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- First Flight from Europe to the South AtlanticPublication . Silva, André; Barata, Jorge M M; Morgado, Cândido M. P.; Neves, Fernando M. S. P.The History of the transatlantic flights goes back to 1919 and began with a flight performed from Newfoundland to Lisbon; two weeks later another flight was performed between Newfoundland and Ireland. On 1922, the Portuguese airmen Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral crossed the South Atlantic Ocean by air in a flight performed exclusively with internal means of navigation: a new instrument that consisted in a type of sextant improved with two spirit levels to provide an artificial horizon and also with the help of a “path corrector”. Despite this journey had lasted 79 days to cross South Atlantic Ocean, their flight time was only 62:26 minutes, and they’ve flown 8,383 nautical miles, using 3 different hydroplanes christened: Lusitania, Pátria and Santa Cruz. Despite this journey had lasted 79 days, their flight time was only 62 h 26 m; they’ve flown 8,383 nautical miles using 3 different hydroplanes christened: Lusitania, Pátria and Santa Cruz. The new artificial horizon sextant had proven itself while flying over the ocean, without external references.
- The First Aerial Journey from Portugal to MacauPublication . Neves, Fernando M. S. P.; Barata, Jorge M M; Silva, AndréOn 1920, Brito Pais and Sarmento Beires tried an unsuccessful flight attempt from Amadora, Lisbon to Madeira Island onboard an airplane Breguet XIV A2, named “Cavaleiro Negro”. Despite the scarce means of navigation both navigators managed to reach Madeira, which failed to land due to dense fog. On their way back after 8 hours of flight time, they alight at the Atlantic Ocean for lack of fuel and were rescued at about 500 km from Lisbon. On 1922, Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral conducted the First Aerial Cross of the South Atlantic, flying from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. The Portuguese Aeronautics rejoiced auspicious days that time, with its aviation pioneers trying consecutively to reach more distant places along intercontinental flights. On 1923, Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral were contemplating to perform an Around the World Flight. However, Sacadura died in 1924, while piloting an airplane acquired for the circumnavigation voyage. Later on 1924 the pilots Brito Pais and Sarmento Beires idealized the conducting of an aerial flight from Lisbon to Macau as an aspiration for a future Portuguese Around the World Flight attempt: on 7 April 1924, those pilots departed from Vila Nova de Milfontes in a Breguet XIV Bn2 airplane, starting their Journey to Macau. During a flight stage on 7 May an engine failure forced them to crash the airplane at India; on 30 May, both pilots managed to continue the Voyage in a De Havilland DH9 aircraft before being forced to end their attempt in 20 June in flying over Macau. A typhoon hindered their efforts to land and the airplane was crash landed in Chinese Territory about 800 meters from the Hong Kong Border. On 25 June 1924, they were shuttled back to Macau by boat. Brito Pais, Sarmento Beires and Manuel Gouveia returned to Portugal, via North America, visiting several Portugueses nuclei at China, Japan, United States and England. They went to Portugal on 9 September, after having flown a total of 16,760 km in 117:41 h facing often extremely adverse atmospheric conditions, sandstorms and inaccurate navigation maps.
- The History of the Portuguese Aviation - A SummaryPublication . Neves, Fernando M. S. P.; Barata, Jorge M M; Silva, AndréThis article is intended as a summary of a new area of study on the History of the Portuguese Aeronautics and Aerospace and addresses issues such as: the forthcoming of the aircraft at Portugal, its military and civilian use; the scope of early days concerning Portuguese intercontinental flights and their authors; the development of air navigation devices by Portuguese inventors in the 1920s and 30s; the Aeronautics industry and the need to develop expertise in Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering in Portugal during the centuries XX and XXI.
- Gago Coutinho and the Scientific NavigationPublication . Silva, André; Barata, Jorge M M; Neves, Fernando M. S. P.Gago Coutinho, jointly with another Portuguese aerial navigator, managed to perform the First Flight from Europe to the South Atlantic in 1922, a Journey exclusively guided by internal means of navigation. Despite Coutinho being a person with multi-purpose activity on several areas of knowledge, he became known and glorified in the World in 1922, as an air navigator, a position that he achieved due to an aerial navigation device that he also had invented. Coutinho developed a new sextant model that could be used to measure the altitude of a star (when flying overseas) without the need of the sea horizon. This new device was called precision sextant and was provided with an artificial horizon line defined with the help of a water bubble. Due to his knowledge of Navigation, Astronomy, Geography and Mathematics, Coutinho received from the Portuguese King D. Carlos I, several assignments at Africa and Asia. Gago Coutinho received several important official medals and prizes, including the Ph.D. Honoris Causa from the Universities of Lisbon and Oporto and authored several scientific publications. Coutinho received the distinct position of Admiral of the Portuguese Navy in 1958 and died in the following year.
- The Advent of Scientific Aircraft NavigationPublication . Barata, Jorge M M; Mendes, António; Morgado, Cândido M. P.; Neves, Fernando M. S. P.; Silva, AndréTwo Portuguese aerial navigators, Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral, crossed for the first time, from Europe to the South Atlantic in 1922; they developed and used for the first time scientific methods of astronomic navigation when flying out of sight of land: a path corrector and a precision sextant. Both navigation devices were tested during short flights from Lisbon to Madeira Island (1921) and the encouraging results obtained, allow the navigators to apply them with quite success into an intercontinental flight. The “path corrector” was invented by Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho with the intent to calculate graphically the angle between the longitudinal axis of an airplane and the direction of flight, taking into account the intensity and the direction of the winds. The regular sextant used by the navy could not be applied to aviation due to the difficulty of the definition of the sky-line at a normal flight altitude. Gago Coutinho developed a new model of sextant that could be used to measure the altitude of a star without the need of the sea horizon; this new device was called “precision sextant” and was improved with an artificial horizon line defined with the help of a water bubble. This device was later improved with an internal illumination system to allow its use during night flights and was used along the First Aerial South Atlantic Night Crossing, in 1927, performed by Portuguese airmen Sarmento Beires, Jorge Castilho, Duvalle Portugal and Manuel Gouveia. An advanced version of this instrument started to be manufactured in Germany by C. Plath under the name of “System Admiral Gago Coutinho”.