so man's first powered machine to take to the skies was this ungainly contraption from the early 20th century. certainly not a looker, but she proved the concept of powered flight, which is all that mattered
Wright Flyer, first flight 1903
source:
http://www.wright-brothers.org/Infor...s/Flyer_II.htm
then,
a mere 54 years later, aircraft designers had hit upon the winning formula for the world's first commercially successful and fully modern jetliner, the boeing 707. it's all there: a long thin circular fuselage, a single large swept-back wing with slats and flaps and podded jet engines slung underneath, a single large vertical stabilizer with horizontal stabilizers at the base, fully retractable tricycle landing gear, etc.
Boeing 707, first flight 1957
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_707
and then 52 years after the 707, we have the latest and greatest with the boeing 787, and while it is packed with a whole host of new technology that the 707's designers could have only ever dreamed of, from a basic overall form perspective, little appears to have changed.
Boeing 787, first flight 2009
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_787_Dreamliner
we often talk about how fast our world changes, but some designs get the formula so correct from the beginning that there seems little to be gained by going back and reinventing the wheel.
in our lifetime, will the jetliner ever evolve into anything substantively different from this basic form, or is this it?
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