Milestones: A Trip Down Memory Lane

By Bernie Keating

Milestones: A Trip Down Memory Lane

MILESTONES are markers placed along a road to provide reference points, and also used to identify an event marking a significant change in the life of person or a nation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546238799

Bernie Keating

Bernie Keating’s was raised in Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, served as a naval officer during the Korean War, completed graduate school at U.C. Berkeley, and then began a fifty-year career as executive, becoming Manager of Quality Assurance for the world’s largest packaging company. As an avocation during his long working career, he also wrote books and the current one is his twenty-second. He and his wife live on a ranch in the Sierra Mountains near Sonora, California.

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© 2018 BErnie Keating. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/19/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-3880-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-3881-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-3879-9 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

1. ACHIEVEMENT OF AIR FLIGHT

2. CONCEPT OF MASS PRODUCTION

3. DISCOVERY OF RELATIVITY

4. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

5. UNEARTHING EVOLUTION

6. IMPACT OF WORLD WAR DRAFT

7. BLITZKRIEG WARFARE

8. DAY OF INFAMY

9. ATOMIC BOMB

10. FOUNDING OF UNITED NATIONS

11. NON-VIOLENT BLACK PROTEST

12. DISCOVERY OF THE GENOME

13. INVENTION OF TELEVISION

14. MOON LANDING

15. THE INTERNET

16. REPLACEMENT OF BODY PARTS

17. TRANSISTORS

18. OLYMPICS

19. SELF-DRIVING VEHICLES

20. NEW COUNTERCULTURE?

MILESTONES: a trip down memory lane

MILESTONES are markers placed along a road to provide reference points. They are also used to identify an event marking a significant change in the life of a person or a nation, and in essence, are a trip down memory lane.

By Bernie Keating

PREAMBLE

Milestones are important events that have occurred during our lifetime.

Mileposts were first utilized along the Appian Way in Ancient Rome to identify how far travelers had journeyed. In the same way, milestones help us remember important happenings in our travels through life and become somewhat like travelling down memory lane.

Research is needed to obtain knowledge about these events and then it is my job to organize and present the story with a perspective that has meaning. That is what I have attempted to do.

Please join me, and feel free to make your own selections of milestones.

Bernie Keating

1

ACHIEVEMENT OF AIR FLIGHT

Can you imagine what it was like during those long centuries when man was glued to the earth and dreamed of being able to fly through the air like a bird?

Man has fantasized about flying since ancient times. Finally in 1903, Orval and Wilbur Wright achieved the first sustained airplane flight. Man was now in the air.

These two brothers had a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, an unlikely occupation for such a historic achievement, and they appeared to be only bicycle tinkers; but I failed to appreciate their impact: they became aeronautical engineers.

Orville and Wilbur made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, they were the first to utilize science with two important developments that are still relevant today: the three-axis control system, and utilization of the Smeaton formula in calculating lift. ¹

Their fundamental breakthrough was an invention of three-axis control, ailerons and rudders, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method of control became the standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds and differed significantly from other experimenters of the time that put more emphasis on developing powerful engines. Their three-axis control system is still the state-of-the art in flying machines.

Smeaton had developed concepts during the 1790’s that became the basis for the Smeaton coefficient: the lift created by air flowing over an airfoil. ² The equation was utilized by the Wright brothers. It has the form,

L=kC₁A, where:

L is the lift developed.

k is the Smeaton coefficient of 0.005.

"C₁ the lift coefficient relative to the drag.

A is the area in square feet.

The Wrights used this equation to calculate the amount of lift that a wing would produce. They determined that the value of 0.005 was incorrect. Their results correctly showed that the coefficient was very close to 0.0033, not the traditional 0.0054 that would significantly exaggerate predicted lift. Using a small homebuilt wind tunnel, the Wrights also collected accurate data that enabled them to design and build wings and propellers that were more efficient than any before.

Their first U.S. patent did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine’s surfaces.

They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice. Using a homebuilt wind tunnel, they also collected more accurate data, and conducted extensive glider tests that developed their skills as pilots.

Hoping to improve lift, they built a glider with a much larger wing area and made dozens of flights. Their gliders stalled a few times, but the parachute effect of the forward elevator allowed Wilbur to avoid a nose-dive and make a safe landing. The poor lift of gliders led the Wrights to question the accuracy of other’s data, as well as the "Smeaton coefficient", a value which had been in use for over 100 years and was part of the accepted equation for lift. ³

As they learned about the mechanics of flight, the two