Aircraft-Technological Firsts

Velius · May 3, 2008

Hey everyone, I had an idea to post up this thread and see how far it can go. It should go in the "Technical" forum, but I couldn't decide which category to put it under. Anyway...

Aircraft are very complex machines designed with sturdy structures and all kinds of systems operating together to achieve safe flight. Aircraft design and their systems have come a long way since 1903 and I've wondered which aircraft in history was the first to use certain features found on today's aircraft. Examples like first retractable undercarriage, first pressurized cabin, first flying wing concept, first using wing slats, etc. I'm sure ya'll got my point- the technological firsts on aircraft both in their systems and/or their structure.
Thanks everyone8)
Velius
I'll start this thread with an easy one- The Junkers J.1- the first all metal monoplane (1915)

DerAdlerIstGelandet · May 4, 2008

First Multi Engined Aircraft:

Sikorsky Russky Vityaz (1913)

Graeme · May 4, 2008

Britain's first all-metal (aluminium/duralumin combination) aircraft. No wood or fabric. The Short Silver Streak. First flight, 20 August 1920.

Kruska · May 4, 2008

HE 280

First twin jet aircraft + ejection seat

View attachment 62450

Or did I jump too far ahead in aviation development features?

Regards
Kruska

kool kitty89 · May 4, 2008

Also the first fighter jet design to be built and the first to fly under jet power.
I think it was also the first to be tested in mock combat.

kool kitty89 · May 4, 2008

Coanda

First jet powered aircraft built. (not turbojet, but in the context of using exhaust form combustion to produce thrust, he built a motorjet using a 50 hp engine to drive a centrifugal compressor at 4,000 rpm producing 220 kp thrust; ~485 lbf)

Henri Coanda should be known in history as the Farther of the Jet Engine his design (which he made himself) was thirty years before Whittle, yet all the world believes Frank Whittle invented this form of propulsion.
The Coanda-1910 was amazingly ahead of it's time, with steel construction used in the wings, mobile surfaces placed ahead of the wings leading edges to increase lift, all fuel and lubricants placed in the upper wing and above all the engine. His engine the "Air-Reactive Engine", comprised of a four cylinder, 50 hp, water cooled Clerget piston engine connected to a gearbox, then to a compressor which rotated at 4,000 rpm. In front of the compressor a device much like the iris of a camera (called by Henri Coanda a obturator) controlled the amount of air entering the compressor. The air went from the compressor to "Burning Rooms" (combustion-chambers of a ring like section which were fitted ether side of the fuselage) were the exhaust from the piston engine and fuel were added and ignited, the resulting very hot and expanding exhaust exited through tubes and down the steel-sheeted sides of the aeroplane producing the thrust.

kool kitty89 · May 4, 2008

McDonellXFD-1

First all american Jet aircraft (its J-30 engines were the first indiginoud US design to be built and test run, and the first axial allied engine to enter production)

It was also the first jet aircraft to take-off and land on a US carrier. (and secon in the world to take-off and land on a carrier, the Vampire being the first)

Njaco · May 4, 2008

First retractable Landing gear - J.W. Wartin's Kitten, built in 1917, had retractable gear (but could not actually fly). The Dayton Wright RB-1 of 1920 and the Verville Sperry R-3 of 1922 also had retractable gear.

AIRPOWER.CALLIHAN.CC- Early Flight Aviation Fokker Wright Brothers Boeing Curtiss De Havilland Hawker Hughes Macchi Tamiya

kool kitty89 · May 4, 2008

He 178, the first turbojet powered aircraft.

kool kitty89 · May 4, 2008

Another site Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Historic Milestones in Aerospace

kool kitty89 · May 4, 2008

He118

First turbojet testbed, and first a/c to fly on turbojet power alone.

parsifal · May 4, 2008

First successful AI radar fit, Fairey Battle (or possibly Blen 1F, depending on source), on or about May 1939

Kruska · May 5, 2008

First Rocket propelled aircraft in flight

Opel RAK-1 in September 1929

View attachment 62493

Regards
Kruska

Kruska · May 5, 2008

How about this one: Bell X-14

First Jet with "open canopy" and it is UGLY

View attachment 62509

Regards
Kruska

kool kitty89 · May 5, 2008

On to more mainstream stuf

Gloster E.28/39 the first allied jet aircraft. Also the first a/c to fly powered by a Whittle engine.

XP-59A Airacomet, the first US jet powered aircraft, the first allied prototype fighter to fly, and the first allied twin jet to fly.

Marcel · May 5, 2008

First purposely built Jet trainer, Fokker S.14:

kool kitty89 · May 5, 2008

Gloster Meteor Mk.I first operational allied Jet, and first jet fighter to enter "regular" service.

kool kitty89 · May 5, 2008

Arado Ar 234, first operational jet bomber, first jet aircraft to perform a recon mission, and first jet aircraft to perform operational duties.

kool kitty89 · May 5, 2008

De Havilland Vampire Mk.I. (originally "Spider Crab")

First single engine jet fighter to be built and to fly.

First jet aircraft to take-off and land on a carrier.

First RAF aircraft (and first allied aircraft) to exceed 500 mph in level flight.

Soren · May 5, 2008

Some small corrections KK,

1.) The Me-262 was the first jet fighter to enter service and military operations
2.) The He-162 was the first single engined Jet fighter to see service and undergo military operations

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