Aviation history

Aviation history in the context of museum and history tourism invokes various aspects of science tourism, including both civil and military aviation.

Understand


The question of "where and when was the first powered flight" is controversial; some say it was made in Kitty Hawk in 1903 by the Wright brothers on their Flyer (a catapult was needed, and witness report is scarce as the Wright brothers worked in secrecy and were afraid of industrial espionage); others give this honor to Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont and his 14-bis. On 23 October 1906, he took off under the aircraft's own power before a large crowd of witnesses, at the grounds of Paris' Château de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, for a distance of 60 m (197 ft) at a height of about 5 m (16 ft), the first powered heavier-than-air flight in Europe to be certified by the Aéro Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). This controversy is not meant to be a subject of a travel guide, but repays study to science and history aficionados.

However, this wasn't the first time man was flying. Otto Lilienthal experimented with gliders a decade before, and already in 1783 the Montgolfier brothers took off in the world's first manned hot air balloon. Even though "lighter than air" flight had thus been proved feasible in the 18th century, throughout much of the 19th century many people - including respected scientists like Lord Kelvin - doubted that "heavier than air" aviation would ever become possible. However, the brothers Wright proved the skeptics wrong and by the time World War I began, planes had become a military asset in reconnaissance if not necessarily in the fighting. While Zeppelins were an impressive feat of human engineering, their high up front investment cost and their initial technological problems that were only figured out by the time the Hindenburg disaster (owing due to highly flammable hydrogen being used instead of helium which at the time was almost entirely under US control) happened, stalled their development in the 1930s.

Today blimps, airships that unlike Zeppelins get their shape from gas pressure rather than an interior skeleton, are a minor factor in aviation and like balloons are a sideshow in today's aviation picture that is dominated by "heavier than air" to the point that flying is almost universally understood to mean airplanes.

Military aviation
Balloons had seen some occasional usage for reconnaissance during the 19th century. Austrian troops bombed Venice from the air in 1849 and the American Civil War saw reconnaissance balloons, which were however hampered by the lack of efficient long distance communication like radio. Aviation was however dismissed as a tool by many military experts even after the first practicable airplanes emerged. Aviation played a small role in the Great War but became a major contributor (and strategic component) in World War II. World War I produced the first "flying aces", pilots who were celebrated for their prowess in air to air combat and there was much mythology around the supposed chivalry of aerial combat compared to the increasingly brutal, senseless and industrialized slaughter in the trenches — however, most of those stories have little basis in fact.

An aerial attack on Pearl Harbor was a key step in the escalation of the Pacific War, while bombing of cities and civilian populations was widespread in World War II in Europe. Cities like Coventry, Guernica, Rotterdam (bombed after the Netherlands had already surrendered) and later Hamburg, Dresden or Berlin were leveled almost entirely by aerial bombardment and bear the scars of this new type of warfare to this day. Timber framed houses and a densely built historical old town used to be hallmarks of most cities in central Europe, but the bombing (and subsequent short-sighted urban planning) ensured that they would become a rarity in major cities. Aviation also revolutionized military logistics. While earlier an army had to chose between moving along supply lines or keeping to a deliberate pace while supply lines in their rear were ensured or "living off the land", by the time of World War II it became conceivable to supply an army by air and as the Soviets had to learn during the 1940s Berlin blockade, the same applied to entire civilian cities. While the common image of the "raisin bomber" has them delivering mostly food, as a matter of fact coal was the single most common delivery item and the planes even flew in an entire power plant for West-Berlin which had until then depended partially on the surrounding area for its power needs. In Southeast Asia, the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter would gain a fearsome reputation, as the outdated aircraft left behind by the British to defend their colonies were no match for the more advanced Japanese fighters. The tide of the war would eventually begin to turn against Japan in the Battle of Midway, June 1942, when the Americans sank Japan's four largest aircraft carriers and were thus able to gain aerial superiority for the rest of the war.

The Korean War and Vietnam War saw aerial bombardment on a heretofore unprecedented scale and there were more bombs dropped on the jungles of Indochina during that war than on the cities of Europe during World War II. There have thankfully been few symmetric wars since, but industrial powers often use aerial bombardment in asymmetric wars as it poses less danger to their own soldiers than ground fighting. However, it is harder to distinguish civilians from military targets from the air, a fact that insurgents, terrorist groups and others sometimes use as a military tactic and for propaganda efforts. Aerial superiority would once again prove crucial in the 1982 Falklands War, where the Argentine Dassault Mirage IIIEA and Douglas A-4 Skyhawk aircraft proved no match for the British Harriers, eventually leading to victory for the British and the surrender of the Argentinian occupation force. The huge distances involved also showed the limits of even a modern military to project its power as many airplanes had to refuel in the Azores and Tristan da Cunha on their way from the British mainland to the Falklands.

Commercial air travel
Commercial heavier than air air travel was born in the years between the two world wars, and saw flying become a viable transport option for travelling long distance. Some of today's global aviation icons, including Australia's Qantas, the Netherlands' KLM and Air France were founded during that period. Delta Air Lines can also trace its origins back to several companies founded in the 1920s. In the interwar period, Germany, which had been forbidden to develop military aviation under the Versailles Treaty developed a "civil" aviation program that just "happened to" include airplanes that were virtually identical in form, performance, payload capability, range and speed to then-current military models. In that era the first incarnation of Deutsche Luft-Hansa was founded, but the current company of that name is legally distinct from the modern day Lufthansa, which Lufthansa likes to point out when their 1932 PR flights for Hitler or wartime crimes are the topic of conversation, but likes to forget when old interwar airplanes are flown around in the name of tradition.

Numerous factors, not least of which military considerations and the fact that many high-ranking Nazis personally disliked Zeppelins (Göring had been a military pilot in World War I) as well as the fact that the US did not wish to deliver helium to Nazi Germany, causing Zeppelins to continue to be filled with flammable Hydrogen, led to a chain of events that ended the only notable passenger Zeppelin program. While airships of some forms continue to have certain military applications and are still used for their novelty value in sightseeing and advertising, overall the "golden era" of the rigid airship went up in smoke in Lakehurst in 1937.

The 1950s and 1960s became known as the "Golden Age of Air Travel", when flying was a privilege only for the filthy rich, and airlines competed with each other to offer the most luxurious onboard service with the most attractive stewardesses. The introduction of the first jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet, in 1952 ushered in the jet age, which allowed aircraft to cover distances more quickly than ever before. Some icons of that era include Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) and Trans World Airlines (TWA) of the United States, which closed down in 1991 and 2001 respectively, and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), which was merged into British Airways in 1974. Among the most prestigious airline routes from that era are the London-New York and London-Sydney routes, which continue to be operated as the flagship routes of British Airways and Qantas Respectively.

In the 1970s, two iconic airliners were introduced into commercial passenger service: the Boeing 747, also known as the Jumbo Jet, in 1970, and the supersonic Concorde in 1976. The Concorde would cover the distance between London's Heathrow Airport and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport in under 3 hours, shaving over 2 hours off the time taken by subsonic jets. However, due to its high operating cost, ticket prices on the Concorde were exorbitant (even more expensive than first class on subsonic airliners), making it a popular aircraft for celebrities, but otherwise unaffordable for much of the general public. The Concorde would cease to operate in the early 21st century, with British Airways retiring their last Concorde in 2003. While the Concorde was a limited commercial success for Air France and British Airways, it was never even close to recovering any of the development costs invested by the French and British states, driving Europe towards consolidation in aircraft manufacture. At the same time, the Soviet supersonic plane, the Tupolev Tu-144 fared worse, being withdrawn from service after only a few years. Other supersonic passenger jet proposals, including one by Boeing never went past the planning stage. The Concorde is one of the best preserved planes in history in the sense that a big portion of the total planes produced are still extant and can be visited. In a sense, the Concorde on the ground is more accessible to the average person than it ever was during its flying days. On the other hand, the Boeing 747 was a huge success, becoming the preferred medium to long-haul aircraft for many airlines all over the world (and even for short-haul but high-volume domestic routes in Japan) for over four decades. Production of the Boeing 747 ended in 2022, and it has been largely superseded by newer and more efficient aircraft for passenger service; however, it is still widely used as a freighter.

At the end of the 1970s, deregulation of the airline industry started with the passing of the Airline Deregulation Act in the United States in 1978. This resulted in a fall in ticket prices, making air travel accessible to much of the middle class in developed countries for the first time. However, the advent of stronger anti-discrimination laws in Western countries during that period made it illegal to favour hiring cabin crew of a particular age or gender, marking an end to the era of young, attractive stewardesses. The lower ticket prices would also translate to a fall in service standards in economy class, as airlines were now able to offer less frills in exchange for better prices. In the 1990s, the European Union adopted an increasingly "open skies" policy, which - combined with privatization of the flag carriers, the advent of high speed rail and the fall of the Iron Curtain - led to an intensely competitive market which has still not settled into any sort of stable equilibrium.

In the 1990s, commercial aircraft manufacturing was consolidated into the duopoly of Boeing, based in the United States, and Airbus, based in Western Europe. While the manufacturing of large commercial aircraft is still dominated by the two aforementioned companies, the market for smaller regional aircraft is more competitive, with the most notable manufacturers being Brazil's Embraer and France's Avions de transport régional (ATR), while the regional jet division of Canadian manufacturer Bombardier has been acquired by Airbus. Russian and Chinese manufacturers (with the help and some outright owned by their respective governments) are making an effort to enter the regional jet market and eventually even to challenge the Airbus-Boeing duopoly of bigger jets, but thus far they haven't been all that successful outside of their own countries.

At the beginning of the 21st century, budget carriers expanded exponentially, the best known ones being Southwest Airlines in the United States, Ryanair in Europe and AirAsia in Southeast Asia. These airlines offer a no-frills service with rock-bottom ticket prices, with the option of paying extra for some of the frills offered in full-service airlines, making air travel finally accessible to much of the working class. This has shaken the airline industry to its core, resulting in the bankruptcy of many full-service airlines that were unable to compete, and many of the surviving ones cutting back further on service in economy class in order to offer competitive prices with the budget carriers. At the same time, many airlines are competing to offer the most luxurious first and business class products, with the introduction of lie-flat seats in long-haul business class. This has led to the modern trend where airlines are stripping more and more frills from economy class in order to cut costs, while at the same time offering more and more luxurious first and business class products.

However, low-cost airlines also take advantage of numerous subsidies and underhand business tactics. Airports like Hahn (Germany) never made a profit and can never hope to. If local politicians raise landing fees, the airline abandons the airport. Similarly, pilots are often with an airline for an exceedingly short time and paid much less than industry averages. Some airlines even go as far as implementing "pay to fly" where pilots have to pay for the "privilege" of accruing the flight hours necessary for keeping their license. In 2017 several things happened to Ryanair that called into question their business model, including strike attempts and a severe shortage of pilots not on holiday. Competition from high speed rail seems to be the only serious threat aviation as a mode of transport faces in the 21st century. Many routes in Asia and Europe where trains now take four hours or less from city center to city center have seen airlines forced to cut prices, reduce frequency or drop out of the market entirely. At the same time air rail alliances have ensured that some airlines are able to cut down on uneconomical feeder flights, replacing them with trains.

Australia




Finland




Germany
Germany was among the forefront of lighter than air flying for the first third of the 20th century and the name of Count Zeppelin still stands for a rigid, skeleton based airship (as opposed to frameless blimps). Germany also saw aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal conduct more and more audacious experiments until one finally killed him, in part due the then insufficiently understood phenomenon of stall. After Germany lost World War I, the Treaty of Versailles stipulated tight limits on armament, among them the prohibition of an air force. However, even during Weimar times, the government tried to avoid following the rules and the aid to private and civil aviation during the 1920s and 1930s was one way the various governments circumvented those prohibitions. This led both to passenger airlines of high repute (Lufthansa in its first incarnation among them) and an air force (Luftwaffe) in good fighting shape come World War II. Together with new and improved tanks, the latter revolutionized warfare, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. When the Nazis got in power they also encouraged gliding as a hobby to build a stock of young men familiar with aerodynamics and the basics of flying "on the cheap" and again circumventing prohibitions of the Versailles Treaty. Today the remnants of the companies that pioneered German aviation form the core of Airbus, one of the two largest plane manufacturers in the world and even the Zeppelin company is still around building small semi-rigid airships (basically blimps with a keel) as a side venture.
 * is the aviation branch of Deutsches Museum, in Oberschleißheim on the north edge of Munich. The enormous main museum of science and technology is downtown in  Isarvorstadt, with a transport branch in Schwanthalerhöhe at the west edge of that district.
 * is the aviation branch of Deutsches Museum, in Oberschleißheim on the north edge of Munich. The enormous main museum of science and technology is downtown in  Isarvorstadt, with a transport branch in Schwanthalerhöhe at the west edge of that district.
 * is the aviation branch of Deutsches Museum, in Oberschleißheim on the north edge of Munich. The enormous main museum of science and technology is downtown in  Isarvorstadt, with a transport branch in Schwanthalerhöhe at the west edge of that district.
 * is the aviation branch of Deutsches Museum, in Oberschleißheim on the north edge of Munich. The enormous main museum of science and technology is downtown in  Isarvorstadt, with a transport branch in Schwanthalerhöhe at the west edge of that district.
 * is the aviation branch of Deutsches Museum, in Oberschleißheim on the north edge of Munich. The enormous main museum of science and technology is downtown in  Isarvorstadt, with a transport branch in Schwanthalerhöhe at the west edge of that district.

Italy




United States
The United States has many sites and museums where a traveller can learn about aviation history. See Wikivoyage's Aviation history in the United States article for aviation history in the United States.

Scale-model collections
Ever since there has been aviation, there have been skilled model-makers creating scale representations, with many flying models engineered to the same exacting precision of their full-scale counterparts. Reportedly, 'model' flying machines -such as kites in China- got airborne centuries before manned flight first took place. Whilst a number of the museums mentioned above may have aviation models on show, those noted in this section are specifically scale model collections.



Do
The museums listed above may also offer activities like flight simulators, or on special occasions, tour flights.

Events
Here are some notable air shows around the world, but there are many more. As there are many in the United States where there are often several taking place around the country each summer weekend, see Aviation history in the United States for a list in the United States.



Sleep
See Aviation history in the United States for destinations in the United States.