Revolutionalized Travel - Case Study Example

Download file to see previous pages  Airplane engines are hence continually modified for highest levels of performance, with advances in technology and aviation science.
At the start of the twentieth century, aircraft engines were simple, low-powered machines that were designed and custom-built for specific aircraft. However, engines started being built in quantity, often by several licensed manufacturers in different countries. The earliest airplane engines were stationary and were either radial or in-line. The Antoinette series of engines were the most commonly used. These were followed by the rotary engine, the best known of which was the Gnome and Le Rhone. These were succeeded by the in-line Liberty engine which was designed for mass production, and gained a monopoly over the aero-engine market. Henceforth, increasingly powerful and more sophisticated stationary in-line engines were developed until the manufacture of the jet engine a couple of decades later.
The first successful powered flight in 1903 by the Wright brothers had an engine designed and built by Charlie Taylor and is a landmark in aviation history. It was lower powered than the 50 horse-powered engine designed earlier in the century by Charles Manley, which could not demonstrate its potential since it was designed for another faulty aircraft. The Wright brothers’ engine had no fuel pump, carburetor or spark plugs, had four in-line cylinders, was water-cooled, generated 12 horsepower, and had weighed 179 pounds without the fuel. Numerous types of engines were subsequently designed and built. By 1911 other engine manufacturers began building rotary engines. The British Rolls-Royce Eagle and its successor, the Falcon: a liquid-cooled V-12 developed in 1915, marked the beginning of a famous line of aviation engines that produced the Merlins and Griffons of World War II. It was built in several versions that culminated with the 375-horsepower Mark VII of 1917.  ...Download file to see next pagesRead More