Interesting facts about airplanes

August 26, 2009 | In: Technology Facts

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright made the first-ever manned flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. His flight lasted 12 seconds and covered a distance of 120 ft(37 m). That same day, Orville’s brother (Wilbur) made his first flight, which lasted 59 seconds, with the same aircraft.

Almost five years later, the Wright brothers were the first to fly in an airplane for more than one hour. On Sept 9, 1908, Orville Wright flew for 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 15 seconds. On Sept 21, 1908, Wilbur Wright flew for 1 hour, 31 minutes, and 25.8 seconds.

Airplane engines may be classified as driven by propeller, jet, turbojet, or rocket. Most engines originally were of the internal-combustion, piston-operated type, which may be air- or liquid-cooled.

Seventy-five thousand engineering drawings were used to produce the first Boeing 747.

The first United States coast to coast airplane flight occurred in 1911 and took 49 days.

A Boeing 737 weighing 150,000 pounds (68,000 kg) must deflect about 88,000 pounds (40,000 kg) of air – over a million cubic feet (31,500 cubit metres) down by 55 feet (16.75 m) each second while in flight.

The fastest passenger aircraft was the concorde but its no longer in service. The fastest aircraft is SR-71 Blackbird i believe. But I heard somewhere that NASA is working on a hypersonic aircraft.

Birds were the fastest creatures on Earth until 1919. At that time, pilots first reached speeds of 190 mph (306 km/hr). Thus, the record for fastest speeds among birds was broken. The champion bird had been the peregrine falcon, clocked at speeds nearing 185mph(298km/hr) while diving. Since then, even cars and trains have beaten that record.

Now, pilots can fly at supersonic (faster than sound) speeds. Currently, pilots in the fastest aircraft, X-15A-2, can fly Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound) or about 4,500 mph (7,000 km/hr).