A brief history

The invention of the airplane is tied to the begin­ning of

radio. Both arrived at about the same time; the Wright
brothers made the first powered flight in 1903, two years
after Marconi sent the first radio mes­sages 2100 miles over
the Atlantic from England to Canada. Until then, people
flew in hot air balloons or glided downhill in oversize kites.
Radio was a labora­tory curiosity and one of its early
experimenters (Hertz) didn't think much would come of it.
Aviation and radio quickly grew together with the coming of
World War 1 (1914), when airplanes proved to be deadly
fighting machines. When the war ended, barstorming pilots
spread over the countryside, amaz­ing people with stunts
and joy rides in open bi-planes. But when the young
industry attempted to get serious by transporting people
and mail the results were disastrous. Many air mail pilots
lost their lives in crashes where nothing went wrong with
the airplane. Some­how, when fog or cloud obscured a
pilot's view outside, even the most skilled pilot couldn't
keep the airplane straight and level, For this reason,
military pi­lots were warned that flying at night is an
emergency. This inability to remain upright in less than visual
con­ditions also held back early airliners. A passenger fly­ing
from New York to Los Angeles hardly gained time over riding
the railroad. When darkness fell, he got off the airplane,
boarded an overnight train then reboarded the airplane
in the morning.
 First Radio Waves Over the Atlantic
G. Marconi, after experi­menting at his home
in Italy, was first to commu­nicate long
distances by radio. In a 1901 demon­stration,
he sent signals over two thousand miles.
The first message was three dots the let­ter
“S" in Morse code Early aircraft radio
adopted the Marconi system, which con­
sisted of a spark transmitter and magnetic
detector for receiving. Although not known
in 1901, the radio signals had travelled great
distances by "skipping" from an electrical
layer known as the ionosphere. Skipping is
still used today by long-range aircraft with
high fre­quency (HF) communications.

Video
 What went wrong?
Video 01
The aviation community dis­covered that, no matter how experienced
the pilot, he cannot control an airplane when unable to see outside.
Whether it's fog, cloud, blowing snow, dust or other obscuration,
any pilot is about five minutes from los­ing control.
No pilot can outwit the Barany chair. Just a few slow turns and
reversals while blind­folded remove the sense of which way is up.
Without the eye, humans sense balance by an inner-ear mechanism,
which is confused by motion of the chair.
Unless the pilot flies by in­struments after entering a cloud, a
"graveyard spiral" begins in about five minutes.
What went wrong? The aviation community discovered that, no
matter how experienced the pilot, he cannot control an airplane when
unable to see outside. Whether it's fog, cloud, blowing snow, dust
other obscuration, the pilot is about five minutes from los­ing control.
This is clearly demonstrated by FAA in its noto­rious "Barany chair,"
which is demonstrated at air shows and safety meetings. A pilot sits
in the chair blindfolded. The instructor turns the chair (which is on
a rotating base) at moderate speed. After several revolutions, the
chair is stopped and the pilot asked, "Point to the direction that
you're turning." As the pilots points, the audience breaks into
laughter; he or she is pointing in the opposite direction. It is comical to
watch, but is also the greatest killer of pilots. The accident reports
reads; "Continued VFR (visual) flight into IMC (Instrument
Meteorological Conditions)."
 That’s ok Pedro but What happen In
an airplane?
Video 02
The reason is that the eye is the primary organ for indicating "which
way is up." When vision outside is blocked, however, the inner ear,
which controls sense of balance, takes over. The problem is, the
balance mechanism is easily fooled. When the Barany chair turns,
the inner ear responds first to acceleration. When the chair is
stopped the pilot senses decelera­tion. But the rotating motion of the
chair confuses the inner ear and the pilot gives the wrong answer
when asked which way he's turning.
 
Now transfer this scenario to an airplane entering a cloud. The
untrained pilot looks out the windows and sees solid gray. Let's
assume a gust of turbulence moves one wing down, then a second
or 2 later the wing slowly returns to level by itself. This causes the
same phenomenon as in the Barany chair, causing the pilot to correct
in the wrong direction. The airplane enters a tightening spiral from
which there is rarely a recovery.
To worsen matters, there is another false clue. In straight and level
flight, a pilot feels gravity pushing him into the seat. But in a turn,
centrifugal force starts acting on his body and it feels exactly like
gravity.

The pilot believes he is still sitting vertically and has no feeling the
airplane is turning and descending. That's what confronted the
budding aviation industry. Unless a pilot had artificial guidance inside
the cockpit, air­planes wouldn't just be safe
 
 The breakthrough
happened when Elmer Sperry invented the
"turn and bank" indicator. Using a gyro­scope as a
stable platform, a needle on the instrument
showed when the airplane entered a turn. If the
pilot kept the needle centered, the airplane
remained in level flight. Sperry's device removed a
major obstacle to dependable flight operations.
 instruments were greatly improved by 1929
through the work of Jimmy Doolittle (who later be­
came an Air Corps General in World War 1). He came
up with the idea of an artificial horizon that
displayed the wings of an airplane against a horizon
line. As the airplane maneuvers, the pilot sees
miniature wings bank left or right, and rise and fall
with the angle of the nose. By showing wing and
nose position roll and pitch on one instrument, the
display is easy to fly because it recreates what the
pilot sees through the windshield on a clear day.
The artificial horizon was designed around Sperry's
gyros.
 But first lets get back to Turn-
Further more… slip or skid?
and-Bank
This simple turn-and-bank indicator was a break­through that
turned the flying machine into a practical airplane. Developed by
Elmer Sperry and his gyroscope, the instrument began the quest for
all-weather operations.
A pilot could now fly with confidence inside clouds, ap­proach
airports during low visibility and fly safely on dark, moonless nights.
The instrument indicates if the airplane is turning. The turn needle
remains centered so long as the wings are level. But if a gust lowers a
wing, notice the right tick mark, usually called a "dog house." The
pilot now knows he should apply left aileron to bring the wings
back to level, which stops the turn.
The instrument does not show bank angle, or posi­tion of the wings.
It indicates only "rate of turn“ or how fast the airplane is
turning. This is sufficient information to keep the wings level. If the
pilot wants to turn, he low­ers a wing with the aileron and puts the
needle on the "dog house." The airplane now turns at the rate of 3
degrees per second.
The ball at the bottom is not a gyro instrument, but moves freely. It
helps the pilot coordinate the turn with the rudder (or the airplane
would slip or skid in the air). Keeping the ball centered with the
rudder during a turn assures good control of the airplane when there
is no view outside.
   Video
 "Look ...no hands!"
Sperry also used the gyroscope to
design the first autopilot. A
remarkable demonstration in 1914 is
shown on your right. Sperry's son,
Lawrence, is in the pilot's seat,
holding his arms away from the
flight controls. Standing on the wing
to the left is a me­chanic, whose
weight should cause the wing to
drop. The airplane, however, is
stabilized by Sperry's gyro control
system and remains level. The invent­
or wins France's Airplane Safety
Competition (50,000 francs) and the
distinguished 1914 Collier Trophy in
the U.S.
 gyroscopic?

The greatest single device for • Video

aviation safety was the gyro­scopic
instrument, a spinning wheel that
remains stable, even as the aircraft
maneu­vers. This provides the pilot
with a reference within the cockpit
when he cannot see outside. A gyro
is shown here with Elmer Sperry,
the in­ventive genius who applied it to
the turn-and-bank indicator, the first
life saving device for instrument flight.
Sperry went on to develop the artificial
horizon, autopilot and other sys­tems
based on gyroscopes.
 
 The next
step! 1923-1933
 Now that an airplane could be controlled in al­most any
visibility condition, aviation was ready for the next advance; 1.500 of this babys!
the guidance required to fly to cross­country to a destination
airport and make a safe landing 18.000 miles
The first attempt placed a lighted beacon (like a lighthouse)
every 10 miles along the route. lt was an immediate
success; airplanes could fly at night, speed­ing mail and
passengers in less time. The day of navigating by
compass, chart and timepiece seemed to be over.
 But it soon became painfully obvious that light cannot
penetrate fog, clouds and heavy snow. The answer was to
abandon guidance by light and create air­ways formed by
radio waves, which easily move through any form of
precipitation.
 Before 1926, air mail pilots could fly only during the
day. That changed when lighted beacons were installed
every 10 miles. A rotating light appeared to the pilot as a
flash every ten seconds. Just below the beacon were
course lights that pointed up and down the airway.
Course lights also flashed a number code, the same
number that appears on the roof of the building. "5"
indicates it is the fifth beacon in a 1OO-mileairway. Al­
though lighted beacons shortened the time for mail
delivery, their effectiveness was poor in bad weather.
Navigation by radio waves would provide the solution
The 1930's saw great advances in radionaviga­tion and the
growth of commercial aviation. Let's Iook at milestones that
merged aviation and electronics into one of the fastest,
safest forms of transportation.
 Samuel Morse
• was first to transmit information by
electrical signals. In an 1836
demonstration between Baltimore and
Washington, DC, letters are encoded
into dot and dashes. The first message:
"What hath God wrought?"
• Early aircraft used Morse code because
voice was not possible until the
invention of the vacuum tube.
• Morse code survives today as the
identifier for thou­sands of
radionavigation stations. To avoid
navigation error, pilots must listen to a
station's identifier before using the
signal (although many stations are also
iden­tified by voice).
 Alexander Graham Bell
• Inventor of the telephone, was first
to transmit voice through wires
(1876). The tech­nique is later
applied to wireless voice
transmission and adopted by
aviation for air-ground
communications.
• Bell announced his next project
would be a "flying machine." He
worked closely with Glenn Curtiss,
who im­proved airplane design
after the Wright brothers accom­
plished the first successful flights.
 Hertz Demonstrates Radio Waves

Video
In a Berlin laboratory in 1887, Prof. Heinrich
Hertz sends radio waves across a room. A
transmitter (on the right) discharges sparks
across a gap, creating radio waves. A receiver
(Left) responds by producing sparks (the
received signal) across metal balls. The
Professor is honored 160 years later when his
name becomes the term to describe radio
frequency as "hertz." Meaning the number of
cycles per second, it's now written as kilohertz
(kHz), megahertz (MHz), gigahertz (GHz), etc.
After the experiment, Prof. Hertz's students
asked, "So what is next?" Hertz replied with
the understatement of the century;
"Nothing, I guess."
 First aircraft
radio
Carried aboard a Curtiss bi-plane in 1910, this rig made the
first radio transmission from air to ground while flying
over Brooklyn, NY. It weighed
40 lbs and mounted on a 2-ft-long board strapped to the
airplane's landing skid. The pilot, James McCurdy, a
Canadian aviation pioneer, transmitted with a Morse code
key mounted on the control wheel.
The transmitter was a spark type. An induction coil
created high voltage from a 6-volt battery (seen at far
right). When the operator closes the code key, voltage
jumps across a spark gap (much like a spark plug in an
automobile. This sends current into the large coil at left.
The coil is part of a tun­ing circuit which causes energy in
the spark to circulate back and forth at a rapid rate.
This is coupled to an antenna wire trailing outside the
aircraft, which converts the oscillations into radio waves.
In later experiments the aircraft carried a receiver to hear
transmissions from the ground.
Spark transmitters were inefficient and emitted signals on
many frequen­cies at the same time. Not until the
invention of the vacuum tube, which could generate clean,
powerful signals, did 2-way radio become practical in aircraft.
The vacuum tube also made possible transmission of the
human voice.
In old films, you may hear a ship's radio operator called
"Sparks,“ a throwback to the Marconi spark transmitter era.
 Air-Ground Messages in England

Thorne-Baker in England holds a

1910 aircraft radio which used a
Marconi electromagnetic detector
for re­ceiving. He communicated
with a Farman biplane flying one-
quarter mile away.
The radio aboard the airplane was
a 14-lb transmit­ter fastened to the
passenger seat. Pilot Robert
Loraine transmitted with a Morse
code key tied to his left hand. The
antenna consisted of wires
fastened along the length and
width of the airplane.
 Flying machine rescued by radio
Lifting off From New Jersey in 1911,the
airship America headed toward
Europe. Encountering bad weather and
engine problems 100 miles out, the
crew abandoned the air­ship and took
to a lifeboat. The wireless op­erator was
able to communicate with the nearby
Royal Mail Steamship Trent, which
rescued the crew. The Marconi radio
had a guaranteed range of 30 miles.
Note the cable dropping from the air­
ship. It trailed in the seawater to
provide a good electrical ground for the
antenna.
 Jimmy Doolittle and Beginning of
"Blind" Flight
Jimmy Doolittle, an army lieutenant, was the first
to take off, fly a course and land without seeing
outside the cockpit. He controlled the aircraft
solely by reference to instruments. Attitude
information (pitch and roll) were indicated on an
artificial horizon. A directional gyro, more stable
than a magnetic compass, indicated direction, while
a "sensitive" altimeter, which could be corrected
for barometric pressure, replaced the conven­tional
instrument.
Doolittle followed a radio course aligned with the
runway created by a radio range station on the
ground. Marker beacons indicated the airplane's
distance from the runway.
The flight was the single most important demon­
stration of what would become "avionics."
Because guiding aircraft to landing had been done
only by light signals, which don't penetrate clouds,
Doolittle's flight made commercial aviation a reality.
• 1931: Glideslope Appears: By tilting a radio beam • 1935 Air Traffic is Controlled: Airlines operate the first airway
vertically, experimenters at Col­lege park, MD created traffic control center at Newark, NY, to provide safe separation
an electronic path that matched the glide angle of an for aircraft flying in instrument conditions. Chicago and
airplane. Airplanes now had guidance for descending Cleveland soon follow. It is the beginning of the en route Air
to a runway in low visibility. It later became the Traffic Control system to sepa­rate traffic after it leaves the
glideslope part of the ILS, Instrument Landing System. airport area.
• 1932: Instrument Rating Required: Air Commerce • 1940: Radio for Oceanic Flight: Six powerful high-frequency
Department rules that air transport pilots must show radio stations are installed on Long Island, NY, lo provide the first
an ability to use airway navigation aids and fly certain two-way radio communica­tions for aircraft flying the Atlantic,
maneuvers guided entirely by instruments. The frequencies are in the HF band which, unlike lower aviation
• 1933: Cross Country Instrument Flight Bureau of bands, "skip" great distances. These stations also play an
Standards demonstrates a radio system for blind important role in ferrying mili­tary aircraft to England at the
Flight. Arriving at Newark, NJ, from College Park, MD, outbreak of World War ll.
the air­plane flew the first cross-country all-instrument • 1944: ICAO is Born Fifty-two countries met in Chicago to
flight. launch ICAO, the international Civil Aviation Organization, The
• 1935: Radar The Defense department of Great Britain first global avia­tion authority, ICAO will publish standards to
receives a report on a new system known as "radar" assure technical uniformity throughout the world. By 2015,
(for radio detection and ranging). It goes on to become ICAO had 188 mem­ber countries, which it calls "States."
a series of stations along the Brit­ish Isles for detecting
hostile aircraft during World War Il. To avoid shooting • 1945: GCA Honored The distinguished Collier Trophy is
down friendly aircraft, a device known as IFF, awarded to Dr. Luis W. Alvarez for his concept of Ground
Identification, Friend or Foe, is installed on British Controlled Approach. GCA uses a ground-based radar that emits
airplanes. Today IFF is known as the "transponder." two beams; one to indicate aircraft distance from the runway,
Later in the war, the Massachusetts Institute of the other to measure its height above ground. The radar
Technology seals down the size of ra­dar for installation operator watches the display and "talks" the pilot down to
aboard aircraft, the first major instrument of landing. Although successfully used by the mili­tary, GCA was
electronic warfare. never adopted for civil use. Airline pilots and government
authorities preferred the Instrument Landing System (lLS), which
became the standard for well into the 21st Century.
• 1947: VOR Commissioned After experimenting on the
New York-Chicago airway, the Civil Aviation Authority • 1957: Narrow Band Receivers The Civil Aeronautics
opens the first VOR (Very High Frequency Administration (CAA) begins instal­lation of new radios designed
Omnidirectional radio range) station. VOR grows rapidly  to double the number of aviation channels. Until that time, radio
to about 1,000 stations throughout the U.S. channels were 200 kHz apart. The new radios "split" channels
• 1947: Navy Pursues TACAN An effort to make VOR a for a spacing of 100 kHz .
common system for both military and civil navigation • 1956: Flight Recorders The CAA rules that air carrier and
fails. The U.S. Navy selects TACAN (Tacti­cal Air commercial aircraft over 12,500 lb must have a flight data
Navigation), a development which the Navy needed recorder by 1958. The FDRs record airspeed, time, altitude,
dur­ing the Korean War in 1950. Since most military vertical acceleration and heading.
flying is done in civil airspace, military aircraft must also
be equipped with VOR receivers. On the other hand, • 1957: Boeing 707 first flight After building 857 airplanes, 707
civil aircraft use a part of TACAN to operate their DME production ends in 1991.
(Distance Measuring Equipment). • 1958: FAA and NASA are Born During April and May, military
• 1948: BCB Labs Demonstrates the Transistor In aircraft collided with civil airliners in two separate accidents. The
searching for a device to replace electromechanical collisions raised a storm of protest to eliminate the Civil
switches in telephone systems. Bell scientists invent Aeronautics Agency, which con­trolled only the civil sector.
the transis­tor. It was tiny, had no moving parts, didn't 't Legislators call for a unified agency to control both military and
wear out and gener­ated little heat. The transistor will civil aircraft when flying in civil airspace. Later that year, Congress
become important in avionics for the same reasons.  passes the law hat creates the FAA (Federal Aviation
• 1956: Airliners Collide A TWA Constellation and United Administration). A major responsibility is to control airspace in
DC-7 collide over the Grand Canyon (Arizona) killing the US and develop a common system of air traffic control for
128 people. Both airplanes were flying VFR (visually) on civil and military aircraft. In October of the same year, Congress
a sunny day in wide open airspace. The response by creates NASA (Na­tional Aeronautics and Space Administration).
authorities is to require all aircraft flying over 18,000 Although NASA is identified with space exploration, it also justifies
feet to fly IFR (instrument flight rules), keeping them the "aeronau­tics" part of its name. NASA will contribute to airline
under positive control, in radar surveillance and safely avionics in the form of databases, displays, synthetic vision and
separated. The accident starts development of an on- human fac­tors. It will solve problems in small aircraft that limit
board anti-colli­sion system. The search continues for their useful­ness in bad weather. There are NASA programs on safer
40 years until the introduction of TCAS (Traffic Alert and cockpits, airframe icing and low-cost anti-collision devices.
Collision Warning System).
• 1959: DME Approved The International Civil • 1964: Cockpit Voice Recorders FAA requires CVRs in large
Aviation Organization chooses DME (distance
measuring equipment) as the world standard
turbine and 4-engine aircraft. In the event of an accident, the
to comple­ment VOR navigation. recorder provides cockpit conver­sation during the 30
• 1959: Transponders Begin (ATCRBS) Known as minutes preceding the crash,
"secondary radar," the transponder not only • 1964: Inertial Navigation Systems Pan Am installs INS on
pro­vides more powerful returns than most of its jet aircraft to provide accurate navigation over
conventional radar, but encodes aircraft
identification as well, It is based on World War
oceans and remote areas where ground stations are not
II "IFF" (Identification, Friend or Foe). The available.
system is "ATCRBS," for Air Traffic Control • 1964: Category II Landings FAA announces requirement
Radar Beacon System. and triggers replies from for Cal II (ILS) instrument landings. another step toward
an aircraft transponder. The first ground
interrogator is installed in New York and ex­ all-weather operations Decision height is lowered to 100
pands to 19 more air route traffic control centers. feet and runway visibility range (RVR) of 1200 feet, United
• 1960: Airborne Weather Radar FAA requires Airlines is first to qualify, with its DC-8s (in 1965).
US airliners to have airborne weather radar. It is • 1964: Helicopter Certified for IFR Sikorsky S-61 becomes
phased in over several years and, in 1966, first civil helicopter to be certified for IFR (Instrument Flight
expanded to cover large cargo aircraft.
Rules).
• 1960: More Com Channels The first increase in
VHF communications channels in the aircraft • 1964: Single Sideband Radio (SSB) FAA begins operating
band since 1946. It adds 5 megahertz to the first single sideband (SSB) ground station in Alaska for air
band, with 100 more channels for air traffic traffic control over the North Pole. SSB, which operates in
control. The new channels. the high frequency (HF) band will eventually replace older,
less-efficient HF radio for oceanic and remote
communications.
• 1966: Satellite Communications FAA reports "voice
messages of excellent clarity" during first test of a satellite
for long-range communications. The ve­hicle is NASA's
Applications Technology 1. "Satcom" will even­tually replace
High Frequency equipment.
• 1972: Category III Landing TWA receives first authorization
to operate Cat III (ILS) weather minimums to operate down to • 1981: Search and Rescue Satellite U.S. launches weather
visibility of 1000 feet (Runway Visual Range), then as low as 700 satellite carrying Search and Res­cue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SA
ft RVR. RSAT). It is capable of receiving signals from an aircraft ELT
• 1973: Mode C Transponders FAA requires aircraft flying in (Emergency Locator Transmit­ter). A similar satellite called COSPAS
Terminal Control Areas (which surround major airports) to is launched in 19l12 by the USSR (now Russia).
carry transponders capable of Mode C (altitude reporting). • 1984: Loran Approved FAA approves Loran long range
• 1973: . Public Address System FAA issues a rule requiring navigation system for IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight.
aircraft carrying more than 19 passengers to have public
address and interphone systems to keep crew and passengers
• 1988: Wind Shear: Turbine-powered airliners with 30 or more
informed during an emergency. passenger seats must carry equipment that warns of low-altitude
• 1974: Ground Prox Installation rule requiring Ground Proximity
wind shear. Guid­ance for recovery from wind shear is also required.
Warning Systems on air­liners is published by fAA. GPWS • 1991: Mode S interrogators The first Mode S systems are
warns when the aircraft is below 2500 feet and in danger of delivered to FAA. It's the beginning of the new radar beacon
closing too rapidly with the ground. ground interrogator sys­tem. Mode S transponders will replace
• 1980: Avionics and Two-Person Crews Boeing plans on two- the ATCRBS system
person crew for its new B-757-767 airliners. Digital systems in • FAA and Australia's Qantas Airlines complete first trials of new
these aircraft reduce the need for third person (flight engineer).
lts made possible by new EFIS (Elec­tronic Flight Instrument satellite-based communication, navigation and surveillance
System), which centralizes instruments and displays, as well as system recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organi­
automatic monitoring of engine parameters. zation (ICAO). Called "FANS" (Future Air Navigation System), it
• 1981: FAA Selects TCAS FAA adopts the Traffic Alert and improves communications with aircraft flying in oceanic and
Collision Avoidance Sys­tem (TCAS). Compatible with existing remote areas. This is the beginning of a global changeover to the
and future transponders, there are two versions: TCAS 1, next-generation of air traffic control.
which delivers only a traffic alert, and is practical for small
aircraft; and TCAS II, which adds vertical escape maneuvers
and is required for airliners.
• TCAS lll, which adds horizontal maneuvers. proved diffi­cult to
develop and was dropped.
• Future anti-collision systems will be based on satellite
Surveillance.
 Review Questions
Chapter 2 A Brief History
• •
2.1 Radio frequencies are measured in Hertz
2.6 What was the flrst radionavigation system
(Hz), after Heinrich Hertz, What was his
contribution to communications? for guiding airplanes?
 
• 2.2 What was the first system for marking • 2.7 Who was the pioneer who flew the flrst in­
cross-country airways? How was it limited? strument flight, sometimes known as "blind flying,"
in 1929?
• 2.3What was the first instrument to enable pi­
lots to maintain control of an airplane without • 2.8 What system in Air Traffic Control replaced
see­ing outside the cockpit? position reports by voice?
 
 
• 2.4 What component led to the artificial
horizon and autopilot? Name the developer • 2.9 In 1980, manufaeturers began desígning air­
of these early systems. Iiners without a third erew member (the naviga­
tor). What avionies development made it possible?
• 2 5 What type oftransmitter sent the first
radio message from an airplane to the ground?