117-572: AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft design and manufacturing company. Prior to 1983, it was known as the Bellanca Aircraft Company . The company was founded in 1927 by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca , although it was preceded by previous businesses and partnerships in which aircraft with the Bellanca name were produced, including Wright-Bellanca, in which he was in partnership with Wright Aeronautical . In 2021
234-404: A combustion chamber , and accelerate the exhaust rearwards to provide thrust. Different jet engine configurations include the turbojet and turbofan , sometimes with the addition of an afterburner . Those with no rotating turbomachinery include the pulsejet and ramjet . These mechanically simple engines produce no thrust when stationary, so the aircraft must be launched to flying speed using
351-433: A lifting gas such as helium , hydrogen or hot air , which is less dense than the surrounding air. When the weight of the lifting gas is added to the weight of the aircraft itself, it is same or less than the mass of the air that the craft displaces. Small hot-air balloons, called sky lanterns , were first invented in ancient China prior to the 3rd century BC and used primarily in cultural celebrations, and were only
468-545: A nuclear halo . Table of thermal and physical properties of helium gas at atmospheric pressure: Helium has a valence of zero and is chemically unreactive under all normal conditions. It is an electrical insulator unless ionized . As with the other noble gases, helium has metastable energy levels that allow it to remain ionized in an electrical discharge with a voltage below its ionization potential . Helium can form unstable compounds , known as excimers , with tungsten, iodine, fluorine, sulfur, and phosphorus when it
585-441: A superfluid phase, but only at much lower temperatures; as a result, less is known about the properties of the isotope. Helium II is a superfluid, a quantum mechanical state of matter with strange properties. For example, when it flows through capillaries as thin as 10 to 100 nm it has no measurable viscosity . However, when measurements were done between two moving discs, a viscosity comparable to that of gaseous helium
702-560: A catapult, like the V-1 flying bomb , or a rocket, for example. Other engine types include the motorjet and the dual-cycle Pratt & Whitney J58 . Compared to engines using propellers, jet engines can provide much higher thrust, higher speeds and, above about 40,000 ft (12,000 m), greater efficiency. They are also much more fuel-efficient than rockets . As a consequence nearly all large, high-speed or high-altitude aircraft use jet engines. Some rotorcraft, such as helicopters , have
819-421: A few millikelvins. It is possible to produce exotic helium isotopes , which rapidly decay into other substances. The shortest-lived heavy helium isotope is the unbound helium-10 with a half-life of 2.6(4) × 10 s . Helium-6 decays by emitting a beta particle and has a half-life of 0.8 second. Helium-7 and helium-8 are created in certain nuclear reactions . Helium-6 and helium-8 are known to exhibit
936-524: A gas-like index of refraction of 1.026 which makes its surface so hard to see that floats of Styrofoam are often used to show where the surface is. This colorless liquid has a very low viscosity and a density of 0.145–0.125 g/mL (between about 0 and 4 K), which is only one-fourth the value expected from classical physics . Quantum mechanics is needed to explain this property and thus both states of liquid helium (helium I and helium II) are called quantum fluids , meaning they display atomic properties on
1053-638: A greater wingspan (94m/260 ft) than any current aircraft and a tail height equal to the tallest (Airbus A380-800 at 24.1m/78 ft) — flew only one short hop in the late 1940s and never flew out of ground effect . The largest civilian airplanes, apart from the above-noted An-225 and An-124, are the Airbus Beluga cargo transport derivative of the Airbus A300 jet airliner, the Boeing Dreamlifter cargo transport derivative of
1170-472: A helium-oxygen bond could be stable. Two new molecular species, predicted using theory, CsFHeO and N(CH 3 ) 4 FHeO, are derivatives of a metastable FHeO anion first theorized in 2005 by a group from Taiwan. Helium atoms have been inserted into the hollow carbon cage molecules (the fullerenes ) by heating under high pressure. The endohedral fullerene molecules formed are stable at high temperatures. When chemical derivatives of these fullerenes are formed,
1287-410: A lower boiling point, can achieve about 0.2 kelvin in a helium-3 refrigerator . Equal mixtures of liquid He and He below 0.8 K separate into two immiscible phases due to their dissimilarity (they follow different quantum statistics : helium-4 atoms are bosons while helium-3 atoms are fermions ). Dilution refrigerators use this immiscibility to achieve temperatures of
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#17327811723831404-434: A macroscopic scale. This may be an effect of its boiling point being so close to absolute zero, preventing random molecular motion ( thermal energy ) from masking the atomic properties. Liquid helium below its lambda point (called helium II ) exhibits very unusual characteristics. Due to its high thermal conductivity , when it boils, it does not bubble but rather evaporates directly from its surface. Helium-3 also has
1521-674: A marginal case. The forerunner of the fixed-wing aircraft is the kite . Whereas a fixed-wing aircraft relies on its forward speed to create airflow over the wings, a kite is tethered to the ground and relies on the wind blowing over its wings to provide lift. Kites were the first kind of aircraft to fly and were invented in China around 500 BC. Much aerodynamic research was done with kites before test aircraft, wind tunnels , and computer modelling programs became available. The first heavier-than-air craft capable of controlled free-flight were gliders . A glider designed by George Cayley carried out
1638-794: A maximum loaded weight of 550–700 t (1,210,000–1,540,000 lb), it was also the heaviest aircraft built to date. It could cruise at 500 mph (800 km/h; 430 kn). The aircraft was destroyed during the Russo-Ukrainian War . The largest military airplanes are the Ukrainian Antonov An-124 Ruslan (world's second-largest airplane, also used as a civilian transport), and American Lockheed C-5 Galaxy transport, weighing, loaded, over 380 t (840,000 lb). The 8-engine, piston/propeller Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" — an American World War II wooden flying boat transport with
1755-459: A negative Joule–Thomson coefficient at normal ambient temperatures, meaning it heats up when allowed to freely expand. Only below its Joule–Thomson inversion temperature (of about 32 to 50 K at 1 atmosphere) does it cool upon free expansion. Once precooled below this temperature, helium can be liquefied through expansion cooling. Most extraterrestrial helium is plasma in stars, with properties quite different from those of atomic helium. In
1872-427: A new form of hydrogen with half-integer transition levels. In 1912, Alfred Fowler managed to produce similar lines from a hydrogen-helium mixture, and supported Pickering's conclusion as to their origin. Bohr's model does not allow for half-integer transitions (nor does quantum mechanics) and Bohr concluded that Pickering and Fowler were wrong, and instead assigned these spectral lines to ionised helium, He . Fowler
1989-569: A payload of up to 22,050 lb (10,000 kg). The largest aircraft by weight and largest regular fixed-wing aircraft ever built, as of 2016 , was the Antonov An-225 Mriya . That Soviet-built ( Ukrainian SSR ) six-engine transport of the 1980s was 84 m (276 ft) long, with an 88 m (289 ft) wingspan. It holds the world payload record, after transporting 428,834 lb (194,516 kg) of goods, and has flown 100 t (220,000 lb) loads commercially. With
2106-516: A phenomenon now called superfluidity . This phenomenon is related to Bose–Einstein condensation . In 1972, the same phenomenon was observed in helium-3 , but at temperatures much closer to absolute zero, by American physicists Douglas D. Osheroff , David M. Lee , and Robert C. Richardson . The phenomenon in helium-3 is thought to be related to pairing of helium-3 fermions to make bosons , in analogy to Cooper pairs of electrons producing superconductivity . In 1961, Vignos and Fairbank reported
2223-595: A plasma, helium's electrons are not bound to its nucleus, resulting in very high electrical conductivity, even when the gas is only partially ionized. The charged particles are highly influenced by magnetic and electric fields. For example, in the solar wind together with ionized hydrogen, the particles interact with the Earth's magnetosphere , giving rise to Birkeland currents and the aurora . Helium liquifies when cooled below 4.2 K at atmospheric pressure. Unlike any other element, however, helium remains liquid down to
2340-588: A powered "tug" aircraft. For a glider to maintain its forward air speed and lift, it must descend in relation to the air (but not necessarily in relation to the ground). Many gliders can "soar", i.e. , gain height from updrafts such as thermal currents. The first practical, controllable example was designed and built by the British scientist and pioneer George Cayley , whom many recognise as the first aeronautical engineer. Common examples of gliders are sailplanes , hang gliders and paragliders . Balloons drift with
2457-491: A powered rotary wing or rotor , where the rotor disc can be angled slightly forward so that a proportion of its lift is directed forwards. The rotor may, like a propeller, be powered by a variety of methods such as a piston engine or turbine. Experiments have also used jet nozzles at the rotor blade tips . Aircraft are designed according to many factors such as customer and manufacturer demand, safety protocols and physical and economic constraints. For many types of aircraft
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#17327811723832574-441: A pressurizing and purge gas, as a protective atmosphere for arc welding , and in processes such as growing crystals to make silicon wafers —account for half of the gas produced. A small but well-known use is as a lifting gas in balloons and airships . As with any gas whose density differs from that of air, inhaling a small volume of helium temporarily changes the timbre and quality of the human voice . In scientific research,
2691-430: A rate three times that of air and around 65% that of hydrogen. Helium is the least water- soluble monatomic gas, and one of the least water-soluble of any gas ( CF 4 , SF 6 , and C 4 F 8 have lower mole fraction solubilities: 0.3802, 0.4394, and 0.2372 x 2 /10 , respectively, versus helium's 0.70797 x 2 /10 ), and helium's index of refraction is closer to unity than that of any other gas. Helium has
2808-478: A reconsideration of the Pickering–Fowler series as central evidence in support of his model of the atom . This series is named for Edward Charles Pickering , who in 1896 published observations of previously unknown lines in the spectrum of the star ζ Puppis (these are now known to occur with Wolf–Rayet and other hot stars). Pickering attributed the observation (lines at 4551, 5411, and 10123 Å ) to
2925-445: A result of this creeping behavior and helium II's ability to leak rapidly through tiny openings, it is very difficult to confine. Unless the container is carefully constructed, the helium II will creep along the surfaces and through valves until it reaches somewhere warmer, where it will evaporate. Waves propagating across a Rollin film are governed by the same equation as gravity waves in shallow water, but rather than gravity,
3042-577: A rigid basket or gondola slung below it to carry its payload. Early aircraft, including airships , often employed flexible doped aircraft fabric covering to give a reasonably smooth aeroshell stretched over a rigid frame. Later aircraft employed semi- monocoque techniques, where the skin of the aircraft is stiff enough to share much of the flight loads. In a true monocoque design there is no internal structure left. The key structural parts of an aircraft depend on what type it is. Lighter-than-air types are characterised by one or more gasbags, typically with
3159-420: A supporting structure of flexible cables or a rigid framework called its hull. Other elements such as engines or a gondola may also be attached to the supporting structure. Heavier-than-air types are characterised by one or more wings and a central fuselage . The fuselage typically also carries a tail or empennage for stability and control, and an undercarriage for takeoff and landing. Engines may be located on
3276-463: A surface extends past the level of helium II, the helium II moves along the surface, against the force of gravity . Helium II will escape from a vessel that is not sealed by creeping along the sides until it reaches a warmer region where it evaporates. It moves in a 30 nm-thick film regardless of surface material. This film is called a Rollin film and is named after the man who first characterized this trait, Bernard V. Rollin . As
3393-449: A temperature of absolute zero . This is a direct effect of quantum mechanics: specifically, the zero point energy of the system is too high to allow freezing. Pressures above about 25 atmospheres are required to freeze it. There are two liquid phases: Helium I is a conventional liquid, and Helium II, which occurs at a lower temperature, is a superfluid . Below its boiling point of 4.22 K (−268.93 °C; −452.07 °F) and above
3510-464: A γ phase, which is body-centered cubic (bcc). There are nine known isotopes of helium of which two, helium-3 and helium-4 , are stable . In the Earth's atmosphere, one atom is He for every million that are He . Unlike most elements, helium's isotopic abundance varies greatly by origin, due to the different formation processes. The most common isotope, helium-4, is produced on Earth by alpha decay of heavier radioactive elements;
3627-403: Is 0.187 ± 0.009 g/cm . At higher temperatures, helium will solidify with sufficient pressure. At room temperature, this requires about 114,000 atm. Helium-4 and helium-3 both form several crystalline solid phases, all requiring at least 25 bar. They both form an α phase, which has a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) crystal structure, a β phase, which is face-centered cubic (fcc), and
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3744-434: Is a chemical element ; it has symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert , monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table . Its boiling point is the lowest among all the elements , and it does not have a melting point at standard pressures. It is the second-lightest and second most abundant element in the observable universe , after hydrogen . It
3861-522: Is a lifting body , which has no wings, though it may have small stabilizing and control surfaces. Wing-in-ground-effect vehicles are generally not considered aircraft. They "fly" efficiently close to the surface of the ground or water, like conventional aircraft during takeoff. An example is the Russian ekranoplan nicknamed the " Caspian Sea Monster ". Man-powered aircraft also rely on ground effect to remain airborne with minimal pilot power, but this
3978-407: Is a non-renewable resource because once released into the atmosphere, it promptly escapes into space . Its supply is thought to be rapidly diminishing. However, some studies suggest that helium produced deep in the Earth by radioactive decay can collect in natural gas reserves in larger-than-expected quantities, in some cases having been released by volcanic activity. The first evidence of helium
4095-437: Is a powered one. A powered, steerable aerostat is called a dirigible . Sometimes this term is applied only to non-rigid balloons, and sometimes dirigible balloon is regarded as the definition of an airship (which may then be rigid or non-rigid). Non-rigid dirigibles are characterized by a moderately aerodynamic gasbag with stabilizing fins at the back. These soon became known as blimps . During World War II , this shape
4212-399: Is constructed which is connected to a reservoir of helium II by a sintered disc through which superfluid helium leaks easily but through which non-superfluid helium cannot pass. If the interior of the container is heated, the superfluid helium changes to non-superfluid helium. In order to maintain the equilibrium fraction of superfluid helium, superfluid helium leaks through and increases
4329-447: Is created by the natural radioactive decay of heavy radioactive elements ( thorium and uranium , although there are other examples), as the alpha particles emitted by such decays consist of helium-4 nuclei . This radiogenic helium is trapped with natural gas in concentrations as great as 7% by volume, from which it is extracted commercially by a low-temperature separation process called fractional distillation . Terrestrial helium
4446-413: Is no exception. Thus, numerical mathematical methods are required, even to solve the system of one nucleus and two electrons. Such computational chemistry methods have been used to create a quantum mechanical picture of helium electron binding which is accurate to within < 2% of the correct value, in a few computational steps. Such models show that each electron in helium partly screens the nucleus from
4563-1148: Is normally called the powerplant , and includes engine or motor , propeller or rotor , (if any), jet nozzles and thrust reversers (if any), and accessories essential to the functioning of the engine or motor (e.g.: starter , ignition system , intake system , exhaust system , fuel system , lubrication system, engine cooling system , and engine controls ). Powered aircraft are typically powered by internal combustion engines ( piston or turbine ) burning fossil fuels —typically gasoline ( avgas ) or jet fuel . A very few are powered by rocket power , ramjet propulsion, or by electric motors , or by internal combustion engines of other types, or using other fuels. A very few have been powered, for short flights, by human muscle energy (e.g.: Gossamer Condor ). The avionics comprise any electronic aircraft flight control systems and related equipment, including electronic cockpit instrumentation, navigation, radar , monitoring, and communications systems . Helium Helium (from Greek : ἥλιος , romanized : helios , lit. 'sun')
4680-519: Is often jointly credited with detecting the element, along with Norman Lockyer . Janssen recorded the helium spectral line during the solar eclipse of 1868, while Lockyer observed it from Britain. However, only Lockyer proposed that the line was due to a new element, which he named after the Sun. The formal discovery of the element was made in 1895 by chemists Sir William Ramsay , Per Teodor Cleve , and Nils Abraham Langlet , who found helium emanating from
4797-452: Is only because they are so underpowered—in fact, the airframe is capable of flying higher. Rotorcraft, or rotary-wing aircraft, use a spinning rotor with aerofoil cross-section blades (a rotary wing ) to provide lift. Types include helicopters , autogyros , and various hybrids such as gyrodynes and compound rotorcraft. Helicopters have a rotor turned by an engine-driven shaft. The rotor pushes air downward to create lift. By tilting
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4914-530: Is present at about 24% of the total elemental mass, which is more than 12 times the mass of all the heavier elements combined. Its abundance is similar to this in both the Sun and Jupiter , because of the very high nuclear binding energy (per nucleon ) of helium-4 , with respect to the next three elements after helium. This helium-4 binding energy also accounts for why it is a product of both nuclear fusion and radioactive decay . The most common isotope of helium in
5031-479: Is produced in fusion reactions from hydrogen, though its estimated abundance in the universe is about 10 relative to helium-4. The unusual stability of the helium-4 nucleus is also important cosmologically : it explains the fact that in the first few minutes after the Big Bang , as the "soup" of free protons and neutrons which had initially been created in about 6:1 ratio cooled to the point that nuclear binding
5148-623: Is stored in tanks, usually in the wings but larger aircraft also have additional fuel tanks in the fuselage . Propeller aircraft use one or more propellers (airscrews) to create thrust in a forward direction. The propeller is usually mounted in front of the power source in tractor configuration but can be mounted behind in pusher configuration . Variations of propeller layout include contra-rotating propellers and ducted fans . Many kinds of power plant have been used to drive propellers. Early airships used man power or steam engines . The more practical internal combustion piston engine
5265-520: Is subjected to a glow discharge , to electron bombardment, or reduced to plasma by other means. The molecular compounds HeNe, HgHe 10 , and WHe 2 , and the molecular ions He 2 , He 2 , HeH , and HeD have been created this way. HeH is also stable in its ground state but is extremely reactive—it is the strongest Brønsted acid known, and therefore can exist only in isolation, as it will protonate any molecule or counteranion it contacts. This technique has also produced
5382-475: Is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird , a U.S. reconnaissance jet fixed-wing aircraft, having reached 3,530 km/h (2,193 mph) on 28 July 1976. Gliders are heavier-than-air aircraft that do not employ propulsion once airborne. Take-off may be by launching forward and downward from a high location, or by pulling into the air on a tow-line, either by a ground-based winch or vehicle, or by
5499-466: Is the second least reactive noble gas after neon , and thus the second least reactive of all elements. It is chemically inert and monatomic in all standard conditions. Because of helium's relatively low molar (atomic) mass, its thermal conductivity , specific heat , and sound speed in the gas phase are all greater than any other gas except hydrogen . For these reasons and the small size of helium monatomic molecules, helium diffuses through solids at
5616-416: Is thus energetically extremely stable for all these particles and has astrophysical implications. Namely, adding another particle – proton, neutron, or alpha particle – would consume rather than release energy; all systems with mass number 5, as well as beryllium-8 (comprising two alpha particles), are unbound. For example, the stability and low energy of the electron cloud state in helium accounts for
5733-402: The 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis severely affected helium production there. 2014 was widely acknowledged to be a year of over-supply in the helium business, following years of renowned shortages. Nasdaq reported (2015) that for Air Products , an international corporation that sells gases for industrial use, helium volumes remain under economic pressure due to feedstock supply constraints. In
5850-629: The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey ), tiltwing , tail-sitter , and coleopter aircraft have their rotors/ propellers horizontal for vertical flight and vertical for forward flight. The smallest aircraft are toys/recreational items, and nano aircraft . The largest aircraft by dimensions and volume (as of 2016) is the 302 ft (92 m) long British Airlander 10 , a hybrid blimp, with helicopter and fixed-wing features, and reportedly capable of speeds up to 90 mph (140 km/h; 78 kn), and an airborne endurance of two weeks with
5967-693: The Boeing 747 jet airliner/transport (the 747-200B was, at its creation in the 1960s, the heaviest aircraft ever built, with a maximum weight of over 400 t (880,000 lb)), and the double-decker Airbus A380 "super-jumbo" jet airliner (the world's largest passenger airliner). The fastest fixed-wing aircraft and fastest glider, is the Space Shuttle , which re-entered the atmosphere at nearly Mach 25 or 17,500 mph (28,200 km/h) The fastest recorded powered aircraft flight and fastest recorded aircraft flight of an air-breathing powered aircraft
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#17327811723836084-603: The Columbia Aircraft Corporation . Bellanca founded his own company, Bellanca Aircraft Corporation of America, in 1927, sited first in Richmond Hill, New York and moving in 1928 to New Castle (Wilmington), Delaware. In the 1920s and 1930s, Bellanca's aircraft of his own design were known for their efficiency and low operating cost, gaining fame for world record endurance and distance flights. Lindbergh 's first choice for his New York to Paris flight
6201-637: The Harrier jump jet and Lockheed Martin F-35B take off and land vertically using powered lift and transfer to aerodynamic lift in steady flight. A pure rocket is not usually regarded as an aerodyne because its flight does not depend on interaction with the air at all (and thus can even fly in the vacuum of outer space ); however, many aerodynamic lift vehicles have been powered or assisted by rocket motors. Rocket-powered missiles that obtain aerodynamic lift at very high speed due to airflow over their bodies are
6318-573: The Naval Aircraft Factory -built USS Shenandoah , flew in September 1923. Although the extraction process using low-temperature gas liquefaction was not developed in time to be significant during World War I, production continued. Helium was primarily used as a lifting gas in lighter-than-air craft. During World War II, the demand increased for helium for lifting gas and for shielded arc welding . The helium mass spectrometer
6435-624: The beta decay of tritium . Rocks from the Earth's crust have isotope ratios varying by as much as a factor of ten, and these ratios can be used to investigate the origin of rocks and the composition of the Earth's mantle . He is much more abundant in stars as a product of nuclear fusion. Thus in the interstellar medium , the proportion of He to He is about 100 times higher than on Earth. Extraplanetary material, such as lunar and asteroid regolith , have trace amounts of helium-3 from being bombarded by solar winds . The Moon 's surface contains helium-3 at concentrations on
6552-770: The dynamic lift of an airfoil , or, in a few cases, direct downward thrust from its engines. Common examples of aircraft include airplanes , helicopters , airships (including blimps ), gliders , paramotors , and hot air balloons . The human activity that surrounds aircraft is called aviation . The science of aviation, including designing and building aircraft, is called aeronautics . Crewed aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot , whereas unmanned aerial vehicles may be remotely controlled or self-controlled by onboard computers . Aircraft may be classified by different criteria, such as lift type, aircraft propulsion (if any), usage and others. Flying model craft and stories of manned flight go back many centuries; however,
6669-413: The lambda point of 2.1768 K (−270.9732 °C; −455.7518 °F), the isotope helium-4 exists in a normal colorless liquid state, called helium I . Like other cryogenic liquids, helium I boils when it is heated and contracts when its temperature is lowered. Below the lambda point, however, helium does not boil, and it expands as the temperature is lowered further. Helium I has
6786-626: The uranium ore cleveite , which is now not regarded as a separate mineral species, but as a variety of uraninite . In 1903, large reserves of helium were found in natural gas fields in parts of the United States, by far the largest supplier of the gas today. Liquid helium is used in cryogenics (its largest single use, consuming about a quarter of production), and in the cooling of superconducting magnets , with its main commercial application in MRI scanners. Helium's other industrial uses—as
6903-435: The 1930s, large intercontinental flying boats were also sometimes referred to as "ships of the air" or "flying-ships". — though none had yet been built. The advent of powered balloons, called dirigible balloons, and later of rigid hulls allowing a great increase in size, began to change the way these words were used. Huge powered aerostats, characterized by a rigid outer framework and separate aerodynamic skin surrounding
7020-467: The Earth, and for carbon-based or other life) have thus been created since the Big Bang in stars which were hot enough to fuse helium itself. All elements other than hydrogen and helium today account for only 2% of the mass of atomic matter in the universe. Helium-4, by contrast, comprises about 24% of the mass of the universe's ordinary matter—nearly all the ordinary matter that is not hydrogen. Helium
7137-465: The Interior to empty the reserve, with sales starting by 2005. Helium produced between 1930 and 1945 was about 98.3% pure (2% nitrogen), which was adequate for airships. In 1945, a small amount of 99.9% helium was produced for welding use. By 1949, commercial quantities of Grade A 99.95% helium were available. For many years, the United States produced more than 90% of commercially usable helium in
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#17327811723837254-619: The United States in 1965 was more than eight times the peak wartime consumption. After the Helium Acts Amendments of 1960 (Public Law 86–777), the U.S. Bureau of Mines arranged for five private plants to recover helium from natural gas. For this helium conservation program, the Bureau built a 425-mile (684 km) pipeline from Bushton, Kansas , to connect those plants with the government's partially depleted Cliffside gas field near Amarillo, Texas. This helium-nitrogen mixture
7371-470: The aircraft's weight. There are two ways to produce dynamic upthrust — aerodynamic lift by having air flowing past an aerofoil (such dynamic interaction of aerofoils with air is the origin of the term "aerodyne"), or powered lift in the form of reactional lift from downward engine thrust . Aerodynamic lift involving wings is the most common, and can be achieved via two methods. Fixed-wing aircraft ( airplanes and gliders ) achieve airflow past
7488-440: The alpha particles that emerge are fully ionized helium-4 nuclei. Helium-4 is an unusually stable nucleus because its nucleons are arranged into complete shells . It was also formed in enormous quantities during Big Bang nucleosynthesis . Helium-3 is present on Earth only in trace amounts. Most of it has been present since Earth's formation, though some falls to Earth trapped in cosmic dust . Trace amounts are also produced by
7605-501: The autogyro moves forward, air blows upward across the rotor, making it spin. This spinning increases the speed of airflow over the rotor, to provide lift. Rotor kites are unpowered autogyros, which are towed to give them forward speed or tethered to a static anchor in high-wind for kited flight. Compound rotorcraft have wings that provide some or all of the lift in forward flight. They are nowadays classified as powered lift types and not as rotorcraft. Tiltrotor aircraft (such as
7722-412: The behavior of the two fluid phases of helium-4 (helium I and helium II) is important to researchers studying quantum mechanics (in particular the property of superfluidity ) and to those looking at the phenomena, such as superconductivity , produced in matter near absolute zero . On Earth, it is relatively rare—5.2 ppm by volume in the atmosphere . Most terrestrial helium present today
7839-505: The company moved from Alexandria, Minnesota to Sulphur, Oklahoma. While as of 2024 the company website states "Bellanca recently opened a new aircraft factory and maintenance facility in Sulphur, Oklahoma," no new aircraft have been recently produced. Aircraft An aircraft ( pl. : aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air . It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or
7956-594: The company was reformed as Bellanca Aircraft, Inc and located in Sulphur, Oklahoma . The new company supplies maintenance and aircraft parts , for the legacy Cruisemaster and Viking aircraft. After Giuseppe Mario Bellanca , the designer and builder of Italy's first aircraft, moved to the United States in 1911, he began to design aircraft for a number of firms, including the Maryland Pressed Steel Company , Wright Aeronautical Corporation and
8073-435: The design process is regulated by national airworthiness authorities. The key parts of an aircraft are generally divided into three categories: The approach to structural design varies widely between different types of aircraft. Some, such as paragliders, comprise only flexible materials that act in tension and rely on aerodynamic pressure to hold their shape. A balloon similarly relies on internal gas pressure, but may have
8190-446: The element's chemical inertness, and also the lack of interaction of helium atoms with each other, producing the lowest melting and boiling points of all the elements. In a similar way, the particular energetic stability of the helium-4 nucleus, produced by similar effects, accounts for the ease of helium-4 production in atomic reactions that involve either heavy-particle emission or fusion. Some stable helium-3 (two protons and one neutron)
8307-515: The existence of a different phase of solid helium-4, designated the gamma-phase. It exists for a narrow range of pressure between 1.45 and 1.78 K. After an oil drilling operation in 1903 in Dexter, Kansas produced a gas geyser that would not burn, Kansas state geologist Erasmus Haworth collected samples of the escaping gas and took them back to the University of Kansas at Lawrence where, with
8424-517: The existence of this new element. The ending "-ium" is unusual, as it normally applies only to metallic elements; probably Lockyer, being an astronomer, was unaware of the chemical conventions. In 1881, Italian physicist Luigi Palmieri detected helium on Earth for the first time through its D 3 spectral line, when he analyzed a material that had been sublimated during a recent eruption of Mount Vesuvius . On March 26, 1895, Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay isolated helium on Earth by treating
8541-451: The few minutes after the Big Bang, before the early expanding universe cooled to the temperature and pressure point where helium fusion to carbon was no longer possible. This left the early universe with a very similar ratio of hydrogen/helium as is observed today (3 parts hydrogen to 1 part helium-4 by mass), with nearly all the neutrons in the universe trapped in helium-4. All heavier elements (including those necessary for rocky planets like
8658-477: The first manned ascent — and safe descent — in modern times took place by larger hot-air balloons developed in the 18th century. Each of the two World Wars led to great technical advances. Consequently, the history of aircraft can be divided into five eras: Lighter-than-air aircraft or aerostats use buoyancy to float in the air in much the same way that ships float on the water. They are characterized by one or more large cells or canopies, filled with
8775-532: The first true manned, controlled flight in 1853. The first powered and controllable fixed-wing aircraft (the airplane or aeroplane) was invented by Wilbur and Orville Wright . Besides the method of propulsion (if any), fixed-wing aircraft are in general characterized by their wing configuration . The most important wing characteristics are: A variable geometry aircraft can change its wing configuration during flight. A flying wing has no fuselage, though it may have small blisters or pods. The opposite of this
8892-418: The fuselage or wings. On a fixed-wing aircraft the wings are rigidly attached to the fuselage, while on a rotorcraft the wings are attached to a rotating vertical shaft. Smaller designs sometimes use flexible materials for part or all of the structure, held in place either by a rigid frame or by air pressure. The fixed parts of the structure comprise the airframe . The source of motive power for an aircraft
9009-514: The gas bags, were produced, the Zeppelins being the largest and most famous. There were still no fixed-wing aircraft or non-rigid balloons large enough to be called airships, so "airship" came to be synonymous with these aircraft. Then several accidents, such as the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, led to the demise of these airships. Nowadays a "balloon" is an unpowered aerostat and an "airship"
9126-420: The heat. Helium II has no such valence band but nevertheless conducts heat well. The flow of heat is governed by equations that are similar to the wave equation used to characterize sound propagation in air. When heat is introduced, it moves at 20 meters per second at 1.8 K through helium II as waves in a phenomenon known as second sound . Helium II also exhibits a creeping effect. When
9243-567: The helium stays inside. If helium-3 is used, it can be readily observed by helium nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy . Many fullerenes containing helium-3 have been reported. Although the helium atoms are not attached by covalent or ionic bonds, these substances have distinct properties and a definite composition, like all stoichiometric chemical compounds. Under high pressures helium can form compounds with various other elements. Helium-nitrogen clathrate (He(N 2 ) 11 ) crystals have been grown at room temperature at pressures ca. 10 GPa in
9360-400: The help of chemists Hamilton Cady and David McFarland, he discovered that the gas consisted of, by volume, 72% nitrogen, 15% methane (a combustible percentage only with sufficient oxygen), 1% hydrogen , and 12% an unidentifiable gas. With further analysis, Cady and McFarland discovered that 1.84% of the gas sample was helium. This showed that despite its overall rarity on Earth, helium
9477-429: The lines to nitrogen . His letter of congratulations to Ramsay offers an interesting case of discovery, and near-discovery, in science. In 1907, Ernest Rutherford and Thomas Royds demonstrated that alpha particles are helium nuclei by allowing the particles to penetrate the thin glass wall of an evacuated tube , then creating a discharge in the tube, to study the spectrum of the new gas inside. In 1908, helium
9594-427: The mineral cleveite (a variety of uraninite with at least 10% rare-earth elements ) with mineral acids . Ramsay was looking for argon but, after separating nitrogen and oxygen from the gas, liberated by sulfuric acid , he noticed a bright yellow line that matched the D 3 line observed in the spectrum of the Sun. These samples were identified as helium by Lockyer and British physicist William Crookes . It
9711-497: The neutral molecule He 2 , which has a large number of band systems , and HgHe, which is apparently held together only by polarization forces. Van der Waals compounds of helium can also be formed with cryogenic helium gas and atoms of some other substance, such as LiHe and He 2 . Theoretically, other true compounds may be possible, such as helium fluorohydride (HHeF), which would be analogous to HArF , discovered in 2000. Calculations show that two new compounds containing
9828-471: The order of 10 ppb , much higher than the approximately 5 ppt found in the Earth's atmosphere. A number of people, starting with Gerald Kulcinski in 1986, have proposed to explore the Moon, mine lunar regolith, and use the helium-3 for fusion . Liquid helium-4 can be cooled to about 1 K (−272.15 °C; −457.87 °F) using evaporative cooling in a 1-K pot . Similar cooling of helium-3, which has
9945-475: The other, so that the effective nuclear charge Z eff which each electron sees is about 1.69 units, not the 2 charges of a classic "bare" helium nucleus. The nucleus of the helium-4 atom is identical with an alpha particle . High-energy electron-scattering experiments show its charge to decrease exponentially from a maximum at a central point, exactly as does the charge density of helium's own electron cloud . This symmetry reflects similar underlying physics:
10062-402: The pair of neutrons and the pair of protons in helium's nucleus obey the same quantum mechanical rules as do helium's pair of electrons (although the nuclear particles are subject to a different nuclear binding potential), so that all these fermions fully occupy 1s orbitals in pairs, none of them possessing orbital angular momentum, and each cancelling the other's intrinsic spin. This arrangement
10179-477: The perspective of quantum mechanics , helium is the second simplest atom to model, following the hydrogen atom . Helium is composed of two electrons in atomic orbitals surrounding a nucleus containing two protons and (usually) two neutrons. As in Newtonian mechanics, no system that consists of more than two particles can be solved with an exact analytical mathematical approach (see 3-body problem ) and helium
10296-420: The pressure, causing liquid to fountain out of the container. The thermal conductivity of helium II is greater than that of any other known substance, a million times that of helium I and several hundred times that of copper . This is because heat conduction occurs by an exceptional quantum mechanism. Most materials that conduct heat well have a valence band of free electrons which serve to transfer
10413-464: The prohibitive cost of the gas, German Zeppelins were forced to use hydrogen as lifting gas, which would gain infamy in the Hindenburg disaster . The helium market after World War II was depressed but the reserve was expanded in the 1950s to ensure a supply of liquid helium as a coolant to create oxygen/hydrogen rocket fuel (among other uses) during the Space Race and Cold War . Helium use in
10530-617: The reserve to continue to sell the gas. Other large reserves were in the Hugoton in Kansas , United States, and nearby gas fields of Kansas and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma . New helium plants were scheduled to open in 2012 in Qatar , Russia, and the US state of Wyoming , but they were not expected to ease the shortage. In 2013, Qatar started up the world's largest helium unit, although
10647-422: The restoring force is the van der Waals force . These waves are known as third sound . Helium remains liquid down to absolute zero at atmospheric pressure, but it freezes at high pressure. Solid helium requires a temperature of 1–1.5 K (about −272 °C or −457 °F) at about 25 bar (2.5 MPa) of pressure. It is often hard to distinguish solid from liquid helium since the refractive index of
10764-411: The rotor forward, the downward flow is tilted backward, producing thrust for forward flight. Some helicopters have more than one rotor and a few have rotors turned by gas jets at the tips. Some have a tail rotor to counteract the rotation of the main rotor, and to aid directional control. Autogyros have unpowered rotors, with a separate power plant to provide thrust. The rotor is tilted backward. As
10881-571: The second leading producer of helium. Through this time, both helium consumption and the costs of producing helium increased. From 2002 to 2007 helium prices doubled. As of 2012 , the United States National Helium Reserve accounted for 30 percent of the world's helium. The reserve was expected to run out of helium in 2018. Despite that, a proposed bill in the United States Senate would allow
10998-436: The second type of aircraft to fly, the first being kites , which were also first invented in ancient China over two thousand years ago (see Han Dynasty ). A balloon was originally any aerostat, while the term airship was used for large, powered aircraft designs — usually fixed-wing. In 1919, Frederick Handley Page was reported as referring to "ships of the air," with smaller passenger types as "Air yachts." In
11115-462: The solar spectrum, which he named the D 3 because it was near the known D 1 and D 2 Fraunhofer lines of sodium. He concluded that it was caused by an element in the Sun unknown on Earth. Lockyer named the element with the Greek word for the Sun, ἥλιος ( helios ). It is sometimes said that English chemist Edward Frankland was also involved in the naming, but this is unlikely as he doubted
11232-530: The tether or kite line ; they rely on virtual or real wind blowing over and under them to generate lift and drag. Kytoons are balloon-kite hybrids that are shaped and tethered to obtain kiting deflections, and can be lighter-than-air, neutrally buoyant, or heavier-than-air. Powered aircraft have one or more onboard sources of mechanical power, typically aircraft engines although rubber and manpower have also been used. Most aircraft engines are either lightweight reciprocating engines or gas turbines . Engine fuel
11349-450: The two phases are nearly the same. The solid has a sharp melting point and has a crystalline structure, but it is highly compressible ; applying pressure in a laboratory can decrease its volume by more than 30%. With a bulk modulus of about 27 MPa it is ~100 times more compressible than water. Solid helium has a density of 0.214 ± 0.006 g/cm at 1.15 K and 66 atm; the projected density at 0 K and 25 bar (2.5 MPa)
11466-461: The universe is helium-4, the vast majority of which was formed during the Big Bang . Large amounts of new helium are created by nuclear fusion of hydrogen in stars . Helium was first detected as an unknown, yellow spectral line signature in sunlight during a solar eclipse in 1868 by Georges Rayet , Captain C. T. Haig, Norman R. Pogson , and Lieutenant John Herschel, and was subsequently confirmed by French astronomer Jules Janssen . Janssen
11583-460: The wind, though normally the pilot can control the altitude, either by heating the air or by releasing ballast, giving some directional control (since the wind direction changes with altitude). A wing-shaped hybrid balloon can glide directionally when rising or falling; but a spherically shaped balloon does not have such directional control. Kites are aircraft that are tethered to the ground or other object (fixed or mobile) that maintains tension in
11700-431: The wing. A flexible wing is a wing made of fabric or thin sheet material, often stretched over a rigid frame, similar to the flight membranes on many flying and gliding animals . A kite is tethered to the ground and relies on the speed of the wind over its wings, which may be flexible or rigid, fixed, or rotary. With powered lift, the aircraft directs its engine thrust vertically downward. V/STOL aircraft, such as
11817-402: The wings by having the entire aircraft moving forward through the air, while rotorcraft ( helicopters and autogyros ) do so by having mobile, elongated wings spinning rapidly around a mast in an assembly known as the rotor . As aerofoils, there must be air flowing over the wing to create pressure difference between above and below, thus generating upward lift over the entire wetted area of
11934-683: The world, while extraction plants in Canada, Poland, Russia, and other nations produced the remainder. In the mid-1990s, a new plant in Arzew , Algeria, producing 17 million cubic metres (600 million cubic feet) began operation, with enough production to cover all of Europe's demand. Meanwhile, by 2000, the consumption of helium within the U.S. had risen to more than 15 million kg per year. In 2004–2006, additional plants in Ras Laffan , Qatar , and Skikda , Algeria were built. Algeria quickly became
12051-427: Was a Bellanca WB-2 . The company's insistence on selecting the crew drove Lindbergh to Ryan . Bellanca remained president and chairman of the board from the corporation's inception on the last day of 1927 until he sold the company to L. Albert and Sons in 1954. From that time on, the Bellanca line was part of a succession of companies that maintained the lineage of the original aircraft produced by Bellanca. In 2022,
12168-536: Was also vital in the atomic bomb Manhattan Project . The government of the United States set up the National Helium Reserve in 1925 at Amarillo, Texas , with the goal of supplying military airships in time of war and commercial airships in peacetime. Because of the Helium Act of 1925 , which banned the export of scarce helium on which the US then had a production monopoly, together with
12285-409: Was available to make elements 3, 4 and 5. It is barely energetically favorable for helium to fuse into the next element with a lower energy per nucleon , carbon. However, due to the short lifetime of the intermediate beryllium-8, this process requires three helium nuclei striking each other nearly simultaneously (see triple-alpha process ). There was thus no time for significant carbon to be formed in
12402-570: Was concentrated in large quantities under the American Great Plains , available for extraction as a byproduct of natural gas . Following a suggestion by Sir Richard Threlfall , the United States Navy sponsored three small experimental helium plants during World War I. The goal was to supply barrage balloons with the non-flammable, lighter-than-air gas. A total of 5,700 m (200,000 cu ft) of 92% helium
12519-500: Was first liquefied by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes by cooling the gas to less than 5 K (−268.15 °C; −450.67 °F). He tried to solidify it by further reducing the temperature but failed, because helium does not solidify at atmospheric pressure. Onnes' student Willem Hendrik Keesom was eventually able to solidify 1 cm of helium in 1926 by applying additional external pressure. In 1913, Niels Bohr published his "trilogy" on atomic structure that included
12636-493: Was independently isolated from cleveite in the same year by chemists Per Teodor Cleve and Abraham Langlet in Uppsala , Sweden, who collected enough of the gas to accurately determine its atomic weight . Helium was also isolated by American geochemist William Francis Hillebrand prior to Ramsay's discovery, when he noticed unusual spectral lines while testing a sample of the mineral uraninite. Hillebrand, however, attributed
12753-695: Was initially skeptical but was ultimately convinced that Bohr was correct, and by 1915 "spectroscopists had transferred [the Pickering–Fowler series] definitively [from hydrogen] to helium." Bohr's theoretical work on the Pickering series had demonstrated the need for "a re-examination of problems that seemed already to have been solved within classical theories" and provided important confirmation for his atomic theory. In 1938, Russian physicist Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa discovered that helium-4 has almost no viscosity at temperatures near absolute zero ,
12870-602: Was injected and stored in the Cliffside gas field until needed, at which time it was further purified. By 1995, a billion cubic meters of the gas had been collected and the reserve was US$ 1.4 billion in debt, prompting the Congress of the United States in 1996 to discontinue the reserve. The resulting Helium Privatization Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–273) directed the United States Department of
12987-457: Was observed on August 18, 1868, as a bright yellow line with a wavelength of 587.49 nanometers in the spectrum of the chromosphere of the Sun . The line was detected by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total solar eclipse in Guntur , India. This line was initially assumed to be sodium . On October 20 of the same year, English astronomer Norman Lockyer observed a yellow line in
13104-406: Was observed. Existing theory explains this using the two-fluid model for helium II. In this model, liquid helium below the lambda point is viewed as containing a proportion of helium atoms in a ground state , which are superfluid and flow with exactly zero viscosity, and a proportion of helium atoms in an excited state, which behave more like an ordinary fluid. In the fountain effect , a chamber
13221-675: Was of the NASA X-43 A Pegasus , a scramjet -powered, hypersonic , lifting body experimental research aircraft, at Mach 9.68 or 6,755 mph (10,870 km/h) on 16 November 2004. Prior to the X-43A, the fastest recorded powered airplane flight, and still the record for the fastest manned powered airplane, was the North American X-15 , rocket-powered airplane at Mach 6.7 or 7,274 km/h (4,520 mph) on 3 October 1967. The fastest manned, air-breathing powered airplane
13338-522: Was possible, almost all first compound atomic nuclei to form were helium-4 nuclei. Owing to the relatively tight binding of helium-4 nuclei, its production consumed nearly all of the free neutrons in a few minutes, before they could beta-decay, and thus few neutrons were available to form heavier atoms such as lithium, beryllium, or boron. Helium-4 nuclear binding per nucleon is stronger than in any of these elements (see nucleogenesis and binding energy ) and thus, once helium had been formed, no energetic drive
13455-517: Was produced in the program even though less than a cubic meter of the gas had previously been obtained. Some of this gas was used in the world's first helium-filled airship, the U.S. Navy's C-class blimp C-7, which flew its maiden voyage from Hampton Roads, Virginia , to Bolling Field in Washington, D.C., on December 1, 1921, nearly two years before the Navy's first rigid helium-filled airship,
13572-490: Was used for virtually all fixed-wing aircraft until World War II and is still used in many smaller aircraft. Some types use turbine engines to drive a propeller in the form of a turboprop or propfan . Human-powered flight has been achieved, but has not become a practical means of transport. Unmanned aircraft and models have also used power sources such as electric motors and rubber bands. Jet aircraft use airbreathing jet engines , which take in air, burn fuel with it in
13689-439: Was widely adopted for tethered balloons ; in windy weather, this both reduces the strain on the tether and stabilizes the balloon. The nickname blimp was adopted along with the shape. In modern times, any small dirigible or airship is called a blimp, though a blimp may be unpowered as well as powered. Heavier-than-air aircraft or aerodynes are denser than air and thus must find some way to obtain enough lift that can overcome
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