FLYING MACHINE

F L y I N g     M a C H i n E

On 17 December 1903 in an  American town called Kitty Hawk, two bicycle mechanics changed the World forever- they flew an airplane! On that historic day, the two mechanics, Orville and Wilbur Wright  made the World's first sustained, powered and controlled  flights in an airplane. The two were brothers who with their first flight marked the birth of modern aviation.

The term  'aviation' relates to the activities involved in the design , development, production, operation and use of aircraft. An aircraft is a vehicle capable of flying by being supported by air. It include fixed wing and rotary wing types (eg; helicopter), parachutes, as well as lighter than aircraft such as hot air balloons and air ships.

The 'Flyer" flown by the wright brothers on 17 December 1903 was 6.4 meters in length and flew at nearly 11 kilometers per hour (kph). In just over hundred years, mankind has bettered the record. For example, a Boeing 747, one of the World's most recognizable aircraft, in 100 feet longer than the Flyer's  first flight! Another  example is the Euro fighter typhoon. It is one of the World's most advanced new generation aircraft. It can travel at the speed of 2125 kph and takes just 2.5 minutes to reach a height of 35,000 feet. Similarly, aeroplanes have developed from rickety biplanes to the Airbus A380, the largest jetliner ever built. This giant plane has 22 wheels and its wingspan is as wide as the length of a football pitch!

An aircraft is an amazing invention through which mankind has overcome the pull of gravity that keeps most of the creatures tied to the ground. It has made possible for us to girdle the globe like birds, fly high and low, at great speed and even perform aerobatics and air shows with extraordinary precision and control. This is why an aircraft is not just a machine capable of flight, but also a source of joy and inspiration. 

GLIDER

G L i d E r

A glider is a light, small winged aircraft designed similar to a aeroplane, but with notable differences. The wings of a glider tend to be longer and slimmer than those of an aeroplane. The  cockpit is typically so small that it requires the pilot to be in a reclined position. Gliders are capable of unpowered flight. Some of these vessels have engines but others do not. The use of an engine is often to be prolong the flying time. A glider is generally used for recreational or sporting purposes, such as gliding or sky sailing. A para glider is  a free flying, foot launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing. heavier than air  unpowered aircrafts such as gliders, hang gliders and para gliders, may take off by launching forwards and downwards from a higher location.

MARS

M a R s

Mars known as the red planet, is the fourth planet from the sun and the outermost rocky planet. In the 19th century, astronomers first observed what ere thought to be signs of life in Mars. These signs included apparent canal like marking on the surface, and dark patches that ere thought to be vegetation. It is now known that the "canals" are an optical illusion, and the dark patches are areas where the red dust that covers most of the planet has been blown away. the fine dust particles are often whipped up by winds into dust storms that occasionally obscure almost all the surface. Residual dust in the atmosphere gives the Martian sky pinkish hue. The northern hemisphere of Mars has many large plains formed of solidified volcanic lava, where as the southern hemisphere has many craters and large impact basins. There are also several huge, extinct volcanoes, including Olympus Mons, which at 600 kilometers across and 25 kilometers high, is the largest known volcano in the solar system. The surface also has many canyons and branching channels. The canyons are were formed by movements of the surface crust, but the channels are thought to have been formed by flowing water that has now dried up. the Martian atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's with only a few clouds and morning mists. Mars has two tiny, irregularly shaped moons called Phobos and Deimos. Their size indicates that they may be asteroids that have been captured by the gravity of Mars.

THE EARLY 20th CENTURY

Architecture of the early 20th century is notable for radical new types of steel and glass  buildings particularly skyscrapers and the wide spread use of steel rein forced concrete. The steel framed skyscraper was pioneered in Chicago in the 1880s, but did not become wide spread until the first decades of the 20 th century. As construction techniques were refined, skyscrapers became higher and higher foe example, the Empire state building of 1929-1931 has 102 storeys. Many buildings of this period were constructed from light weight concrete slabs, which could be supported by cantilever beams or by pilotis (stilts), as in the villa Savoye . The early 20th century also produced a great variety of architectural styles. Despite their diversity, the styles of the period generally had one thing in common: they were completely new, with few links to past architectural styles. This originality is in marked contrast to 19th century architecture, much of which was revivalist.

ANIMAL KINGDOM

A n I M a L   K i n G D o M

From the North pole to the South , and  every where in between... Our planet pulsates with life. all living things are organized in to five different groups called Kingdoms, one of which is the animal kingdom. From tiny creatures that are just a collection of few cells to giants Whales that have tongues as heavy as an elephant, this biological Kingdom encompasses about ten million species!

From thumb sized bee Humming birds to hundred feet long blue Whales, the animal kingdom contains an array of fascinating species of varied shapes, sized and colours. It is this extra ordinary diversity that makes animal kingdom a visual delight.

Life, which makes our planet unique in the Universe, began in the Oceans millions of years ago and slowly journeyed to land, spreading to all corners of our planet, including places barely touched by humanity. 

The first vertebrates to walk on land were amphibians. But they aren't the most successful animals to have walked the planet; this feat belongs to one intelligent species, HOMO SAPIENS Emerging in the continent of Africa millions of years ago, Homo sapiens continually evolved to become the modern human being who has conquered land, sea, air and has even left foot prints on the surface of Moon.

Though phenomenally successful, human beings are still a part of the animal kingdom and the natural World, as are all other creatures on Earth. The wonderful creatures the dwell in the  oceans, birds that chirp in our gardens and the animals that make our planet so full of life are our ANIMAL KINS. AND, WE SHOULD LOVE AND PROTECT THEM. BUT, NOT BECAUSE WE BELONG TO THE SAME BIOLOGICAL KINGDOM, OR SHARE THE SAME PLANET. INSTEAD, BECAUSE WE ARE HUMANS, AND THE WORD ' HUMAN' ALSO MEANS 'KIND' AND 'COMPASSIONATE'