AIR

TRANSPORTATION

LECTURE 3
PROF. FILSYN SANTOS – SEMPIO, MBA
The aviation industry has gone a
long way since the first airplane
took to the skies. It is the youngest
among all major modes of
transportation. Sea and land travel
have been moving man since
ancient times. Air transport is a late
bloomer, as it was only in the early
1900s that the Wright brothers
made the first successful flight in
the history of the airplane as we
know it today.
WHAT IS
AVIATION?
The word aviation is a general term that originated
from the French word "avi" meaning bird (Aviation,
n.d.). The researched meaning of aviation is a noun
that means the design, development, production,
operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-
than-air aircraft. This definition covers a system
that has a reference to air transportation.
 The International Civil Aviation

General
Organization (2009) defines general
aviation as "all civil aviation operations
other than scheduled air services and

Aviation non-scheduled air transport operations

for remuneration or hire." It involves
activities such as business flights, air
charter, private aviation, flight training,
ballooning, paragliding, parachuting,
gliding, hang gliding, aerial
photography, foot-launched powered
hang gliders, air ambulance, crop
dusting, charter flights, traffic reporting,
police air patrols, and forest fire
fighting. General aviation is a wider
term.
 Commercial
Aviation
Though commercial aviation is
part of general aviation,
commercial aviation can be
differentiated as activities that
involve flying for business,
remuneration, or hire. The best
example is the scheduled flights
of commercial airlines that
operate in major airports.
Military Aviation

Military aviation involves using military

aircraft and other flying machines. It is
usually done for national security,
warfare, logistics deployment to military
personnel, and other military purposes.
It may include carrying civilian
passengers who need to be evacuated
or repatriated
HISTORY
OF
AVIATION
 Lighter-Than-Air Aircraft Development
Examples of lighter-than-air aircraft are hot air balloons and airships or
blimps. The first successful hot air balloon was created by the French
brothers, Joseph Michel and Jacques- Etienne Montgolfier. The flight in
November 1783 took to the air science teacher Jean- Francois Pilâtre de
Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, Francois Laurent (The Montgolfier
Brothers' Balloon, n.d.). the brothers experimented using paper and fabric
for the balloon that used fire to produce hot air. A basket was attached to
the balloon where the passengers boarded (The First Hot Air Balloon
Flight, n.d.). In Philippine airspace, the first flight was on a hot air balloon'
flown by Portuguese acrobat C. F. Marquez who performed during a
carnival exhibition in Manila on April 4, 1909. His performance was
recorded in Philippine aviation history as the first air travel.
Another lighter-than-air aircraft is the airship,
dirigible, or blimp. An airship is a rigid cigar-
shaped aircraft with propellers. In the article
of Freudenrich (n.d.), Henri Giffard built the
first successful airship in 1852. The more
popular airship, the Zeppelin, was designed
by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1900. It
had a rigid metal framework and used
hydrogen gas. The Zeppelins were used for
both military and commercial purposes. The
most famous among the Zeppelins was the
Hindenburg, which carried passengers
across the North

Atlantic. It was tragically destroyed by fire in

1937. That event ended the career of the
Zeppelin as a commercial aircraft
Heavier-Than- There are several personalities who
have contributed to the initial designs

Air Aircraft
of the first successful heavier-than-air
aircraft. The ideas and aerial

Development
concepts of Leonardo da Vinci,
George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, John
Stringfellow Lawrence Hargrave and
Samuel Langley led to the success of
Wilbur and Orville Wright, better
known as the Wright brothers These
men are not all engineers or scientists
but have been intrigued by the desire
for man to fly like birds.
Though Leonard Da Vinci is well known
for his artistic paintings such as the The gliders that were developed around
Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, his 1853 are considered the first successful
other works have influenced aviation heavier- than-air aircraft. British
development. As a young boy, he was engineer George Cayley was able to fly
fascinated with flight and studied how his glider across a small valley, thus
birds fly (Williams, 2014). He sketched earning the privilege of being the first
flying machines such as the successful airman
ornithopters. His aviation designs
included machines with a pilot in a
prone position, standing vertically, using
arms and legs (Jakab, 2013).
 John Stringfellow is another personality
Otto Lilienthal studied the ideas of sir in aviation development. He was an
Cayley of how birds fly as well. He built Englishman known in the lace industry,
several gliders and flew almost 2,000 Due to his fascination with the steam
controlled flights with fixed-wing crafts. engine together with William Henson,
His works later influenced the Wright they designed the Aerial Steam
brothers, as well as other engineers and Carriage in 1842. Their attempts to build
aviation designers (Early Gliders, n.d.). flying machines powered by lightweight
steam engines were not successful.
Aviation development also happened on Samuel Langley designed and created
the other side of the world. Lawrence pilotless heavier-than-air crafts in
Hargrave was another Englishman but aviation developments from the New
later lived in Australia. His contribution World. In 1896, two of his airplane
to aviation development was the engine creations achieved flight. The first air
that was powered by compressed air plane reached 914 meters or 3,000
and fuel. In 1889, he created the feet. The second airplane flew as high
compressed air engine using three as 1,280 meters or 4,200 feet. Both
rotating cylinders. were unmanned.
The most famous personalities in aviation
history are Orville and Wilbur Wright,
bicycle shop owners. According to Van Most of the earlier uses of the
der Linden et al. (2016), the brothers airplane were for the military and
successfully flew the Wright glider in
eventually for wars. Aircraft were
1902. year later, in December 1903 the
two brothers achieved the first manned mostly built for reconnaissance.
flight with their Wright flyer, giving them
rights to the claim of the first successful
manned flight in history. The success of
the Wright brothers with their Wright
Flyer proved that man could fly.
When the war ended, After World War I, tourism was used to
airplanes were put to promote economic aid and cultural
diplomacy. Airplanes used to transport
commercial use, such as servicemen and women during the war
carrying mail and were converted as aircraft to carry
civilians for leisure and tourism
passengers. Mass air travel purposes. Planes were then used for
was prominent around 1945 economic and tourism development
to 1960. rather than for mass destruction. It
was around this time that airline
companies around the world started to
rebuild their transportation business.
Researched that the jet age started The record set by the jet age was later
with Pan Am flight 111 "jet-age pioneers" broken with the entry of the Concorde,
from New York to Paris onboard a an aircraft that brought the industry into
Boeing 707 on October 26, 1958. The the supersonic age in 1973. Travel
flight took only 7 hours and 34 minutes between Paris and New York took only 3
compared to the previous 11-hour flight and 1/2 hours. The success of the
using piston engine. Boeing, a U.S.- Concorde did not last long. It retired
based aerospace company, built the after 15 years and had not been used
aircraft that started a revolution in air since. No other aircraft Concorde's
travel. speed record (Blum, 2019).