Stepping stones towards aviation

Ever wondered how the very necessity for aviation was felt among Earthlings? Ever wondered how the first step towards aviation was made? The history of aviation stretches way too far than we could imagine. Starting from the starting of birds to some crude attempts and sacrifices and the current generation of modern jets, we have come far. Early attempts of flight predominantly two approaches, either ornithography or airscrew inspired designs. Despite the fact of continual research on these aspects, people's nagging desire and ambition to see the sky and beyond(for those who believe in flat earth) never died out. The moment we think about first upright steps in aviation, our mind triggers the neurons to recall Wright Brothers, Otto Lielienthal, Sir George Cayley etc... But S'il vous plaît, attendez, do you know about Montgolifer brothers who made the first successful attempt to reach the skies or maybe Jean Pierre, who was the very first to add control system to a dirigibles?

As I was researching on the topic, one of the many things that struck me hard was the control system approach adopted by Jean Pierrer. It all started in Fall 1793, where the french lands found the ubiquitous presence of hot air and hydrogen balloons flying everywhere around the Eifel tower. The maturation of this buoyancy inspired technology quickly saw new markets and opened new gates for research and hmm...well, new means of war as well. However, we might very well be aware of the motion of hot air balloons, it goes in the path of the air current. When it comes to aviation, 2 golden rules, even today is the lift and control. Jean Pierrer took first bold steps in conceiving few ideas pertaining to it.

His model included a hydrogen filled artistic balloon, with two oars attached on either side and a control fin(which we now call as rudder) was attached. Astonishhly, it also had an emergency recovery system, which was nothing but a simple umbrella kind of structure, attached to the bottom of the balloon mouth! The objective of including these extra control surfaces were to steer the balloon in any desired direction, just like that of a ship. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as expected....Over the years, many steps were taken, which let to sacrifices rather than success. In next few years, Jean died during an experimentation to jump from the balloon safely with recovery systems and eventually his wife got killed in a public demonstration.

Facts and histories aside. Now, lets put our thinking hats and analyze WHY did Jean's model fail?

• Firstly let us address the oars attached as a means to "propel" the air balloon. The orientation of the balloon was located not in the direction of the wind like a turboprop engine propeller, but instead, it was located along the streamline direction, like a car tyre. This way, the oars could create a beautiful dynamic rotation for the public to spectate, but it was not good enough to propel the ship. In addition, the thrust generated was not adequate enough, as the rotation of those oars were done manually.

• Next addressing the rudder, while the design seemed good enough, it was just the issue of not generating adequate moment to steer the airship. Besides, the location of the rudder was not appropriate, as it literally had no air stream flowing towards it.

• Well, finally the umbrella...lol, it would have worked in FORTNITE games and Mr. Gadget cartoons, but not in reality. Well, you could understand why it didn't work. If it worked, then Jean would not have died!? Let me know in the comments as to why didn't the umbrella mechanism didn't work

Share your thoughts on other reasons as to why the model failed. It would be great if you could make a CFD analysis and share it with your fellow Aeronauts!

To infinity and beyond!