MAY_2014

16 May 2014 I e-acharya
Gurukul Vidyapeeth
Aerospace Engineering
Aerospace describes the human effort in
science, engineering and business to fly
in the atmosphere of Earth (aeronautics)
and surroundingspace (astronautics).
Aerospace organisations research,
design, manufacture, operate, or
maintain aircraft and/or spacecraft.
Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a
multitude of commercial, industrial and
military applications.
Aerospace is not the same as airspace,
which is the physical air space directly
above a location on the ground.
In most industrial countries, the
aerospace industry is a cooperation of
public and private industries. For
example, several countries have a
civilian space program funded by
thegovernment through tax collection,
such as NASA in the United States, ESA
in Europe, the Canadian Space Agency in
Canada, Indian Space Research
Organisation in India, JAXA in Japan,
RKA in Russia, China National Space
Administration in China, SUPARCO in
Pakistan, Iranian Space Agency in Iran,
and Korea Aerospace Research Institute
(KARI) in South Korea.
Along with these public space programs,
many companies produce technical tools
and components such as spaceships and
satellites. Some known companies
involved in space programs include
Boeing, EADS, Lockheed Martin,
MacDonald Dettwiler and Northrop
Grumman. These companies are also
involved in other areas of aerospace such
as the construction of aircraft.
Modern aerospace began with Sir George
Cayley in 1799. Cayley proposed an
aircraft with a "fixed wing and a
horizontal and vertical tail," defining
characteristics of the modern airplane.
The 19th century saw the creation of the
Aeronautical Society of Great Britain
Akanksha
Aerospace Engg., 2nd semester
(1866), the American Rocketry Society,
and the Institute of Aeronautical
Sciences, all of which made aeronautics a
more serious scientific discipline.
Airmen like Otto Lilienthal, who
introduced cambered airfoils in 1891,
used gliders to analyze aerodynamic
forces. The Wright brotherswere
interested in Lilienthal's work and read
several of his publications. They also
found inspiration in Octave Chanute, an
airman and the author of Progress in
Flying Machines (1894).It was the
preliminary work of Cayley, Lilienthal,
Chanute, and other early aerospace
engineers that brought about the first
powered sustained flight at Kitty Hawk,
North Carolina on December 17, 1903,
by the Wright brothers.
War and science fiction inspired great
minds like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and
Wernher von Braun to achieve flight
beyond the atmosphere.
The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 started
the Space Age, and on July 20, 1969
Apollo 11 achieved the first manned
moon landing.In 1981, the Space
ShuttleColumbia launched, the start of
regular manned access to orbital space. A
sustained human presence in orbital
space started with "Mir" in 1986 and is
continued by the "International Space
Station".Space commercialization and
space tourism are more recent focuses in
aerospace.