History of Aviation

Aviation history means the history of progress of mechanical flight—from the initial efforts in kites and gliders to power heavier-than-air, supersonic and spaceflights. The primary form of man-made flying items were kites.The initial known evidence of kite flying is from about 200 B.C. in China, when a general flew a kite over rival territory to analyze the length of tunnel necessary to enter the region.Leonardo da Vinci's (15th c.) dream of flight found expression in several designs, but he did not attempt to demonstrate flight by literally constructing them. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the U.S. government searched for a company to build up the initial airplane engine "booster" for the fledgling U.S. aviation industry. (Ibn Firnas, 65-78)

This booster, or turbosupercharger, installed on a piston engine, used the engine's exhaust gases to drive an air compressor to boost power at higher altitude. General Electric accepted the challenge first, but another team also requested the chance to develop the turbosupercharger. Contracts were awarded in what was the first military aircraft engine competition in the U.S.A. Under wartime secrecy, both companies tested and developed various designs until the Army called for a test demonstration. (Ibn Firnas, 65-78) In the bitter atmosphere of Pikes Peak, 14,000 feet above sea level, General Electric demonstrated a 350-horsepower, turbosupercharged Liberty aircraft engine and entered the business of making airplanes fly higher, faster, and with more efficiency than ever before. That mountaintop test of the first turbosupercharger landed GE's first aviation-related government contract and paved the way for GE to become a world leader in jet engines. (Ibn Firnas, 65-78)

For more than two decades, GE produced turbosuperchargers that enabled aircraft, including many in service during World War II, to fly higher, with heavier payloads. The Company's expertise in turbines in general and in turbosuperchargers in particular figured significantly in the U.S. Army Air Force's selecting GE to develop the nation's first jet engine.

Since then, the aircraft engines division of GE Aviation has scored many firsts. Among them: America's first jet engine, the first turbojet engines to power flights at two and three times the speed of sound, and the world's first high bypass turbofan engine to enter service. (Ibn Firnas, 65-78)

Today, GE Aviation's aircraft engines division, with revenues of $10.97 billion in 2003, designs, develops, and manufactures jet engines for a broad spectrum of military and commercial aircraft as well as aeroderivative gas turbines for marine applications. In addition, GE Aviation is the world's leading integrated (Ibn Firnas, 65-78)engine maintenance resource. On 17 December 1903, Wilbur Wright became the first man in history to fly an aeroplane in North Carolina in the US. On this day, exactly a century ago, he was able to fly his machine contraption a few feet above ground for only some hundred yards. Thus started a race towards the skies that would launch man on the moon six decades later. Although the early flying enthusiasts were mainly the Americans, French, Germans, Dutch and the Englishmen, it ...