1. Discovering Flight

2. Chapter Overview Discovering Flight The Early Days of Flight
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

3. Lesson Overview How humans tried to fly in ancient times
Key aviation devices created during ancient times
Why machines do not fly the way birds do
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

4. Warm Up Questions CPS Questions (1-2)
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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5. Quick Write Why do you think the idea of flight
is so appealing to people?
Does it appeal to you? Why?
(Note to Instructor: Use “Pick a Student” button in CPS)
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

6. How Humans Tried to Fly in Ancient Times
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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7. Flight in Ancient Times
Humans have dreamed of taking flight for thousands of years
Flight is the act of passing through the air on wings
People told tales about flight around the fire at night and handed down these stories to their children
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

8. Daedalus and Icarus
One of the best known is the Greek story of Daedalus and his son, Icarus
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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9. First True Stories of Human Attempts to Fly
Some early inventors made devices of lightweight material in imitation of birds’ or bats’ wings
They strapped the devices onto their arms or legs, and then they would jump from the top of a tower
Unfortunately, none of the devices succeeded
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

10. Armen Firman
A Moor named Armen Firman made the first known human attempt to fly
He put on a huge cloak and jumped from a tower in Cordoba, Spain
He hoped the cloak would open wide like a bat’s wings to slow him on the way down
But it didn’t, and Firman fell to his death

11. Armen Firman
His unfortunate experiment might be described as an early attempt at a jump by parachute
A parachute is a device intended to slow free fall from an aircraft or another high point
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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12. Chinese Kites
A lot of ancient scientific progress took place in China. The Chinese invented the kite around 1000 BC
A kite is a light framework covered with paper or cloth, provided with a balancing tail, designed to be flown in the air
Within a few hundred years, people were using kites in warfare to spy on enemies.
Around AD 1300 an explorer, Marco Polo saw Chinese sailors attached t kites as “eyes in the sky” observing enemy actions
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

13. Chinese Gunpowder
In the 800s AD, the Chinese made another important invention: gunpowder
Gunpowder is an explosive powder made of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur, used to shoot projectiles from guns
200 years later, the Chinese used gunpowder to make the first simple rockets
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

14. Chinese Rockets
A rocket is a large, cylindrical object that moves very fast by forcing burning gases out one end of the tube
The Chinese used these devices mostly for celebrations, such as holiday fireworks
But they also used their rockets in battle to scare off the enemy
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

15. Chinese Rockets and Man in the Moon
Chinese rockets were the basis for a legend about a rocket trip into space
A legend is an unverified story handed down from earlier times
Wan Hoo fastened 47 rockets to a chair in hopes to going to the moon
The attempt did not work. He went up in a ball of fire and the legend suggests he became the Man in the Moon.
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
Courtesy of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

16. Learning Check #1 CPS Questions (3-4)
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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17. Leonardo Da Vinci
The first person in the history of aviation who was also a real scientist was Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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18. Leonardo Da Vinci
Da Vinci kept good records of things he had actually seen as well as things he thought up. The notebooks included 160 pages of drawings of his projects for flight.
Da Vinci understood several key concepts in aviation such as streamlining.
Streamling is designing an aircraft to reduce resistance to motion through the air.
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
Courtesy of the Granger Collection, New York

19. A Parachute and A Helicopter
Da Vinci produced the first known designs for a parachute and a helicopter
A helicopter is an aircraft
that gets its lift from spinning blades
Da Vinci’s drawing of an “aerial screw” looks a lot like a modern helicopter
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

20. A Parachute and A Helicopter
Today’s parachutes are based on principles first described by Da Vinci
He wrote that his invention would
allow someone to “throw himself
down from any height without
sustaining any injury”
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

21. Gliders Da Vinci also researched the idea of a glider
A glider is a light aircraft without an engine, designed to glide after being towed aloft or launched from a catapult
Gliders were the first aircraft
that had directional control
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

22. Ornithopters
Da Vinci was fascinated with birds and experimented with flapping-wing machines
He worked out designs for ornithopters
An ornithopter is an aircraft
designed to get its support
and forward motion from
flapping wings
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

23. Learning Check #2 CPS Questions (5-6)
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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24. Why Machines Do Not Fly the Way Birds Do
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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25. Principles of Bird Flight
A bird’s flight is similar to an airplane’s in some ways and different in others
There are two phases of bird flight:
A ground phase
And a lift phase
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

26. Birds’ Wings Wing feathers are arranged much like shingles on a roof
They change position when the bird is flapping
On the downbeat of the wing, the feathers are pressed together so little air can pass through them
On the up stroke the feathers open
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

27. Daniel Bernoulli
The Dutch-born scientist Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782) discovered that a fluid has a constant pressure, but when a fluid starts to move faster, the pressure drops
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
Taken from wikipedia.com

28. Bernoullian Lift
Wings are designed to make air flow faster over their tops—this makes the pressure drop and the wings move upward, defying the force of gravity
This phenomenon is known as Bernoullian lift or induced lift
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

29. Sir Isaac Newton
The Englishman Sir Isaac Newton ( ) formulated three famous laws of motion
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
Taken from wikipedia.com

30. Newtonian Lift
The third law states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”
For example, when a pilot angles the wing of the plane up against the oncoming wind, the action of the wind causes a reaction by the wing
This reaction provides some additional lift, known as Newtonian or dynamic lift
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

31. Why Some Ancient Inventors Tried to Mimic Bird Flight
At the beginning of aviation history, flapping wings seemed to be what flight was all about
People observed birds, bats, and insects flying this way
Some early inventors thought feathers might possess some lifting power of their own
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

32. Why Some Ancient Inventors Tried to Mimic Bird Flight
And even a thinker as brilliant as Da Vinci got stuck on birds as the model for human flight
It was the Newtonian lift and Bernoullian lift that both bird flight and the flight of human-made aircraft rely on
Airplanes are fixed-wing aircraft
Only when people stopped trying to fly as birds do did the way open for the Wright brothers’ success on the North Carolina dunes
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

33. Learning Check #3 CPS Questions (7-8)
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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34. Review Humans have dreamed of taking flight for thousands of years
Some early inventors made devices of lightweight material such as cloth or wood, in imitation of birds’ or bats’ wings
The Chinese invented the kite around 1000 BC
They also invented gunpowder and rockets
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

35. Review
Leonardo da Vinci produced the first known designs for a parachute and a helicopter
Da Vinci also researched the idea of a glider and some designs for ornithopters
There are two phases of bird flight—a ground phase and a lift phase
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

36. Review Wings are designed to make air flow faster over their tops
This makes the pressure drop and the wings move upward, defying the force of gravity—this is known as Bernoullian lift or induced lift
Newton’s third law of motion states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”
This reaction provides some additional lift, known as Newtonian or dynamic lift
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

37. Review
By now you’re beginning to understand that birds and airplanes don’t work exactly alike:
Airplanes are fixed-wing aircraft and rely on their propellers to get them off the ground
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

38. Review Questions CPS Questions (9-10)
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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39. Summary How humans tried to fly in ancient times
Key aviation devices created during ancient times
Why machines do not fly the way birds do
Chapter 1, Lesson 1

40. Next…. Done—discovering flight Next—the early days of flight
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
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