[[Image:F-16 Fighting Falcons above New York City(2).jpg|thumb|Six [[F-16 Fighting Falcon]]s with the [[U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds]] aerial demonstration team fly in [[delta formation]] in front of the [[Empire State Building]].]]
[[Image:F-15 vertical deploy.jpg|thumb|[[F-15D]] from the 325 Fighter Wing based in Tyndall AFB, releasing flares]]
'''Aeronautics''' is the [[science ]] involved with the study, design, and manufacture of [[flight]]-capable machines, or the techniques of operating [[aircraft]]. While the term—literally meaning "sailing the air"—originally referred solely to the science of ''operating'' the aircraft, it has since been expanded to include technology, business and other aspects related to aircraft.<ref name="americana">{{cite encyclopedia
| title = Aeronautics
| encyclopedia = Encyclopedia Americana
| volume = 1
| pages = 226
| year = 1986
| publisher = Grolier }}</ref>
One of the significant parts in aeronautics is a branch of [[physical science]] called [[aerodynamics]], which deals with the motion of [[air]] and the way it interacts with objects in motion, such as an aircraft. '''[[Aviation]]''' is a term sometimes used interchangeably with aeronautics, although "aeronautics" includes lighter-than-air craft such as [[airship]]s, while "aviation" does not.<ref name="americana"/>

==Early aeronautics==
Before scientific investigation of aeronautics started, people started thinking of ways to fly. In a Greek legend, [[Icarus]] and his father [[Daedalus]] built wings of feathers and wax and flew out of a prison. Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and he fell in the sea and drowned. When people started to scientifically study how to fly, people began to understand the basics of air and aerodynamics. One of the earliest scientists to study aeronautics was [[Leonardo da Vinci]]. Leonardo studied the flight of birds in developing engineering schematics for some of the earliest flying machines in the late fifteenth century AD. His schematics, however, such as the ornithopter ultimately failed as practical aircraft. The flapping machines that he designed were either too small to generate sufficient lift, or too heavy for a human to operate. Although the ornithopter continues to be of interest to hobbyists, it was replaced by the glider in the 19th century.

==Modern aeronautics==
Modern aeronautic research is primarily conducted by independent corporations such as EU and universities. There are also a number of government agencies that study aeronautics, including NASA in the United States and the ESA in Europe.

==Impact of wind shear on passenger aircraft==
{{Main article|Wind shear}}
[[Image:Windshearaircraftnasa.gif|thumb|right|200 px|Effect of wind shear on aircraft trajectory. Note how merely correcting for the initial gust front can have dire consequences.]]
In the [[United States]], a string of fatal accidents near thunderstorms downed passenger airliners during final descent and initial ascent, including [[Eastern Air Lines Flight 66]] in New York (1975), [[Pan Am Flight 759]] in New Orleans (1982), and [[Delta Air Lines Flight 191]] at Dallas-Fort Worth (1985). The common cause in these air disasters was low level windshear.

Strong outflow from thunderstorms causes rapid changes in the three-dimensional wind velocity just above ground level. [[Air Force One]] landed five minutes before one of the strongest downbursts ever recorded in the [[Washington, D.C.]] area at Andrews Air Force Base, with President [[Ronald Reagan]] onboard.<ref>National Weather Service Forecast Office, Riverton, Wyoming. [http://www.crh.noaa.gov/riw/severe/microburst.php Downburst.] Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> Initially, this outflow causes a headwind that increases airspeed, which normally causes a pilot to reduce engine power if they are unaware of the wind shear. As the aircraft passes into the region of the downdraft, the localized headwind diminishes, reducing the aircraft's airspeed, and increasing its sink rate. Then, when the aircraft passes through the other side of the downdraft, the headwind becomes a tailwind, reducing airspeed further, leaving the aircraft in a low-power, low-speed, descent. This can lead to an accident if the aircraft is too low to effect a recovery before ground contact.<ref>NASA Langley Air Force Base. [http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/Windshear.html Making the Skies Safer From Windshear.] Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref>

As the result of the accidents in the 1970s and 1980s, in 1988 the U.S. [[Federal Aviation Administration]] mandated that all commercial aircraft have on-board windshear detection systems by 1993. Three airlines, [[United Airlines]], [[Continental Airlines]], and [[Northwest Airlines]] received extensions until the end of 1995 so to install predictive wind shear sensors rather than reactive systems in their aircraft. The results of these efforts was immediate. Between 1964 and 1985, wind shear directly caused or contributed to 26 major civil transport aircraft accidents in the U.S. that led to 620 deaths and 200 injuries. Of these accidents, 15 occurred during take-off, three during flight, and eight during landing. Since 1995, the number of major civil aircraft accidents caused by wind shear has dropped to approximately one every ten years due to the mandated on-board detection, as well as the addition of [[Doppler radar]] units on the ground. ([[NEXRAD]])

==Aeronautical engineering==
{{Main|Aerospace engineering}}
Aeronautical engineering is an engineering area that covers research, design, manufacture and maintenance of products such as aircraft, missiles and space satellites.
It involves scientific topics of [[Aerodynamics]], [[Heat Transfer]], [[Materials]], [[Technology]], [[Fluid Mechanics]] and [[Aircraft Structures]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
{{Wikisource1911Enc}}
{{Wiktionary}}
*[[Aviation]]
*[[Aircraft]]
*[[Air safety]]
*[[Airsickness]] and [[Air sickness bag|airsickness bags]]
*[[Aerospace engineering]]
*[[Aerostat]]
*[[Astronautics]]
*[[Spacecraft]]
*[[Mechanics of fluids]]
*[[Aerodynamics]]
*[[Hydrodynamics]]
*[[Hydrostatics]]
*[[Aeronautical abbreviations]]
* [[wikt:Appendix:Aviation, aerospace, and aeronautical terms|Aviation, aerospace, and aeronautical terms]]

==External links==
* [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Aeronautics-and-Astronautics/index.htm Aerospace courses] at MIT OpenCourseWare
* [http://www.aiaa.org American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics]
* [http://www.vtol.org American Helicopter Society]
* [http://www.aerodyndesign.com Examples of Aeronautic Designs]
* [http://www.aeroclix.com/forum A community for the people working in the aeronautics]
* [http://www.literature.at/elib/index.php5?title=Aeronautics_History_-_Charles_Vivian_-_1920 Aeronautics History - Charles Vivian - 1920 (eLibrary Project - eLib full text)]

[[Category:Aeronautics| ]]

[[an:Aeronautica]]
[[ca:Aeronàutica]]
[[da:Aeronautik]]
[[es:Aeronáutica]]
[[eo:Aeronaŭtiko]]
[[eu:Aeronautika]]
[[fa:مکانیک پرواز]]
[[fr:Aéronautique]]
[[io:Aeronautiko]]
[[it:Aeronautica (scienza)]]
[[he:אווירונאוטיקה]]
[[pl:Aeronautyka]]
[[pt:Aeronáutica]]
[[ro:Aeronautică]]
[[scn:Ariunautica]]