The de Havilland DH106 Comet, the first commercial jet airliner prototype, 1949
Curators and historians from the National Air and Space Museum trace the history of flight, from humanity’s early aspirations for aerial transit, to 12 breathtaking seconds at Kitty Hawk, to the advances that came with global combat, and how jet engines and digital technology are opening a new future for aviation.
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In the decades following World War I, a combination of innovations in structures, power plants, aerodynamics, and materials finally succeeded in making the airplane a practical tool of modern society. But it took a second wave of discovery and innovations in technology to reinvent the airplane as a practical tool for commerce and war, a shift that required new designs to become faster, larger, and more powerful. Aircraft curator Bob van der Linden unpacks how new aluminum alloys, pioneering aerodynamics research, safety and performance technologies, and advances in structural and power components developed in the 1920s and 1930s succeeded in producing the first “modern” aircraft using methods and materials still used today.
It was the introduction of the jet engine in the aftermath of World War II, however, that truly remade aviation. Coupled with the aerodynamic innovation of the swept wing and other discoveries, jet-powered aircraft dramatically increased the speed, payload, and range of contemporary aircraft, transforming flight into an omnipresent and indispensable part of the modern world—a revolution that continues today.
Additional Sessions of the History of Flight Series
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