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The 1920 s were a time of changes in many areas of the American lifestyle. Examples include the changing roles of women, the African American struggle for equality, the changing sound of music, new forms of literature, growth of cities, and the development of airplanes and their uses. Major aircraft development started during World War I because America was striving to be stronger than any other country. War brought about the development of fighter and bomber airplanes; machine guns were mounted onto planes because of their rapid firepower.
The U. S. had put a lot of money into such aircraft during the war, so after the war was over and we had won, people saw no need to develop aircraft any further since WWI was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Around 1920, however, people realized that WWI really hadnt put an end to all wars, so the government saw a reason to put money into the development of aircraft again. During the 1920 s, airplane design became more advanced and planes were used to fly mail and In the early 1920 s, the Air Force was equipped with outdated WWI aircraft and any replacements they got adhered to the same basic design. The only improvements were ones similar to better radio equipment, better instrumentation, and oxygen for high altitude flying.
Much later on, planes were being made out of metal instead of the former fabric stretched over a wood frame design to increase service years of a plane and to reduce reliance on imported wood and fabric coverings. There had been numerous attempts beforehand to make metal planes, but the first successful all metal plane was called Short Silver Streak. Earlier, most planes were a biplane layout with fixed tail wheel landing gear and two fixed machine guns. In 1920 the Wright R. B. higgling monoplane racer was developed with retractable landing gear.
It wasnt until the 1930 s, however, that retractable landing gear appeared on anything but experimental or racing aircraft. The greatest spurs of technological advancement were racing and record breaking. Races such as the Pulitzer Trophy land place races (U. S.
only) and the Schneider Trophy Seaplance races (international, but most heavily involved were Italy, the U. K. and the U. S. A. ) caused the development of high-output engines, advanced aerodynamics, and public enthusiasm and awareness in aviation matters. (Batchelor, p 42 - 56) Record breaking got airplanes flying faster, farther, and higher. Aircraft built specifically for record-breaking were no good for other things because they were a small, optimized plane, but transferring specific features onto the bodies of airplanes as a whole allowed for the steady improvement of aircraft.
The military sponsored many aircraft to try to break records in expectation of technical spin-offs that would improve service aircraft. These planes usually set many of the records. Civil aviation excelled in the areas of around the world flying with stops and nonstop flights across the ocean. The most vital exploit of the time was the first solo, nonstop crossing of the North Atlantic by Charles Lindbergh. In May of 1927 he flew from New York to Paris in 33 hours and 39 minutes. The plane he flew, The Ryan NYP, was built specifically for this flight.
This plane had the unusual feature of forward vision by periscope because the fuel tank occupied the complete depth of the fuselage forward of the cockpit. Then in 1928 Charles Kingsford-Smith crossed the Pacific for the first time: he went from California to Australia. If a plane could make it across the ocean, it could certainly make it across the country; then why not find a good use for it? (Batchelor, p 56 - 62) Many people thought a good use for airplanes would be to have them carry mail. Congress had the money as early as 1917 for a trial airmail run. In 1918 a service between New York and Washington Got under way. Flights were made by army planes and pilots until about half a year later wen the Post Office began putting its own fleet to work.
Despite the hazards-three airmail pilots killed in 1919, nine the next year-the Post Office extended its routes. In 1921, fearing that incoming president Warren Harding would do away with the airmail service, the Post Office put on a demonstration showing how fast they could go from coast to coast: a team of pilots carried the mail from San Francisco to New York in a record-breaking 33 hours and 20 minutes. This convinced the new administration that the airmail service should not only be kept, but improved. The government began installing beacons along the transcontinental airway. There were revolving beacons flashing into the night sky and lighted emergency landing fields every 25 to 30 miles along the way. The first stretch to be marked was from Chicago to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
By 1924 the lighted airway had been completed from New York to San Francisco and from New York to Chicago the following year. Nothing else like the night system existed anywhere else: night service in any other country was not a regular occurrence. As revenues increased from carrying mail, there was political pressure to turn the service over to private airline operators. Congress passed the Kelly Act in 1925, which left the transcontinental route to the Post Office.
The Post Office, however, was required to enlist the help of private airlines, who would bid on how much they would fly the mail for: to the lowest bidder went the route. Soon after private airlines became part of the show, carrying passengers became feasible. The resulting network became the nucleus of the modern American airline industry. (Jackson, Neither the U. S. government or citizens would support commercial airlines because they were thought to be too dangerous due to all the accidents planes on mail routes had.
Accidents soured the public and the financial community against airlines. People just figured they should stick with trains, which were not as fast but were a lot safer in their opinions. The airlines needed some way to get support. The Kelly Act required the involvement of private airlines in transporting the mail. This was just the springboard commercial aviation needed to connect with people and get business flowing. Soon after they started flying the mail, they started flying people and the mail.
Some people just got old mail planes and custom designed them into airliners. The airliners from the 1920 s were all very small. There were probably four of five passengers at the most along for the ride. Any person or people who was serious about making money in the airline industry would get a new design of a plane. Henry Ford had been interested in aviation's potential for a long time when an inventor, William B. Stort, asked for financial backing in building an all metal plane-an idea that was still radical at this time.
Ford and some other businessmen helped and Stout organized his own company to build a metal monoplane. Ford bought the company in 1925 and had his engineers redesign the metal plane to create the Ford Trimotor, which would become the backbone of airlines in the late 1920 s. (Allen, p 54 - 55) Vein C. Gorst had been operating a number of bus lines in the Pacific states and had been a long time aviation enthusiast. After learning of the Kelly Act late in 1925, he wanted to start his own airline. He addressed a group of bus company managers, suggesting that they pool their resources and start an airline. They raised enough to pay for a survey so Gorst hired a stunt pilot to fly him from San Francisco to the Canadian border and back again.
He reported to his associates that it was feasible to transport mail along the coast by plane. To raise money for the coastal air contract, Gorst traveled up and down the west coast and peddled $ 175, 000 worth of stock and hired pilots who were willing to take additional stock as part of their pay. When bids on the coastal mail contract opened up, Gorst prevailed. He called his new corporation Pacific Air Transport and started scheduled operation in 1926. Many people were successful like this. Throughout the 1920 s, planes became more advanced and practical, the U.
S. organized flying the mail, and many private airliners carried people as well as mail. Many people profited from these happenings and not just the businessmen because people got their mail faster and had a faster way to travel. After the 1920 s airplanes continued to get faster, stronger, bigger, more reliable, and safer. Today traveling on a plane is a very common way to go somewhere that is far away, even though the amount of room passengers have hasnt. Bibliography:
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