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'Aeronautics' is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacture of flight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft. While the term—literally meaning "sailing the air"—originally referred solely to the science of ''operating'' the aircraft, it has since been expanded to include technology, business and other aspects related to aircraft.^[1]
One of the significant parts in aeronautics is a branch of physical science called aerodynamics, which deals with the motion of air and the way it interacts with objects in motion, such as an aircraft. 'Aviation' is a term sometimes used interchangeably with aeronautics, although "aeronautics" includes lighter-than-air craft such as airships, while "aviation" does not.

Contents

Early aeronautics

Modern aeronautics

Aeronautical engineering

References

See also

External links

Early aeronautics

Before scientific investigation of aeronautics started, people started thinking of ways to fly. In a Greek legend, Icarus and his father Daedalus built wings of feathers and wax and flew out of a prison. Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and he fell in the sea and drowned. When people started to scientifically study how to fly, people began to understand the basics of air and aerodynamics. One of the earliest scientists to study aeronautics was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo studied the flight of birds in developing engineering schematics for some of the earliest flying machines in the late fifteenth century AD. His schematics, however, such as the ornithopter ultimately failed as practical aircraft. The flapping machines that he designed were either too small to generate sufficient lift, or too heavy for a human to operate. Although the ornithopter continues to be of interest to hobbyists, it was replaced by the glider in the 19th century.

Modern aeronautics

Modern aeronautic research is primarily conducted by independent corporations such as EU and universities. There are also a number of government agencies that study aeronautics, including NASA in the United States and the ESA in Europe.

Aeronautical engineering

Aeronautical engineering is an engineering area that covers research, design, manufacture and maintenance of products such as aircraft, missiles and space satellites.
It involves scientific topics of Aerodynamics, Heat Transfer, Materials, Technology, Fluid Mechanics and Aircraft Structures.

References

1.

See also

★ Aviation

★ Aircraft

★ Airsickness and airsickness bags

★ Aerospace engineering

★ Aerostat

★ Astronautics

★ Spacecraft

★ Mechanics of fluids

★ Aerodynamics

★ Hydrodynamics

★ Hydrostatics

★ Aeronautical abbreviations

★

External links

★ Aerospace courses at MIT OpenCourseWare

★ American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

★ American Helicopter Society

★ Examples of Aeronautic Designs

★ A community for the people working in the aeronautics