Introduction to Aircraft Engineering

Unit 1
History and Aircraft Configurations
Early air vehicles
A short history: The history of aeronautics has extended over more than two thousand years.
The earliest attempts begin with the kites and gliders, and continued with powered heavier than
air, supersonic and hypersonic flight.
The first form of man-made flying objects was kites.
The earliest known record of kite flying is from around 200 BC in China.
Then it was the time of balloons, ancient European kingdoms support for the design of new concepts of balloons.
In December 1903 that laws of flight were finally given by human beings to a degree sufficient to allow a
heavier than air, powered, human carrying machine to execute a successful sustained flight through the air.
December 17, 1903 at 10.35 is ORVILLE and WILLOUR WRIGHT flied the first successful flying machine at KILL
DEVIL HILLS, North Carolina.
Before the Wright brothers first flight, there were no successful airplane designs, hence no successful
demonstration of airplane performance, however there were plenty of attempts. All early thinking of human
flight centered on the imitation of birds. Various unsung ancient people fashioned wings and always unsuccessful
consequence in leaping from towers or flapping vigorously.
It was replaced by the concept of wings flapped up and down by various mechanical mechanisms powered
by same type of human arm, leg or body movement. These machines are called “ORNITHOPTERS”.
 Leonarda da vinci: Designed Nemours such ornithopters in the period from 1486-1490.

Leonarda da vinci made the first real studies of flight in the 1480’s. He had over 100 drawings that illustrated theories
on flight. The ornithopters flying machine was never actually created it was a design that Leonarda da vinci created to show
how man could fly. The modern day helicopter is based on this concept.
 Sir George cayley (1773-1857) - The true inventor of the airplane.

George cayley worked to discover a way that man could fly.

He designed many different versions of gliders that used the movements
of the body to control.
He changed the shape of the wings so that the air would flow over the
wings correctly.
He designed a tail for the gliders to help with the stability.
He tried a biplane design to add strength to the glider.
He also recognized that there would be a need for power if the flight
was to be in the air for a long time.
William Samuel Henson

William Samuel Henson (3 May 1812 – 22 March 1888) was a

British-born pre-Wright brothers aviation pioneer, engineer and
inventor. He is best known for his work on the aerial steam
carriage alongside John Stringfellow.

Starting c. 1838, Henson became interested in aviation. In April

1841 he patented an improved lightweight steam engine, and
with fellow lacemaking-engineer John Stringfellow in c. 1842 he
designed a large passenger-carrying steam-powered monoplane,
with a wing span of 150 feet, which he named the
"Henson Aerial Steam Carriage". He received a patent on it in
1843 along with Stringfellow.
Henson, Stringfellow, Frederick Marriott, and D.E.
Colombine, incorporated as the Aerial Transit
Company in 1843 in England, with the intention of
raising money to construct the flying machine. Henson
built a scale model of his design, which made one
tentative steam-powered "hop" as it lifted, or bounced,
off its guide wire. Attempts were made to fly the small
model, and a larger model with a 20-foot wing span,
between 1844 and 1847, without success.
Felix du temple

Félix du Temple de la Croix (18 July 1823 – 3 November 1890) was a French naval officer and an inventor, born into an
ancient Norman family. He developed some of the first flying machines and is credited with the first successful flight of a
powered aircraft of any sort, a powered model plane, in 1857. and is sometimes credited with the first manned powered flight
in history aboard his Monoplane in 1874.
Alexander Mozhauski Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaysky was an admiral in the Imperial Russian
Navy, aviation pioneer, researcher and designer of heavier-than-air craft

In 1909 a Russian newspaper claimed Mozhaysky's hop was the first powered flight.
This claim was later repeated in many Soviet publications. In 1971-1981 Central
Aerohydrodynamic Institute researched the topic and disproved the claim. Mozhaysky's
original aircraft was found incapable of generating lift because of low engine capacity. It
was also shown that with a more powerful engine, which Mozhaysky had planned
shortly before his death, the aircraft might have been able to fly.
Nevertheless, Mozhaysky's aviation achievements, particularly with regard to flight
controls and propulsion, were considerable given the limits of the technology available
to him and have only recently received serious attention.
 Otto lilenthal (1848 – 1896 )- the glider man
• Otto Lilienthal was born on May 23 1848 at Germany, a germen mechanical engineer, also called as glider man.
• He studied aerodynamics and worked to design a glider that would fly.
• He was the first person to design a glider that could fly a person and able to fly long distances.
• He was fascinated by the idea of flight. Based on his studies of birds and how they fly, he wrote a book on
aerodynamics that was published in 1889 and this text was used by the wright brothers as the basis for their
designs.
• After more than 2500 flights, he was killed when he lost control because of a sudden strong wind and crashed
into the ground.
 Wright Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright and the first airplane.

• Began to test their ideas with a kite.

• The next step was to set the shapes of gliders much like George Cyley did
• They designed and used a wind tunnel to test the shapes of the wings and the tails of the gliders.
• in 1902, with a perfected glider shape, they turned their attention to how to create a propulsion system that would create
the thrust needed to fly.
• The early engine that they designed generated almost 12 horsepower, that’s the same power as two hand-propelled lawn
mower engines.
• The “flyer” lifted from level ground to the north of Big Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina, at 10.35 am, on December 17, 1903.
Orville piloted the plane which weighed about six hundred pounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtZ8MxuePno
Balloons:

Lighter than air flying objects and forms basic in the history of aeronautics.

The concept of balloon with unmanned flight were initially begins at China and then it developed in European countries
specially the concept of manned flights.

There are two types of balloons

• Hot air balloons

• Gas balloons(hydrogen based)
Biplanes (heavier than air)
• A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings.
• In a biplane aircraft, two wings are placed one above the other.
• In the biplane configuration, the lower wing is usually attached to the fuselage, while the
upper wing is raised above the fuselage with an arrangement of struts.
• Almost all biplanes also have a third horizontal surface, the tail plane, to control the pitch,
or angle of attack of the aircraft.
 A staggered design has the upper wing slightly forward of the lower. Long thought to reduce the interference caused
by the low pressure air over the lower wing mixing with the high pressure air under the upper wing however the
improvement is minimal and its primary benefit is to improve access to the fuselage. It is common on many successful
biplanes and triplanes.
 Biplane Unequal span Biplane Sesquiplane Inverted Sesquiplane

Forward stagger Biplane Backward stagger Biplane Triplane Quadruplane

Multiplane aircraft
Monoplanes
Some of the first attempts of heavier-than-air flying machines were monoplanes; the Monoplane built in
1874. Other early attempted flights by monoplanes were carried out in 1884 by Alexander and Clement
Ader in 1890. Relatively few monoplane types were built between 1914 and the late 1920s, compared with
the number of biplanes.
Types of monoplane

The main distinction between types of monoplane is where the wings attach to the fuselage:

• Low-wing: The wing lower surface is level with (or below) the bottom of the fuselage

• Mid-wing: The wing is mounted mid-way up the fuselage

• Shoulder wing: mounted on the upper part or "shoulder" of the fuselage, slightly below the top of the
fuselage. A shoulder wing is sometimes considered a sub-type of high wing.
• High-wing: mounted on the upper fuselage. When contrasted to the shoulder wing, applies to a wing
mounted on a projection (such as the cabin roof) above the top of the main fuselage.
• Parasol-wing: The wing is located above the fuselage and is not directly connected to it.
Low wing Mid Wing Shoulder wing

High wing Parasol wing aircraft

Types of flight vehicles

Classifications
 Lighter than air aircraft:
• The first flying object
• Density is very less compare to the density of air
• It easily float on the air
• They are airships, free balloons and kite balloons.
• Any aircraft kept a lift by gas, which is lighter than air, contained in the craft is known as an
aerostat.
Airships:
• It is used for transportation in earlier days(19 century)
• Now days it is used for advertisement, surveillance, sightseeing, research.
Airships:
four principal parts:
A balloon : filled with a lighter-than-air gas
A car : slung beneath the balloon and holds the crew and passengers
Engines: drive propellers
Horizontal and vertical rudders to steer the craft.

Balloon
• Nonrigids are simply balloons with cars attached by cables; if the gas escapes, the balloon collapses.
• Semirigids likewise depend on the internal gas to maintain the balloon’s shape, but they also have a
structural metal keel that extends longitudinally along the balloon’s base and supports the car.
• Rigids consist of a light framework of aluminum-alloy beam that is covered with fabric but is not airtight.
Inside this framework are a number of gas-filled balloons, each of which can be filled or emptied
separately; rigids keep their shape whether they are filled with gas or not.
The usual gases used for lifting airships are hydrogen and helium.
Hydrogen is the lightest known gas and thus has great lifting capacity, but it is also highly flammable and has
caused many fatal airship disasters.
Helium is not as buoyant but is far safer than hydrogen because it does not burn.
Material: The gas-containing envelopes of early airships used cotton fabric impregnated with rubber, a
combination that was eventually superseded by synthetic fabrics such as neoprene and Dacron.
Free Balloon
A balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft that is not engine driven,
and that sustains flight through the use of either gas buoyancy
or an airborne heater.
Kite Balloon
A kite balloon is a tethered balloon which is shaped to help make it stable in low and moderate winds and to
increase its lift. It typically comprises a streamlined envelope with stabilizing features and a harness or yoke
connecting it to the main tether and a second harness connected to an observer's basket.
Kite balloons are able to fly in higher winds than ordinary round balloons which tended to bob and spin in windy
conditions. They were extensively used for military observation during World War I and similar designs were used
for anti-aircraft barriers, as barrage balloons in both world wars.
Heavier than Air (AERODYNE)
Engine Driven
i) Aeroplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from
a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing
configurations.

Amphibian plane Land Plane Sea Plane

ii) Rotary Wing Aircraft
A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which
generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as
a rotor.

Helicopter
Gyroplane
iii) Ornithopters

An ornithopter (from Greek ornithos "bird" and pteron "wing") is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings.
Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in
form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. Manned ornithopters have also been
built, and some have been successful. The machines are of two general types: those with engines, and those
powered by the muscles of the pilot.
COMPONENTS OF FIXED WING AIRPLANE AND THEIR FUNCTIONS
Wing Configurations
Rectangular Tapered Elliptical Swept back

Swept forward Delta Complex Delta

Empennage or the tail of the airplane
Types of Empennage or the tail of the airplane
Fuselage
 Landing gear is located under the belly of the plane consisting
Landing Gear of a wheel and strut to soften impact with the ground and may
be retractable into the fuselage. Tricycle type wheels are
common for general aviation with one wheel at the front and
two behind or the reverse for tailwheels with two wheels at the
front of the plane and one under the tail.
 Evolution of Aircraft Material
Wood and fabric lashed together with twine may have been suitable for the world’s first powered flight,
but by the time Chuck Yeager was punching through the sound barrier in a rocket-engine powered test
plane, engineers had to overcome extreme strength and thermal resistance challenges with the use of
increasingly sophisticated materials.

Today, manufacturers are developing advanced composites to build the aircraft of the future.
Wood, Fabric, and Twine
It seems incredible to the modern passenger sitting comfortably in a Boeing
737 to think that 116 years ago, the Wright brothers completed the world’s
first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight using only:
• Spruce and ash wood for the fuselage, bracings, skid tie bars, and other
elements
• Roller-skate wheels for pulleys
• Waxed twine to hold the frame together
• Some steel in the form of rods and sheets for strapping and control cables
• Cotton muslin or similar close-weaved fabric to cover the wings
Even in 1903, quality control was seen as paramount to ensure materials did
not break under strain.
Manufacturers were building planes by 1912 with laminated wooden
fuselages employing monocoque construction, which means loads were
supported through the fuselages’ external skin to make load-carrying internal
frames unnecessary.
This type of construction was used by WWI era Albatros fighters and the
Lockheed Vega made famous by Amelia Earhart.
 All-metal Aircraft
Metal began to be used in aircraft as engineers sought to
overcome challenges in strength and wind resistance, which
only increased as speeds improved. The best-known early use
of metal aircraft was in WWI, with Fokkers (as flown by the Red
Baron) employing welded steel tube fuselages. Aluminum-
covered Junkers are known as the world’s first all-metal fighter
planes. All-metal aircraft construction became increasingly
popular from 1919 to 1934, with the most common
constructions being:
• Aluminum or aluminum alloy with fabric-covered surfaces
• All-metal monocoque structures
Ford’s 4-AT Air Transport (the Tin Goose) became known as the
first metal airliner.
Metal’s strength and durability eventually enabled
manufacturers to develop aircraft that were easier to machine,
assemble, and repair, and lighter than the previous generation
of wooden structures. All-metal planes were not impervious to
the elements, with engineers working to overcome hazards
including corrosion and metal fatigue.
Exotic Metals
By the late 1940s, British and U.S. research into high-speed
aviation produced experimental aircraft such as the Bell X-1,
capable of supersonic flight. Extreme speed requires extreme
strength and thermal resistance, which led to the development
of aluminum alloys and the use of exotic materials that would
mitigate the effects of aerodynamic heating.
Manufacturers built planes with:
• Advanced carbon-carbon composites
• Silicon carbide ceramic coatings
• Titanium-aluminum alloys
• Titanium alloys reinforced with ceramic fibers
Titanium was hailed for its high strength-to-weight ratio and
resistance to heat and corrosion.
Composite Materials
Since the 1940s, the focus has been on making stronger, safer, more fuel-efficient (and therefore lighter) aircraft.
Composite materials have provided engineers with a cost-effective way to achieve this.
The phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is very applicable to composite materials.
“Composite” means that two materials used in combination provide benefits (such as strength or lighter weight) that
they do not provide in isolation.
Composite material aircraft have existed since the late 1930s, with the most famous example being the Hughes flying
boat, made with birch ply Duramold (birch impregnated with phenolic resin and laminated together at 280° F). Duramold
is lightweight and 80% stronger than aluminum.
Fiberglass (fiber-reinforced plastic) was reportedly first used in aircraft in 1939 but was not used extensively until the
1960s. Fiber-reinforced resin matrices use resins such as polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy reinforced with fibers such as
glass, carbon or boron. The modern Airbus A350 is built of 52% carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP).
To add further strength, a “sandwich” effect is created when engineers use a core material between the layers of
composite materials. Cores are commonly made from plastic foams, wood, or multicellular honeycombs of fabric, paper,
plastic or metal.

Benefits of composite materials include:

• Lower cost of materials
• Lighter weight and higher strength
• Radar stealth quality
• The creation of streamlined shapes
Materials of the Future
Aircraft in the future will contain increasingly high percentages of composite
materials. Examples include the Northrop B-2 (commonly known as the Stealth
Bomber) and the radically designed Beech Starship, both made almost entirely
of composite materials. NASA’s Aeronautics Research division is currently
undertaking an advanced composites project which will benefit spacecraft and
aircraft of the future.
Futuristic materials include metal-matrix nanocomposites, known for their high
tensile strength and electrical conductivity (resistance to lightning strikes).
Polymer and ceramics-based versions of this material are used in carbon fiber
reinforced polymer wings to protect against electromagnetic interference.
Perhaps the main benefit of composite materials is that they have created
entirely new methods of construction, particularly when used in conjunction
with computer design. Composite materials will continue to be the key to
making aircraft lighter, stronger and less expensive to build while cutting fuel
consumption and CO2 emissions.
 A Brief History of Aircraft Structures

Aircraft have changed enormously over the last

century from the early Wright Flyer flown at Kittyhawk
to the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird flown today.
 1) Wire Braced Structures
If we look at the early design of aircraft such as the Wright
Flyer in Figure 1 there can really be no misunderstanding
of the construction style. The entire aircraft, including most
notably the wings, forward and rear structures were all
constructed from rectangular frames that were prevented
from shearing (forming a parallelogram) or collapsing by
diagonally stretched wire. There were two major
innovative thoughts behind this design philosophy. Firstly,
the idea that two parallel wings would facilitate a lighter
yet stronger structure than a single wing, and secondly,
that these two wings could be supported with two light
wires rather than with a single, thicker wooden member.
The structural advantage of the biplane construction is
that the two wings, vertical struts and wires form a deep
light beam, which is more resistant to bending and twisting
than a single wing. Much like a composite sandwich beam
it can be treated as two stiff outer skins for high bending
rigidity connected by a lightweight “core” to provide
resistance to shear and torsion.
The biplane construction with wire bracing was the most notable feature of aircraft construction for much of the following years and paired nicely with
lightweight materials such as bamboo and spruce . Wood is a composite of cellulose fibres embedded in a matrix of lignin and the early aeronautical
engineers knew to take advantage of its high specific strength and stiffness.
The biplane era lasted until the 1930s at which point metal was taking over as the prime aerospace material. Initially the design philosophy was not
adapted to take full advantage of thin sheet metal manufacturing techniques such that wooden spars and struts were just replaced by thinner metal
tubing. Consequently there remained a striking similarity in construction between a 1917 and a 1931 fighter. Even though some thin metal sheets were
being used these components generally did not carry much load such that the main fuselage structure featured 4 horizontal longerons supported by
vertical struts and wire bracing. This so called “Warren Girder” design can also be seen in some of earliest monoplane wing constructions such as the
1935 Hawker Hurricane. Aeronautical engineers were initially “unsure how to combine the new metal construction with a traditional fabric covering (3)”
used on earlier aircraft. The onset of WWII meant that some safe and conservative design decisions were made to facilitate monoplane wings and the
“Warren Girder” principle was directly copied to the internal framework of monoplane wings . These early designs were far from optimised and perfectly
characterise the transition period between wire-frame structures and the semi-monocoque structures we use today.
2) Semi-Monocoque Structures
The internal cross-bracing was initially acceptable for the
early single or double seater aircraft, but would obviously
not provide enough room for larger passenger aircrafts. To
overcome this, inspiration was taken from the long
tradition and expertise in boat building which had already
been applied to construct the fuselages of early wooden
flying boats. The highest standards of yacht construction
at the time featured “bent wooden frames and double or
triple skins…with a clear varnished finish…and presented
a much more open and usable fuselage interior”. The well-
established boat building techniques were thus passed on
to aircraft construction to produce newer aircraft with very
smooth, aerodynamic profiles.
The major advantage of this type of construction is that the outer skin of the fuselage and wing no longer just define
the shape and aerodynamic profile of the aircraft, but become an active load-carrying member of the structure as
well. Thus, the structure becomes “multifunctional” and more efficient
Structure of Aircraft Over the years
TRUSS TYPE
Fuselage Structure
Most early aircraft used this technique with wood and wire trusses and
Type of structures this type of structure is still in use in many lightweight aircraft using
• Truss Type welded steel tube trusses. The truss type fuselage frame is assembled with
• Monocoque members forming a rigid frame e.g. beams, bar, tube etc… Primary
• Semi-Monocoque
• Sandwich (Honey comb composite structure) members of the truss are 4 longerons. There are two types of truss structure.

- PRATT TRUSS

- WARREN TRUSS
PRATT TRUSS
• Early days
• Wooden or metal structure
• Great weight
• Difficult to streamline
• Box with tubular longerons + vertical members
WARREN TRUSS
• Longerons + only Diagonal Members
• Force transfer to every others structure
• Capable to carry tension + compression
• Reduce amount of webs work
• More space , strength , rigidity
• Better streamline
 MONOCOQUE

Monocoque, meaning is 'single shell' in French, is a

construction technique that utilizes the external skin to support
some or most of the load. Coque is a French word for egg shell
Mono means all in one piece or integral i.e., a structure made of
only skin is called monocoque. The technique may also be
called as structural skin, stressed skin, unit body, unibody,
unitary construction, or Body Frame Integral (BFI).
• The skin takes all the loads placed on the structure and the
shape of the structure provides its strength and rigidity.
• the skin might be attached to former to give its basic shape (as
shown above), but the skin would carry all the flight and
ground loads.
• Monocoque structure is not used in the production of current
alloy skinned aircraft as there are complications in the design of
access hatches, doors, and their mountings.
SEMI MONOCOQUE

In semi monocoque design, the loads imposed to the skin

are shared by a series of frames, stringers, and formers that are
attached to it. Frames act to strengthen the fuselage and spread
the load. Stringer are lighter longitudinal members that reinforce
the skin, and formers are used to maintain the skin’s profile
between frames This design is more tolerant of damage to the
skin as the other structure shares the load path for the fuselage.
This design overcomes the disadvantage of the monocoque
structure while maintaining a good strength to weight ratio.
As a consequence the whole structure is generally at a uniform and lower stress level, reducing stress
concentrations and giving better fatigue life. Finally, as the majority of the material is located at the outer surface
of the structure the second and polar moments of area, and therefore the bending and torsional rigidities are
much increased. On the other hand, the thin-skinned construction means that compression and shear buckling
become the most likely forms of failure. In order to increase the critical buckling loads the skins are stiffened by
stringers and broken up into smaller sections by spars and ribs. c
3) Sandwich Structures and Composite Materials

One of the major disadvantages of thin-skinned structures

is their lack of rigidity under compressive loading which
gives them a tendency to buckle. A sheet of paper nicely
illustrates this point, since it is quite strong in tension but
will provide no support under compression. One way of
improving the rigidity of thin panels is by increasing the
bending stiffness with the aid of external stiffeners, which
at the same time break the structure up into smaller
sections. The critical buckling load is a function of the
square of the width of the plate over which the load is
applied. Therefore skins can be made 4 times stronger in
buckling by just cutting the width in half. As a wing bends
upwards the main compressive loads act on the top skin
along the length of the wing and therefore a large number
of stringers are visible across the width.
Another technique to provide more rigidity is sandwich
construction. This generally features a very lightweight
core, such as a honeycomb lattice or a foam, sandwiched
between two thin yet stiff outer panels. Here the role of the
sandwich core is to carry any shear loads and separate The Beech Starship whose fuselage was design using
the two skins as far as possible. sandwich construction with minimal internal bulkheads and ribs
4) Novel Designs

With environmental legislation becoming ever so strict it is

adamant that new concepts for lightweight and fuel
efficient aircraft are found swiftly. Although the pressure on
developing advanced composite materials is high it must
be remembered that 100 years of innovation were
required to reach the stage that large metal semi-
monocoque structures could be manufactured in the
1940s and another 30 years to fully understand all failure
criteria. Thus we may still require significant research and
development before all current issues with composite
materials are resolved. Apart from carbon fibre and other
composites other researchers have been looking into
completely redefining the shape of aircraft. Researchers
at MIT have been developing the blended wing
concept and NASA are exploring the technology
of morphing or shape-changing aircraft, taking inspiration
directly from nature.

NASA morphing wing aircraft

 Development in Propulsion over
the years:
Power or Propulsion is the supplied energy given to the
aerodynamic body for the generation of lift and drag.
The past memories of aviation said, George
Cayley designed his air-plane with Paddles in 1799.

Henson and Stringfellow used steam

engines as the power source for the “Air-
screws”.
Felix Du Temple in 1874, and Mozhaiski in 1884 strongly
referred Hot-Air Engine such as steam engine. By the late
19th century, the early aeronautical engineers clearly
recognized that, a successful flight is depended on the
light weight and powerful engine.
Langley and the Wright Brothers designed their own
gasoline powered engines in order to obtain the high
horse power to weight ratio necessary for flight. These
Internal combustion reciprocating engines were used to
drive the propeller up to the world war-2.

An inline, four cylinder water-cooled engine, its

crankcase was made of aluminum to reduce weight, the
first time an aircraft engine had an aluminum component.
Today, the majority of aircraft engines are made of
aluminum. In operation, the engine could push 12
horsepower.

They designed the powerful engines of 12 hp to 2200 hp

Radial engines with the velocities of 12.5 to 224 m/sec in
the years between 1903 to 1945.
The 1st jet propelled engine was patented in 1930 by
a Britain man Frank Whittle. The 1st successful
German Heinkel He 178 air-plane flew with a
turbojet engine in 1939 designed by Dr. Hans
VohDhain. This led to the German Me 262 jet fighter
late in world war -2. The jet engine’s flight velocity
was improved up to speed of sound in 1950s and
beyond in the 1960s and 1970s.
Meanwhile, the successful rocket engine, Pioneered
by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) in Russia, Robert
H. Goddard (1882-1945) in the united states,
and Hermann Oberth (1894) in Germany.The Rocket
engine 1st became operational in 1944 with German V2
Missile. Being the only practical means of launching a
vehicle into space, the rocket engine soon proved itself
during the space age (1957), allowing people to go to the
moon and to probe the deep unknown regions of our
solar system.

First liquid propellant rocket- Robert H. Goddard

In the autumn of
1929, Oberth c
onducted a
static firing of
his first liquid-
fueled rocket m
otor, which he
named the
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky with his steel dirigibles in his Kegeldüse.
garden, 1913
Liquid Propellant Rockets
Solid Propellant Rockets
Hybrid Propellant Rockets
Main parts of helicopter