www.PDHcenter.com www.PDHonline.org Table of Contents Slide/s Part Description 1N/ATitle 2 N/A Table of Contents 3~96 1 Exceeding the Grasp 97~184 2 Biggest Birds That Ever Flew 185~281 3 Triumph and Tragedy 282~354 4 Made in America 355~444 5 The Future is Now 445~541 6 LZ-129 542~594 7 Flight Operations 595~646 8 Magic Carpet Ride 647~759 9 Oh, The Humanity! 760~800 10 Back to the Future Hindenburg: Last of the1 2 GtAihi Part 1 “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”for? Robert Browning, Poet Exceeding the Grasp 3 4 “...as by certain mechanical art and power to fly; The Dreams of Inventors so nicely was it balanced by weights and put in motion by hidden and enclosed air” Archytas of Tarentura, 400 B.C. 5 6 © J.M. Syken 1 www.PDHcenter.com www.PDHonline.org “…Then we are told of a monk who attempted a flight with wings from the top of a tower in Spain. He broke his legs, and wasafterwardburnedasasorcerer. Another similar trial was made from St. Mark’s steeple in Venice; another in Nuremberg;andsoonԝ - legs or arms were usually broken, occasionally a neck. In the sixteenth century we read of a certain Italian who went to the court of James IV of Scotland, and attempted to fly from the walls of Sterling Castle to France. His thig h was bkbroken; btbut,asareasonfor the failure, he asserted that some of the feathers used in constructing his wings “…Many other trials have there been of the same character. The results were from barn-yard fowls, with a natural were generally discouraging, but men can always be found ready to risk affinity for the dung-hill; whereas, life and limb in striving to attain something much less important than the if composed solely of eagle-feathers, they art of flying; without a knowledge of the principles involved, ignorant of would have been attracted to the air. the nature of the atmosphere, without machinery or power, fettered by a However, he does not appear to have superstition that looked upon all learning outside of the Church as carried the experiment further…” coming from the prince of darkness, it was a struggle in the dark - brave Popular Science Monthly, November 1885 but hopeless…” Left: caption: “The Flying Man (Retif de la 7 Popular Science Monthly, November 1885 8 Bretonne’s idea)” Above: caption: “The Modern Flying Man (Taken from U.S. Patent-Office Reports)” “…More than three centuries after the time of Bacon, Father Lana wrote out his idea of a vessel that might be made to rise in the air. Four hollow globes of copper, each having a diameter of about twenty-five feet, were to be carefully exhausted and then attached to a car. “…to be filled with ethereal air or liquid fire and then Torricelli and Pascal had already proved that the pressure of the atmosphere launched forth from some elevated point into the was nearly fifteen pounds per square atmosphere, where it will float like a vessel on water…there is inch at sea-level, and Lana’s proposed certainly a flying instrument, not that I ever knew a man who method of exhausting his globes was to be an application of Torricelli’s had it, but I am particularly acquainted with the ingenious principles…Unlike the product of person who contrived it…” Bacon’s imagination, his conception Roger Bacon, Inventor (1214-1294) was a correct application of demon- strated physical laws; but, had it been tested by experiment, he would at once have found that there were other laws which he had not taken into account…” Popular Science Monthly, July 1885 Left: Father Francesco Lana de Terzi’s flying 9 boat concept (ca.1670) 10 “…Soon after the discovery of hydrogen gas by Cavendish and Watt in 1766, experiments were made with a view to utilizing it for the purpose of lifting bodies into the air. But, until 1783, nothing more substantial than a soap-bubble could be made thus to ascend. Joseph Montgolfier, who was a successful manufacturer of paper, tried bags of this material; but hydrogen was found to diffuse so rapidly through it that the idea was abandoned by him. Observing that clouds of vapor and smoke remained floating at various heights, he though that, if they could be confined in bags of paper, these might be made to float in like manner. Since the experiments of Franklin in 1752 had proved the existence of atmospheric A Child is Born electricity, the idea gained currency that the lightness of clouds and of smoke was in some way due to electric charge. A paper bag was made, and, with its opening downward, a fire was kindled, ‘as well as to increase the layer of electric fluid upon the vapor in the vessel as to divide the vapors into smaller molecules and dilate the gas in which they are suspended.’ The bag was carried up to a considerable height. Montgolfier seems not to have attributed the ascension to the effect of heat diminishing the specific gravity of the contained air. The first successful experiment in ballooning was thus based on a misconception…” 11 Popular Science Monthly, July 1885 12 © J.M. Syken 2 www.PDHcenter.com www.PDHonline.org “…The whole art of piloting a free balloon consists of maneuvering it to the right level, where a favorable wind will take you the way you want to “…Montgolfier’s first public exhib- go. So the principal problem of ballooning is how to alter the craft’s ition of his invention was made on buoyancy in order to ascend and descend at will. A gas balloon, the rival June 4, 1783. The news of his of the hot-air kind, has to make do with a comparatively crude solution. success was rapidly spread; and at Inflated with lighter-than-air gas – originally hydrogen, but nowadays Paris a balloon was soon safer, fireproof helium – it starts its flight with its maximum buoyancy. constructed under the super- Thereafter its lift can only diminish as its gas slowly leaks away. To check intendence of M. Charles, who its settling and go up again, the pilot of a gas balloon must toss over substituted hydrogen for smoke, sandbags or loose sand. To reduce his altitude, he must sacrifice confining it in a bag of varnished irreplaceable buoyancy by releasing some of the lifting gas – and then, to silk instead of paper and linen. The end the descent, jettison more sand ballast. His supply of ballast sets the ascension was successfully acc- limit for the duration of his flight. With a hot-air balloon, there’s no omplished on the 27th of August…” dropping of ballast or valving-off of precious gas. In theory, it ability to Popular Science Monthly, July 1885 manufacture its lift in flight should be a decisive advantage. But the early Left: first public demonstration, June 4th hot-air balloon, whose primitive burner was a brazier fed with bundles of 1783 chopped straw, was far from a practical embodiment of this alluring theory. Not surprisingly, the gas balloon outmoded it…” Popular Science, August 1961 13 14 “…It is related by a writer in the London ‘Quarterly Review’ for July, that when Pilatre de Rozier had descended safely to the earth, after making the first aerial voyage ever undertaken by man, Benjamin Franklin, who at the time (November Servant of the Air 21, 1783) was in Paris, on being asked his opinion of the brothers Montgolfier’s invention, replied, ‘A child has just been born.’…” Popular Science Monthly, April 1876 Left: the first free ascent of a hot-air balloon with human passengers 15 16 “…It would be difficult to describe the excitement which followed this invention. The most extravagant hopes and anticipations were entertained. The problem had been solved. The birds and insects would no longer have a monopoly. “…Charles at once proceeded to the construction of a new Every gentleman would have a balloon hitched to his gate- and much larger balloon, in which he ascended with his post, or, wafted along by summer breezes, would look down st colleague, Robert, on the 1 of December, making a journey in luxurious pity upon the poor plodders. Sails and rudders of more than twenty-five miles. This balloon was provided were to be used as on ships to direct the course. Regular with a safety-valve of Charles’ invention, a hoop, to which the lines of aerial ppgassenger and mail coaches were to be car was attac he d,and netting itinten ddded to equalize the established. There seemed no limit to the possible speed. distribution of weight upon the balloon. It was in all important Rome, or St. Petersburg, or even America, might be reached particulars the same as the balloon almost universally in a few hours, and for the comfort of travelers the employed throughout a century afterward….to Charles is due arrangements proposed went far ahead of our palace-cars. the credit for making the balloon a moderately safe vehicle…” Floating hospitals were to be built; methods of warfare would Popular Science Monthly, July 1885 need to be entirely reorganized; and England’s boasted supremacy on the sea would be of no avail, unless she also maintained supremacy in the air…” 17 18 Popular Science Monthly, November 1885 © J.M. Syken 3 www.PDHcenter.com www.PDHonline.org “…Well is it, then, for humanity that balloons have not proved a very great success.