Air and Space Museum

John Michael Handrop
05/18/2010

Air and Space Museum

         The Air and Space Museum turned out not to be as exciting as I had anticipated, perhaps I should have paid for the alien exhibit as well. This was the museum of choice for my next museum adventure; for my fifth day of Spring break as the forth museum to attend. Even before entering the building I started to experience the might of this science. Some museums have statues out front, this one has a giant jet, which really made my day.
         The museum was mapped out by first going through a hall that had a bunch of famous people in it spanned through out history. Basically any person who made a significant contribution to the science behind aeronautical engineering. Then you started from the very begin, the first flight, and got thrust-ed into time through the era, through the modifications and different uses of the aircrafts before finally ending in the space age and the first space flight and current to future expeditions.
         The biggest, newest thing I learned during this museum adventure was that modern flight vehicles undergo severe conditions such as differences in atmospheric pressure, and temperature, with structural loads applied upon vehicle components. Consequently, they are usually the products of various technologies including aerodynamics, avionics, materials science and propulsion. These technologies are collectively known as aerospace engineering. Because of the complexity of the field, aerospace engineering is conducted by a team of engineers, each specializing in their own branches of science. The development and manufacturing of a flight vehicle is an extremely complex process and demands careful balance and compromise between abilities, design, available technology and costs.
         Aerospace engineering is the branch of engineering behind the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is broken into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. The former deals with craft that stay within Earth's atmosphere, and the latter deals with craft that operate outside of Earth's atmosphere.
         While aeronautical engineering was the original term, the broader "aerospace" has superseded it in usage, as flight technology advanced to include craft operating in outer space. Aerospace engineering, particularly the astronautics branch, is often informally called rocket science.
         Alberto Santos-Dumont, a pioneer who built the first machines able to fly, played an important role in the development of aviation. Some of the first ideas for powered flight may have come from Leonardo da Vinci, who, although he did not build any successful models, did develop many sketches and ideas for "flying machines". Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the Wright Flyer I, the first airplane, on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
         The origin of aerospace engineering can be traced back to the aviation pioneers around the late 19th century to early 20th centuries, although the work of Sir George Cayley has recently been dated as being from the last decade of the 18th to mid 19th century. One of the most important people in the history of aeronautics, Cayley was a pioneer in aeronautical engineering and is credited as the first person to separate the forces of lift and drag, which are in effect on any flight vehicle. Early knowledge of aeronautical engineering was largely empirical with some concepts and skills imported from other branches of engineering. Scientists understood some key elements of aerospace engineering , like fluid dynamics, in the 18th century. Only a decade after the successful flights by the Wright brothers, the 1910s saw the development of aeronautical engineering through the design of World War I military aircraft.
         The first definition of aerospace engineering appeared in February 1958. The definition considered the Earth's atmosphere and the outer space as a single realm, thereby encompassing both aircraft and spacecraft under a newly coined word aerospace. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded in 1958 as a response to the Cold War. United States aerospace engineers launched the first American satellite on January 31, 1958 in response to the USSR launching Sputnik in October 4, 1957.
         Since the beginning of aeronautical history, women have been an ever present force as supporters, inventors and pioneers. Using timelines, I was able to trace the course of women and their impact on the field of aviation; such as record breaking to space flights. By far my favorite Women aviator would have to be Amelia Mary Earhart. She was born July 24, 1897 but reported missing July 2, 1937 and declared legally dead January 5, 1939.
         She was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. Earhart joined the faculty of the world-famous Purdue University aviation department in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and help inspire others with her love for aviation. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day. I wonder if we will at least ever find her plane.
         A big them in the museum was the use of the flying technology to aide armies in war. The original use of aircraft in war was as observe ration platforms, that could fly over enemy territory and see what was going on down below. Soon cameras were being carried to take photos of the enemy's positions and rear supply areas, so that artillery fire could be directed on to them. This required a second man to operate the camera, and he sat behind the pilot's position.
         The designs of the aircraft evolved very quickly, to meet the new type of air fighting tactics that had come about thru trial and error. Faster and more agile, with longer range and higher speed, the newest fighter types were rushed into service as soon as they were built and tested at the factory. Made of mostly wood and with canvas covered wings and fuselages, they were still fragile, and many a pilot was killed simply trying to land his crate. The fact the the gas tank was directly under the pilot's seat didn't help either.



Works Cited:

         San Diego Air & Space Museum. 2001 Pan American Plaza. Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101. [phone]. Visited Spring 2010.