Evolution of Flight

"Racescort666" (Racescort666) 06/12/2014 at 12:28 • Filed to: planelopnik

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I didn't realize that my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! would spark such good conversation so I decided that it would be worth pulling it into it's own thread.

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My Description:

1st gen (Kitty Hawk to Pre-WWII): We have no idea what we're doing so we're just going to try stuff until it works.

2nd gen (Pre-WWII to Post-WWII): We know what works but we still don't really know what we're doing.

3rd gen (WWII to 1st gen jets): we can describe aero with math but weird things happen when you start going fast

4th gen (the jet age, NACA (later NASA), and after): we don't really even need to do upfront testing any more because we can fully describe, with math, the working principles of aerodynamics. In short, mysteries of flight: solved and airplanes are a structures exercise at this point.

mrmcqueen21 had an excellent 5th generation addition to mine which was further refined by macnamera (I will summarize):

5th gen - we know theoretically what we're doing, but we're not sure if we can make it, and have it do what the math says it will, or if we can pay for it. Think Osprey, F-35, (Sc)Ram-Jets, etc.

JayhawkJake appropriately called me out with the following:

First would be nothing to WWI: We don't know what we're doing but it works so lets keep doing it

Second would be WWI to WWII: This seems to be working, lets go faster and further and higher. With the Schneider cup, holy fuck we went fast

Third would be WWII. Period. Aviation went INSANE during the war. From PT-17 Biplane trainers to Jet Fighters. We knew what we were doing, and we were starting to push what we thought were our limits.

Fourth would be the early jet age. This would be late/post WWII to the late 60's/early 70s. Maybe even longer. We knew what we were doing, but now we wanted to see what we were capable of. This is the era where we broke the sound barrier, entered orbit, left that orbit and landed on another planet. For aviation this was the age of the first passenger jets

Finally, I'd add a 5th and maybe even 6th gen. The modern age. This is where we know exactly what we are doing and know it so well that we rarely go wrong. There's no need for extremely dangerous testing anymore. This is the age of safety and efficiency, where it's no longer how fast or how far you can go but how little fuel you can use to get there, and how few people will die while doing so.

Conclusion:

What do you think? This can be an evolving description and there have been some very good points made.

Jayhawk Jake > Racescort666 06/12/2014 at 13:04

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At some point I'd like to figure out in mine where to break up the 4th and 5th generation,and possibly a 6th

I imagine 4th as the experimental boundaries being pushed and the technology trickling down, so maybe 5th starts with the 747 as at the time it was pretty revolutionary. Maybe the 737 instead as it really took over traditional propeller driven routes.

I think the 6th gen starts with the oil crisis in the 70s as that was when we really truly shifted focus to efficiency, which is how I'd describe aviation today. Safety has always been important, but especially since TWA 800.

Part of the issue in defining the modern generation is the systems and avionics have become as complex as the airplanes themselves, so they almost need their own set of definitions.