From the age of exploration until the early 1900’s, mankind’s dream had always been flying. It was on the year 1903 when this dream came true, the first successful human-controlled airplane was invented. There are many inventions that have been made by humans over the past years, this essay discusses the invention of airplanes as the most significant invention made by humans. This argument will be based on the role that aeroplanes have played in the warfare and military, local communities, their importance in travel, commerce and tourism, and their remarkable contribution in experimental physics. A brief background about this significant invention and how the invention works are also provided.
Human’s interest in flying developed from observing birds, it was the structure of their wings that gave birth to mankind’s first heavier than air aircraft. Before 1903 humans used glider and hot air balloons (lighter than air aircraft) to fly, however, this method of flying was not enough because it provided lift only as they could not control it. During the year 1903, the wright brothers designed the first controllable heavier than air aircraft which was named the Wright Flyer.
An aircraft uses the laws of aerodynamics and Newton to provide lift. According to aerodynamics air travels over the surface of the wing, due to the curvature of the airplane’s wing the air over the top surface travels faster than the air beneath. The process results in an area of high pressure below the wing and low pressure above. Thus, creating a lift force, according the newton’s law the curvature of the wing deflects the air down by the action-reaction force law the air exerts an upward force. For a forward motion, the airplane is propelled by an engineThe invention of an airplane revolutionised the warfare and military. Before airplanes were invented many soldiers would travel long distances to reach their targets, the trips would take days. Such long trips would require more energy, resources such as food and fuel would be wasted. Many battles were fought at the sea through ships. The battles resulted in the contamination of the sea water and nearly wiped out the species of the Layson rail due to rats that were carried by the ships. The invention of an airplane became a solution as airplanes during the second world war were equipped with weapons that enabled them strike at a distance. The airplanes travelled faster with few soldiers thus reducing wastage of resources. The invention introduced a new branch in the military, the air force, According to the online the Sea-distance calculator, it would take approximately twenty-eight days to travel from Cape Town to New Orleans using a ship. When the results are compared to the time travelled using an airplane (approximately twenty-three hours), the results show that an airplane has improved the rate of travelling. It has made it possible to visit people across the different parts of the world within hours. The crops with short shelf life can easily be transported.
The report done by the Air Transport Action Group shows that the air transportation industry in the world contributed 3. 5% (USD2. 7trillion) to the world’s gross domestic product during the year 2017. The results have proven the aviation industry to be a major a contributor to the global economy. The results also show that the aviation industry has produced approximately sixty-two million jobs both directly and indirectly. Without the invention of an airplane, would it be possible to generate the sixty-two million jobs? Would the aviation industry exist?
One of the factors that qualify the invention of an airplane to be the most significant invention is the airplane’s remarkable contribution to experimental physics. During the year 1971, two airplanes succeeded in proving the theory of relativity’s time dilation. The experiment involved atomic clocks and two airplanes that were flown into opposite directions relative to the earth. The name of the experiment is the Hefele-Keating experiment. It succeeded in showing that time dilates as one approaches the speed of light and the possibility of time travel. It is unusual for non-relativistic system (travels lower than the speed of light) like an airplane to prove relativistic theories like the theory of relativity. It is this phenomenon that qualifies the invention of an airplane as the most significant invention.
The invention of airplanes did not contribute only in the military, travel, trade and experimental physics sector. Modern Airplanes also play important roles in the local communities. These roles include aerial firefighting when there are wildfires for example the California wildfires are stopped using this process, the use of drones for recreational activities, emergency helicopters during natural disasters and agricultural airplanes for spraying fertilisers or pesticides as they save time. These roles demonstrate that the invention of airplanes has improved the life everyone, including ordinary civilians.
However, it can be argued that airplanes are the sources of noise and air pollution, are not environmentally friendly and passenger are not safe during the flight. As Kabir Bedi (2015) said “everything has its own advantages and disadvantages” the statement is also true for inventions. However, there has been an ongoing research of designing a one hundred percent green electric airplane that can travel long distances. The two companies, Easy Jet and Electric Plane, have joined forces to develop the one hundred percent green airplane. Airplanes, according the report in EU Transport in figures-statistical pocket book (2014), are the safest mode of transportation.
It is evident through the radical changes that airplanes have made in the defence force, air transportation, the world economy, the improvement of local communities and how they have become the safest mode of transportation that they qualify to be most significant invention ever made by human.
