The 8 principal reasons why you should buy a private plane
Circa 300 BCE - Greece, Aristotle philosophizing at some length about the nature of light, envisions light as a quality and not as an actual substance; as it was thought of by many at the time. He observed that some objects have the potential for transpa rency but this state is only rendered actual by the presence of light. He then defined light as the act of, or energy of, a transparent body as such.
10th Century - Al Hazan of Basra credited with the explanation of the principle of the camera obscura.
1666 - Sir Isaac Newton, while experimenting with a prism, found that he could disperse light into a spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Utilizing a second prism, he found that he could recombine the colors into white light.
1802 - Thomas Young puts forth the basic concepts of the Young-Von Helmholtz theory of color vision: Three separate sets of cones in the retina of the eye, one attuned to red, one to blue, and one to green.
1827 - Joseph Nicephore Niepce takes the first picture of nature. (Exposure time was 8 hours, emulsion was bitumen of Jedea.)
1829 - Joseph Nicephore Niepce and Louis M. Daguere signed their partnership agreement (Nicephore Niepce had been working on Heliography, or sun drawing; Daguerre on dioramas, which he constructed with the aid of a camera obscura.)
1839 - Daguerre announces the invention of Daguerrotype (Niepce had died). Daguerre had discovered that mercury vapors could bring out an image on a silver plate and that sodicum thiosulfate ("hypo") could fix the image and make it permanent.
1939 - William Henry Fox Talbot describes a system of imaging on silver chloride paper using a fixative solution of sodium chloride. Talbot later found that the latent image could be developed in a solution of gallic acid, and he was teh first person to employ a negative/positive process "Calotype" laying the groundwork for modern photography.
1830s - Invention of the stereoscope by the Germans. The device was used during the Victorian era for amusement.
1855 - Scottish physicist James Clark Maxwell, postulates the color additive theory for the production of color photographs.
1858 - First known aerial photograph is taken from a captive balloon from an altitude of 1,200 feet over Paris by Gaspar Felix Tournachon Nadar.
1861 - With the help of photographer Thomas Sutton, Maxwell demonstrates his techniques using a bow of multicolored ribbon. (Red filter - sulfo-cyanice of iron, blue filter - ammoniacal sulfate of copper, green filter - copper chloride, a fourth filter of lemon-colored glass was also used.)
1860s - Use of aerial observations from captive balloons in American War. Balloons used to map forest in 1862 not aerial photo though.
1870s - Pictures taken from greater heights, 33,000-34,000 feet, from free balloons.
1873 - Herman Vogel found that by soaking silver halide emulsions (which are naturally sensitive to only blue light) in various dyes, he could extend their sensitivity to longer and longer wavelengths, paving the way for photography in the near infrared.
1879 - S.P. Langley begins work to find a superior radiation detector.
1887 - Germans began experiments with photography for forestry.
1899 - George Eastman produced a nitrocellulose-based film which retained the clarity of the glass plates which had been used to that time.
1903 - Julius Neubronne patents breast mounted camera for pigeons.
1906 - Albert Maul takes first aerial photograph using a rocket propelled by compressed air which rose to a height of 2,600 feet and took pictures and then parachuted the camera back to earth.
1906 - G.R. Lawrence who had been experimenting with cameras for some time (some of which weighed more than 1,000 lbs.) which were hoisted into the air with the aid of balloon-kites and associated controls, takes pictures of San Francisco earthquake and f ire damage from an altitude of some 600 meters. Many people have thought that these photos were taken from airplanes. Lawrence's camera alone weighed more than the Wright Brothers plane and its pilot combined.
1909 - Wilbur Wright takes first aerial photograph from an airplane of Centrocelli, Italy. WWI produced a boost in the use of aerial photography, but after the war, enthusiasm wanted.
1914 - Lt. Lawes, British Flying Service, first takes airplane over enemy territory.
1915 - Cameras especially built for aerial use are being produced. Lt. Col. J.T.C. More Brabazon designed and produced the first practical aerial camera in collaboration with Thornton Pickard Ltd.
1918 - By this time in WWI, French aerial units were developing and printing as many as 10,000 photographs each night, during periods of intense activity. During the Meuse-Argonne offensive, 56,000 prints of aerial photograpy were made and delivered to A merican Expeditionary Forces in four days.
1914-1919 - WWI produces boost in the use of aerial photography, but after war interest wanes.
1919 - Canadian Forestry Mapping Program begins.
1919 - Hoffman first to sense from an aircraft in thermal IR. First books: Lee 1922; Joerg 1923 (urban); Platt & Johnson 1927 (archaeology).
1924 - Mannes and Godousky patent the first of their work on multi-layer film which led to the marketing of Kodachrome in 1935.
1931 - Stevens development of an IR sensitive film (B&W).
1934 - American Society of Photogrammetry founded. Photogrammetric Engineering is first published. This journal of the American Society of Photogrammetry was later renamed Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. The Society is now named the Ame rican Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
1936 - Captain Albert W. Stevens takes the first photograph of the actual curvature of the earth - taken from a free balloon at an altitude of 72,000 feet.
1920s-1930s - Interest in the peaceful uses of aerial photography increases (ISDA, USAF, TVA). WWII brought about more sophisticated techniques in API.
1941-1945 - WWII brings about the development of more sophisticated techniques in aerial photographic interpretation (API). American, British and Germans all produce promising TIR devices.
1942 - Kodak patents first false color IR sensitive film.
1946 - First space photographs from V-2 rockets.
1950s - Advances in sensor technology move into multi-spectral range.
1954 - Westinghouse develops first side-looking airborne radar system.
1954 - U-2 takes first flight.
1956 - Lu Meuser makes first TIR motion picture employing an AN/AAS-4, a devise for air to ground strip mapping ("...features and vehicles move like an old keystone cops movie.")
1960 - U-2 is "shot down" over Sverdlovsk, USSR.
1960 - TIROS 1 launched as first meteorological satellite.
1960s - U.S. begins collection of intelligence photography from Earth orbiting satellites, CORONA and KH programs.
1962 - Zaitor and Tsuprun construct prototype nine lens multispectral camera permitting nine different film-filter combinations. ITEK employs camera to explore the potential value of multispectral photography.
1964 - SR-71 shown to the press in the Presidential campaign between Goldwater and LBJ.
Late 1960s - Gemini and Apollo Space photography.
1968 - Hemphill describes first use of laser for airborne sensing.
1972 - Launch of the first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1). This system is later renamed Landsat-1. ERTS carries a return beam vidicon (RBV) and a multispectral scanner (MSS).
1972 - Photography from Sky Lab precursor of manned space station whos first element launch is currently scheduled for 1998.
1975 - Launch of Landsat 2.
1978 - Launch of Landsat 3 (March 5).
1978 - Launch and failure of Seasat. First civil SAR satellite.
1978 - Launch of Nimbus 7 (Coastal Zone Color Scanner).
1978 - Launch of NOAA 6 (aka TIROS-N), first satellite to carry the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) on board.
1981 - Launch of SIR-A (Space Imaging Radar - A).
1982 - Launch of Landsat 4 (Thematic Mapper and MSS).
1984 - Launch of SIR-B.
1984 - Launch of Landsat 5.
1985 - Landsat Commercial contract awarded to EOSAT. Vendor takes over operation of the satellites and rights to Landsat data.
1986 - Launch of SPOT-1, French Earth Resources Satellite (Systeme Probatoire de la Observation de la Terre.
1988 - Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) launched.
1990 - Launch of SPOT-2.
1991 - Launch of ERS-1, European Radar Satellite, primarily designed for oceanographic applications.
1991 - Second Indian Remote Sensing Satellite launched.
1992 - JERS, Japanese Earth Resources Satellite launched with L-band radar and visible and infrared radiance/reflectance recording devices on-board.
1992 - Land Remote Sensing Act of 1992 brings Landsat back under U.S. Government control. EOSAT retains data rights to some Landsat data for up to ten years from acquisition.
1993 - Launch of SIR-C.
1993 - Launch of SPOT-3.
1994 - Landsat 6 fails to achieve orbit.
1995 - Third Indian Remote Sensing Satellite launched.
1995 - Canada launches RADARSAT.
1995 - Early CORONA and KH satellite data are declassified by an Executive Order signed by President Clinton on 23 February. This order authorizes the declassification of intelligence satellite photography acquired in the 1960s.
1995 - Launch of ERS-2.
1995 - First indication that a new class of intelligence satellite is being developed appears in the press. The new satellite code name 8x is said to be a major upgrade of the KH-12 spy satellite. The satellite which may weigh as much as twenty tons wil l be able to acquire "intricately detailed images of an area as large as 1,000 square miles of the Earth's surface...with roughly the same precision as existing satellites," according to an article in the September 28 Los Angeles Times. The Time article goes on to say that the current generation of photographic satellites photograph areas about 10 miles by 10 miles (100 square miles) typically showing details as small as six inches.
