A Hot Air Balloon Rose From A Height Of 100: Fill & Download for Free

52 weeks in a year and 50 states in the USA... Coincidence? I think not!We'll throw in two territories for the extra two weeks. I choose… Puerto Rico and American Samoa…Yes that means 1 week in Alaska and equally 1 week in Rhode Island. That’s just the way it’s got to be.For this plan, start in the last week of October to kick things off at the American Samoa tattoo festival. We’re then going South in the winter, and winding North for the summer. This way, temperatures should be in a moderate 50’s to 90’s range for the year of travel meaning no bulky coats needed or dying of oven like heat. Well, except for when you get to Alaska in late October. You’ll need a coat for that.Because this is my fantasy journey, it’s filled with things I like: local natural wonders, caves, historical monuments, nifty architecture and sculpture, quirky museums, and a couple amusement parks and shopping locations.The plan is arranged to have at least one thing to do every day, and to limit the amount of driving on any given day while maximizing the number of things that can be seen in a single state. The time in parenthesis is the driving time from the previous days activity, where greater than one hour, rounded to the nearest half hour. I’ve summed up the driving time for each state in the header, too, only considering the drives that are over 1h long.The longest stretch of driving is a 10 hr stretch from one part of Alaska, through Canada, to another part of Alaska. The most hours of driving in one week are 23.5h in Wyoming.Here’s my estimated budget:RV: $2k to $100k, depending on how fancy you want to get.Gas & Maintenance: I estimate the total trip will included about 40k miles of driving. let’s budget $10k for fuel and repairs / maintenance.Camp fees: Average $30/night, so about $11k for the year.Food per person per day: $15 to $45 depending on your tastes and financial state, so $5.5k to $16.5k for the year. You could totally spend less on food than this, but I’m budgeting for a little comfort and nutrition.Entry fees: Lots of the stuff on my list is free, but let’s budget an average of $100 in entrance fees per person per week, for a total of $5.2k per person.Flights, Ferry, & ShippingAmerican Samoa to California: $750 per personFlorida to Puerto Rico: $200 per personPuerto Rico to Georgia: $200 per personShip RV from Key West to Atlanta: $1,000Washington to Alaska: $500 per personMiscellaneous (i.e. buffer): Because something will go wrong, put aside an extra 10% on top of the expected budget.In all, this trip is likely to cost $50k to $180k for two people.Miranda’s Magnificent ‘Merican Motor MarathonAmerican SamoaWeek 1 (last full week of October)Day 1: Fly to Tutuila Island, American SamoaIt takes about 1.5 hrs to drive from Tula, Eastern American Samoa to Poloa , Western American Samoa, across the length of the island, therefore there is not much driving this week. I recommend taking taxi’s, aiga buses, or Uber.Day 2: National Marine Sanctuary of American SamoaDay 3: Fagatogo Marketplace, Traditional Samoa Fiafia Night ShowDay 4: Tisa’s Barefoot Bar, feed the eelsDay 5: Attend the Tattoo festival (occurs in last full weekend in October).If you are adventurous, get a tattoo to mark the start of your USA adventureDay 6: Go to a Samoan church service. National Park of American SamoaDay 7: Rose Atoll (southernmost point in the USA)HawaiiWeek 2 (November)Day 1: Fly to Honolulu, HawaiiSince you’ll be going from island to island in Hawaii, it doesn’t make sense to rent a car for this week.Day 2: Pearl Harbor, Pu'u O Mahuka HeiauDay 3: Bernice Pauahi Bishop MuseumDay 4: Hanauma BayDay 5: Take a whale watching boat to The Big IslandDay 6: Hawaii Volcanoes National ParkDay 7: Rainbow Falls in the Puna National Forest and Mauna Kea ObservatoryCalifornia* (12.5h)Week 3 (November)Day 1: Fly to San Francisco*Buy a used RV, SF bay area recreational vehicles.Day 2: AlcatrazDay 3: Chinatown*Day 4: Castello di Amorosa (1.5h)Day 5: Calaveras Big Tree State Park (3h)Day 6: Hollywood, Los Angeles (6h)Day 7: Trolley tour*, San Diego* (2h)Nevada* (22h)Week 4 (November)Day 1: Las Vegas* (5h)Day 2: Stratosphere*, Cirque du Soleil*Day 3: Neon museum, indoor skydivingDay 4: Sedan Crater (2.5h)Day 5: Tikaboo Peak (4 hr), Little A'Le'Inn (2h)Day 6: Lehman Caves (3.5h)Day 7: Great Basin National Park, Wayne Newton’s Casa de Shenandoah (5h)Utah* (20h)Week 5 (December)Day 1: Bonneville Salt Flats (7h)Day 2: Temple Square and the Great Salt Lake (2h)Day 3: Arches National Park* (4h)Day 4: Goblin Valley State Park (1.5h)Day 5: Bryce Canyon National Park (4h)Day 6: Zion National Park (1.5h)Day 7: Scenic Drives from KanabArizona* (14.5h)Week 6 (December)Day 1: Grand Canyon*, (North Rim, 2h, South Rim, 4h)Day 2: Two-day mule ride down the Canyon*Book this trip at least a year in advance if you plan to do the south rim trail!Day 3: Stay at the bottom of the Grand Canyon*Day 4: Return to the top of the Grand Canyon*Day 5: Wutpaki National Monument, Petrified Forest (from North Rim, 6h, from South Rim, 4h)Day 6: Taliesin, Goldfield Ghost Town (4h)Day 7: Biosphere 2*, San Xavier Del Bac Mission (2.5h)New Mexico* (21h)Week 7 (December)Day 1: Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Las Cruces (7.5h)Day 2: White Sands National Monument (1h)Day 3: Sandia Peak Tramway (4h)Day 4: Chaco Culture National Historical Park (3.5h)Day 5: Aztec Ruins National Monument (1.5h)Day 6: Santa Fe, Canyon Road Arts District, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (3.5h)Day 7: El Rancho de los Golondrinos, Museum of International FolkTexas* (21h)Week 8 (December)Day 1: Amarillo, Cadillac Ranch (4h)Day 2: Palo Duro Canyon State Park (1h)Day 4: Enchanted Rock (7h)Day 3: Alamo (1.5h)Day 5: Space Center in Houston (3.5h)Day 6: Dallas, Cowtown Opry at the Stockyards (4h)Day 7: Dallas Arboretum and Botanical GardensOklahoma (12.5h)Week 9 (December)Day 1: Sipokni West, Chickasaw Cultural Center (3h)Day 2: Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge (2h)Day 3: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (1.5h)Day 4: Hot air balloon ride in Tulsa, Philbrook Museum of Art (1.5h)Day 5: Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve (1h)Day 6: Drive Route 66, Vintage Iron Motorcycle Museum (2.5h)Day 7: Cherokee Heritage Center (2h)Missouri* (12.5h)Week 10 (January)Day 1: George Washington Carver National Monument (2.5h)Day 2: Fantastic Caverns (1h)Day 3: St. Louis*, Gateway Arch* (3.5h)Day 4: Museum of Transportation, Laumeier Sculpture Park, Anheuser-Busch BreweryDay 5: Elephant Rocks State Park (1.5h)Day 6: Silver Dollar City (4h)Day 7: Titanic MuseumArkansas (10.5h)Week 11 (January)Day 1: Walmart Museum, Mildred B Cooper Memorial Chapel (2.5h)Day 2: Thorncrown Chapel, Christ of the Ozarks (1h)Day 3: Arkansas Alligator Museum, Josephine Tussaud Wax Museum (4h)Day 4: Hot Springs National ParkDay 5: Little Rock, Esse Museum, H.U. Lee International Gate and Garden (1h)Day 6: Newton House Museum (2h)Day 7: South Arkansas ArboretumLouisiana* (9.5h)Week 12 (January)Day 1: Lafayette, Bayou Tourtue, McGee’s Landing (5h)Day 2: Attakapas Swamp (2h)Attakapas Adventures eco swamp tours home pageDay 3: Shirley C Tucker Herbarium, Baton Rouge (1h)Day 4: French Quarter*, New Orleans* (1.5h)Day 5: French Quarter*, Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo*Day 6: Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World*Day 7: Sea plane tour of the Louisiana wetlandsMississippi* (10h)Week 13 (January)Day 1: Mississippi Gulf Coast*, Magnolia State Rocker, Katrina Angel Trees (1h)Day 2: Ship IslandFerry from GulportDay 3: Rocky Springs Trail portion of the Natchez Trace (3.5h)Day 4: Vicksburg, Biedenham Coco-Cola Museum, Yesterday’s Children Toy Museum (1h)Day 5: Delta State University Sculpture Garden (2h)Day 6: Quepaw Canoe Company tour (1h)Day 7: Brussel’s Bonsai Nursery (1.5h)Tennessee* (11h)Week 14 (February)Day 1: National Civil Rights Museum, Graceland*, Memphis* (1h)Day 2: Belle Meade Plantation, Parthenon, Nashville (3h)Day 3: Cheekwood Art & Garden, Sunsphere (3h)Day 4: Dollywood* (1h)Day 5: Dollywood*Day 6: Ober Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg Space NeedleDay 7: Ruby Falls (3h)Alabama (12h)Week 15 (February)Day 1: Tuscumbia (3h)“Ivy Green” (birth place of Helen Keller)Day 2: Fromagerie Belle Chevre, US Space and Rocket Center (2h)Day 3: Guntersville State Park Lodge (1h)Watch for Bald EaglesDay 4: Guntersville MuseumDay 5: First White House of the Confederacy (2.5h)Day 6: Fort Morgan (3.5h)Day 7: Cruise the gulfFlorida* (17.5h)Week 16 (February)Day 1: Pensacola Lighthouse and Museum (1.5h)Day 2: Mission San Luis (3h)Day 3: Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg (4.5h)Day 4: Universal Studios*, Orlando* (1.5h)Day 5: Disney World*Day 6: Everglades National Park (4h)Day 7: Shipwreck Museum, Mallory Square in Key West* (3h)Ship your RV to Atlanta!Puerto Rico* (4h)Week 17 (February)Day 1: Fly to San Juan*, Puerto RicoRent a car for this excursionDay 2: Old San Juan*, walk the city wall path (bring water!)*Collect beach glass across from the Capitol building*Day 3: Arecibio Light House* (1h)Day 4: Rio Abajo forest*, visit Cueva Clara*Day 5: La Parquera* (2h)Swim with dinoflagellates in the bioluminescent bay*Day 6: Gilligan’s Island*Leave from Playa de Guernica*Day 7: Whale watching from Cabo Rojo (1h)Georgia* (7.5h)Week 18 (March)Day 1: Fly to Atlanta*Day 2: Margaret Mitchel House, Fountain of Rings showDay 3: Center for Puppetry Arts, Swan HouseDay 4: Center for Civil and Human RightsDay 5: Gem Mining at the Lily Pad Village in Blue Ridge (2h)Day 6: Andersonville National Historic Site (2h)Day 7: Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Bonaventure Cemetery (3.5h)South Carolina (8h)Week 19 (March)Day 1: Hilton Head (1h)Day 2: Hilton HeadDay 3: Charleston, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, Middleton Place (2h)Day 4: Patriots Point, Fort SumterDay 5: Myrtle Beach (2h)Day 6: Broadway at the Beach, Brookgreen GardensDay 7: Congaree National Park (3h)North Carolina (19.5h)Week 20 (March)Day 1: Bryson City, Clingmans Dome (4.5h)Day 2: Biltmore estate, Folk Art Center, Asheville (2h)Day 3: Tweetsie Railroad (2h)Day 4: Nascar Hall of Fame, Durham (2h)Day 5: Duke Lemur Center (reservation required!), Outer Banks (6h)Day 6: Wright Brothers National Memorial, Wild Mustangs (2h)Day 7: Roanoke Island, “The Lost Colony” stage show (1h)Virginia (14h)Week 21 (March)Day 1: Virginia Beach, First Landing Cross, Fort Henry Lighthouse, Norwegian Lady (2.5h)Day 2: Colonial Williamsburg, Bassett Hall, George Wythe House (1h)Day 3: Historic JamestowneDay 4: Middleburg, National Sporting Library and Museum (3h)Winery, there seem to be a lot around this area, visit oneDay 5: Shenandoah National Park, Skyland (1.5h)Day 6: Luray Caverns, Rope Adventure Park, LurayDay 7: Drive Blue Ridge Parkway to Fancy Gap (6h)Kentucky (13.5h)Week 22 (March)Day 1: Cumberland Falls (5h)Day 2: National Corvette Museum, Lost River Cave (2.5h)Day 3: Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Churchill Downs (2h)Day 4: Big Bone Lick State Park, Creation Museum (2h)Day 5: Kentucky Horse Park (1h)Day 6: Red River Gorge (1h)Day 7: Red River GorgeWest Virginia* (14h)Week 23 (April)Day 1: Museum of Radio and Technology, Heritage Farm Museum and Village (2h)Day 2: Grave Creek Indian Mound (3.5h)Day 3: Prickett’s Fort State Park (2h)Day 4: Blackwater Falls (2h)Day 5: Seneca Rocks (1h)Day 6: Berkeley Springs State Park (2h)Day 7: Loudoun Heights (1.5h)Maryland (9h)Week 24 (April)Day 1: Antietam National Battlefield (1h)Day 2: Catoctin National ParkDay 3: Baltimore, B&O Railroad Museum, Edgar Allan Poe House (1h)Day 4: Point Lookout State Park (2h)Day 5: Annapolis, United States Naval Academy, National Cryptologic Museum (2h)Day 6: Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (1.5h)Day 7: Assateague State Park (1.5h)Delaware (5h)Week 25 (April)Day 1: Fenwick Island Lighthouse, Delaware Seashore State Park, Holts Landing State Park (1.5h)Day 2: Cape Henlopen State Park, Zwaanendael Museum (1h)Day 3: Lums Pond State Park, Pea Patch Island (1.5h)Day 4: Newark Reservoir, Hagley Museum and Library (1h)Day 5: Winterthur MuseumDay 6: Nemours Mansion and GardensDay 7: Finns PointNew Jersey* (4.5h)Week 26 (April)Day 1: Storybrook Land (1.5h)Day 2: Atlantic CityDay 3: Jersey Shore (1h)Day 4: Grounds for Sculpture (1h)Day 5: Ellis Island* & Statue of Liberty* (1h)Take Ferry from Liberty State Park*Day 6: Thomas Edison National Historical ParkDay 7: Paterson Great Falls National Historical ParkConnecticut (3.5h)Week 27 (May)Day 1: Barnum Museum (1.5h)Day 2: Thimble Islands day cruiseDay 3: Dinosaur State Park (1h)Day 4: Elizabeth Park Conservancy, Harriet Beecher Stowe CenterDay 5: Gillette Castle (1h)Day 6: Rocky Neck State ParkDay 7: Mystic SeaportRhode Island (3h)Week 28 (May)Day 1: Port Judith Lighthouse (1h)Day 2: National Museum of American Illustration, Newport Cliff Walk (1h)Day 3: Rough Point, The Breakers, RosecliffDay 4: Norman Bird SanctuaryDay 5: Green Animals Topiary GardenDay 6: Roger Williams Park Botanical Center (1h)Day 7: Slater Cotton MillMassachusetts (7h)Week 29 (May)Day 1: Battleship CoveDay 2: Martha’s Vineyard (2h)Day 3: Plimoth Plantation and Plymouth Rock (2h)Day 4: Harvard, Freedom Trail, Boston (1h)Day 5: Boston Tea Party Ships, See a game at Fenway ParkDay 6: Old Sturbridge Village (1h)Day 7: Norman Rockwell Museum (1h)New Hampshire (9h)Week 30 (May)Day 1: Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Enfield Shaker Museum (3h)Day 2: McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (1h)Day 3: Canterbury Shaker VillageDay 4: Prescott Park (1h)Day 5: Conway Scenic Railroad (2h)Day 6: Echo Lake, Flume Gorge (1h)Day 7: Santa’s Village (1h)Maine (11h)Week 31 (June)Day 1: Seashore Trolley Museum (2.5h)Day 2: Palace PlaylandDay 3: DeLorme Eartha, Desert of Maine (1h)Day 4: Cadillac Mountain, Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park (3h)Day 5: Sand BeachDay 6: Schoodic Peninsula (1.5h)Day 7: Baxter State Park (3h)Vermont (13.5h)Week 32 (June)Day 1: Lake Willoughby (6h)Day 2: Bread and Puppet Theater, St Anne’s Shrine, Lake Champlain (2h)Day 3: Shelburne Museum, Old Round Church (1.5h)Day 4: Smuggler’s State Park (1h)Day 5: Montshire Museum of Science (1.5h)Day 6: American Precision MuseumDay 7: Vermont Marble Museum (1.5h)New York* (13.5h)Week 33 (June)Day 1: Niagara Falls* (6h)Day 2: Letchworth State Park, Watkins Glen State Park (3h)Day 3: Carnegie Hall*, New York City* (4.5h)Day 4: Central Park*, Guggenheim MuseumDay 5: Times Square*, Madame TussaudsDay 6: SoHo*Day 7: Coney IslandPennsylvania* (8h)Week 34 (June)Day 1: Sesame Place (1.5h)Day 2: Love Park, Mutter Museum, PhiladelphiaDay 3: Independence Hall, Eastern State PenitentiaryDay 4: Valley Forge National Historical ParkDay 5: Hershey Park (1.5h)Day 6: Gettysburg (1h)Day 7: Falling Water, Andy Warhol Museum (4h)Ohio* (17h)Week 35 (July)Day 1: Chateau Laroche (4h)Day 2: East Harbor State Park (3.5h)Day 3: Ohio State Reformatory (1.5h)Day 4: The Wilds* (1.5h)Day 5: Hocking Hills*, Tecumseh* (3.5h)Day 6: Serpent Mound Historical Site (1.5h)Day 7: National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, American Sign Museum (1.5h)Indiana* (7.5h)Week 36 (July)Day 1: Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Indianapolis City Market Catcombs (2h)Day 2: Eiteljorg Museum, Indiana Medical History MuseumDay 3: Periodic Table of Elements, Depauw University (1h)Day 4: Turkey Run State Park (1h)Day 5: Tippecanoe Battle Ground (1h)Day 6: Indiana Dunes (1.5h)Day 7: Amish Acres (1h)Michigan* (18h)Week 37 (July)Day 1: Greenfield Village, Detroit Historical Museum* (3.5h)Day 2: Belle IsleDay 3: Heidelberg Project, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical MuseumDay 4: Sleeping Bear Dunes (4.5h)Day 5: Mackinaw Island (3h)Day 6: Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Tahquamenon Falls (2h)Day 7: Porcupine Mountains (5h)Wisconsin* (10.5h)Week 38 (July)Day 1: Chequamegon National Forest (2h)Day 2: Paul Bunyan Logging Camp (2.5h)Day 3: The House on the Rock, Taliesin (3h)Day 4: Circus World, Dr. Evermor’s Forevertron (1h)Day 5: Devil’s Lake State ParkDay 6: International Crane FoundationDay 7: Harley Davidson Museum (2h)Illinois* (5.5h)Week 39 (July)Day 1: The Tempel Lipizzans, Old Mill Creek (1h)Day 2: Volo Auto Museum, Willis Tower* (1h)Day 3: Driehaus Museum, International Museum of Surgical ScienceDay 4: Navy Pier*, Millennium Park*, Chicago river boat archeological tour*Day 5: Frank Lloyd Wright homes tour*, Oak Park*Day 6: Starved Rock State Park (1.5h)Day 7: Lincoln Home National Historic Site (2h)Iowa* (16h)Week 40 (August)Day 1: Crapo Park (3h)Day 2: National Balloon Classic, Indianola (2.5h)End of July, beginning of AugustDay 3: Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Boon and Scenic Valley Railroad (1.5h)Day 4: Amana Colonies (2h)Day 5: Maquoketa Caves State Park (1.5h)Day 6: Field of Dreams Movie Site, Vesterheim: The National Norwegian-American Museum & Heritage Center (2.5h)Day 7: Grotto of the Redemption (3h)Minnesota (14h)Week 41 (August)Day 1: Pipstone National Monument (3h)Day 2: Mystery Cave State Park (4h)Day 3: Mall of America (2h)Day 4: Minnehaha Falls, Cathedral of St PaulDay 5: Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Weisman Art MuseumDay 6: Munsinger Gardens (1.5h)Day 7: Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mines (3.5h)North Dakota (15.5h)Week 42 (August)Day 1: Bonanzaville (5h)Day 2: National Buffalo Museum (1.5h)Day 3: International Peace Garden (3h)Day 4: Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center, Fort Mandan (3h)Day 5: Knife River Indian VillagesDay 6: Enchanted Highway, Dakota Dinosaur Museum (1.5h)Day 7: Cowboy Hall of Fame, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Medora Musical (1.5h)South Dakota* (13h)Week 43 (August)Day 1: Needles, Black Hills (5h)Day 2: Mount Moriah Cemetery, Crazy Horse (2.5h)Day 3: Mount Rushmore*Day 4: Reptile GardenDay 5: Roberts Prairie Dog Town, Badlands (1.5h)Day 6: Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, Big Badlands OverlookDay 7: Corn Palace Festival, Mitchell (4h)Late AugustNebraska (11h)Week 44 (September)Day 1: Ashfall Fossil Beds (6h)Day 2: Freedom Park (3h)Day 3: Joslyn Castle, Malcolm X HouseDay 4: Gerald R Ford Birthsite and GardensDay 5: Strategic Air Command and Aerospace MuseumDay 6: International Quilt Study Center and Museum, Frank H Woods Telephone MuseumDay 7: Pioneer Village (2h)Kansas* (13.5h)Week 45 (September)Day 1: The Geographic Center of the United States (1h)Day 2: Amelia Earhart Birthplace, Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site (4.5h)Day 3: Emmett Kelly Museum, (2.5h)Day 4: Old Cowtown Museum, Allen Lambe House (2h)Day 5: Strataca Salt Mine (1h)Day 6: Coronado Heights Castle (1h)Day 7: Barbed Wire Museum (1.5h)Colorado* (16h)Week 46 (September)Day 1: Great Sand Dunes National Park (7h)Day 2: Great Sand Dunes National ParkDay 3: Pikes Peak* (4h)Day 4: Coors Brewery Tour*, Golden*, Casa Bonita* (2.5h)Day 5: Boulder*Day 6: Buffalo Bill’s Grave*, Lookout Mountain* (1.5h)Day 7: Winter Park Resort (1h)Wyoming* (23.5h)Week 47 (September)Day 1: Museum of the Mountain Man (6.5h)Day 2: National Museum of Wildlife Art (1.5h)Day 3: Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone (3.5h)Day 4: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Artist’s Point (3h)Day 5: Grand Prismatic Spring, Opal Pool (1h)Day 6: Old Faithful GeyserDay 7: Devil’s Tower (8h)Montana* (13h)Week 48 (September)Day 1: Little Bighorn Battlefield (3.5h)Day 2: Pictograph Cave (1h)Day 3: American Computer Museum (2.5h)Day 4: Our Lady of the Rockies, Berkeley Pit (2h)Day 5: World Museum of MiningDay 6: Cathedral of St Helena (1h)Day 7: Flathead Lake (3h)Idaho (23h)Week 49 (October)Day 1: Lake Coeur d’Alene (3.5h)Day 2: Hells Canyon (4.5h)Day 3: Craters of the Moon National Monument (8h)Day 4: Idaho Potato Museum (3h)Day 5: Boise Idaho Temple, Egyptian Theater (4h)Day 6: Old Idaho Penitentiary SiteDay 7: World Center for Birds of Prey, Table RockOregon* (19h)Week 50 (October)Day 1: Crater Lake (7h)Day 2: Cape Perpetua, Sea Lion Caves (4h)Day 3: Devils Punchbowl (1h)Day 4: Enchanted Forest (2h)Day 5: Multnomah Falls, The Grotto (2.5h)Day 6: Lan Su Chinese Garden, Portland Japanese GardenDay 7: Haystack Rock, Astoria Column (2.5h)Washington* (9.5h)Week 51 (October)Day 1: Hoh Rain forest (4h)Day 2: Snoqualmie Falls (4h)Day 3: Pike Place Market*, Gum Wall, Ye Olde Curiosity ShopDay 4: Space Needle*, EMP Museum, Chihuly Garden and GlassDay 5: Pacific Science Center, Olympic Sculpture ParkDay 6: Volunteer ParkDay 7: Whatcom Falls Park, SPARK Museum (1.5h)Alaska (14h)Week 52 (October)Day 1: Take ferry from Bellingham (leaves on Fridays)Viking Travel Inc. / AlaskaFerry.com, you can take your RVDay 2: Enjoy the ferry rideDay 3: Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan (ferry stop)Day 4: Skagway (switch to driving)Appears to be the last stop when leaving from BellinghamDay 5: Tok (10h)You have to drive through Canada, bring a passportDay 6: El Dorado Gold Mine, Fairbanks (4h)Day 7: Stay until Northern Lights are sighted, then sell the RV and fly home*Places I’ve been or things I’ve seenNotes:All state maps with destinations made with Bing MapsAll photos from Google ImagesAll drive times from Google Maps

It's a really very long list.Nobody will fly for a thousand years!— Wilbur Wright, 1901, in a fit of despairSUCCESS FOUR FLIGHTS THURSDAY MORNING ALL AGAINST TWENTY ONE MILE WIND STARTED FROM LEVEL WITH ENGINE POWER ALONE AVERAGE SPEED THROUGH AIR THIRTY ONE MILES LONGEST 57 SECONDS INFORM PRESS HOME CHRISTMAS.OREVELLE WRIGHT— A telegram, with the original misprints, from Orville Wright to his father, December 17, 1903The scene: Wind-swept sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills, 4 mi south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.The time: About 10:35 A.M. on Thursday, December 17, 1903.The characters: Orville and Wilbur Wright and five local witnesses.The action: Poised, ready to make history, is a flimsy, odd-looking machine, made from spruce and cloth in the form of two wings, one placed above the other, a horizontal elevator mounted on struts in front of the wings, and a double vertical rudder behind the wings (see Figure 1.1). A 12-hp engine is mounted on the top surface of the bottom wing, slightly right of center. To the left of this engine lies a man-Orville Wright-prone on the bottom wing, facing into the brisk and cold December wind. Behind him rotate two ungainly looking airscrews (propellers), driven by two chain and pulley arrangements connected to the same engine.Figure 1.1 Three views of the Wright Flyer I, 1903.The machine begins to move along a 60-ft launching rail on level ground. Wilbur Wright runs along the right side of the machine, supporting the wingtip so that it will not drag the sand. Near the end of the starting rail, the machine lifts into the air; at this moment, John Daniels of the Kill Devil Life Saving Station takes a photograph which preserves for all time the most historic moment in aviation history (see Figure 1.2).Figure 1.2 The first heavier-than-air flight in history: the Wright Flyer I with Orville Wright at the controls, December 17, 1903. (National Air and Space Museum.)The machine flies unevenly, rising suddenly to about 10 ft, then ducking quickly toward the ground. This type of erratic flight continues for 12 s, when the machine darts to the sand, 120 ft from the point where it lifted from the starting rail. Thus ends a flight which, in Orville Wright's own words, was "the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed, and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started."The machine was the Wright Flyer I, which is shown in Figures 1.1 and 1.2 and which is now preserved for posterity in the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The flight on that cold December 17 was momentous: it brought to a realization the dreams of centuries, and it gave birth to a new way of life. It was the first genuine powered flight of a heavier-than-air machine. With it, and with the further successes to come over the next five years, came the Wright brothers' clear right to be considered the premier aeronautical engineers of history.However, contrary to some popular belief, the Wright brothers did not truly invent the airplane; rather, they represent the fruition of a century's worth of prior aeronautical research and development. The time was ripe for the attainment of powered flight at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Wright brothers' ingenuity, dedication, and persistence earned them the distinction of being first.We have to look back over the years which led up to successful powered flight and to single out an important few of those inventors and thinkers who can rightfully claim to be the first aeronautical engineers. In this manner, some of the traditions and heritage that underlie modern aerospace engineering will be more appreciated when we follow the development of the technical concepts of flight.VERY EARLY DEVELOPMENTSSince the dawn of human intelligence, the idea of flying in the same realm as birds has possessed human minds. Witness the early Greek myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus. Imprisoned on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea, Daedalus is said to have made wings fastened with wax. With these wings, they both escaped by flying through the air. However, Icarus, against his father's warnings, flew too close to the sun; the wax melted, and Icarus fell to his death in the sea.Daedalus,watching his son Icarus fall to his deathAll early thinking of human flight centered on the imitation of birds. Various unsung ancient and medieval people fashioned wings and met with sometimes disastrous and always unsuccessful consequences in leaping from towers or roofs, flapping vigorously. In time, the idea of strapping a pair of wings to arms fell out of favor. It was replaced by the concept of wings flapped up and down by various mechanical mechanisms, powered by some type of human arm, leg, or body movement.These machines are called ornithopters. Recent historical research has uncovered that Leonardo da Vinci himself was possessed by the idea of human flight and that he designed vast numbers of ornithopters toward the end of the fifteenth century. In his surviving manuscripts, over 35,000 words and 500 sketches deal with flight.One of his ornithopter designs is shown in Figure 1.3, which is an original da Vinci sketch made sometime between 1486 and 1490. It is not known whether da Vinci ever built or tested any of his designs. However, human-powered flight by flapping wings was always doomed to failure. In this sense, da Vinci's efforts did not make important contributions to the technical advancement of flight.Figure 1.3 An ornithopter design by Leonardo da Vinci, 1486-1490.Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopterHuman efforts to fly literally got off the ground on November 21, 1783, when a balloon carrying Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d' Arlandes ascended into the air and drifted 5 mi across Paris. The balloon was inflated and buoyed up by hot air from an open fire burning in a large wicker basket underneath. The design and construction of the balloon were due to the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Etienne.In 1782, Joseph Montgolfier, gazing into his fireplace, conceived the idea of using the "lifting power" of hot air rising from a flame to lift a person from the surface of the earth.Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier were the sonsof a paper manufacturer in south central France. Joseph, a scruffy-looking guy who had an inventive streak, tried to come up with a workable method of attacking Gibraltar -- a British fortress said to be impenetrable. Joseph had the idea that perhaps soldiers could somehow be airlifted by the same force that drove burning embers up a chimney. He explained his idea to his business-minded brother Jacques-Étienne, and built a small paper model balloon that would capture hot air and lift objects via a frame built around the balloon. The model worked, and Joseph built larger and sturdier models based on his previous successes.Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne MontgolfierIn September of 1783, the marketing-oriented Jacques-Étienne went to Paris to sell the idea of human flight (in a much larger test balloon) to the Court of Louis XVI. Government contracts were as lucrative then as they are now, so hawking a high-tech vehicle to the highest levels of government made a lot of sense. Jacques-Étienne was a more polished guy than his nerdy brother Joseph, so he was the point man on construction and operations in the Paris venture.King Louis was certainly interested, but concerned about the effects of altitude on humans. Could Jacques-Étienne try this new vehicle with condemned prisoners, before regular passengers were boarded? Jacques-Étienne refrained from the offer of human test subjects, choosing to launch a sheep, a duck, and a rooster instead. On September 19th, Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier's balloon lifted the menagerie to a height of 1,500 feet over Versailles. The sheep, duck, and rooster landed with no ill effects, so human air flights would soon commence.A sheep, a duck, and a rooster get into a balloon...Thanks to the success of the mission, King Louis XVI commissioned the largest balloon built to date. It was 75 feet tall and more than 50 feet in diameter. The inner surface contained a volume of more than 60,000 cubic feet, which would be plenty to lift several men off the ground.The public demonstration would be scheduled for late November of 1783.Of course, Jacques-Étienne would not risk the possibility of a public failure, so on October 15th, 1783, he climbed aboard the just-completed balloon and began a tethered flight to a height of 80 feet. That day, Monsieur Montgolfier became the first man to fly aboard an actual air vehicle.At 1:54 P.M. on November 21, 1783, the first flight with human passengers rose majestically into the air and lasted for 25 min (see Figure 1.4). It was the first time in history that a human being had been lifted off the ground for a sustained period of time.Figure 1.4 The first aerial voyage in history: the Montgolfier hot-air balloon lifts from the ground near Paris, November 21, 1783.Very quickly after this, the noted French physicist J. A. C. Charles (of Charles' gas law in physics) built and flew a hydrogen-filled balloon from the Tuileries Gardens in Paris on December 1, 1783.So people were finally off the ground! Balloons, or "aerostatic machines" as called by the Montgolfiers, made no real technical contributions to human heavier-than-air flight. However, they served a major purpose in triggering the public's interest in flight through the air. They were living proof that people could really leave the ground and sample the environs heretofore exclusively reserved for birds. Moreover, they were the only means of human flight for almost 100 years.SIR GEORGE CAYLEY (1773-1857): THE TRUE INVENTOR OF THE AIRPLANEThe modern airplane has its origin in a design set forth by George Cayley in 1799.It was the first concept to include a fixed wing for generating lift, another separate mechanism for propulsion (Cayley envisioned paddles), and a combined horizontal and vertical (cruciform) tail for stability. Cayley inscribed his idea on a silver disc (presumably for permanence), shown in Figure 1.5. On the reverse side of the disc is a diagram of the lift and drag forces on an inclined plane (the wing). The disc is now preserved in the Science Museum in London.Figure 1.5 The silver disc on which Cayley engraved his concept for a fixed-wing aircraft, the first in history, in 1799. The reverse side of the disc shows the resultant aerodynamic force on a wing resolved into lift and drag components. indicating Caylcy's full understanding of the function of a fixed wing.The disc is presently in the Science Museum in London.Before this time, thoughts of mechanical flight had been oriented towards the flapping wings of ornithopters, where the flapping motion was supposed to provide both lift and propulsion. (Da Vinci designed his ornithopter wings to flap simultaneously downward and backward for lift and propulsion.)However, Cayley is responsible for breaking this unsuccessful line of thought; he separated the concept of lift from propulsion and, in so doing, set into motion a century of aeronautical development that culminated in the Wright brothers' success in 1903.George Cayley is a giant in aeronautical history: he is the parent of modem aviation and is the first true aeronautical engineer. Let us look at him more closely.Cayley was born at Scarborough in Yorkshire, England, on December 27, 1773. He was educated at York and Nottingham and later studied chemistry and electricity under several noted tutors. He was a scholarly man of some rank, a baronet who spent much of his time on the family estate called Brampton. A portrait of Cayley is shown in Figure 1.6.Figure l.6 Sir George CayleyHe was a well-preserved person, of extreme intellect and open mind, active in many pursuits over a long life of 84 years. In 1825, he invented the caterpillar tractor, forerunner of all modern tracked vehicles. In addition, he was chairman of the Whig Club of York, founded the Yorkshire Philosophical Society (1821 ), co founded the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1831), was a member of Parliament, was a leading authority on land drainage, and published papers dealing with optics and railroad safety devices. Moreover, he had a social conscience: he appealed for, and donated to, the relief of industrial distress in Yorkshire.However, by far his major and lasting contribution to humanity was in aeronautics. After experimenting with model helicopters beginning in 1796, Cayley engraved his revolutionary fixed-wing concept on the silver disc in 1799 (see Figure 1.5). This was followed by an intensive 10-year period of aerodynamic investigation and development. In 1804, he built a whirling arm apparatus, shown in Figure 1.7, for testing airfoils; this was simply a lifting surface (airfoil) mounted on the end of a long rod, which was rotated at some speed to generate a flow of air over the airfoil. In modem aerospace engineering, wind tunnels now serve this function, but in Cayley's time the whirling arm was an important development, which allowed the measurement of aerodynamic forces and the center of pressure on a lifting surface. Of course, these measurements were not very accurate, because after a number of revolutions of the arm, the surrounding air would begin to rotate with the device. Nevertheless, it was a first step in aerodynamic testing.Figure 1.7 George Cayley's whirling arm apparatus for testing airfoils.Also in 1804, Cayley designed, built, and flew the small model glider shown in Figure 1.8; this may seem trivial today, something that you may have done as a child, but in 1804 it represented the first modern-configuration airplane of history, with a fixed wing, and a horizontal and vertical tail that could be adjusted. (Cayley generally flew his glider with the tail at a positive angle of incidence, as shown in his sketch in Figure 1.8.) A full-scale replica of this glider is on display at the Science Museum in London-the model is only about 1 m long.Figure 1.8 The first modem configuration airplane in history: Cayley's model glider, 1804.Cayley's first outpouring of aeronautical results was documented in his momentous triple paper of 1809-1810. Entitled "On Aerial Navigation," and published in the November 1809, February 1810, and March 1810 issues of Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy, this document ranks as one of themost important aeronautical works in history. (Note that the words "natural philosophy" in history are synonymous with physical science.) Cayley was prompted to write his triple paper after hearing reports that Jacob Degen had recently flown in a mechanical machine in Vienna.In reality, Degen flew in a contraption which was lifted by a balloon. It was of no significance, but Cayley did not know the details.In an effort to let people know of his activities, Cayley documented many aspects of aerodynamics in his. triple paper. It was the first treatise on theoretical and applied aerodynamics in history to be published.In it, Cayley elaborates on his principle of separation of lift and propulsion and his use of a fixed wing to generate lift. He states that the basic aspect of a flying machine is "to make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air."He notes that a surface inclined at some angle to the direction of motion will generate lift and that a cambered (ClJrved) surface will do this more efficiently than a flat surface. He also states for the first time in history that lift is generated by a region of low pressure on the upper surface of the wing.Stated by Cayley in 1809-1810, these phenomena were new and unique.His triple paper also addressed the matter of flight control and was the first document to discuss the role of the horizontal and vertical tail planes in airplane stability.Interestingly enough, Cayley goes off on a tangent in discussing the use of flappers for propulsion. Note that on the silver disc (see Figure 1.5) Cayley shows some paddles just behind the wing. From 1799 until his death in 1857, Cayley was obsessed with such flappers for aeronautical propulsion.He gave little attention to the propeller (airscrew); indeed, he seemed to have an aversion to rotating machinery of any type. However, this should not detract from his numerous positive contributions. Also in his triple paper, Cayley tells us of the first successful full-size glider of history, built and flown without passengers by him at Brampton in 1809. However, there is no clue as to its configuration.Curiously, the period from 1810 to 1843 was a lull in Cayley's life in regard to aeronautics. Presumably, he was busy with his myriad other interests and activities. During this period, he showed interest in airships (controlled balloons), as opposed to heavier-than-air machines. He made the prophetic statement that "balloon aerial navigation can be done readily, and will probably, in the order of things, come into use before mechanical flight can be rendered sufficiently safe and efficient for ordinary use."He was correct; the first successful airship, propelled by a steam engine, was built and flown by the French engineer Henri Giffard in Paris in 1852, 51 years before the first successful airplane.Cayley's second outpouring of aeronautical results occurred in the period from 1848 to 1854. In 1849, he built and tested a full-size airplane. During some of the flight tests, a 10-year-old boy was carried along and was lifted several meters off the ground while gliding down a hill. Cayley's own sketch of this machine, called the boy carrier, is shown in Figure 1.9. Note that it is a triplane (three wings mounted on top of each other). Cayley was the first to suggest such multiplanes (i.e., biplanes and triplanes), mainly because he was concerned with the possible structural failure of a single large wing (a monoplane). Stacking smaller, more compact, wings on top of each other made more sense to him, and his concept was perpetuated into the twentieth century. It was not until the late 1930s that the monoplane became the dominant airplane configuration. Also note from Figure 1.9 that, strictly speaking, this was a "powered" airplane, i.e., it was equipped with propulsive flappers.Figure 1.9 Cayley's triplane from 1849-the boy carrier. Note the vertical and horizontal tail surfaces and the ftapper-like propulsive mechanism.One of Cayley's most important papers was published in Mechanics Magazine for September 25, 1852. By this time he was 79 years old! The article was entitled "Sir George Cayley's Governable Parachutes." It gave a full description of a large human-carrying glider which incorporated almost all the features of the modern airplane. This design is shown in Figure 1.10, which is a facsimile of the illustration which appeared in the original issue of Mechanics Magazine. This airplane had (1) a main wing at an angle of incidence for lift, with a dihedral for lateral stability, (2) an adjustable cruciform tail for longitudinal and directional stability, (3) a pilot-operated elevator and rudder, (4) a fuselage in the form of a car, with a pilot's seat and three-wheel undercarriage, and (5) a tubular beam and box beam construction. These combined features were not to be seen again until the Wright brothers' designs at the beginning of the twentieth century. Incredibly, this 1852 paper by Cayley went virtually unnoticed, even though Mechanics Magazine had a large circulation. It was recently rediscovered by the eminent British aviation historian Charles H. Gibbs-Smith in 1960 and republished by him in the June 13, 1960, issue of The Times.Figure 1.10 George Cayley's human-carrying glider, from Mechanics Magazine, 1852.Sometime in 1853-the precise date is unknown - George Cayley built and flew the world's first human-carrying glider. Its configuration is not known, but Gibbs-Smith states that it was most likely a triplane on the order of the earlier boy carrier (see Figure 1.9) and that the planform (top view) of the wings was probably shaped much like the glider in Figure 1.10. According to several eyewitness accounts, a gliding flight of several hundred yards was made across a dale at Brampton with Cayley's coachman aboard. The glider landed rather abruptly, and after struggling clear of the vehicle, the shaken coachman is quoted as saying: "Please, Sir George, I wish to give notice. I was hired to drive, and not to fly." Very recently, this flight of Cayley's coachman was reenacted for the public in a special British Broadcasting Corporation television show on Cayley's life.George Cayley died at Brampton on December 15, 1857. During his almost 84 years of life, he laid the basis for all practical aviation. He was called the "father of aerial navigation" by William Samuel Henson in 1846. However, for reasons that are not clear, the name of George Cayley retreated to the background soon after his death. His works became obscure to virtually all later aviation enthusiasts in the latter half of the nineteenth century. This is incredible, indeed unforgivable, considering that his published papers were available in known journals. Obviously, many subsequent inventors did not make the effort to examine the literature before forging ahead on their own ideas. (This is certainly a problem for engineers today, with the virtual explosion of written technical papers since World War II.)However, Cayley's work has been brought to light by the research of several modern historians in the twentieth century. Notable among them is C. H. Gibbs-Smith, from whose book entitled Sir George Cayley's Aeronautics (1962) much of the above material has been gleaned. Gibbs-Smith states that had Cayley's work been extended directly by other aviation pioneers, and had they digested ideas espoused in his triple paper of 1809-1810 and in his 1852 paper, successful powered flight would have most likely occurred in the 1890s. Probably so!As a final tribute to George Cayley, we note that the French aviation historian Charles Dollfus said the following in 1923:The aeroplane is a British invention: it was conceived in all essentials by George Cayley, the great English engineer who worked in the first half of last century. The name of Cayley is little known, even in his own country, and there are very few who know the work of this admirable man, the greatest genius of aviation. A study of his publications fills one with absolute admiration both for his inventiveness, and for his logic and common sense. This great engineer, during the Second Empire, did in fact not only invent the aeroplane entire, as it now exists, but he realized that the problem of aviation had to be divided between theoretical research - Cayley made the first aerodynamic experiments for aeronautical purposes - and practical tests, equally in the case of the glider as of the powered aeroplane.There is more, much more, and we will return if there is time!

Persons, and institutions, rather than nations, can rightly be credited with developing aviation.Naming nations arouses feelings of rivalry and envy; some great nations, have, in the meantime, been bombed into submission and impotence. Naming persons and institutions evokes respect for them today.If you are an American: flight DID NOT start with the Wright brothers.The first thing you need to do is not to pick up an American book — except J.D. Anderson’s A History of Aerodynamics.The Montgolfier brothers of late 18th-century France were the fathers of hot-air ballooning. In a smallish balloon of their own creation—with an envelope of cloth and paper enclosing air heated by burning straw—they made the first successful unmanned balloon flight in June of 1783. In November of that year, fellow Frenchmen Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, marquis d’Arlandes achieved a 10-mile manned flight over Paris, witnessed by France’s King Louis XVI and American inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin.The story of the invention of the airplane begins in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, with the first serious research into aerodynamics—the study of the forces operating on a solid body (for instance, a wing when it is immersed in a stream of air).Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei in Italy, Christiaan Huygens in the Netherlands, and Isaac Newton in England all contributed to an understanding of the relationship between resistance (drag) and such factors as the surface area of an object exposed to the stream and the density of a fluid.Swiss mathematicians Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler and British engineer John Smeaton explained the relationship between pressure and velocity and provided information that enabled a later generation of engineers to calculate aerodynamic forces.We start with George Cayley who was dead by 1857 but understood and illustrated all the principal components required for modern heavier-than-air flight. (Britain: I can no longer call it Great.)George Cayley designed an aircraft wing patterned after the shape, rather than the motion, of a bird’s wing, which led to the creation of the first cambered, or arched, airplane wing. As a practical matter, however, he designed biplane and multiplane wings (the first of their kind) as a means of providing maximum surface area in a strong and easily braced structure.▲English aeronautic pioneer George Cayley established the modern notion of a fixed-wing aircraft in 1799, and he designed a glider (shown in the drawing) that was safely flown by his reluctant servant in 1853 in the first recorded successful manned flight. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.Cayley’s On Aerial Navigation received a cool reception among the scientific community, and over the next three decades Cayley had little to say publicly about heavier-than-air flight. But a pair of lacemakers named William Henson (1812-88) and John Stringfellow (1799 -1883) from Chard, England, decided to try to apply Cayley’s principles—and a few of their own—to the construction of a full-size, powered flying machine that they called an "Aerial Steam Carriage."The principle on which the mechanism is constructed is, that if any light and a flat or nearly flat article be projected or thrown edgewise in a slightly inclined position the same will rise in the air, till the force exerted is expended, when the vehicle so thrown and projected, will descend and it will readily be conceived that if the article so projected or thrown possessed in itself a continuous power or force equal to that used in throwing and projecting it, the article will continue to ascend as long as the forward part of the surface was upwards in respect to the hinder part and that such article when the power was stopped or when the inclination was reversed, would descend by gravity only if the power, or by gravity aided by the force of the power contained in the article if the power be continued, these imitating the flight of a bird….Henson and Stringfellow's design was one of the most carefully thought-out up to its time, and quite prescient, as Henson's patent specifications show.They embarked on a massive publicity campaign that involved illustrations of the Ariel in flight over London and exotic settings in Egypt, India, and China.—An Aerial Transit Company Print (cropped) Depicting The Aerial Steam Carriage "ARIEL" - 1843While the patent application produced a sarcastic hubbub in the press, William Henson quietly constructed a proof-of-concept model that he called Ariel, which he hoped to fly at London's Adelaide Gallery.The 14-pound, 40-square-foot-wing model firmly refused to fly off the end of its launch ramp. According to the August 4, 1843, Morning Herald, "A third, a fourth, and it is not likely known how many attempts were made, but with an invariable result. Directly the inclined plane was left the model came down flop. Up to the present time, therefore, the world is no nearer flying."Discouraged, Henson rejoined Stringfellow in Chard for another attempt with a model. This, too, failed.Now broke as well, Henson wrote to Cayley.Although I am personally unknown to you I have taken the liberty of addressing you this letter upon Aerial Navigation. . . . You probably imagined that I had long since given it up as a failure, but you will be pleased to hear that I have in conjunction with my friend Mr. Stringfellow been working more or less since 1843 towards the accomplishment of Aerial Navigation, and that we feel very sanguine as to the results of our endeavour and consider that we have arrived at that stage of proceedings which justifies us in obtaining that pecuniary assistance necessary to carry on our efforts upon an enlarged scale and with increased energy. We therefore resolved to apply to you as the Father of Aerial Navigation to ascertain whether you would like to have anything to do in the matter or not.William Henson, September 28, 1846I had thought that you had abandoned the subject, which tho' true in principle you had rushed upon with far too great confidence as to its practice some years ago. If you have been making experiments since that time you will have found how many difficulties you have to adjust and overcome before the results you wish can be accomplished. I think that Balloon Aerial Navigation can be done readily and will probably come into use before Mechanical Flight can be rendered sufficiently safe and efficient for ordinary use. ... As to new principles, there are none. Of practical expedience there will soon be an endless variety, and to select the best is the point at issue . . . when if you can show me any experimental proof of mechanical flight maintainable for a sufficient time by mechanical power, I shall be much gratified. Though I have not the weight of capital to apply to such matters, I perhaps might be able to aid you in some measure by my experience.... I do not however think that any money, except by exhibition of a novelty can be made by it.Sir George Cayley, October 12, 1846Thus rebuked, Henson left for America, and faded into history.His erstwhile partner, John Stringfellow, continued his experiments with flying models until his death, becoming the first person in history to achieve powered flight, with his 1846 model, which embodied the principles set forth in the Aerial Steam Carriage.▲Although there were 77 exhibits on display at the 11-day Aeronautical Exhibition held in 1868 at the Crystal Palace, London—the world's first such event—Stringfellow's triplane was the focus. Its twice daily steam-powered "flights" gathered good-sized crowds, including royalty. And a steam engine designed by Stringfellow won a £100 prize for the engine with the greatest power-to-weight ratio.Eventually England began believing in men like Stringfellow, Henson, and Cayley; in 1866 a few of them formed the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, which continues to this day.Not all of the experimenting was confined to England, as a fascinating tale of an ancient mariner and his albatross shows. It was one of a number of stories published in the landmark Progress in Flying Machines, by American engineer and aeronautical aficionado Octave Chanute, a friend and contemporary of the Wrights.Captain Le Bris was a French mariner, who had in his younger days made several voyages around the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, and whose imagination had been fired by the sight of the albatross, sporting in the tempest on rigid wings, and keeping up with the fleetest ships without exertion. He had killed one of these birds, and claimed to have observed a very remarkable phenomenon. In his own words, as quoted by M. de la Landelle:I took the wing of the albatross and exposed it to the breeze; and lo! in spite of me it drew forward into the wind; notwithstanding my resistance it tended to rise. Thus I had discovered the secret of the bird! I comprehended the whole mystery of flight.Possessed with an ardent imagination, he early became smitten with the design of building an artificial bird capable of carrying him, whose wings should be controlled by means of levers and by a system of rigging; and when he returned to France, and had become the captain of a coasting vessel,sailing from Douarnenez (Finistere), where he was born, and where he had married, he designed and constructed with his own hands the artificial albatross shown in the figure below.His expectation was that, with a strong wind, he would rise into the air and reproduce all the evolutions of the soaring albatross, without any flapping whatever.Believing that it was necessary that the apparatus should have an initial velocity of its own, in addition to that of the wind, he chose a Sunday morning, when there was a good 10-knot breeze from the right direction, and setting his artificial albatross horizontally on a cart, he started down the road against the brisk wind, the cart being driven by a peasant. The bird, with extended wings, 50 ft. across, was held down by a rope passing under the rails of the cart and terminating in a slip knot fastened to Le Bris's wrist, so that with one jerk he could loosen the attachment and allow the rope to run. He stood upright in the canoe, unencumbered in his movements, his hands being on the levers and depressing the front edge of the wings, so that the wind should press upon the top only and hold them down, their position being, moreover, temporarily maintained by assistants walking along on each side.Le Bris, pressing on his levers, slowly raised the front edge of the wings to a very slight angle of incidence; they fluttered a moment, and then took the wind like a sail on the under side, relieving the weight upon the cart so much that the horse began to gallop…..the machine rose into the air, and Le Bris said he found himself perfectly balanced, going up steadily to a height of nearly 300 ft., and sailing about twice that distance over the road.(The story has a hilarious ending: At the last moment the running rope had whipped and wound around the body of the driver, and lifted him from his seat, and carried him up into the air. He involuntarily performed the part of the tail of a kite; his weight, by an extraordinary chance, just balancing the apparatus properly at the assumed angle of incidence, and with the strength of the brisk wind then blowing. Up above, in the machine, Le Bris felt himself well poised in the breeze, and exulted that he was about to pass two hours in the air; but below, the driver was hanging on to the rope and howling with fright and anguish. Le Bris took measures to descend. He changed the angle of incidence of his wings, came down slowly, and maneuvered so well that the driver gently reached the soil, entirely unharmed ; but the equilibrium of the artificial albatross was no longer the same, because part of the weight had been relieved, and Le Bris did not succeed in reascending. He managed with his levers to retard the descent, and came down entirely unhurt, but one wing struck the ground in advance of the other and was somewhat damaged.)He had failed in both experiments for want of adequate equilibrium. He fairly provided for the transverse balance by making his wings flexible, but the longitudinal equilibrium was defective, as he could not adjust the fore-and-aft balance as instantly as the circumstances changed. The bird does this like a flash by instinct; the man was compelled to reason it out, and he could not act quickly enough.His second apparatus was smashed, his means and his credit were exhausted, his friends forsook him, and perhaps his own courage weakened, for he did not try again.Wind TunnelsAddressing the first meeting of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain in 1866, Francis H. Wenham provided a concise and forceful restatement of Cayley’s most important ideas regarding wings.Five years later, in cooperation with John Browning, Wenham built the first wind tunnel, a device that would have a profound effect on the study of wings and the development of improved airfoils. Horatio Phillips, a fellow member of the Aeronautical Society, developed an even more effective wind tunnel design, and he patented (1884) a two-surface, cambered-airfoil design that provided the foundation for most subsequent work in the field.Then we have a whole panoply of characters flying gliders and kites and powered wings and great ideas: Percy Pilcher (1899-Britain), Pierre Mouillard (1865-Algiers), Sir Hiram Maxim, Clement Ader, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Glenn H. Curtiss, Adolph Buseman in 1935 and Robert T. Jones a few years later, and 150, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 other characters in between.▲A Brazilian in France: Alberto Santos-DumontGerman mechanical engineer Otto Lilienthal compiled data on Cayley’s design, which led him to build and successfully fly a number of gliders.Beginning in the 1870s, Otto Lilienthal, a German mechanical engineer, undertook the most important studies of wing design since the time of Cayley. The most successful of the flying men of his time, Otto Lilienthal (1848-96) made 1,500 semi-controlled glides in his Flugapparate before he died in a crash. During much of his aeronautical work LilienthaTs younger brother Gustav worked alongside him.The Wright brothers used Lilienthal’s data in their plane designs. His detailed measurements of the forces operating on a cambered wing at various angles of attack provided precise bits of data employed by later experimenters—including, in the United States, the engineer Octave Chanute and the Wright brothers—to calculate the performance of their own wings.Having published the results of his research, Lilienthal designed, built, and flew a series of monoplane and biplane gliders, completing as many as 2,000 flights between 1890 and the time of his fatal glider crash in August 1896.Recognizing the dangers inherent in attempting to rely on control of the centre of gravity, the Wright brothers devised a system to control the movement of the centre of pressure on the wing. They achieved this by enabling the pilot to induce a twist across the upper and lower wings in either direction, thus increasing the lift on one side and decreasing it on the other. This technique, which they called “wing warping,” solved the crucial problem of roll. Meanwhile, an elevator (a horizontal surface placed at the front of the aircraft) provided the means of pitch control. When the Wright brothers introduced a rudder to their design in 1902, this device was used to compensate for increased drag on the positively warped side of the aircraft. In 1905 they disconnected the rudder from the wing warping system, enabling the pilot to exercise independent control in yaw for the first time. The Wright flyer of 1905 is therefore considered to be the first fully controllable, practical airplane.The work of the Wright brothers inspired an entire generation of flying-machine experimenters in Europe and the Americas. The Brazilian experimenter Alberto Santos-Dumont, for instance, made the first public flight in Europe in 1906 in his 14- bis. Frenchman Henri Farman made his first flight the following year in the Farman III, a machine built by Gabriel Voisin. Farman also completed the first European circular flight of at least 1 km (0.62 mile) early in 1908. On July 4, 1908, the American Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a leading member of the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), organized by Alexander Graham Bell, won the Scientific American Trophy for a flight of 1 km in the AEA June Bug.The Santos-Dumont, Voisin, and Curtiss machines were all canard (elevator on the nose) biplanes with pusher propellers that were clearly inspired by what the designers knew of the work of the Wright brothers.By 1909 radical new monoplane designs had taken to the air, built and flown by men such as the French pioneers Robert Esnault-Pelterie and Louis Blériot, both of whom were involved in the development of the “stick-and-rudder” cockpit control system that would soon be adopted by other builders. Blériot brought the early experimental era of aviation to an end on July 25, 1909, when he flew his Type XI monoplane across the English Channel.The following five years, from Blériot’s Channel flight to the beginning of World War I, were a period of spectacular growth and development in aviation. Concerned about the potential of military aviation, European leaders invested heavily in the new technology, spending large sums on research and development and working to establish and support the aircraft and engine industries in their own countries.With the possible exception of flying boats, an area in which Curtiss continued to dominate, leadership in virtually every phase of aeronautics had passed by 1910 from the United States to Europe, where it would remain throughout World War I.The Patent ConundrumInternational Trials of the early 1920s to demonstrated the differences in national research styles and practices and the difficulties involved in standardization. The Trials also revealed the parochialism of the British and contributed to their movement toward continental practice. The specific national experience in the United States differentiated the impact of patent practice from that in other countries.The introduction of a patent pool in 1917 was driven by the legal logjam surrounding the Wright patent.The Wrights had almost killed further progress in aviation the world over with their lawsuits.“Sue, Sue, Sue!” became their clarion call.Not wishing to be shot with their own gun, the US government intervened to buyout the Wright interests and the interests of their leading competitor, Glenn Curtiss. The resulting patents pool lasted for 58 years and distinguished United States patent experience from that of any other nation.The J-5 Whirlwind StoryOn May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh stunned the world by flying solo and non-stop from New York to Paris in an airplane powered by a Wright J-5 Whirlwind engine. To accomplish this, the engine had to run continuously for over 33 hours. The astounding thing is that only five years before, no successful air-cooled engine even existed in the United States. The story of this engine is not one of the revolutionary genius of one man, but rather of the evolutionary effort of many individuals and organizations who collectively produced an engine that was light, reliable, maintainable, and had good fuel consumption. This was done in the classical engineering development tradition: the cycle of designing, testing, and improving.With the exception of supercharging, propeller reduction gearing, turbo-compounding, and direct fuel injection, the J-5 was everything an air-cooled engine would ever be.Charles L. Lawrance had designed racing car engines before WWI, and had become interested in air-cooled engines. He had formed The Lawrance Aero-Engine Corporation, and was producing the only air-cooled engine in the United States at the end of the war.The Lawrance firm at that time consisted of a drafting room in New York City, with all engine components being purchased from outside vendors. Contracts with the Army and Navy along with engineering expertise from all three parties allowed Lawrance to push the state-of-the-art, eventually contracting on February 28, 1920 to deliver the Navy five J-1s, a 200 hp 9-cylinder air-cooled radial. Before the J-1 could pass its 50-hour endurance test, the Navy, in a rush to spend year-end money, contracted for 50 engines with the verbal agreement that production would not begin until the 50-hour test was successful. This test was passed in January of 1922 and “quantity” production began.Lawrance won the Collier Trophy for his engine.Radial engines bombed Germany to defeat and bombed Japan’s cities to kingdom come.In theory….In theoretical developments, Nikolay Joukowski, the head ofthe Department of Mechanics at Moscow University, was the first scientist to take Otto Lilienthal's work with gliders as a fit subject for scientific investigation. The resulting Kutta-Joukowski theorem, which revolutionized theoretical aerodynamics, gained purchase in part because of the weight of Joukowski's reputation and his institutional setting.So too did Ludwig Prandtl's position at Goettingen University lend credibility to his research on the boundary layer. He took up a practical problem, theorized it in a revolutionary scientific concept that transformed modern fluid dynamics, and then gave it back to practical application in his own work and his students' on the flow of air over wings and fuselage.The cases of Joukowski and Prandtl serve not only to illustrate the ways in which institutions have shaped the development of flight technology but also to introduce a final way in which these appear to address differences in flight. University research in Russia and Germany influenced aeronautical development long before American and British universities achieved such an impact. In fact the German style of university-based, theoretical research in aerodynamics was spread to the United States by two of Prandtl's students.Max Munk went to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929 and developed there the innovative variable density wind tunnel for which the NACA won its first Collier Trophy.Even more significantly, Theodore von Karman accepted the invitation of Nobel laureate Robert Millikan to join the faculty at the California Institute of Technology and direct its Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory.From that institutional base von Karman went on to exert a formative influence on aeronautical research and development and on the policies of the United States Air Force. American aeronautical development took on a more theoretical tum because of the immigration of this European, especially German, style of research.National tastes for materials did influence airplane development.The airplane in the 1930 and 1940s was wooden. The United States' preference for metal as an aircraft building material flowed from preconceptions about the modernity of aluminum, not from a judicious evaluation of the merits of wood. For equally nationalistic reasons, Canadians preferred wooden aircraft and developed them with great success during World War II.And the Americans, under the pressure of World War II developed modes of exchange between competing airframe manufacture that fundamentally altered the character of the industry.Commercial AviationDuring the late 1920s and early 1930s, the U.S. Postal Service instituted payment formulas that favoured aircraft large enough to carry passengers as well as mail. A rising volume of research reports from the NACA facilitated many improved aircraft designs. The result was a swift increase in larger planes with improved radial engines and a shift from biplanes to trimotor monoplane transports marketed by a subsidiary of Ford and by the European builder, Anthony Fokker, who had set up shop in the United States.Largely owing to airline rivalry, American technology had already taken a major step forward with the introduction of the Boeing Company Model 247 airliner, which cruised at about 180 miles (290 km) per hour and entered service with United Airlines, Inc., in 1933. With its all-metal stressed-skin construction (which used the metal skin covering itself to carry aerodynamic loads), retractable gear, two 550-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engines, and cowlings inspired by NACA research, the 10-passenger Model 247 seemed to be head-and-shoulders above competitive aircraft.The End of WoodShortly before the 247 began flying, a Fokker trimotor of Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc. (TWA), crashed in a Kansas farm field.Everybody aboard died, including the University of Notre Dame’s revered football coach Knute Rockne.Subsequent investigation of the crash raised questions about structural weakness in the plane’s main wooden-wing spar.Controversy about “wooden airplanes” and criticism of the Fokker plane generally gave trimotor airliners a bad image.When TWA asked manufacturers to submit designs for a replacement, Douglas Aircraft Company (later McDonnell Douglas Corporation) responded with an all-metal twin-engine airliner.The Douglas TransportsThe DC-2, with an advanced NACA cowling, refined streamlining, and other improvements, mounted Wright Cyclone engines and carried 14 passengers, surpassing the Boeing 247 in every way. Significantly, leading European airlines such as KLM acquired the new Douglas transport, beginning a trend for European operators to buy American equipment. A subsequent model, the legendary DC-3, entering service in 1936, mounted 1,000-horsepower Cyclone or Wright Wasp radial engines, cruised at 185 miles (300 km) per hour, and carried 21 passengers—double the capacity of the Boeing 247. By 1939, with superior seat capacity, performance, and ancillary refinements, DC-3 transports already were carrying 90 percent of the world’s airline traffic.And the story goes on…….