飞机发展史英文版介绍，作文地带分享出来，希望大家参考。对飞机的发展历程能有个全方位的认识。不懂得单词可通过http://www.LiuxuePaper.com/fy/获取帮助。
飞机发展史
The dream of flying is as old as mankind itself. However, the concept of the airplane has only been around for two centuries. Before that time, men and women tried to navigate the air by imitating the birds. They built machines with flapping wings called ornithopters. On the surface, it seemed like a good plan. After all, there are plenty of birds in the air to show that the concept does work. Click on a picture to enlarge it.
An ornithopter -- it's every bit as impractical as it looks.
The trouble is, it works better at bird-scale than it does at the much larger scale needed to lift both a man and a machine off the ground. So folks began to look for other ways to fly. Beginning in 1783, a few aeronauts made daring, uncontrolled flights in lighter-than-air balloons, but this was hardly a practical way to fly. There was no way to get from here to there unless the wind was blowing in the desired direction.
An early balloon.
It wasn’t until the turn of the nineteenth century that an English baronet from the gloomy moors of Yorkshire conceived a flying machine with fixed wings, a propulsion system, and movable control surfaces. This was the fundamental concept of the airplane. Sir George Cayley also built the first true airplane — a kite mounted on a stick with a movable tail. It was crude, but it proved his idea worked, and from that first humble glider evolved the amazing machines that have taken us to the edge of space at speeds faster than sound.
This wing of the museum focuses on the history of the airplane, from its conception in 1799 to our hopes for its future. Because we are a museum of early aviation, we don’t spend a great deal of time on those years after Orville Wright closed the doors of the Wright Company in 1916. We concentrate on the development of the airplane before World War I, when flying machines were odd contraptions of stick, cloth, and wire; engines were temperamental and untrustworthy; and pilots were never quite sure whether they’d be able to coax their machine into the air or bring it down in one piece.
The First Airplanes (1799 to 1853) -- The first gliding experiments with fixed-wing craft.
Powering Up (1854 to 1879) -- The first attempts to build powered airplanes. From LiuxuePaper.com.
Pilots & Chauffeurs (1880 to 1898) -- The controversy between those that believe airplanes should be inherently stable (like boats) and those who believed that a pilot or an airman should keep them balanced.
The Road to Kitty Hawk (1899 to 1903) -- The events leading up to the first sustained, controlled powered flight.
The First to Fly, 1904 to 1909 -- The Wright Brothers develop their temperamental Kitty Hawk Flyer into a practical airplane, then they show the world how to fly. Meanwhile, airplane builders on both sides of the Atlantic air making tentative flights of their own.[page]分页标题[/page]
Orville Wright demonstrates America's first military airplane at Fort Meyer, Virginia in 1908.
The Pioneers, 1910 to 1914 -- Once shown the way, aeronautical engineers in America and Europe quickly catch up to the Wrights and surpass them. Races and air meets improve the speed and endurance of aircraft. The box-kite appearance of the first primitive pusher aircraft gives way to the streamlined design of the tractor biplanes and monoplanes.
The 1910 Dunne Flying Wing, the world's first airplane that was developed in strict secrecy.
The Great War, 1915 to 1918 -- The First World War elevates the aircraft from a machine for scouting and observation to a versatile weapon with both defensive and offensive roles in warfare. The first fighters and bombers evolve during this conflict.
[page]飞机发展史[/page]
航空事业的不断发展使各国军事当局认识到了航空气在军事领域里的发展前景，欧洲的各个强国开始搜罗各种各样的飞机以供陆军使用。不过，这时的飞机还主要用于侦察，飞机的研制工作大多也由私人进行，因而进展相当缓慢。在德国，人们的兴趣还主要集中在体积庞大的齐柏林飞艇上，因为此前公众的捐款使齐柏林得以继续以飞艇先驱者的身份从事研制工作，并最终向德国人证明了这种飞艇的实用价值。在另外两个航空大国法国和英国，飞机开始受到更多的关注。
但是，军人们已经急不可待地要把这件新式武器用于战争了。尽管飞机此时还存在许多问题，甚至还经常带来一些灾难性的后果，但职业本身就充满危险的军人却顾及不了那么多。于是，飞机在意土战争中首次露面了。
意土战争中，意大利航空队在的黎波里的成功初步显示了飞机的威力，预示了现代战争的战略、战术将发生革命性变化，从而引起世界各国军方的瞩目和效仿，并极大地促进了军事航空业的发展。至１９１３年初，航空大国真正的航空部队已初步组建起来，并建立了各种规模的飞机制造厂，开始了军用飞机的研制历程。英国皇家飞机制造厂生产的"ＢＥ·２"型飞机，便是军方对飞机的兴趣日趋浓厚的产物。不过，当时许多私人品业谋求改进的还是与比赛相关的飞机性能，而且由于军方还没有为飞机规定明确的作战任务，从而在订购飞机时对规格的要求也就没有形成一定的规范。除了要求容易驾驶以及能够为陆、海军执行侦察、搜索任务以外，军方对飞机性能别无他求。因此，这一时期飞机的型号和部件还根本谈不上什么标准化，在飞机军械以及投弹方面的实验工作做得也很少。
到第一次世界大战爆发前夕，第一架重于空气的飞行器成功飞行的历史仅有１１年。飞机的性能虽比诞生之初有了很大改进，但还存在许多弱点。飞机的载重量、飞行速度、航程还很小，飞机的操作、安全性能也较差。气候往往对飞行有着决定性的影响。尤其重要的是，许多军队指挥官还不具备洞察飞机在未来战争中的作用的战略眼光，他们赋予飞机的主要任务也仅仅局限于侦察、搜索。军人们目光短浅的结果是没有在组织工作方面为建立航空兵奠定必要的基础。由于飞机是一种新出现的武器，高级指挥员们大多对此持怀疑态度，中级指挥员又不具备进行飞行管理所必备的经验，因此，当时唯一可行的办法是将担任航空勤务的低级军官提升至相当高的指挥岗位。这样做又引出了许多新矛盾。尽管这些初级军官了解新的部队是怎么一回事，他们也有一定的实践经验，但他们既没有接受过充分利用与其职务相一致的指挥权的训练，也缺乏理直气壮地同那些与他们级别相当的其他兵种指挥官打交道的权威。再说，航空兵本身还是一个级别较低的兵种，大部分新上任的指挥官也不愿意用手枪和手榴弹等威力并不大的东西去承担风险。于是，那些富于想象力、充满激情与积极性的飞行军官的工作热情便受到了严重打击。更为严重的是，航空部队的一些高级军官本身也对自己的作用缺乏理解和远见。不过，飞机向实战方向的发展与完善仍在缓慢地进行。德国和法国已经开始尝试在飞机上安装机枪，英国和美国也有人私下进行此类试验。
到第一次世界大战爆发时，德国已拥有一支世界上规模最大的航空部队。这支空中力量由帝国陆军航空勤务队和帝国海军航空勤务队两部分组成，分别从属于陆、海军，遂行陆上侦察、情报收集以及海上搜索、救援任务。不过，德国扩大航空部队的重点并没有放在飞机上，而是放在了齐柏林飞艇上。他们指望用这些庞大的飞艇来进行战术、战略侦察。然而，德国人忽视了一个非常重要的事实，即齐柏林飞艇极易遭受损失——为了获得有价值的情报，飞艇必须下降到可能被炮火击中的高度，然而飞艇中贮存的是易燃气体，一旦被炮火击中，后果不堪设想。
在德国拥有的所有飞机中，大约半数为"鸽"式单翼机，这种飞起来十分平稳的飞机由奥地利人埃特里希研制成功并根据合同在德国生产；其余飞机是拉进式双翼机。当时，德国航空兵的基本战术单位是飞行小队，每个飞行小队由６架飞机组成，整个航空兵共有４１个小队。这些战术单位中的３４个被分配给集团军和军一级的指挥官运用，其余７个编成独立的航空中队，由陆军航空督察处实施单独的行政领导。
规模仅次于德国航空兵的是法国陆军航空兵。法国陆军航空兵受法国总参谋部航空处领导，基本战术单位是飞行中队，飞行中队的编制因飞机种类而异。AE鋐1中双座机飞行中队由６架飞机组成，单座机飞行中队则由１０架组成。在威尔伯·莱特于１９０８年应邀前往欧洲之前，法国人设计生产飞机的指导思想主要是：飞机必须可以自由飞行，驾驶员的职责不过是操纵它，就像司机驾驶汽车一样。那些笨重平稳的双座飞机就是根据这个指导思想研制的。自威尔伯在巴黎的表演取得极大成功后，莱特兄弟更富有挑战性的思想深深影响了一批法国人，并由此产生了全新的设计观点。这些人认为：真正的飞行只能是由一架基本上不稳定的飞机完成的；在整个飞行过程中，飞行员必须像骑师驾驭骏马那样去操纵飞机，使其顺应自己的意志。那些灵活性较强的单座飞机正是这种设计思想的产物。此外，影响设计思想的另一个重要因素是发动机的种类。当时，较重型的的飞机倾向于采用水冷式直列发动机，这种发动机的功率相当大。而轻型飞机倾向于采用品缸旋转式发动机，这种发动机汽缸围绕曲轴成星形排列，曲轴一端固定在机身上，螺旋桨则安装在旋转的曲轴机匣上。这样的设计使发动机结构简单而紧凑，体积大大缩小，重量也大大减轻。安装这种发动机的飞机飞行性能因而也得到改善。
