Aircraft & theirs uses

Aircraft and their Uses

- Archie D’Souza

[This constitutes an extract of a book I'm writing]

Do check this link [http://www.atlantisquest.com/Samar.html] 

The aeroplane is the fastest means of transport, whether of passengers or cargo.  Only spacecraft travel faster than aeroplanes.  We shall be looking at the exiting world of air transportation with an emphasis on carriage of cargo.  From the tiny bi-planes, which carry one or two passengers, to the gigantic jumbo jets and transportation aircraft which can carry huge machinery and battle tanks, air transportation has transformed the way humans think and live.  We shall be tracing the development of aircraft and looking at aeroplanes in use today and most important how freight is carried in them.  We shall also look at advantages and limitations of airfreight as a mode of goods transportation.

1.    History and Development

From the time mankind evolved on planet Earth, people have dreamed of flying.  Ancient Indian texts, like the Ramayana and Mahabharata and Greek one too had their legends about flying people and objects.  Kites were perhaps the first heavier than air objects which flew.  In 200 BC the Greek mathematician Archimedes discovered the principal of floatation.  This was used in the making of balloons.  Kites were possible the predecessors of gliders.  Balloons and gliders are not powered and therefore cannot be controlled.

Airships were the first powered objects to fly.  An airship is a lighter-than–air aircraft.  Its huge body contains a light gas like helium.  Like a balloon, the gas lifts the airship so it floats in the air.  However airships, unlike balloons, have engines that move them and can be steered in the required direction.  Balloons move wherever the wind takes them.  Airships also differ from aeroplanes and helicopters which are heavier-than-air and use their engines to lift them from the ground.

Although it was the Wright brothers who invented the aeroplane as we know it today, the idea of a modern flying machine was first conceived in 1500 by Leonardo de Vinci, an Italian painter.  He made a drawing of a flying machine with wings which would flap like a bird.  Between 1800 and 1903, several people tried to experiment with flying machines but were all unsuccessful.  It was only on December 17, 1903 that the Wright brothers flew their first aeroplane successfully.  The flight took place near Kitty Hawk in California.

The Wright brothers demonstrated that it was possible that it was possible to fly a manual machine that was heavier-than-air.  But, in 1895, eight years earlier, a Sanskrit scholar from the princely state of Baroda had designed a basic aircraft called Maruthsakthi, meaning air power. The scholar by the name of Shivkar Bapuji Talpade based his design on texts in the Vedas.  His unmanned aircraft took off in 1895 before a large gathering at the Chowpati beach in Bombay, now Mumbai.  While the Wright brother flew a manned flight, Talpade’s was unmanned.  However, while the flight piloted by Orville Wright crashed after covering a distance of 120 feet, Talpade’s unmanned flight reached a height of 1500 feet and covered a much larger distance.  A British historian, Evan Koshtka has described Talpade as the first creator of an aircraft.

The entire World has rightly recognised the achievements of the Wright brothers and celebrated its centenary on December 17, 2003.  However, Talpade whose invention was reported by the newspapers of his day was never accorded his rightful place in history.  India, it must be remembered, was ruled by the British, who were definitely not happy with his invention and made sure he got no help whatsoever to develop it.

Talpade was born in 1864 in the locality of Chira Bazar in Dukkarwadi which today, is an extremely congested part of Mumbai.  What is most fascinating about his design is that it was based entirely on material available in the ancient Indian Vedas.  A great Indian sage by the name of Maharishi Bharadwaja had in ancient times written a text called the Vaimanika Sastra (Aeronautical Science).  According to Western Indologist Stephen Knapp, the Vaimanika Sastra describes in detail a design similar to the one being developed by NASA today.  The design, in what is called the Mercury Vortex Engine, is the forerunner of the ion engines that NASA has developed.  According to Knapp additional information on the same can be found in another ancient Vedic text called Samaranga Surtradhara.  He says the text devotes 230 verses on how to use these machines in war and peace.

Another Indologist by the name of William Clarendon has translated the Samaranga Surtradhara.  In his translation is a detailed description of the Mercury Vortex Engine.  The following is a quotation from the same: “Inside the circular airframe, place the mercury engine with its solar mercury boiler at the aircraft centre.  By means of the power latent in the heated mercury, which sets the driving whirlwind in motion, a man, sitting inside, may travel a great distance in a most marvellous manner.  Four strong mercury containers must be built into the interior structure.  When these have been heated through solar or other sources the vimana (aircraft) develops thunder power through the mercury.”  Over a century and a decade ago Talpade was able to use his knowledge of the Vaimanika Sastra to produce sufficient thrust to life his aircraft 1500 feet into the air.

A great deal has been written on the subject in various Vedic texts.  An even greater deal has been lost to posterity.  Talpade’s invention finds mention in newspapers of the day.  Our imperial rulers made sure that it never took off.  He died un-honoured in 1916.  Greek mythology did make a mention of humans flying but ancient Indian texts give practical and workable methods on flying machines.  The Wright brothers rightly deserve their place in history.  No one should deny them that.  However, Talpade also deserves his rightful place and we should give it to him.  Remember, it was he who utilised the ancient knowledge of Sanskrit texts, to fly an aircraft, eight years before the Wright brothers.

Between 1903, when the Wright brother flew the first aeroplane and the First World War planes were mainly used for races and circuses.  The World War brought in the first military aircraft.  The World's first commercial flights were operated by World War I vintage bombers.

Between the 1920s and 30s, aeroplanes started increasing in size, speed and capacity.  Advanced navigational devices and pressurised cabins helped develop aircraft even further.  These planes like the Douglas DC 3 were propeller-driven.  The first passenger jet airliner was the Comet, a British plane which was put into service in 1952.  In 1955, the French built the twin-engine Caravel and the Soviets built the TU 104.  All these were small in size and had limited cargo capacity.

In 1958, Boeing, the company based in the US West Coast city of Seattle built a four-engine plane called the Boeing 707.  This was not only large in size but also could cross the Atlantic without refuelling.  In 1960, the US Company McDonnell Douglas put the DC 8 into service.  The Boeing 707 and DC 8 had huge capacities in their bellies, more than their predecessors.  Thus was born airfreight as a major commercial earner for airlines.

Till 1970, the Boeing 707 was the largest commercial aircraft.  However, compared to today's aircraft, capacities were still limited.  The introduction of the Boeing 747, the first jumbo jet, changed the way cargo was carried.  Compared to a passenger capacity of 150 in the 707, the 747 could carry up to 500 passengers.  With bigger bellies, the capacity to carry cargo increased from 6 to 8 tonnes to 16 to 20 tonnes.   Till the 1970s, aircraft manufacture was dominated by the Americans.  In the 70s the European consortium Airbus was formed and came out with the A 300 series of aircraft.  Today, Airbus and Boeing, between them control 90% of the aircraft industry.