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43-862: The Moorabbin Air Museum is an aviation museum at Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne , Victoria , Australia . It was founded in 1962 as the Australian Aircraft Restoration Group , in an attempt to maintain a World War II -era Bristol Beaufighter aircraft. It has since become a museum, with a large aircraft collection. It was known as the Australian National Aviation Museum up until October 2021. As of 2021 it held nearly 60 aircraft and 25 engines. The Australian Aircraft Restoration Group

86-482: A controlled amount of the substance. Francesco Lana de Terzi measured the pressure of air at sea level and in 1670 proposed the first scientifically credible lifting medium in the form of hollow metal spheres from which all the air had been pumped out. These would be lighter than the displaced air and able to lift an airship . His proposed methods of controlling height are still in use today; by carrying ballast which may be dropped overboard to gain height, and by venting

129-474: A four-person screw-type helicopter, have severe flaws. He did at least understand that "An object offers as much resistance to the air as the air does to the object." ( Newton would not publish the Third law of motion until 1687.) His analysis led to the realisation that manpower alone was not sufficient for sustained flight, and his later designs included a mechanical power source such as a spring. Da Vinci's work

172-604: A lifting gas, though practical demonstration awaited a gas-tight balloon material. On hearing of the Montgolfier Brothers' invitation, the French Academy member Jacques Charles offered a similar demonstration of a hydrogen balloon. Charles and two craftsmen, the Robert brothers, developed a gas-tight material of rubberised silk for the envelope. The hydrogen gas was to be generated by chemical reaction during

215-593: A particular era, such as pioneer aviation or the succeeding "golden age" between the World Wars, aircraft of World War II or a specific type of aviation, such as gliding . Aviation museums may display their aircraft only on the ground or fly some of them. Museums that do not fly their aircraft may have decided not to do so either because the aircraft are not in condition to fly or because they are considered too rare or valuable. Museums may fly their aircraft in air shows or other aviation related events, accepting

258-474: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design , and manufacturing of air flight -capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere . While the term originally referred solely to operating the aircraft, it has since been expanded to include technology, business, and other aspects related to aircraft. The term " aviation "

301-535: Is displayed under cover. The rest is in storage, on loan, under restoration or, at worst, on display in the open air. In September 2021, the Museum was granted a lease on land opposite the current site, increasing total size by around 4000sqm. A new facility will be built there as part of Stage One of the Community Heritage Precinct, and will finally see all aircraft undercover and protected for

344-418: Is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction . Rocket engines push rockets forwards simply by throwing their exhaust backwards extremely fast. Rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th-century China . Significant scientific, interplanetary and industrial use did not occur until the 20th century, when rocketry

387-491: Is sometimes used interchangeably with aeronautics, although "aeronautics" includes lighter-than-air craft such as airships , and includes ballistic vehicles while "aviation" technically does not. A significant part of aeronautical science is a branch of dynamics called aerodynamics , which deals with the motion of air and the way that it interacts with objects in motion, such as an aircraft. Attempts to fly without any real aeronautical understanding have been made from

430-421: Is the art or practice of aeronautics. Historically aviation meant only heavier-than-air flight, but nowadays it includes flying in balloons and airships. Aeronautical engineering covers the design and construction of aircraft, including how they are powered, how they are used and how they are controlled for safe operation. A major part of aeronautical engineering is aerodynamics , the science of passing through

473-462: Is widely acknowledged as the founder of modern aeronautics. He was first called the "father of the aeroplane" in 1846 and Henson called him the "father of aerial navigation." He was the first true scientific aerial investigator to publish his work, which included for the first time the underlying principles and forces of flight. In 1809 he began the publication of a landmark three-part treatise titled "On Aerial Navigation" (1809–1810). In it he wrote

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516-517: The Department of Supply . Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) donated a de Havilland Tiger Moth in mid-1963, and the year was rounded out by recovering a CAC Wirraway from the dump at East Sale RAAF base . Early in 1964, most of the collection was moved to a service station north of Lilydale, where the Wacket was put on display where it remained until moved to Moorabin . Later in the year many of

559-461: The Rozière. The principle was to use the hydrogen section for constant lift and to navigate vertically by heating and allowing to cool the hot air section, in order to catch the most favourable wind at whatever altitude it was blowing. The balloon envelope was made of goldbeater's skin . The first flight ended in disaster and the approach has seldom been used since. Sir George Cayley (1773–1857)

602-407: The "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders , therefore making the idea of " heavier than air " a reality. Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favourably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical. His work lead to him developing the concept of

645-518: The Italian explorer Marco Polo described the Chinese techniques then current. The Chinese also constructed small hot air balloons, or lanterns, and rotary-wing toys. An early European to provide any scientific discussion of flight was Roger Bacon , who described principles of operation for the lighter-than-air balloon and the flapping-wing ornithopter , which he envisaged would be constructed in

688-417: The Museum has accomplished its goals, but in truth it has barely begun. Between 1980 and 2000 the aircraft collection increased by an average of one airframe per year. The collection now totals 52 machines, and that makes the Museum the largest aircraft owner on Moorabbin Airport. It is an aeronautical collection larger than half the world's airlines and a third of the world's air forces, and only one third of it

731-572: The Museum was establishing what would be labelled by museum professionals years later as a collection policy. This theme is what held the Museum collection together and provided a sense of purpose to the collection. Other aviation museums would form in Australia but none would acquire the vast range of aircraft types, all of which related directly to Australian history. The collection ranges from gliders and homebuilts to World War II combat aircraft, jet fighters, crop dusters and four engine airliners. By

774-405: The air becomes compressed, typically at speeds above Mach 1. Transonic flow occurs in the intermediate speed range around Mach 1, where the airflow over an object may be locally subsonic at one point and locally supersonic at another. A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile , spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine . In all rockets, the exhaust

817-544: The air. With the increasing activity in space flight, nowadays aeronautics and astronautics are often combined as aerospace engineering . The science of aerodynamics deals with the motion of air and the way that it interacts with objects in motion, such as an aircraft. The study of aerodynamics falls broadly into three areas: Incompressible flow occurs where the air simply moves to avoid objects, typically at subsonic speeds below that of sound (Mach 1). Compressible flow occurs where shock waves appear at points where

860-458: The aircraft were taken to a market garden adjacent to Moorabbin Airport. In October 1964, a Percival Proctor was donated, and by this stage the Department of Civil Aviation had agreed to lease the group land at Moorabbin Airport, with a fence erected on 20 May 1965. In 1966, the AARG returned to the farming district near Colac and collected a Curtiss Kittyhawk fuselage, while February 1967 saw

903-612: The earliest times, typically by constructing wings and jumping from a tower with crippling or lethal results. Wiser investigators sought to gain some rational understanding through the study of bird flight. Medieval Islamic Golden Age scientists such as Abbas ibn Firnas also made such studies. The founders of modern aeronautics, Leonardo da Vinci in the Renaissance and Cayley in 1799, both began their investigations with studies of bird flight. Man-carrying kites are believed to have been used extensively in ancient China. In 1282

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946-414: The early 1980s the aircraft collection had grown to a very impressive 30 machines but another very hard lesson had been learned. Collecting aircraft, restoring them and displaying them was not enough. At this time the Museum was still an open-air display and the effects of the weather were beginning to play havoc with the aircraft. No matter how robustly constructed an aircraft may be, if it is left exposed to

989-473: The elements it will eventually succumb. During the 1970s and 1980s there had been various proposals put forward by government and private groups to fund a National Aviation Museum in Victoria. The Moorabbin Air Museum was involved in many of these deliberations, but by the late 1980s it had become apparent that none of these schemes would reach fruition. The Museum directors realised that the only way to ensure

1032-475: The filling process. The Montgolfier designs had several shortcomings, not least the need for dry weather and a tendency for sparks from the fire to set light to the paper balloon. The manned design had a gallery around the base of the balloon rather than the hanging basket of the first, unmanned design, which brought the paper closer to the fire. On their free flight, De Rozier and d'Arlandes took buckets of water and sponges to douse these fires as they arose. On

1075-413: The first scientific statement of the problem, "The whole problem is confined within these limits, viz. to make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air." He identified the four vector forces that influence an aircraft: thrust , lift , drag and weight and distinguished stability and control in his designs. He developed the modern conventional form of

1118-479: The first time in the Museum's history. Aviation museum Aviation museums vary in size from housing just one or two aircraft to hundreds. They may be owned by national, regional or local governments or be privately owned. Some museums address the history and artifacts of space exploration as well, illustrating the close association between aeronautics and astronautics . Many aviation museums concentrate on military or civil aviation, or on aviation history of

1161-476: The fixed-wing aeroplane having a stabilising tail with both horizontal and vertical surfaces, flying gliders both unmanned and manned. He introduced the use of the whirling arm test rig to investigate the aerodynamics of flight, using it to discover the benefits of the curved or cambered aerofoil over the flat wing he had used for his first glider. He also identified and described the importance of dihedral , diagonal bracing and drag reduction, and contributed to

1204-434: The future. The lifting medium for his balloon would be an "aether" whose composition he did not know. In the late fifteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci followed up his study of birds with designs for some of the earliest flying machines, including the flapping-wing ornithopter and the rotating-wing helicopter . Although his designs were rational, they were not based on particularly good science. Many of his designs, such as

1247-400: The gas contained in a second, inner ballonet. On 19 September 1784, it completed the first flight of over 100 km, between Paris and Beuvry , despite the man-powered propulsive devices proving useless. In an attempt the next year to provide both endurance and controllability, de Rozier developed a balloon having both hot air and hydrogen gas bags, a design which was soon named after him as

1290-522: The lifting containers to lose height. In practice de Terzi's spheres would have collapsed under air pressure, and further developments had to wait for more practicable lifting gases. From the mid-18th century the Montgolfier brothers in France began experimenting with balloons. Their balloons were made of paper, and early experiments using steam as the lifting gas were short-lived due to its effect on

1333-430: The long-term survival of the aircraft was to take action themselves, and in 1988 all surplus assets of the museum were sold in order to provide funds to erect an 8,000-square-foot hangar on the Museum site. In April 1989 that hangar was completed and three years later it was extended to 12,000 square feet. In the intervening years a library, workshop and store were also erected together with an entry building and shop. Over

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1376-760: The modern wing. His flight attempts in Berlin in the year 1891 are seen as the beginning of human flight and the " Lilienthal Normalsegelapparat " is considered to be the first air plane in series production, making the Maschinenfabrik Otto Lilienthal in Berlin the first air plane production company in the world. Otto Lilienthal is often referred to as either the "father of aviation" or "father of flight". Other important investigators included Horatio Phillips . Aeronautics may be divided into three main branches, Aviation , Aeronautical science and Aeronautical engineering . Aviation

1419-478: The most spectacular arrival when a former Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Fairey Firefly was flown from Bankstown in New South Wales to Moorabbin. For the next 20 years the Museum grew as more and more aircraft came into the collection and the theme of the Museum was quickly established. An aircraft or artefact acquired by the Museum had to be relevant to Australian aviation history. Without realising it

1462-536: The other hand, the manned design of Charles was essentially modern. As a result of these exploits, the hot air balloon became known as the Montgolfière type and the gas balloon the Charlière . Charles and the Robert brothers' next balloon, La Caroline , was a Charlière that followed Jean Baptiste Meusnier 's proposals for an elongated dirigible balloon, and was notable for having an outer envelope with

1505-500: The paper as it condensed. Mistaking smoke for a kind of steam, they began filling their balloons with hot smoky air which they called "electric smoke" and, despite not fully understanding the principles at work, made some successful launches and in 1783 were invited to give a demonstration to the French Académie des Sciences . Meanwhile, the discovery of hydrogen led Joseph Black in c.  1780 to propose its use as

1548-435: The risk that flying them entails. Some museums have sets of periodicals, technical manuals, photographs and personal archives. These are often made available to aviation researchers for use in writing articles or books or to aircraft restoration specialists working on restoring an aircraft. This aerospace museum–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This aviation -related article

1591-410: The understanding and design of ornithopters and parachutes . Another significant invention was the tension-spoked wheel, which he devised in order to create a light, strong wheel for aircraft undercarriage. During the 19th century Cayley's ideas were refined, proved and expanded on, culminating in the works of Otto Lilienthal . Lilienthal was a German engineer and businessman who became known as

1634-600: The years the Moorabbin Air Museum has been recognised by a number of awards, the most prestigious of which was a Certificate of Merit in the 1985 Museum of the Year Awards. Apart from the preservation of aircraft, the Museum's other great accomplishment has been the number of young members who have gone on to careers in aviation or museology; the experience gained while at the Museum standing them in good stead in their working lives. To many it would seem that

1677-418: Was allocated for a museum at Moorabbin Airport , Victoria. The collection in the early days was made up of a combination of privately owned aircraft and those the Museum acquired in their own right . Amongst the first acquisitions was DAP Mark 21 Bristol Beaufighter A8-328 ex Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) that had been used as playground equipment at The Lord Mayor's Children's Camp at Portsea and

1720-612: Was at risk of being scrapped. Following donation of the Beaufighter in April 1962, a CAC Wackett was donated by the Lucas family, followed by the oldest complete aircraft in the collection, a De Haviland DH.60G Gypsy Moth . 1963 was a busy year for the group. In January an Avro Anson was purchased from Flinders Island Airlines , ( VH-FIA) and in May a Gloster Meteor was acquired from

1763-759: Was first formed in 1962 as a volunteer group by aviation enthusiasts including members of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia. The first home for the collection was on a farm in Wandin North then the Pine Hill Service Station, on the Warburton road, outside of Lillydale, Victoria . The museum aircraft were stored there with the Wackett trainer, donated by the Lucas family, displayed prominently. In 1965 land

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1806-443: Was lost after his death and did not reappear until it had been overtaken by the work of George Cayley . The modern era of lighter-than-air flight began early in the 17th century with Galileo 's experiments in which he showed that air has weight. Around 1650 Cyrano de Bergerac wrote some fantasy novels in which he described the principle of ascent using a substance (dew) he supposed to be lighter than air, and descending by releasing

1849-586: Was the enabling technology of the Space Age , including setting foot on the Moon . Rockets are used for fireworks , weaponry, ejection seats , launch vehicles for artificial satellites , human spaceflight and exploration of other planets. While comparatively inefficient for low speed use, they are very lightweight and powerful, capable of generating large accelerations and of attaining extremely high speeds with reasonable efficiency. Chemical rockets are

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