The object that appeared in the sky on the last hot but dry Saturday in August increased in size, showing an air-jet fuselage, a spraying propeller and two red cloth-covered wings. A scene reminiscent of the 1920s should have disappeared long ago with my grandparents.
Passing through the southern end of the grass-covered field, denoting the airfield of Old Reinbek Cole Palen, the plane flew over the intake fleet, consisting mainly of biplanes that stood ready to perform in the Flight History show because they are more than half a century old. But the three especially fragile projects seemed to have just crossed the line between the film, “Gorgeous People in their Flying Machines,” and reality took center stage, directly opposite the hamburger and the fried onion flavor radiating the “Airfield Canteen” grid. They established the “pioneer” “Old Reinbek” or the earliest gliders, and would provide a post show the next day, since today he celebrated his annual Aviation Day of the Pioneer.
As designs, they represented the third phase of the development of aviation technology.
The first, of course, may be the Wright Brothers, who won a controlled, powerful, heavier air flight in the sands of Kill Devil Hills in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903, primarily because they embarked on a course of systematic solutions airborne obstacles, namely: the rise, movement and control. The latter, subdivided into three axes lateral, longitudinal and vertical, is what allowed them to achieve a “stable” flight, unlike many other short-term, but suddenly stopping attempts.
Testing and error leading to numerous aircraft configurations were characterized by a second phase, during which the inventors found their own ways to the Wright brothers. three-axis control system. As a result, the initial success was small and fleeting.
For example, the Albert-Santos-Dumont biplane, for example, with Antoinette's engine with a rear suspension with a 50 hp fuselage. and with a wing from boxing-boxing with a noticeable dihedral, he made a short 23-foot jump on October 23, 1906 and thus it counts that he made the first flight in Europe.
These aeronautics, like Santos Dumont himself, took the initial ideas and transferred them to a physical plane, which led to numerous configurations regarding the number of wings, attachment points of the power plant and banking mechanisms.
However, aviation science, expressed by an aircraft that correctly used it, has matured.
On October 26, 1907, for example, Voisin-Farman I, which united the Brothers Brothers type biplane with a front, two-surface lift and boxed tail and equipped with a 50-strong Antoinette, won the Archdeacon Cup for a 2,530 flight. Unofficially covering 3,380 feet in one minute, 14 seconds after November 7, this was Europe’s first attempt to exceed Wrights. Duration - 15 seconds.
The Air Experimental Association, founded by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, and quickly joining Glenn Curtiss, aimed the aerial flight to the United States twin brothers with aileron-equipped biflan with a bow occupying both the aperture lift and the stern, horizontal and vertical plumage, dubbed "Bug Jun", which won Scientific American magazine & # 39, S prize for the first public demonstration of the flight exceeded one kilometer on July 4, 1908. controversial event, disputed by Wrights- who E built all their early experiments without witnesses, covered 5090-foot distance for one minute, 42 seconds - at a speed of 39 miles / hr.
The pioneer aircraft, the culmination of the second phase of the problems resulting from teething, was the result of their earlier designs, configurations and iterations, representing a plateau, although scarce, consistency and reliability, and cutting out the first speed, distance and height of the records. Appearing against each other, they demonstrated their individual superiority during air transport competitions, before conquering many natural obstacles in geography, ultimately with the problem of man and against a machine such as the English Channel and the Andes. The concept of distance in the process was replaced by time.
As the Pioneer Hernebeck Day of the Pioneers testifies, these gliders are the first steps to the “true aircraft” and in many cases provide the basic configurations that remain unchanged today.
According to Hugh Schölzel, "Old Rhinebeck Air Show President", the event itself should focus and demonstrate these pioneering projects at the end of the day, after the standard show, "when the weather is cooler and there is more recovery", resulting in more favorable for their fragile, cloth-covered wings. “The sun is also lower,” he continued, “making it better for photographers because of the light.” One of the three collections that classify epochs, pioneer airplanes are joined by airfields, as well as flying planes of World War I and Lindberg.
The Old Rhinebeck pioneer aircraft, including the Bleriot XI, Hanriot and the Curtiss D model, are aviation developments from France and the USA, and they all have a gross weight from 500 to 600 pounds. They have several characteristics characteristic of the era, which will specifically place them on aviation technology.
Structures, such as those made of wood and covered with cloth, were necessarily lightweight to reduce the weight of the airframe and serve the often weakened engines that set them in motion. Nominal repetitions of others did not require anything stronger, and resistance was not yet a bonus associated with their interplanar rack connections and coarse, exposed wire fixtures and surface control techniques.
Propellers often served a dual purpose, i.e. Provide sufficient power to create an aerodynamic lift and thus maintain the gross weight of the structure in flight and cool the engine, which leads to its air-cooled design.
The constructions of the Pioneer aircraft, representing the beginning of technological development, still did not share any cockpit control or instrument standardization and therefore characterized various locations of rods, switches, chokes and pedals. Their primitive control methods, in fact, can be gleaned from their simplified functions, such as on or off switches, which do not have intermediate settings; lack of throttle control fuel flow; and the exclusion of wheel brakes.
Their combination of low airspeed and minimum control surface area required a tasty balance to maintain triaxial equilibrium and, at best, sluggishly reacted to their experimental inputs.
In-flight banking service — or the equivalent of aerial turning — was usually achieved using Wright's method of deforming the wing, in which one of the angle of incidence of the wing and, therefore, lifting, increased while another decree.
These structural, aerodynamic and control characteristics were presented by the old, original, operational aircraft Bleriot XI, Old Rhinebeck and since 1909.
The Anzani's air-cooled tractor monoplane was Hugh's personal choice two years earlier, “because this is the most historic one!” He argued. "This is the original - and the oldest flight in the country."
“It is a great honor for me to fly,” he continued. "In fact, this is the one who flew through the channel."
He asked to share his assessment after 50 field jumps, he said: “He flies like a butterfly, if anyone knows what it is.
Although his wheel spell can be a positive sign during a side wind, “the wind may not blow in the direction you want to go,” he admitted, and “the steering wheel has little efficiency.
In flight, "controls take a long time to react, unlike today's aircraft, which are immediate."
Nevertheless, he proudly flies on such a plane, having discovered “a new respect for Bleriot”. He knew so little about aerodynamics, buildings and tools, but he crossed the canal, ”he proclaimed.
Hanriot, another pioneer of the Old Rhinebeck aircraft, is also a monopoly for a tractor that has the same basic configuration as the Blaeroot and appeared a year later, but its frame, made of mahogany and resembling racing loft, more durable and therefore requires less repair. It is also equipped with a more modern engine with water cooling. Like Bleriot XI in 2009, Hanriot celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.
Bill King, who owns his own "Tiger Butterfly", and flew in an airplane for about 25 years with Bleriot, Curtiss Jenny and Albatross, the cities with his more powerful engine associated with Reinbek’s example, as one of his strengths, "It's easier to fly than others the pioneers, he argued, with its heavier, more modern engine, making it more efficient than the Bleriot, with its weaker engine.
"Hanniot just flies off the ground," he continued. "It gives you more time to focus on controlling it."
Like other pioneer gliders, it has no intermediate power controls. “The throttle valve is open all the time,” he explained, “and you need to skip it when landing,” which interrupts its output power, reducing its air speed and allowing gravity to act on it.
As for its limited cockpit instrumentation, it proposed a concept that is general and indicative of all the pioneering sensations associated with aircraft, eliminating the need for it. “For all these years,” he admitted, “I didn’t even look at the airspeed indicator.
“And during the landing you are more busy than a one-armed paper hanger,” he continued. “You keep the throttle back idle, press the switch and press it to land down. If the engine remains idling, you can bring it back, ”he finished, apparently rehearsing a rooted quarter century.
The Curtiss D model, although classified as a “pioneer,” gained recognition from the US, unlike the first two French projects, and offered several unique features.
Based on the June error and its subsequent Silver Darte, the Curtiss D model is a biplane whose double wings provide a significant increase in lift capabilities and, unlike the previous two “tractor” structures, are considered a “pusher”, its water-cooled engine installed behind by wings. With the support of a three-wheeled or three-wheeled undercarriage (which again contrasts with the configuration of the dual block Bleriot and Hanriot), front, rising planes and rear edges of the ailerons are projected in it, which replace the wing deformation method to induce banks.
The coat of arms of Gregory, the pilot of a retired airline, first met Model D two years ago because he was qualified for a taxi, but the predecessor of other aircraft repair works still did not allow him to conduct an airworthiness inspection. After doing some maintenance of the type itself, he first “had to learn a lot about the OX5 engine” before he could work on it, replacing the “O-ring” and correcting the destroyed right aileron frame.
Asking to share his characteristics of ground handling, he replied: “I have never seen anything like it before.
At first, this is inconvenient: you need to swing your body from side to side (to demonstrate the deflections of the ailerons to the audience), and your head is directed against the radiator. During taxiing, the radiator splashes burning water on you, and the ride is bumpy. "
Answering the question about the speed of his taxi, he suggested: "Not higher than 15-30 mph. He gets into the air from 40 to 45."
However, its position of the pusher, placing the propeller behind it, provided “no sensation or difference”, and, after some familiarization, it was “used” to its control configuration.
The “Flight History” airshow, performed amid no wind or cloud, continued regularly, reintroduced the younger Curtiss-Wright after a long gap and ending with a playful air fight SPAD VII and Fokker Dr.1.
At 5:30 am, the pulse of the airfield, as well as the engine with a hungry engine, stopped. The tables, grouped under a yellow and white striped canopy, next to the snack bar, were empty, except for the one on which I was sitting to write this article - and its service windows were boarded up. The bench-seats, supported by concrete blocks and occupied by the spectators of the day, were now empty, allowing anyone to choose the most optimal point of view to watch the airshows - with the exception, for the time being, there usually wasn’t.
The line of aircraft in front of a short wall began to lose, each slowly to the night hangar. Could a quiet, brainless field of grass not be a symbol of aviation — before planes planted the many grass fields of the world? Without them, perhaps, never was the aviation industry. And without them, of course, there would never have been an old Rhinebeck airfield, the roots of which it could return every summer weekend for more than 50 years.
Passing through the south end of the field, a new standard D-25 biplane with a black fuselage and a red wing flared up to land, completing the last day trip, its windmill and its twin wheels settling on a cushion of grass. But the airfield of Old Reinbek was about the beginning, not about the ends.
The light, now filled with trees, through which it shone during its western trajectory, was softer. The air was still, and a bit cooler.
Photographers, a heavy sports, shouldered apparatus, huddled around the remaining airplanes on the field, no longer limited to fencing.
However, several elements, such as blood in one of the treaties, continued to pump this pocket of ancient aviation into life, indicating that the day was not over. The music of the 1920s still flared. Employees dressed in their pendants and caps still occupied the field through which the shadows of the territorial tower began to stretch. A few vintage cars have not yet covered a short distance to their parking spaces.
Breaking the silence and drowning in music with a pipe, the engine capacity of 50 hp Le Rhone, belching smoke and a spraying propeller covering it, launched the airfield for the second time that day when a dozen spectators were still gathering on the benches to witness this, providing a spark to the pioneer part.
The aircraft on which this engine was installed was Caudron G.3. The product, like Hanriot, the French team, was developed by the brothers Rene and Gaston. Despite the fact that he had double wings, he represented a transition between the pioneers and the worlds of the First World War, as evidenced by his much larger size and higher performance, reaching a higher speed of 20 miles per hour and having three times the mass Bleriot.
Supported by two pairs of wheels and sporty double tail arrows and steering wheels, the G.3, whose upper wing stretched 16 feet longer than the Bleriot, was used for reconnaissance and training during the war, 2,849 examples were built in France, England and Italy. However, thanks to a significant increase in capabilities, he still achieved in-flight banking through the wing deformation method.
Transforming the grass into a smooth green color with the help of a propeller created by a slippery flow, Cooudron preceded its long air arc between the southern and northern edges of the field, opening the first pioneering event of the day. The maneuver was partially overdeveloped by Bleriot XI and other squadrons.
These planes represent the initial heartbeat of aviation, for the first time allowing designers to replace the word “practical” for “pioneer” and the initial jump on every Saturday, “Flight History,” echoing that first jump they themselves did about a hundred years ago, before they they even tried to fly, and pointing out that their antique gliders, fabric-covered wings, and rotary engines were the lifeblood of both the era and the airfield, which continued to recreate it. The Pioneer aircraft signaled the dawn of aviation, and now, amid the pulse of rotating, silencing propellers and a weakened sun, dusk at the airport of the old Reinbek Cole Palen.
