The Inventions That Changed History (Paperback) | Released: 17 Dec 2018

The airplane is an invention in history that will always be remembered as being an important advancement in technology. Nearly 107 years ago, two famous brothers known as Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the airplane. Before the first flight, model airplanes had been built and studied and then a basic construction of a prototype took place. The Wright brothers studied these models, and in 1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, completed the first four sustained flights with a powered controlled airplane, which had never been accomplished before. They had opened a new view into what can be accomplished from their discovery and invention of flight. Airplanes would allow people to travel great distances, people would begin to improve designs of prototypes, and airplanes would even bring warfare to the next level.In 1903, the airplane was invented to prove a point and achieve a goal the Wright brothers had: the ability to fly. They never thought about the possibilities that would be born from this invention. The first look at the use of airplanes was during the years of 1914-1918, World War I (WWI), only ten years after the first flight of a basic biplane design (Ilan, n. d. para. 1). Other than the desire for higher speed, higher altitude, greater maneuverability drive during WWI, there were dramatic improvements in aerodynamics, structures, and control and propulsion system design. This was the first time when airplanes were used for warfare. Even before planes were used for war purposes, they were used as aerial scouts, which are planes that spy on the enemy from the sky (Ilan, n. d. para. 4). On October 14, 1914 a French scout mounted a rifle to a spy plane, thus creating a plane classification known as the fighter warplane (Ilan, n. d. para. 4). Next, rifles were mounted onto airplanes and hand grenades were dropped from the plane. Soon, three major roles were defined for aircraft during the First World War: reconnaissance, bombing, and fighting. Promptly, an aircraft was designed for each need: reconnaissance planes some armed for defense; fighter planes, exclusively designed for shooting down other planes; and bombers carried more immense loads of explosives. Aircraft in WWI showed what could happen, although air power proved inconsequential and had no real affect on the outcome of the war, but did spark a new interest in technology and science.