (1,525 metres). He was the first person who died in a parachute accident.

In 1911, 54-year-old career parachutist Grant Morton made the first parachute jump from an airplane, a Wright Model B piloted by Phil Parmalee, at Venice Beach, California. Morton's device was of the "throw-out" type where he held the parachute in his arms as he left the aircraft.

An article in Air and Space Magazine published on February 29, 2012 made a claim that U.S. Army Captain Albert Berry of the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis was the first to jump from a powered airplane on March 1, 1912 and that Morton made his on April 28, 1912 which would certainly give credit to Berry. Captain Albert Berry jumped from an altitude of 1,500 feet at a speed of 50 mph.

Parachutes at the dawn of the aviation age were bulky and, inconveniently, had to be pre-opened. Among those trying to improve upon their design was French tailor Franz Reichelt. In 1911 a successful test took place with a dummy at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Picture published in a Dutch magazine De Prins der Geïllustreerde Bladen

Reichelt had no evidence that his parachute would work with a real person when he jumped from the Eiffel Tower on February 4, 1912  before a crowd of spectators and reporters. The chute failed to open, and he plummeted to his death.

Mrs Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick became the first woman parachutist to jump from an aircraft on June 21, 1913. She jumped from a home-made plane 1,000ft over Los Angeles. Broadwick deployed her chute manually, thus becoming the first person to jump free-fall.

Štefan Banič from Smolenice, Slovakia, patented a parachute with an umbrella-like design in 1913, after seeing a plane crash the previous year. He is said to have tested it by jumping off a tower block in Washington DC. Banič sold (or donated) the patent to the United States military.

The experience with parachutes during the war highlighted the need to develop a design that could be reliably used to exit a disabled airplane. After the war, Major Edward L. Hoffman of the United States Army led an effort to develop an improved parachute. Leslie Irvin of the United States made the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump in 1919 using the new kind of self-contained parachute. The Type-A parachute was put into production and over time saved a number of lives.

In 1925, Charles Lindbergh was hired by the Robertson Aircraft Corporation (RAC) for whom he served as chief pilot for the Air Mail Route #2 between St. Louis and Chicago. Because of his reckless flying, Lindbergh was forced to parachute out from crashes.

In the 1940s the Idaho Fish and Game Dept relocated beavers into the wilderness by dropping them out of airplanes with parachutes.

Joseph Kittinger parachuted from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,330 m) in 1960, setting records for high-altitude jump, free-fall height, and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft.

Jimi Hendrix spent a year as part of the United States Paratrooper Division. He was honorably discharged after breaking his ankle during a parachute jump.

Only three American people were qualified to hand-pack the parachutes for Apollo 15. Their expertise was so vital, they were not allowed to ride in the same motor vehicle together for fear that a single auto accident could cripple the space program.

When Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachuted off a Houston skyscraper in 1981, they became the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).

FUN PARACHUTE FACTS

Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon. The material was changed after silk became scarce during World War II.

UK charity parachute jumpers injure themselves so frequently that, for every £1 they raise for charity, they cost the public health system £13.75.

The Caterpillar Club consists solely of people who have jumped out of a failing airplane and survived by deploying their parachute. The club was founded by Leslie Irvin, who survived ejecting out of his plane in 1919, and every member is sent a gold caterpillar pin with amethyst eyes.

One of the reasons why parachutes are not provided to passengers in a commercial airplane is that an airplane usually flies so high that people jumping out of the airplane would pass out due to lack of breathable oxygen so high up there.

If a pilot ejects above 16,400 feet (5000 metres) sensors in the seat will cause it to free-fall until the air is more breathable, after which the parachute will automatically deploy.

In Florida it is illegal for single, divorced, or widowed women to parachute on Sunday afternoons.

Kamikaze

 'Kamikaze' is a Japanese word meaning 'divine wind.' it refers to the providential typhoons in 1274 and 1281, which baled Mongolian invasion fleets under Kublai Khan. During World War II, it was applied to the suicide aircraft attacks under Vice Admiral Onishi in the Pacific between October 1944 and January 1945.

The first kamikaze attack took place on October 21, 1944 .A Japanese fighter plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacked HMAS Australia off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.

There were 355 kamikaze pilots in the first wave of Japanese forces attacking the American fleet off Okinawa in April 1945, at the end of World War II.

Around 3,860 kamikaze pilots gave their lives in attacks when their bomb-loaded fighters crashed into Allied naval vessels. It is estimated that about 19% of kamikaze attacks managed to hit a ship.

The missions of Kamikaze pilots were often scrapped before the final planned attack because of turbulence, bad weather, or low visibility.

"Kamikaze pilots only had enough fuel for one-way missions" is actually a myth.

Japanese Kamikaze pilots were allowed to return if they didn't find a suitable target. One pilot was shot after his ninth return.

On paper, Kamikaze pilots were volunteers, but this isn't completely true. Pilots were asked to put their hand up in a big group if they didn't want to volunteer. Amid peer pressure, hardly anyone was able to say no to the mission.

Motoharu Okamura, the Japanese officer who proposed the use of Kamikaze pilots during World War II shot himself in the face post-war as penance for sending so many young men to their deaths

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, "kamikaze" is a "member of a Japanese air attack corps in World War II assigned to make a suicidal crash on a target (as a ship)." Since World War II, the word has been used to describe any person willing to sacrifice their own life to carry out an act of violence upon another.

  St Lo attacked by kamikazes, October 25, 1944

                                 
The Norwegian band A-Ha had a 1988 UK Top 40 hit with "The Blood That Moves the Body," which was about the Japanese kamikaze attacks.

Originally written for Songfacts.com

Jet aircraft

24-year-old RAF fighter pilot Frank Whittle first patented a new kind of aircraft - the turbojet - in 1930, but his new design was so radical that the military wouldn't fund it, nor would any manufacturers,

Seven years later he found a few private backers and on April 12, 1937 Whittle ground-tested the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Thomson-Houston factory, Rugby, England.

The German Hans von Ohain developed the concept independently. He wrote in February 1936 to aircraft designer Ernst Heinkel, telling him of the design and its possibilities.

The first turbojet aircraft to fly was the Heinkel He 178 V1, first prototype of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, on August 27, 1939 in Rostock, Germany.

He 178 replica at Rostock-Laage Airport

Britain's first jet-propelled aircraft, the Gloster-Whittle E28/39, took to the air for the first time on May 15, 1941, powered by Sir Frank Whittle's turbojet. The 17-minute test flight took place at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, England.

The Gloster E.28/39, the first British aircraft to fly with a turbojet engine

The first operational jet fighter was the Messerschmitt Me 262,  made by Germany during late World War II. It was the fastest conventional aircraft of the war and completed its first flight on July 18, 1942.

Messerschmitt Me 262A at the National Museum of the United States Air Force

The Gloster Meteor, the first operational jet fighter for the Allied Powers, made its maiden flight on March 5, 1943. Designed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Gloster Aircraft Company, the plane was powered by two jet engines and was capable of reaching speeds of up to 600 miles per hour (970 kms per hours). The Gloster Meteor saw limited use during World War II, but it played an important role in the development of jet aircraft technology.

Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at its Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, their Comet 1 prototype made its maiden flight on July 27, 1949 out of Hatfield Aerodrome. The flight lasted 31 minutes.

BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) operated the first commercial jet service with the de Havilland Comet jetliner. It made its maiden flight with fare-paying passengers and inaugurated scheduled service from London to Johannesburg on May 2, 1952.

The Comet was a hit with passengers as flights were about 50 percent faster than on advanced piston-engined aircraft such as the Douglas DC-6 (490 mph for the Comet compared to the DC-6's 315 mph), and a faster rate of climb further cut flight times.

AC Comet 1 G-ALYX (Yoke X-Ray) at London Heathrow Airport in 1953 prior to a scheduled flight

The Boeing 707 entered service in 1958. Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from Idlewild Airport, New York to Le Bourget, Paris on October 26, 1958. It came to dominate the market for civilian airliners

On April 26, 1975, test pilot Tim Ferguson landed a Jaguar fighter jet aircraft on the M55 motorway in Lancashire, England, as part of a series of trials to demonstrate the aircraft's ability to take off and land on short, unprepared runways. The trials were conducted in preparation for the possibility of a conflict with the Soviet Union, in which major airfields might be damaged or destroyed. 

The landing of the Jaguar on the M55 was a major news story and attracted a large crowd of spectators. The landing was also filmed for a documentary about the Jaguar aircraft. The trials were a success and demonstrated the Jaguar's ability to operate from short, unprepared runways. This capability proved to be invaluable in the Falklands War, when Jaguar aircraft were used to attack Argentine positions from improvised airstrips.

The American SR-71 Blackbird spy plane is the fastest manned jet that has ever flown, setting a world speed record of 2,193.13 mph in 1976.

During the Cold War, bears were shot out of ejector seats in supersonic jets for testing.

Micheal Dorn, Worf from Star Trek, is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. He once owned and flew a F-86 Sabre fighter jet.

If you're seated in the rear of a modern jumbo jet, the walk to your seat is longer than the Wright Brothers' 120 ft first flight.