The artist in Leonardo da Vinci studied birds for their form and shape. It was the inventor da Vinci that took those observations beyond art. In 1485 he came up with a flying machine called the ornithopter. There is no proof one way or another that the device was ever built. It wasn’t until some 400 years later that the Wright brothers built the Wright Flyer. The pair finally had the right proportion of speed and lift to actually get off the ground and stay airborne, even if it was for only 12 seconds. But, that 12 seconds changed history.
The key to flight is the wing. While da Vinci’s design imitated the motions of a bird, the Wright brothers used a fixed wing, the basis for all airplane flight today. If you look at a wing from the side, you’ll see that the front of the wing has a smooth rounded edge. The wing gently tapers to a point at the back. The top of the wing is curved, while the bottom is flat.
This curve allows air to flow over the top and create a low pressure area. Once an airplane gets up to flight speed it is that low pressure that lifts the plane off the ground. On the back of the wings are flaps, rectangular parts that can be put up or down by the pilot via controls in the cockpit. Flaps are used to increase the plane’s lift, usually on takeoff, or to slow it down for landing.
A plane’s tail section has two main parts, a vertical fin and two horizontal sections that look like small wings. The rudder is a movable section on the back of the vertical fin and is used to make the plane turn left or right. It is controlled by rudder pedals in the cockpit. If the left rudder pedal is pushed, the rudder section moves to the left causing the tail to move right and the nose of the plane to turn left. Pressing the right rudder has the opposite effect. The elevators are on the two horizontal pieces. Controlled by the yoke, the plane’s answer to the steering wheel, elevators make the plane’s nose point up or down.
The engine provides the power. Depending on the size of the plane, there could be one engine in the nose, or two or more on each wing. The engine transfers power to the propeller, which spins and moves the plane forward. Once air speed is reached the plane takes off. Jet engines work a bit differently. Oxygen is pulled into the jet engine and forced out the back, pushing the plane forward.
The type of landing gear depends on the type and size of the plane. The most basic is two larger wheels towards the front of the plane and a third smaller wheel under the tail section. Another type offers two wheels under the main body of the plane and a third under the nose. Larger aircraft have more wheels. The Boeing 747, for example, has two nose wheels and 16 main wheels in its landing system. On large planes, as well as in some smaller models, the landing gear retracts into the fuselage, or body of the plane, while in flight.
The pilot sits in the cockpit with the yoke in front of him and the rudder pedals at his feet. Switches monitor fuel mixture, landing gear and flaps. Dials and gauges keep track of fuel consumption, altitude and direction. No matter how sophisticated the equipment, it still comes down to the decision of one man, the pilot, on how or where that plane flies. In that respect we are much like the birds, one brain for every pair of wings.
