Obregn

Miguel Alejandro Obregn Oliva

Mrs. Olga Rodrguez

Communicative english IV-418

19-02-2014

Chapter I: Flying through history.

A. Why the people want to fly?

Why the people want to fly? If you ask this question in a web page like yahoo
answers, or ask, the first thing that you are going to see is that everyone gives you a
different answer, someone can tell you for fell more freedom, other person can tell you
that for see the world in other perspective, too there is people who tell you that they
want to feel the air flowing through their body.

It doesnt matter which would be a precise reason, because this reason comes
from mucho more time ago, since the Greeks, or before, and an example of this is the
myth of Daedalus and Icarus, where they were enclosed in a prison made for minotaur,
and as this prison was in an island, they made a pair of wings, one pair for Daedalus,
and other pair for Icarus. (enelviento.com, Historia del vuelo libre).

B. First tries.

Through all the history we can see that there were people who wanted to fly, and
in order to do that, the made machines or wings, most of the time these tries for fly
finished with a dead man on the street, but without these inventions the man would not
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fly today, because it doesnt matter if an experiment finish with a mistake, because if
something does not work, then you will know which way is not correct, and then you will
improve your work.

Now that we know more or less how the first tries to fly were, lets talk about
someone who helped a lot to improve and invent new machines for fly: Leonardo Da
Vinci, according to Francisco Gonzales, Leonardo took most of his theories and designs
from the birds, and also he made the first designs for the parachute, the helicopter, the
plane, wings and the ornithopter, most of these designs helped to the development of
the modern plane, helicopter, and the parachute (Las mquinas voladoras de Leonardo
Da Vinci).

C. First flight.

According to a lot of history books the first flight was done by Wilbur y Orville
Wright in 1903. But that is not true! How couldnt be this true? Well, this is because the
Wright brothers were the second ones who flew in the worlds history. Now that I think
you are asking yourself, who was the first men that flew? Well, the answer is: Ibn
Firnas, who was a scientist, and a Muslim inventor who flew in the year 875 a. C.
(Percy Taira, IBN FIRNAS: EL PRIMER HOMBRE QUE VOL EN LA HISTORIA)

According to Percy Taira, Firnas lived in Spain, in the city of Cordova where he
did a lot of experiments and inventions, he made up the magnifying glass and a
planetarium simulating the movement of the planets and the stars (IBN FIRNAS: EL
PRIMER HOMBRE QUE VOL EN LA HISTORIA).

Firnas always wanted to fly so he one day decided to do it:

To perform such a feat never tested by any man, Ibn Firnas , decided to
send to weave a silk robe covered with feathers and wooden runners
articulated that could be moved and opened in a way similar to the wings
of birds.
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Once built this contraption, he put it on and went on the tower Ruzafa
Valley in Cordoba, and in front of a lot of people, he fell into the abyss.
According to witnesses, (), incredibly, Ibn Firnas , remained long in the
air ( it is said that for ten seconds ) and managed to glide or fly for a long
distance .

However, something wrong happened in the invention, (...). Having no tail
for the apparatus, Ibn Firnas chopped and crashed on the ground. (Percy
Taira, IBN FIRNAS: EL PRIMER HOMBRE QUE VOL EN LA
HISTORIA).

Ibn Firnas did not die. () he broke his legs, and hurt his back, this brought him
many problems until the day of his death. (Percy Taira, IBN FIRNAS: EL PRIMER
HOMBRE QUE VOL EN LA HISTORIA).

D. Progress flying.

Through all our history, the men has improved all the experiments that have been
made, this include the experiments for fly, and for this, the men has used a lot of
inventions, and put them into the plane, the helicopter, or use them for make another
inventions.

1. Aircraft engine:

An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for
an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always
either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines.(Wikipedia, Aircraft engine).

2. Turbines:

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A turbine is the machine that impulse the airplane and make it fly, and it works in
this way:

Basically, having a first instance of compression. The compressor blades are
seen in the front of the engine. The high pressure air enters the combustion
chamber where it mixes with fuel and ignites. The combustion chamber is shaped
like half an egg, the explosion pushes the engine forward and backward removes
gases. The gases exiting at a high speed backward spin a turbine connected to a
central shaft allowing movement of the compressor and other accessories.
Finally, the gases are removed through the exhaust nozzle. (maxwing2001,
Como funciona una turbine de avin o turborreactor?).

3. Propellers:

Machine that propels an object up, or sideways, using fuel, liquid or air, creating
a force against the ground to keep the object in the air.

This invention is used for training astronauts and also was used for the invention
of the jet pack, a backpack with propellers that use fuel for fly.
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