Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation

Question: Discuss about the Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation. Answer: Introduction: The civilian aviation is defined as the category of aviation, which represents all non-military aviation and consists both the private and commercial aviation. On the other hand, as the name suggests, military aviation is defined as the use of military aircraft and other flying machines for the purpose of conducting aerial warfare, which include national airlift (Murphy, 2005). The military aviation has been existing for long and therefore some of the major technological advancement of the civilian aviation has been enhanced by developments in military aviation (Leishman, 2006). This paper will therefore look at these technological developments in which have been used in military aviation and have been of great help to develop the civilian aviation to its current state. First, in the initial stages, the military aviation was used for monitoring of the troops and was never designed to carry anything. The needs to carry the cargo for the military troops therefore raised the need for design of aircrafts, which had the capacity to carry cargo and even the passengers. This is the main root of the civilian aviation (Bull, 2004). The development and design of the aircrafts, which could deliver cargo and passengers at a faster rate was then initiated (Murphy, 2005). For instance, Great Britain was the first to develop an aircraft that was meant to revolt through the empire during the interwar period making deliveries of troop cargo and the troops. This developments and need in the military aviation therefore gave rise to the development of aircrafts, which had huge capacities in the civilian aviation. In addition, carrier aviation was first evident in the World War 1 whereby massive resources needed to be transported (Murphy, 2005). During the World War II, the carrier aviation was highly used to transport different resources. The continuous increase of the civilian aircraft size in civil aviation therefore can be traced back to the development of the military aircrafts, which could carry the troops, military cargo and other military transports. The carrier aviation, which is mostly on the civil aviation nowadays, therefore has its root on the different military activities during the world wars. The development of the size of the aircrafts also went beyond to the cold war leading to the emergence of passenger planes (Leishman, 2006). The development of helicopters, which appeared during the World War II, enhanced the development of aircrafts to carry people. The expansion of the size with different demands in civil aviation can therefore be traced back on the military aviation size and passenger plane creation. It can therefore be concluded that the idea of passenger plane was a creation of military aviation and it has led to great development of huge passenger planes such as Boeing. Technological speed in aviation is another factor, which has been evolving a lot. The military aviation was in need of quick deliveries during the World War I to enhance their ground attacks and other activities (Bull, 2004 and Leishman, 2006). With this need, the Germans developed Blitzrieg, which was used during the invasion of Poland and Battle of France. This enhanced them to make quick deliveries to their troops, which was meant to enhance their aircraft attacking, since the aircraft had an increment in speed than the previous versions. This idea has led to development of speedy aircrafts in the civil aviation. The increase of speed has been a great technological advancement in most civil aviation aircrafts whereby they intent to reduce the time of movement. In addition, electronic advancements in aircrafts can be traced on the military aviation. The first use of an electronic computer in aviation was evident during world war II and the other developments such as the cryptography in communication, the data processing, reconnaissance and remote piloted aircraft (Bull, 2004). All these developments were started by different needs in the military aviation for the communication purposes and therefore enhancing their modern warfare aspects. The civil aviation aircrafts have well developed systems which is monitored to ensure that the aircrafts can be traced at any time therefore can be related to these developments in military aviation in the past (Murphy, 2005). In addition, for the security purposes in the military activities, the development of an aircraft, which could oppose the missiles, was developed during the 1960s. The terror activities around the world has led to introduction of this technology on the civilian aviation. Stealth tech nology has been able to find its root into the civilian aviation and it can be traced to military aviation in the 1980s. In conclusion, the security concerns, communication, capacity and sizes are some of the technological developments in civil aviation which have their roots from the military aviation. References Murphy, J. D. (April 27, 2005). Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO. p.8. ISBN1851094881. Bull, S. (June 30, 2004). Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation. Greenwood. p.7. ISBN1573565571. Leishman, J. G. (2006). Principles of Helicopter Aerodynamics. Cambridge aerospace. 18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 79. ISBN 978-0-521-85860-1.