By 1906, the Wright brothers had improved the design on the plane so that the craft was fully maneuverable. It was indeed a turning point of their aerospace careers. They were able to keep the plane aloft for more than half an hour. By 1908, they were making public flights for demonstration purposes. The French engineer Louis Bleriot built a monolane, with a tail for balance and an enclosed body. In 1909, he flew his plane, the Bleriot XI, across the English Channel for the first international airplane flight. Two years later, a Bleriot plane was used to make the first United States airmail delivery, on a route from Garden City to Mineola in New York.
World War I established a military need for airplanes. Their effectiveness in surveillance and bombing was apparent from the onset of the war. Governments set out to build the fastest, most efficient aerial fighters they could. Hence, aerospace employment came to its rapid deman. Germany started in 1914 with about 260 planes, France had around 150 planes, and England had fewer than 100. Planes could fly 60 to 70 miles an hour for up to three hours. By the end of the war, planes could move as fast as 200 miles an hour and fly as high as 15,000 feet.
Anthony Fokker, who held a great experience in avionics jobs developed a plane that fired front-mounted machine guns on a timing system that allowed the bullets to shoot between the rotating blades of the propellers. Used by the Germans, this gave them superiority in air combat. The other major contribution of Fokker was the tri-plane DVII. Flown by Baron von Richtofen, the Fokker tri-plane was considered one of the finest flying machines of the war, and the baron (known as the Red Baron) was one of the finest pilots.
After World War I ended, pilot used the gains in technology to set new records for speed and distance in flight. Charles Lindberg was the first to cross the Atlantic in a non-stop trip. He flew from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France in May 1927. The altitude record was officially recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in 1927. The record was first held by C.C. Champion, who achieved an altitude of 38,419 feet. The record was regularly broken every couple years by gains of at least 2,000 feet. In 1977, Russian flyer Alexander Fedotov se the standing record in a E-226M with an altitude of 123,523 feet.
Air speed records were registered in 1906, with Alberto Santos-Dumont setting the first official record at 25.66 miles an hour. The record, like the altitude record, was regularly broken as technology improved. The biggest leap in the record came in 1956, when L. Peter Twiss of Great Britain broke the previous record of 822.27 mph with a new record of 1,132.14 mph. Eventually, records would top 2,000 mph. These were proofs of the remarkable aerospace engineer jobs already attained by man during this period.
While speeds of planes were being tested, so were the territories planes could cover. In 1926, Admiral Richard Byrd and Floyd Benett flew across the North Pole. By 1928, solo flights were being completed from London to Australia. Flight across the Pacific were difficult but the U.S. Army had two pilots successfully navigate a non-stop flight from California to Hawaii in 1927. In 1931, Amelia Earhart on her successful debut for her colorful aerospace careers- was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic on a non-stop journey.
Pressurized cabins were developed for airplanes in the 1930s. This allowed pilots and passengers to tolerate the thin air at higher altitudes. The leap in technology that allowed for major advances in flight capabilities was made in 1942. With World War II dominating the investment of all the western world's research, the improvement in aircraft was seen as an important edge by both sides. The motivation was dominance in air power for the warring countries, but the development of jet power had astounding influence on commercial aviation after the war. Germany was the first to build a jet plane, in 1939. The jet was a more powerful engine, fueled by gas turbines. It allowed planes to climb higher and fly faster than ever before. England had a jet plane in service by 1941, while the United States had a model in 1942. Truly, the avionics historical development have provided a technological references on how the pioneers and inventors did a great avionic jobs for the future generations.
