Who Invented the Helicopter?

The long time dream of humans to flying machine that would be rise straight up in an old one! It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci made drawings for a gigantic screw like helicopter about A.D. 1500. Da Vinci never tried to build one because he had no motor to drive it.

Who Invented the Helicopter? So, it is unclear and no one knows where it came from but a toy helicopter known as “the Chinese top” was shown in France in 1783. However, in 1796, Sir George Cayley made experimental forms of Chinese tops and also designed a steam driven helicopter.

For the next 100 years, a number of people made designs for helicopters. Some were fantastic, other almost practical, and a few of them actually flew. But there were no powerful, lightweight engines. It was not until such engines were made during World War I that anyone made a helicopter that got off the ground with a man aboard.

In 1906, two French brother Jacques and Louis Breguet made a successful experiment of Gyroplane No. 1. That machine lifted its pilot into the air about 0.6 meters (2 ft) for a minute. Igor Sikorsky built two helicopters or chopper in 1909 and 1910. One of them actually lifted its own weight. Towards the end of year 1917, two Austro-Hungarian officers built a helicopter to take the place of observation balloons.

It made a number of flights to high altitudes but was never allowed to fly freely. Therefore, work on helicopter continued in many countries but none of the machines were what the inventors had hoped for. In 1936, an statement came from Germany that the Focke-Wulf Company had built a successful helicopter.

However, in 1937 it flew cross country at speeds close to 70 miles an hour and went up more than 335 meters. In 1940, Sikorsky showed his first practical helicopter and it was delivered to the United States Army in 1942. Silkorsky design was called the VS-300. Soon after, Helicopter was used in military campaign. Source: Charismatic Planet

Exocoetidae and Other Flying Fishes

How do the members of Exocoetidae compare to other flyers? Researchers traditionally group flying fish with all the other vertebrate gliders:

“flying” frogs with their expanded webbing on the front and hind feet.

Draco, the flying “dragon,” with a flight surface formed from elongated ribs, ‘‘flying” geckos, warm weather lizards.

“flying” snake that can turn its body into a flight surface by forming a depression on its underside by drawing in its skin while the body is coiled into a triangular-shaped plane.

Mammalian gliders-flying squirrels, marsupial sugar gliders, and the colugo or ‘‘flying lemur”- in which the flight surface is a fur-covered membrane stretched out between the legs and the body. Despite the superficial distinction of gliding, wing design, and flight performance differ sharply between flying fish and other vertebrate gliders.

Other gliders are restricted mainly to trees. They fly by descending from a position in the trees higher than where they will be at the end of their glide. Their flight surfaces are more like parachutes than wings. The very low aspect ratios of such flight surface slow the animals’ rate of descent while preventing the onset of stall. The glide path is very steep. Flying fish have a shallow glide path at high speed. They begin and end their flight at the same level. performance characteristics that resemble those of flapping flyers, such as birds and bats.

Wing shapes and glide ratios are remarkably similar between the two groups. But flying fish do not have adaptations for lightening the body-like pneumatic bones and air sacs-as birds do. To function underwater, the fish required a body density close to that of water for buoyancy and stability. They required and takes precedence over the advantages in the flight of a lower-body density. As a result, the wing loading is higher for flying fish than for birds.

Flying fish must glide faster than birds to keep the same rate of sink and to prevent the onset of stall. The machine, flying fish are inseparably linked to the physical constraints of wind and gravity. Notwithstanding these limitations, flying fish have aerodynamic designs that give them greater gliding proficiency in seeming effortless flight. We must marvel at how a fish out of water can perform so elegantly.

Related Reading

1. The Fearless Dam Climbing Alpine Ibex
2. Pudu – The Smallest Deer in the World
3. The Beautiful Red Fox (Foxes and Coyotes)

Reference - Frank Fish (Professor of Biology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Myotonic Goat - The Fainting Goats

Sometimes animal behavior surprises you. The Myotonic Goat which faint temporarily seizes when feels panic. This goat is also known as wooden-leg goat, falling goat, fainting goat, stiff-legged goat, and nervous goat. Humans get faint while the feeling of panic attacks, strong emotional stress or any disease.

The interesting thing about Myotonic Goat, when they fell over, their legs hilariously raised towards the sky. The comical behavior making Myotonic Goat popular among people and they often record the video of Myotonic Goat for social media platforms. The goat abruptly laying motionless on the ground for 5 to 20 seconds, and then bounce back on their feet as quickly as they fell.  

This curious reaction to fright has made fainting goats do not lose consciousness.  They just become stiff from fright and a genetic condition called as myotonia congenita, which causes their muscles to become rigid for a brief period when startled. The stiff-legged goat behavior is alike to the condition in humans hereditary genetic disorder which is identified as congenital myotonia.

Therefore, once the stiffness goes away, they bounce back quickly on their feet. That is why this goat has given many names mentioned above. The medical conditions of muscle “Myotonia” didn’t hurt them or are painless to the central nervous system. This curious behavior is not exceptional to falling goats or livestock, but human beings can affect by this too.

A transient farmer John Tinsley arrived in Marshall County, Tennessee in the 1880s with four goats. He sold these four goats to his employer Dr. H. H. Mayberry and then moved on to another state. Dr. Mayberry breeds the goats but certainly must have originated somewhere. It is unclear, where he came from or from where he brought these unique goats. However, the origin of the breed remains a mystery because the condition doesn’t appear to have surfaced anywhere else in the world.

The stiff-legged goat eventually became famous in the local market and meat source in the 1950’s. The strictly muscular goats but docile and very much easier to care and maintain. Fainting Goats of Tennessee are also raised as a pet or show animals as they can be sociable, gifted, easy to fence, and entertaining. The goat is poor in climbing and jumping so not difficult to keep them.

In the 1980’s a trend in United States agriculture popular to breed the exotic species of animals including Myotonic Goats. So, this increased trend eventually important for everyone to have registries to track its breeding. Moreover, most of the Myotonic Goats are horned, but some are polled “hornless”.

Most myotonic goats are horned, although many are polled (hornless) and some breeders select specifically for polled goats, the ears are medium-sized and habitually held horizontally. The nervous goats have variable colors but black and white are relatively common. However, the hair coat is changing from very short to long but smooth and shaggy.

So, some breeders prefer shaggy goats as they are very resistant to inclement weather. The meat of fainting Goats is tender and tasty due to the top of meat quality. Also, it is very imperative to realize that the stiffness in no way results in rough meat, but rather just the opposite. The Myotonic Goats reproductive function is highly maternal, normally reproduce non-seasonally at six months intervals.

Moreover, fecundity and milk production are very good. Normally, the twins are not common. However, in rare cases, the triplet is possible as does usually have no problem rearing triplets unassisted. The nervous goats are good foragers, active and are efficient with winter feed.

Related Reading

1. The Fearless Dam Climbing Alpine Ibex
2. Pudu – The Smallest Deer in the World
3. The Beautiful Red Fox (Foxes and Coyotes)