Between 1825 and 1847 the State of Ohio constructed 1,000 miles of canals and feeder canals, 33,000 acres of reservoir surface area, 29 dams across streams, 294 lift locks, 44 aqueducts and many smaller structures at a cost of about 16 million dollars. The network of navigable canals provided a system of economical transportation where none had previously existed; the young state, with its isolated frontier lifestyle, was transformed almost overnight into a thriving segment of the nation's economy.
USA
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Image Credit: Courtesy WikipediaImage Caption: A part of the Ohio Canal System in 1902.Era_date_from: 1825
1983
Chartered in 1825, the Louisville and Portland Canal Company was authorized to construct a canal around the rapids called the "Falls of the Ohio." Construction started on March 1, 1826. The canal and first generation of locks were completed in 1830. As originally constructed, the canal was 1.9 miles long, 64 feet wide, and terminated at its lower end with a three-flight lock system with a total lift of 26 feet. Each lock chamber was 198 feet long between miter posts, with available length for vessels of 183 feet, width of 52 feet, and a lift at low stages of 8.5 feet.
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Image Credit: public domainImage Caption: The Louisville and Portland Canal was completed in 1830.Era_date_from: 1830
2002
On Colorado Blvd in Pasadena in 1942, the Aerojet Engineering Company founded the first manufacturing facility for the production of rocket propulsion systems. This site was selected to be honored by AIAA because of its significance as one of the first production sites for rocket motors, laying part of the foundation for the rocket business. Production was done under the leadership of Aerojet's first president, Dr. Theodore von Karman, world-renowned scientist and engineer from the California Institute of Technology. The plant remained here until 1945.
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Image Caption: The original Aerojet manufacturing facility no longer exists. Early rockets produced by Aerojet included the Aerobee Hi rocket, flown in 1946 to an altitude of 37 miles. It is on display and test fired the first complete Aerobee from the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico in 1947. It reached an altitude of 34.7 miles.
2000
The largest rocket built at the time of the historic first missions to the moon, the Saturn V carried aloft the 45-ton Apollo spacecraft on earth orbital and lunar missions from 1967 to 1972. It also launched the 120-ton Skylab into earth orbit on May 14, 1973.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (NASA)Image Caption: The largest rocket engines built at the time of the first US missions to the moon.Era_date_from: 1967
1980
The RL-10, which served as the power plant for NASA's upper-stage Centaur space launch vehicle, was the first rocket engine to use high-energy liquid hydrogen as a fuel. It has provided precisely controlled, reliable power for lunar and planetary explorations. The RL-10 embodied numerous advanced design features, including multiple use of its fuel with the "bootstrap cycle." The RL-10 is also capable of multiple restarts in space, which enables positioning of satellites or further escape of Earth's gravity.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (NASA)Image Caption: The first rocket engine to use high-energy liquid hydrogen as fuel.Era_date_from: 1958
1979
This propulsion wind tunnel (PWT) at Arnold AFB was the first large-scale facility for testing jet and rocket engines in simulated high-speed flight conditions. It has a unique combination of transonic (1955) and supersonic (1960) wind tunnels using a common 236,000 horsepower drive, the world's largest when built. It can achieve air speeds up to Mach 4.75 at altitudes up to 150,000 feet in its 16-foot square, removable test sections. Design engineers were Lief J. Sverdrup, John R. Parcel, Brice Smith, and Walter Cook, of Sverdrup and Parcel, St.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (US Air Force)Image Caption: The world's first large-scale testing facility for jet and rocket engines in simulated high-speed flight conditionsEra_date_from: 1955
1989
The 367-80 is the prototype for most jet transports. Its success was due largely to its mechanical systems, including turbine engines with thrust reversers and noise suppressors, redundant hydraulic control systems, and an improved cabin-pressurization system. Honeycomb flap panels were introduced, along with a strong, lightweight structural design that controlled fatigue cracking. These led to several innovations in aircraft tooling and manufacturing techniques.
The Dash-80 was the first commercial airliner economical enough to take the US airline industry off subsidy.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Boeing Dreamscape (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Prototype of the Boeing 707 and most jet transport systems, the Boeing 367-80 established economic feasibility of commercial air travel.Era_date_from: 1954
1994
Bradley Intl. AirportWindsor LocksState: CTZip: 06096Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/history/landmarks/topics-a-l/air-and-space-transportation/-149-hydromatic-propeller-%28ca--1938%29, http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5572.pdfCreator: Hamilton Standard
Rapid development of aircraft design in the 1930s required many related innovations, including propeller design. The hydromatic propeller by Hamilton Standard marked a significant advance over the counterweight-type, controllable pitch propeller. The first test flight of the prototype took place in 1938: the public demonstration was made by a United Air Lines DC-3 over New York City on April 6, 1938. It played a distinguished role in allied combat aircraft in World War II.
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Image Credit: Courtesy ASMEImage Caption: An early example of propeller innovations, including variable-pitch control and feathering capability.Era_date_from: 1938
1990
BinghamtonState: NYZip: 13905Country: USAWebsite: https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/engineering-history/landmarks/210-link-c-3-flight-trainerCreator: Link, Edwin
During the 1920s, Edwin A. Link was employed in his father's organ building and repair business. He obtained his pilot's license in 1927 and became convinced that a mechanical device could be built as an inexpensive method to teach basic piloting. Link received three patents on his flight trainer (No. 1,825,462, March 12, 1930; No. 2,244,464, June 3, 1941; and No. 2,358,016, Sept. 12, 1944).
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Tony SpeerImage Caption: An early flight simulator representative of the first truly effective mechanical device used to simulate actual flight processes.Era_date_from: 1935
2000
Wind tunnel testing of aircraft models is essential to determine aerodynamic parameters such as lift and drag. The 5-foot Wright Field wind tunnel is an early example of the modern wind tunnel, well known from the early 1920s to the late 1950s for its contributions to research and the development of nearly every major aircraft and associated hardware used by the US Air Force and its predecessor, the Army Air Service.
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Image Credit: Courtesy ASMEImage Caption: This is an early example of the "modern" wind tunnel for aircraft-model testing. Era_date_from: 1921
1995
Innovations
Wind tunnel testing of aircraft models is essential to determine aerodynamic parameters such as lift and drag. The 5-foot Wright Field wind tunnel is an early example of the modern wind tunnel, well known from the early 1920s to the late 1950s for its contributions to research and the…
Read More
During the 1920s, Edwin A. Link was employed in his father's organ building and repair business. He obtained his pilot's license in 1927 and became convinced that a mechanical device could be built as an inexpensive method to teach basic piloting. Link received three patents on his flight…
Read More
Rapid development of aircraft design in the 1930s required many related innovations, including propeller design. The hydromatic propeller by Hamilton Standard marked a significant advance over the counterweight-type, controllable pitch propeller. The first test flight of the prototype took place…
Read More
The 367-80 is the prototype for most jet transports. Its success was due largely to its mechanical systems, including turbine engines with thrust reversers and noise suppressors, redundant hydraulic control systems, and an improved cabin-pressurization system. Honeycomb flap panels were introduced… Read More
This propulsion wind tunnel (PWT) at Arnold AFB was the first large-scale facility for testing jet and rocket engines in simulated high-speed flight conditions. It has a unique combination of transonic (1955) and supersonic (1960) wind tunnels using a common 236,000 horsepower drive, the world's… Read More
The RL-10, which served as the power plant for NASA's upper-stage Centaur space launch vehicle, was the first rocket engine to use high-energy liquid hydrogen as a fuel. It has provided precisely controlled, reliable power for lunar and planetary explorations. The RL-10 embodied numerous…
Read More
The largest rocket built at the time of the historic first missions to the moon, the Saturn V carried aloft the 45-ton Apollo spacecraft on earth orbital and lunar missions from 1967 to 1972. It also launched the 120-ton Skylab into earth orbit on May 14, 1973.
Design and…
On Colorado Blvd in Pasadena in 1942, the Aerojet Engineering Company founded the first manufacturing facility for the production of rocket propulsion systems. This site was selected to be honored by AIAA because of its significance as one of the first production sites for rocket motors, laying…
Read More
Chartered in 1825, the Louisville and Portland Canal Company was authorized to construct a canal around the rapids called the "Falls of the Ohio." Construction started on March 1, 1826. The canal and first generation of locks were completed in 1830. As originally constructed, the canal was 1.9…
Read More
Between 1825 and 1847 the State of Ohio constructed 1,000 miles of canals and feeder canals, 33,000 acres of reservoir surface area, 29 dams across streams, 294 lift locks, 44 aqueducts and many smaller structures at a cost of about 16 million dollars. The network of navigable canals provided a…
Read More
Designed by William A. Truesdell, a railroad engineer, the Seventh Street Improvement Arches celebrates the engineering application of mathematics to improve living conditions.
The construction of these arches presented a number of challenges. Since Seventh Street intersected the St.…
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Constructed to provide a safe, potable water supply for the citizens of Chicago, Ellis Chesbrough's Chicago Water Supply System was the first major system to utilize offshore intake systems. The system includes the landmark Chicago Water Tower and the Chicago Avenue Pumping Station. Its…
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The City Plan of Philadelphia is a seminal creation in American city planning in that it was the first American City Plan to provide open public squares for the free enjoyment of the community and a gridiron street pattern featuring streets of varying widths: wide main streets and narrower side…
Read More"Eads had to succeed in the face of conventional wisdom which doomed him to disaster. Entrenched authorities not only completely dismissed his theories, but pointed to the indifferent European experiences with what he proposed."
- ASCE Landmark Nomination Proposal, 1982
The East Maui Irrigation System is Hawaii's most dramatic water story. It began with the construction of the Old Hamakua Ditch built between 1876 and 1878. This privately financed, constructed and managed irrigation system was one of the largest in the United States. It eventually included…
El Camino Real (literally, "the royal road") is the oldest and longest historical trail in the Western Hemisphere. The transportation link has, through the centuries, been called various names, including El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (literally, "the road to the interior" because the U.…
A tiny village on the Rio Grande River in northern New Mexico became the training center for the first American hydrographers and provided the first stream-gauging operations of the U.S. Geological Survey. To plan any water system, it is necessary to know the amount of water flowing in the…
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"Fink's truss design was one of a number of early patented solutions to [the problem of how] to carry a massive, moving weight (a train) over long spans (to avoid the expense of building piers and obstructing waterways) on easily erected bridges (often in rough terrain) with good long-term…
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In the 19th century, New York City was a burgeoning industrial and commercial metropolis - the largest city in the United States and second largest in the world. As the city's population increased, people began to call for construction of an underground railway. Many unusual engineering…
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"Some of New Hampshire's most aesthetically pleasing yet least appreciated structures are stone arch bridges."
From: Stone Arch Bridges of the Contoocook River Valley, New Hampshire Profiles, May, 1978 by Raymond Gibson
These five bridges, Carr Bridge (mid 1800's), Gleason…
