Brief history of aeronautics. Balloon From the history of aeronautics questions

In 1783, in the small town of Annonay in France, the brothers Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier designed the first hot air balloon in France, called the hot air balloon in honor of their creators. The brothers were rich people, owned a paper factory, studied science and put their knowledge into practice.

Once, while watching the passing clouds in the sky, they cut out a large ball from the canvas and tried to fill it with hot steam. But the steam quickly cooled down, turned into drops of water on the matter, the ball became heavy and did not rise into the air.

Joseph knew about the discovery of hydrogen by the English scientist Henry Cavendish, a gas that was not only combustible, but also fourteen times lighter than air.

The brothers bought hydrogen, but this time the ball did not rise either - the gas quickly seeped through the shell fabric. Using paper instead of cloth also did not lead to success.

One winter evening, elder brother Joseph saw his wife, leaning over the fireplace, lift her skirt high. Joseph's explanation interested him. She claimed that the smoke was to blame, which put her in an awkward situation.

It dawned on Montgolfier that he must fill the balloon with smoke. The inventor used cloth and paper, impregnating them with a solution of alum.

The inhabitants of the city learned about the hobby of the brothers and asked to show the city the subject of their research.

Aeronautics is the first step into the sky.

The brothers went to meet the residents and appointed June 5, 1783 the start of the balloon. They have worked very hard to prepare for this date. They made a huge ball of fabric glued with paper, in the middle they reinforced the ball with a fabric belt, to which ropes were attached in order to hold the balloon while it was filling with smoke.

A wooden frame was attached to the bottom of the ball, through which they planned to run hot air. As a result, the ball weighed more than 200 kg and was as high as a three-story house.

On the appointed day, when the inhabitants of the city gathered in the square, the brothers lit a fire. The assistants took hold of the ropes, and the brothers placed the bottom of the ball over the fire. Filled with hot air, the balloon grew before our eyes, and the inhabitants of Annone saw the inscription on the shell of the balloon “AD Astra”, which means “To the stars” in Latin. When the 8 people holding the balloon let go of the ropes, the balloon soared into the sky. The rejoicing of the inhabitants of the city knew no bounds, and the Montgolfier brothers rejoiced at their success. And although the balloon flew no more than a kilometer, this small French town took pride of place in the history of aeronautics.

The news of the flying balloon reached the King of France, Louis XVI, who invited the brothers to Paris. At this time, the Academy of Sciences, on behalf of the king, turned to the famous scientist, professor of the Conservatory of Sciences and Crafts, physicist Jacques Charles to explain the invention of the hot air balloon. But he used a ball filled with hydrogen in his experiments. To create it, together with the Robert brothers, silk and a rubber solution were used, which made it possible to make a rubberized fabric.

In August 1783, in Paris, Charles filled a balloon with hydrogen and launched it into the sky. The balloon rapidly gained altitude, but burst in the clouds. Jacques realized that atmospheric pressure was to blame and waited for the Montgolfier brothers to arrive in Paris to find out how they managed to solve this problem.

The Montgolfier brothers showed their balloon to the Academy of Sciences in the autumn of 1783. The ball was designed by the younger brother Etienne in the shape of a barrel, painted with monograms over twenty meters high. The demonstration aroused such enthusiasm that it was decided to repeat it in the presence of the king. By this time the balloon had fallen into disrepair, the shell of the balloon was washed away by rain. The brothers designed the new ball, working day and night to meet the deadline.

On September 19, 1783, a balloon was launched at Versailles, carrying a ram, a duck and a rooster. The balloon flew four kilometers and landed successfully. The king honored the brothers with awards. From that moment on, all balloons that use smoke as lift began to be called hot air balloons.

The Montgolfier brothers did not stop there, they dreamed of flying themselves in a hot air balloon. They made a new balloon, more than twenty-two meters high and fifteen meters in diameter. At the bottom of the ball was a gallery for two people with a hearth in the middle for burning wet straw. King Louis XVI was against the participation of the brothers in a risky project and offered to fly in a balloon to two criminals sentenced to death.

Pilatre de Rozier, who took an active part in the construction of the balloon, was against this decision of the king. He wanted to remain in the history of aeronautics himself, his candidacy was approved. The Marquis d'Arland, a bright fan of aeronautics, became the co-pilot of the balloon.

On November 21, 1783, the balloon took off, flying over Paris for twenty-three minutes, rising to a height of nine hundred meters.

All people who make their first flight on a balloon are traditionally presented with count titles. This tradition dates back to the moment when the Montgolfier brothers first took a ride in a hot air balloon to King Louis XVI. The king was so delighted with the flight that he gave the balloonists the land over which they flew. After that, he clarified: "Yours, as long as you fly over them."

Since that time, aeronauts from all over the world consecrate everyone who flew in a balloon with earth, fire and water and donate those lands where the balloon landed.

Aeronautics - whoever tried it at least once will remember it forever ...

From which the air was pumped out; he passed off this device as a real airship. Only when the Montgolfier brothers arranged a balloon and when the first such balloon, filled with heated air, rose on June 5, 1783, in Annone, and the second, arranged by Professor Charles and filled with hydrogen, rose on August 27, 1783, opened the way to real aeronautics.

Aerostat Montgolfier

Charles balloon

Nadar managed to take a foggy photograph from the battlefield on a balloon, but Godard could not report anything significant. During the American War, from to 1900, the army of the northern states very often used tied or attached balls (a é rostats ballons captifs) to keep an eye on the position of the enemy in the vast forests where the battle was fought and on the outcome of the battle. Balls of this kind are held on a leash in the Giffard way with a very strong rope. Rising, the balloon itself develops a rope. The twisting of the rope, that is, the lowering of the ball, which occurs without releasing gas, is carried out using a steam engine. Due to the large weight and large number of passengers, the lifting force, and therefore the size of the ball, must be very large; for example, the volume of Giffard's "ballon captif" in London in the city and in Paris in 1878-1879 reached 12,000 cubic meters. m. The boat of the balloon, like an omnibus, accommodated 32 people; the rope was 650 m long and weighed about 3000 kg. The arena arranged for this ball had a diameter of 175 meters and was surrounded by a wall covered with canvas.

Giffard tethered balloon

Part of the used balloons perished (they suffered greatly from the fire of long-range weapons and were good only in calm weather), but still the results were very good; and after the end of the war of 1870-1871. military engineers of all countries have already tested balloons for suitability for military purposes. It was proposed to give signals to the troops from balloons. The use of the telephone for aerial reconnaissance was also tested in the Russian army, with satisfactory results: the tied balloon was connected to the headquarters or to the observation detachment by telephone, so that the observer on the balloon could continuously report on all the movements of the enemy detachments.

cigar-shaped balloon

Antique airship Giffard (1852) - combustible, soft, without air compartments, with variable volume, with a steam engine, propeller, rudders and safety valve. Its advantage is that the shell with gas, freely expanding and contracting, retains its lifting force unchanged at "any height and with any change in temperature and pressure of the atmosphere. (It is necessary that outside and inside the airship the temperature and pressure be the same or approximately are equal, the temperature difference must be constant. The first condition is observed until the balloon is inflated to failure. The temperature difference then increases, then decreases. Under the action of the sun, the difference increases, and when the sun hides behind the clouds, this difference decreases. Hence the first disadvantage of such a soft airship , which consists in the fact that, depending on the weather, the airship either falls or rushes into the sky.

(Airship, stratoplane and starship as three stages of the greatest achievements of the USSR)

Airship Dupuy de Loma

Dupuy de Lom built his oval ball, 36 m long and with a capacity of 3564 m³. A propeller was attached to the boat, 6 m wide and 3 meters long, consisting of 4 wings, each about 1 meter wide. The wings were covered with silk taffeta. The screw made 21 revolutions per minute and was driven by 4 people. At this propeller speed, the ball did independently 2.22 meters per second. If the screw was rotated by 8 people, its average speed reached 28 - 32 revolutions, and the ball moved at a speed of 2.28 m per second. In addition, a triangular sail, 5 meters high, was placed between the boat and the ball of the balloon, which played the role of a rudder. This sail, with the help of a mast, fixed at a fixed point of support, could be installed in any position. A double rope net surrounded this entire airship. The trial lift, which took place on February 2, 1872, from the Fort-nave in Vincennes was very favorable for the inventor. The rudder worked despite the wind. The ball could travel an average of 10 km/h. The test gave the predicted result that it is possible to move against the wind, the speed of which is less than the speed of the balloon. If the wind was stronger than the independent movement of the ball, the rudder was inactive. Engineer Gaenlein in Mainz built in 1872 a balloon in the form of an elongated body of rotation, with pointed ends, with a 4-wing propeller and a rudder, but instead of human power, he used a Lenoar gas machine of 3.6 horsepower, weighing 233 kg.

Airship Henlein

This balloon also had a small compensation ball of the Meunier system inside. In order to soften and reduce the shock when the ball is lowered to the ground, a special device was placed at the bottom of the rook. The speed of the Gaenlein balloon, built at the expense of the capitalists, during the experiments in Brunn, reached a maximum value of about 5 meters per second. Rufus Porter in New York and Marriott in San Francisco also made attempts to arrange a balloon that could be controlled. Captain Templer in England wanted to achieve the ability to travel in any direction, exploring the air currents at different heights (a similar suggestion was made by the Montgolfiers), in order to use them in the desired direction. Owing to the extremely frequent and rapid changes in these currents, it has proved extremely difficult to investigate and utilize this side of the matter. All previous attempts to control the ball with the help of sails were rejected when it was found that the main condition for controlling the ball is its own movement. The rudder is inactive as soon as the wind picks up and carries the balloon with it at the same speed and in the same direction with the flow of air; therefore the sail of the boat, which should have given direction, is inactive under the influence of the current of air. The task of aeronautics is to achieve control of the ball by means of special air wings, a propeller and a movable rudder.

The question of aeronautics, if we admit the possibility of controlling a balloon, depends and is connected entirely with the invention of a special engine suitable for aeronautics, possibly light and strong. Until then, apart from the hand-rotated propeller used by Dupuy de Lome, steam or gas engines were used, which turned out to be too heavy and dangerous in terms of fire. With the invention of accumulators, these reservoirs of electrical energy, attempts were immediately made to use electric motors (dynamos), which are incomparably lighter and safer than steam and gas engines.

Aeronautics in Russia in the 19th century. made great strides. In addition to the military aeronautical detachment on the Volkovo field, where flights were made every year and various new experiments were made, a new VII aeronautical department was formed at the Technical Society, which consisted of many members. Russian aeronauts provided significant services to aeronautics, such as Kozlov, Mikhail Rykachev, Alexander Kovanko and others. In the summer () the balloons of the VII department of the Society were raised.

Zeppelin

1900. The experimental airship "LZ 1" (LZ stood for "Luftschiff Zeppelin") had a length of 128 m, two engines were installed on it Daimler with a capacity of 14.2 liters. With. (10.6 kV) and balanced by moving the weight between its two gondolas.

airship "LZ 4"

From 1898 to 1905, Santos-Dumont built and flew 11 airships. Some of them were equipped with a motor, others were driven by pedals. In order to win the German prize, Santos-Dumont decided to build a large airship, which was given the number 5.

For many years, one of the unattainable desires of people was the ability to fly, or at least take to the air. What inventions have not been invented to make this happen. Once, the fact that objects of small weight can rise when exposed to hot air was recorded, and this became the impetus for the development of aeronautics.

It is believed that the world's first hot air balloon was created in 1783. How did it happen? History sends us back to the distant XVI-XVII centuries. It was then that the prototypes of the first balls appeared, which could not show themselves in practice. In parallel, in 1766, the chemist Henry Cavendish was the first to detail the properties of a gas such as hydrogen, which was used in his work with soap bubbles by the Italian physicist Tiberio Cavallo. He filled the bubbles with this gas, and they quickly soared into the air, since hydrogen is 14 times lighter than air. This is how the main two lift forces used in balloon flights today appeared - hydrogen and hot air.

These discoveries did not solve all the problems of flight. To create a balloon, a special material was required that would not be too heavy and would also be able to hold the gas inside. Scientists-inventors solved this problem in different ways. Moreover, several designers competed for the championship of discoveries at once, the main of them are the brothers Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, as well as the famous professor Jacques Alexander Charles from France.

The Montgolfier brothers did not have special knowledge about the properties and characteristics of various gases, but they had a great desire for discovery. At first they experimented with smoke and steam. There were attempts to use hydrogen, but they were affected by the problem of the lack of a special fabric that would not allow this gas to pass through. Also, its cost was quite expensive, and Montgolfier returned to experiments with hot air.

The first hot air balloon was created in 1782. The Montgolfier brothers made it, although it was small in size, only 1 cubic meter in volume. But still, it was already a real ball that rose to a height of more than 30 meters above the ground. Soon the experimenters made a second balloon. It was already much larger than its predecessor: with a volume of 600 cubic meters and a diameter of 11 meters, a brazier was placed under the ball. The fabric for the balloon was silk, pasted over with paper on the inside. The ceremonial launch of the balloon in the presence of a large audience was carried out on June 5, 1783, which was organized by the already famous Montgolfier brothers. With the help of hot air, the balloon was raised to a height of 2 thousand meters! This fact was even written to the Paris Academy. Since then, balloons that use hot air have been named after their inventors - hot air balloons.

Such achievements of Montgolfier spurred Jacques Alexandre Charles to intensify the development of his new invention - a balloon that uses hydrogen to rise. He had assistants - mechanics brothers Robert. They managed to make a silk ball impregnated with rubber, the diameter of which was 3.6 m. They filled it with hydrogen using a special hose with a valve. A special installation was also made for extracting gas, which was obtained as a result of chemical reactions when metal filings interacted with water and sulfuric acid. To prevent acid fumes from spoiling the shell of the ball, the resulting gas was purified with cold water.

The first hydrogen balloon was launched on August 27, 1783. It happened on the Champ de Mars. Before the eyes of two hundred thousand people, the balloon rose so high that it was no longer visible behind the clouds. After 1 km, the hydrogen began to expand, as a result of which the shell of the balloon burst, and the balloon fell to the ground in a village near Paris. But they did not know anything about such an important experiment, and the inventors did not have time to arrive, as the frightened residents tore the unusual ball to shreds. So a great invention worth 10,000 francs fell into disrepair. Since 1783, hydrogen balloons have been called charliers, in honor of Charles.

In addition, there are controlled balloons - airships.

In Peru, during an archaeological expedition, scientists found a drawing on the wall of one of the tombs. It depicted an apparatus in the form of a giant tetrahedral pyramid that hovered in the air, and at the bottom a basket was tied to it, in which there were people. The drawing was carefully measured and the approximate dimensions of the aircraft depicted on it were calculated. After that, the framework of the pyramid and the gondola were built, using materials that were commonly used by the Peruvian Indians for construction. After the apparatus was covered with material, a huge structure was obtained, having almost 10 m in height and up to 30 m at the base. A fire was lit under the pyramid, and after a while the pyramid rose into the sky and pulled the basket behind it!

The project of an aircraft lighter than air is known, which was proposed in 1670 by the priest Francesco de Lana-Terzi. The balloon was supposed to consist of a wooden boat, cables, four-copper hollow balls, from which the air is pumped out, sails and a hand oar. The inventor believed that balls of thin copper with a vacuum inside would lift the entire structure into the air. However, how to make such thin but strong spheres? So the project of Francesco de Lana-Terzi remained unrealized.

Supposedly the first successful balloon flight was made by a Jesuit priest, Bartolomeo Lorenzo de Gusmao. This solemn event took place in 1709 in the presence of royalty and nobility.

The balloon was a paper shell filled with heated air. The heated air came from an earthenware pot mounted on a pallet suspended from the bottom of the ball. Something was burning in the pot. The balloon quickly gained height.

In France, the first balloon filled with warm air was invented and flown in 1783 by the brothers Étienne and Joseph Montgolfier. By the name of the creators, such balloons are called "hot air balloons".

Modern hot air balloons are also balloons that rise due to heated air. The shell is sewn from heat-resistant panels, the main material is a synthetic fabric with a special coating that provides airtightness.
The balloon is equipped with a propane-butane burner block, which is designed to heat the air in the balloon shell, and a set of cylinders for fuel storage. In addition, there are barometric instruments and a fan on board to pre-purge cold air into the shell.
In 1988, a hot air balloon with a volume of 24,000 cubic meters was raised in Holland, its 50 passengers were accommodated in a comfortable two-deck basket.

Italian painter Guardi Francesca (1712 - 1793)
The rise of the balloon.

In 1766, the Englishman Henry Cavendish received "combustible air" - hydrogen. Professor Cavallo began to fill paper balls and soap bubbles with hydrogen and observe them floating in the air. And it took quite a bit of time for a balloon filled with hydrogen to rise into the sky.

In 1785, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffreys became the first people to fly across the English Channel in a hot air balloon. They started from the British city of Dover and landed in French Calais. In flight, they had problems - the balloon began to lose lift. First they dropped the ballast, then absolutely everything that was in the basket, then even their clothes ...

In 1804, in honor of the coronation of Napoleon, a solemn launch of balloons takes place. One of them descends on the tomb of Nero in Rome, which causes a huge scandal.

In September 1804, the famous chemist and physicist J.L. Gay-Lussac, on behalf of the Paris Academy of Sciences, made a scientific air journey alone, flying 160 miles. The flight lasted 6 hours. Gay-Lussac reached a height of about 7 miles.

On August 17, 1859, a hot air balloon took off from the US state of Indiana with an unusual cargo for that time - mail. Since then, this day has been considered the birthday of airmail. Thus letters were first sent by air.

In 1861, in the United States, the military for the first time transmitted a telegraph message from the balloon "Enterprise" to Earth.

Gradually, balloons began to be used as military equipment.
In 1849, during the struggle of Italy for independence, the Austrian troops organized with the help of small (volume 82 m 3) free balloons bombarding Venice with incendiary and explosive bombs.

In 1859, at the battle of Solferino, the French aeronaut F. Nadar reconnoitered the location of the Austrian troops from a tethered balloon, taking photographs of the enemy's positions.

Tethered balloons for reconnaissance and artillery fire correction were also used in the United States during the Civil War of 1861-65.

In the Franco-Prussian war of 1871, through free balloons, a connection was established between Paris surrounded by the Germans and the rest of France. For 4 months, 3 million letters and dispatches were transported on 65 balloons with a total weight of 16,675 kg and 150 passengers. However, the Prussian military began to use anti-aircraft guns to destroy flying balloons.

The Paris Communards used balloons to scatter revolutionary leaflets.

Such balloons were successfully used both in the First World War - for reconnaissance and adjusting artillery fire, and in the Second World War - as barrage balloons. The military use of balloons continued during the Cold War. Reconnaissance balloons freely crossed the border in the thickness of the clouds, it was almost impossible to detect them with locators.

In July 1897, pilot Solomon Auguste André made the first flight in a hot air balloon to the Arctic. In 1997, in honor of the 100th anniversary of this event, aerialists held the First Balloon Festival at the North Pole.
Since then, every year the most daring teams of aeronauts fly to the Pole to fill their balloon with hot air and rise into the sky above the very top of the planet.

In 1900, the 1st International Aeronautical Congress opened in Paris. Among the representatives from Russia - N. E. Zhukovsky.
In October 1905, the International Aeronautical Federation of Aeronauts was created in France.

The end of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20th century was marked by the peak of aeronautics. A variety of balloon flights were made for scientific and recreational purposes. The design of balloons and their equipment were improved, records of altitude and flight range were set. Gradually, other flying techniques developed, and ballooning remained the privilege of athletes. Flying clubs began to appear in different countries, uniting aeronauts.

In 1973, a new design balloon was created. - solar balloon. Of all aircraft, it has the greatest lift. Its balloon is filled with air and has no burner, yet it is able to rise into the air. When the exhaust valve fails, it does not fall, but rises indefinitely until it bursts. Its shell is black, it absorbs the sun's rays well. The lifting force is created by the air heated by the sun's rays. So, in a "solar" balloon - the air is heated not by a burner, but by the sun.

In 1978, three Americans Ben Abruzzo, Maxi Anderson and Larry Newman crossed the Atlantic for the first time in a hot air balloon. When approaching France, the balloon began to lose altitude. The ballast was used up over Iceland. All things began to be thrown overboard - oxygen cylinders, expensive devices, cameras and a movie camera, clothes, a logbook, a walkie-talkie.

In 1981, Japanese aeronauts Asuka and Americans Anderson, Clark and Newman on the Double Eagle V balloon conquered the Pacific Ocean.

In 1995, pilot Bill Arras made the first balloon flight over Antarctica.

In March 1999, after completing a flight around the globe lasting 19 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes, the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon set an absolute world flight distance record - 40,814 km. This record was set by balloonists Bertrand Piccard (Switzerland) and Brian Jones (Great Britain).

In July 2002, the second-ever non-stop flight around the earth in a hot air balloon was made by American pilot Steve Fossett. On the "Bud Light Spirit of Freedom" balloon, he covered 34,242 km in 320 hours and 33 minutes.

Currently, the World Aeronautics Federation holds alternating world championships: in even years - for hot air balloons, in odd years - for gas balloons.

INTERESTING

The Japanese aerospace unmanned aircraft started the tests without a takeoff run and silently. So he got to a height of 22 km, where he separated from the first stage and climbed another 55 km under his own power. Then the engine undocked and the aircraft began a gliding descent. Interestingly, the first stage of lifting the aircraft was a balloon.

People in ancient times dreamed of flying across the sky, like birds, and for a long time they went to this. And now, sitting in the comfortable chair of an airliner, few people are interested in how people were able to build the first aircraft and master air travel. With the advent of airplanes, many have forgotten about this aeronautical art, but lately, ballooning has attracted the attention of tens of thousands of people every year.

Absolutely all balloons differ in size and in the number of people transported. So it is logical that prices can vary greatly, but if we talk about an ordinary balloon, it will cost 20-30 thousand dollars. But why, one wonders, to buy a balloon, if, for example, you would like to fly out of curiosity, or make a gift to a loved one, or make a romantic marriage proposal to your beloved, is not at all necessary. For this, there is an agency Magic flight in Moscow, which has various balloons in its assortment, including those in the form of a heart, be with Magic flight and a balloon flight will become an unforgettable moment in your life.

In 1784, James Tyler took the Grand Edinburgh balloon 106 meters up and flew about a kilometer on it. It is noteworthy that Mr. Tyler worked as a simple pharmacist, but he went down in history not only as an aeronaut, but also as a person who edited the Encyclopædia Britannica (2nd edition).

Balloons were invented in 1824 by Michael Faraday. True, then his invention was used only as a "vessel" in which he stored various gases.

Well, the first living aeronauts were: a ram, a duck and a rooster. They were launched into the air by the Montgolfier brothers in September 1783. The first aeronauts successfully survived the flight, only the wing of the rooster was broken. However, everyone thought that the ram did it.

In November 1783, the inventors Marquis de Arlandes and Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier created a manned balloon that did not need to be tied to the ground.

Two years later, in 1785, John Jeffreys and Jean-Pierre Blanchard became the first aeronauts in history to fly across the English Channel. It was a rather desperate act, because both could not swim.

In 1808, the first duel using balloons took place in Paris.

In 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones made history as the first people to circumnavigate the world using a hot air balloon and never land on the ground during the flight.

In 1794, there was a revolution in France and a brilliant idea came to resourceful military commanders - to use a balloon for reconnaissance. This ball was "Entreprenant".

In 2010, at the next event "Bristol International Balloon Fiesta", a non-trivial model of a ball with a thick glass bottom was presented to the public.

It is common knowledge that the balloon is almost uncontrollable. Its movement is very dependent on wind currents, people controlling the ball can only change the flight altitude, thereby trying to find suitable wind currents.

Usually you can fly on a balloon for only two hours. However, if we take into account the preparatory procedures, then the process itself will stretch for three hours.

In 2013, an absolute record was set at one of the former French NATO bases: 408 balloons flew into the air in a few minutes.

Few people know, but the balloon will not rise into the air if it rains.