LJ 2 - Development of the aircraft

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• MBO
• Studiejaar 2

Lesson 11: The development of the aircraft

Lesson goals

• Reading strategy (scanning): You can name the different parts of the aircraft.
  
• Reading: You can explain how people developed the motorized aircraft with the use of reading strategies.
• Grammar: You can implement time expressions, the past simple and the past continuous in a story.
  

Regular vs irregular

What is a regular verb in the past simple?

1. It is always the same; a regular verb always ends with -ed
2. It is always the same; a regular verb always ends with -s

You use a past simple when...

1. Something happened in the past.
2. Something happens every day.
3. Something will happen in the future.
4. Something hasn't happened yet.

Past Continuous (for regular verbs) is:

1. was/were + infinitive form
2. was/were + -ing form
3. verb + -ing
4. verb + ed

Choose the correct tense:
'past simple' or 'past continuous'.

We travelled a lot last summer.

1. past simple
2. past continuous

Which sentence is the past continuous?

1. I worked at home last week
2. I was working at home, when the doorbell rang
3. I am working at home at the moment
4. I work at home every day

Choose the correct form of past (simple or continuous).

Keeping up with her was quite difficult.

1. past simple
2. past continuous

Time expressions

The present – permanent

Use the present simple tense to refer to permanent situations in the present.

• I now live in a small town.
• Nowadays I live in a small town.
• These days, I don’t have much of a social life.
  

The present – temporary

Use the present continuous tense to refer to temporary situations in the present.

• At present / At the moment I’m living in a small town.
• For the time being I’m living in a small town, but I hope to move soon.
  

Time expressions

Talking about a period of time in the past

• My mother started work as a nurse in the 1960s.
• In those days she lived in London.
• Back then nurses were badly paid.
• At that time, nurses lived in special accommodation.
  

Talking about a single event in the past

• At one time she lost her door key and had to stay in a hotel.
• On one occasion she nursed the son of a famous politician.
  

Time expressions

Sequencing events in the past

There are many ways to sequence events in the past. Here are some of the more common ones.

• I went shopping after I finished work.
• I worked all day in the office. Afterwards / After that, I went shopping.
• I went shopping. After a while, I got bored.
• I worked before I went shopping.I went shopping at 6pm. Before that / Previously / Until then I had worked all day in the office.
• I worked all day, then I went shopping.I was desperate to go shopping by the time I had finished work.
• I worked until 6pm. By then / By that time, I was glad for the opportunity to go shopping.
  

Other expressions to refer to the next event in a story

I worked and then went shopping. Later on I met some friends for pizza.

• I waited for a while in the restaurant. Before long, the waiter came up and asked me…
• At that moment / Suddenly, I heard the door slam.
• Meanwhile / At the same time / Simultaneously my phone started to ring.
  

www.worddy.co

Vocabulary

Exercise 1: Find seven words connected with airplanes and flights in the word search

Exercise 2: Now look at this diagram of a jet fighter. Finish labelling the diagram using six words from the word search.

Exercise 1:

Across: engine, radar, display, tank, foreplane

Down: missile

Diagonally upper left to bottom right: airbrake

Exercise 2

1. A) Engine
   
2. B) Airbrake
   
3. C) Display
   
4. D) Radar
   
5. E) Foreplane
   
6. F) Tank
   

Scanning the text

When you’re scanning, it helps to think in terms of targets. Here are some other tips:

First read your questions before you start using this technique!!  

• Look at the title and the pictures. This will give you a clue about the most important information, the subject of the text and the structure.
  
• Scan for the two or three search terms that describe the information you want. You can recognize terms more readily on the page if you have them in mind while you scan.
  
• Read the context. When you found a word that you were looking for, read the sentence before and after that word to know more about the subject.
  
• Look at all italicized words. According to popular publishing convention, authors often italicize and explain terms the first time they use them.
  

Go to exercise 3, scan the text and answer the questions.

Exercise 3: Reading 

1. Whose invention and solution to technical problems in flight led to a quick development in military and civil aviation?

2. What are the three problems which needed a solution before people could fly?

3. What type of wings did they first develop for an aircraft, which weren’t effective?

4. Did people already understand which forces had to be overcome to fly a plane, before a working airplane was developed?

5. Who was the first person to experiment with fixed wings on an aircraft?

6. Was the first person who flew the first recorded manned flight happy about this?

7. Which invention would have a profound effect on the study of wings and the development of improved airfoils?

Exercise 3: Reading 

8. What kind of plane did Otto Lilienthal build?

9. Why did the Wright brothers not focus on wing design at first?

10. Name two kinds of propulsion systems that people used or came up with for sustained powered flights in the 19th century.

11. Explain what proves that Karl Woelfert’s open-flame ignition system was dangerous.

12. The engine developed by Langley was far superior over the engine the Wright brothers designed. Why did it not matter that the Wright brother’s engine wasn’t as powerful?

13. Which of the three elements of control (pitch, yaw or roll) was the most difficult to achieve? Roll (balancing the wingtips or banking the aircraft).

14. What is the hang-gliding technique?

15. Why did other developers of plane rejected the idea that the pilot would have complete control over the aircraft?

16. What is the following technique called ‘the pilot could induce a twist across the upper and lower wings in either direction, thus increasing the lift on one side and decreasing it on the other’.

Exercise 3: Reading 

1. Whose invention and solution to technical problems in flight led to a quick development in military and civil aviation?

The Wright brothers fixed the problems of flight and build the first working aircraft. After that, things went fast.

2. What are the three problems which needed a solution before people could fly?

Those which relate to the construction of the sustaining wings. Those which relate to the generation and application of the power required to drive the machine through the air. Those relating to the balancing and steering of the machine after it is actually in flight.

3. What type of wings did they first develop for an aircraft, which weren’t effective?

Wings designed to simulate the wings of a bird. The aircraft was a machine in which flapping wings generated both lift and propulsion.

4. Did people already understand which forces had to be overcome to fly a plane, before a working airplane was developed?

Yes, Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei in Italy, Christiaan Huygens in the Netherlands, and Isaac Newton in England all contributed to an understanding of the relationship between resistance (drag) and such factors as the surface area of an object exposed to the stream and the density of a fluid.

5. Who was the first person to experiment with fixed wings on an aircraft?

George Cayley, an English baronet

6. Was the first person who flew the first recorded manned flight happy about this?

No, it was the servant of George Cayley and he was very reluctant.

7. Which invention would have a profound effect on the study of wings and the development of improved airfoils?

The wind tunnel

8. What kind of plane did Otto Lilienthal build?

A series of monoplane and biplane gliders

9. Why did the Wright brothers not focus on wing design at first?

Already a lot of research had been done on wing designs and people had built successful gliders in the past.

10. Name two kinds of propulsion systems that people used or came up with for sustained powered flights in the 19th century.

A steam-engine, an internal-combustion engine, a compressed-gas propulsion system and a lightweight high-speed gasoline engine.

11. Explain what proves that Karl Woelfert’s open-flame ignition system was dangerous.

He died himself when an internal-combustion engine set a much larger airship on fire in 1897.

12. The engine developed by Langley was far superior over the engine the Wright brothers designed. Why did it not matter that the Wright brother’s engine wasn’t as powerful?

They had developed an engine that produced exactly the power required to propel their flyer of 1903.

13. Which of the three elements of control (pitch, yaw or roll) was the most difficult to achieve? Roll (balancing the wingtips or banking the aircraft).

14. What is the hang-gliding technique?

Here the pilot shifted his weight in order to alter the position of the center of gravity of the machine with regard to the center of pressure.

15. Why did other developers of plane rejected the idea that the pilot would have complete control over the aircraft?

They feared that pilots would be overwhelmed by the difficulty of controlling a machine moving in three dimensions.

16. What is the following technique called ‘the pilot could induce a twist across the upper and lower wings in either direction, thus increasing the lift on one side and decreasing it on the other’.

Wing warping

Homework: Vocabulary and grammar

Exercise 4: Underline the time expression in each sentence.

Exercise 5: Complete the sentences with the right vocabulary

Exercise 6: Look at each sentence at exercise 5 and decide which plane it describes. Write (B) next to the sentences that describe the Bristol Brabazon Airliner and (C) next to the sentences that describe the Custer Channel Wing. Compare your answers with your partner.

Exercise 4 - answers

1. By the end of 1969
   
2. Until the 1970s
   
3. No longer
   
4. Finally / a year later
   
5. After three years’ work
   
6. While
   
7. Then / for the next 12 months
   
8. Initially
   
9. From that moment on
   
10. Since the beginning
    

Exercise 5 

1. Wingspan
   
2. Passengers
   
3. Cabin
   
4. Speeds
   
5. Hangar
   
6. Prototypes
   
7. Production
   
8. Take off
   

Exercise 6

1. B
2. B
   
3. C
   
4. C
   
5. B
   
6. C
   
7. B
   
8. B
   

Optional Homework: Writing

Exercise 7: Choose one of the aircraft. You are a historian who has to write a report about the development of the aircraft. Write a short history of the airplane. Include:

• The name and origin of the aircraft
  
• Who developed it
  
• What the purpose of the aircraft was and at what time period people flew with the aircraft
  
• Name three characteristics of the plane
  
• Explain why it is no longer in use
  

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