September

Heroes of Aviation: Beyond the Wright Brothers

Caio Bragatto, Assistant Professor of Physics
September 5, 12, 19, 26

Nearly every city in America has a street named after the Wright Brothers, and more often than not that street leads to the local airport. This pays homage to the two brothers from Cedar Rapids who are credited as the inventors of the modern airplane—but are they? The history of how humankind took to the air is more nuanced and convoluted than the familiar Wright brothers narrative lets on. In this four-week forum, Associate Professor of Physics Caio Bragatto, will explain the physics, history and evolution of the airplane. The series will offer an introduction to the history of flight, lesser-known heroes of aviation and the ways people have continually innovated in their attempts to conquer the skies. The first two sessions will provide a timeline of events and an overview of
the famous and less-familiar scientists, inventors and aviators involved with the creation of airplanes and
the history of flight, including Englishman Sir George Cayley, German Otto Lilienthal and Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont. We will explore why there is so much debate about who actually flew the first airplane and how we can solve that question by using different definitions of what constitutes an airplane. In week three, we will focus on the science of flying machines and how something heavier than air is capable of flight. This will include an introduction to concepts like fluid dynamics, gravity, thrust and lift as well as illustrations of those concepts using models and paper airplanes. The final session will discuss modern flying vehicles, from rocket ships to supersonic airplanes, and other recent advances in aviation.