General, Research, Technology

Some of the very first aircraft in the world are on Mars. Guess where exactly?

The aircraft "Flyer 1" can be considered the first aircraft in the world that was able to lift a person into the air and make a successful landing. It was designed brothers Wilber and Orville Wright and first got off the ground in 1903 onthe territory of Kitty Hawk Valley, North Carolina. At the moment, the plane is a museum piece, but one of its parts was recently sent to Mars. The launch took place at the end of July 2020, and already in February of this year, the old part arrived on a distant planet. Perhaps, according to these dates, you have already guessed with what apparatus it was delivered to Martian territory. But if not, we'll just talk about all this. At the same time, we will figure out why researchers send parts of old technology into space and how often this happens.

Airplane "Flyer 1"

Wright brothers - two Americans who are known asinventors of the first working aircraft in history. Previously, people had already created aircraft, but the Wright brothers managed to fly aircraft in the air. This gave a great impetus to the development of aircraft construction.

The very first aircraft in history

Inside the plane "Flyer 1" could only fitone man. Its wooden hull was 6.4 meters long, its wingspan reached 12.3 meters, and its height was 2.7 meters. The empty weight of the aircraft was 274 kilograms. As you can imagine, it was a fairly large and heavy aircraft. However, this did not stop him from accelerating to 48 kilometers per hour. It is reported that the Wright brothers needed less than $ 1,000 to create this aircraft.

Flyer 1 illustration

Interesting fact: in 1896, the US Army allocated to the inventorSamuel Langley $ 50,000 to create an experimental airplane "Aerodrome". It was indeed created, but no one was able to fly on it, because the tests were unsuccessful.

Aircraft on Mars

According to Abc News, part of the sidingFlyer 1 is currently on the hull of the Ingenuity Martian helicopter, which I talked about in this article. This is a very small piece of the hull: it is taken from the lower wing of an airplane and is comparable in size to a tiny postage stamp. NASA said in a press release that the part was borrowed from Carillon Historical Park, Ohio. The fragment is neatly taped to the wire under the solar panel of the Ingenuity helicopter.

The first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter is expected to look like this

Shipment of part of the very first aircraft in historyhas a symbolic character. According to the current members of the Wright family, the inventors would be very happy to know that their creation will go down in the history of the study of other planets. NASA's aerospace agency is very fond of symbolic signs and sending a fragment of Flyer 1 to a distant planet along with the first Martian helicopter is a great idea. Very soon, Ingenuity will make its maiden flight on Mars. And under its solar panel is a fragment of an aircraft that made its first flight over the earth's surface about 100 years ago. Beauty!

Wright brothers

See also: The strangest things that have ever been launched by man into space

Unusual parcels into space

This is far from the first time fragmentswooden structure "Flyer 1" went into space. In 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, astronaut Neil Armstrong took with him small parts of the aircraft. The fragments were with him at all stages of the flight, including takeoff, landing on the moon and return to Earth. After the space travel, the parts were returned back to the museum.

Neil Armstrong's personal belongings contained fragments of the very first plane in the world

Also, parts of the first aircraft flew several timeson the Shuttles. Unfortunately, in 1986 the Challenger ship crashed. Subsequently, parts of the Flyer 1 aircraft were found among the wreckage and returned to the museum as well. The last time the fragments flew into space was in 1998, when astronomer John Glenn took them with him. He is the oldest person to have ever been in space. At the time of that mission, he was already 77 years old.

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As for the Ingenuity helicopter, it is alreadypreparing for her first flight. For a long time it was inside the Perseverance rover, but soon it will be extracted from it. This is a very important process during which damage to the machine must not be allowed. Therefore, the extraction takes place in several stages and lasts almost a whole week. You can read more about how all this happens in this article.