History of Aerial Maps Timeline
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009Along with the numerous interesting uses, aerial mapping and photography have an interesting history and timeline.
Timeline:
1858 – The first known aerial photograph was taken. The photograph was taken in a hot air balloon by French photographer and balloonist Gaspard-Fïlix Tournachon, also known as Felix Nadar. He sailed over Paris, France while making history. Unfortunately, Nadar’s first important contributions to history are no longer in existence.
1860 – James Wallace Black follows in Nadar’s footsteps and takes aerial photographs from a hot air balloon. Black�s journey consisted of ballooning over Boston, Massachusetts. Black’s photographs of Boston are the earliest aerial photos known to still be in existence.
1879 – The year of the first free flight balloon photo. This was allowable after the development of the dry-plate process, which made it unnecessary to carry so much equipment during aerial photography. The dry-plate process, also known as the gelatine process, is a photographic medium that was invented by Richard L. Maddox in 1871.
1882 – The year English meteorologist E. D. Archibald was among the first famous people to be successful at taking photographs from kites. Archibald used a string of kites, with a camera attached to the last kite.
1889 – Arthur Batut took aerial photographs using a camera attached to a single kite in Labruguiere, France. Batut suspended his rather large camera from a single kite and set an automatically timed exposure.
1897 – Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel was the first to be successful at aerial photography through the use of a rocket mounted camera.
1903 – Julius Neubronne went beyond using man-made objects such as planes and rockets and successfully used pigeons to take aerial photography. Neubranner designed a tiny breast-mounted camera for carrier pigeons. The camera could be set to take automatic exposures at 30-second intervals as the pigeon flew around.
1906 – Albert Maul uses a compressed air powered rocket for aerial photographs. The rocket would launch a camera into the air, which would parachute back to the earth’s surface while taking pictures. Also in 1906, in San Francisco, California tragedy struck. A devastating earthquake and fire took over the city. In the aftermath of the events, George Lawrence used a string of kites to lift a large handmade panoramic camera into the air. Lawrence’s specially designed panoramic photographed some of the largest aerial exposures ever taken.
1909 – Wilbur Wright became the first man to take aerial photographs from an airplane. Wright’s first aerial mapping from a plane took place over Rome, Italy. The quality of the photos significantly improved and airplanes have since become the standard for aerial photography.
1918 – Various branches of the military began using aerial photography.
1934 – The year the field of aerial photography was thought to begin to significantly advance, in part due to the creation of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). The American Society for Photogrammetry Remote Sensing is a scientific association with the mission to advance knowledge and improve the understanding of mapping sciences to promote the responsible applications of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems, and other supporting technologies.
1957 – Russia launches Sputnik, the world’s first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. This event marked the beginning of satellite imagery.
1970s and on – In the 70s, NASA’s Landsat program launched the first of the Landsat satellites. The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of aerial photography of Earth from space. The most recent Landsat satellite, Landsat 7, was launched on April 15, 1999. Since the Landsat satellites have been launched, they have captures millions of aerial images. The images acquired by the Landsat satellites are archived in the United States and at various Landsat receiving stations around the world. The images have enabled valuable global change research and have been applied in various governmental activities including agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance, education, and national security. Also, during the 70s and 80s, satellite imagery and aerial maps began to sell commercially for the first time.
Nowadays, the majority of aerial cameras are digital. Additionally, technology has advanced so much that aerial photography is very simple, quick, efficient, and extremely effective. In fact, because most aerial photographers now use gyro-stabilizers to counteract the movement of the aircraft or other mobile device, the resulting images are of outstanding quality and are high-resolution photos that can be seen and used the very day of shooting. Although aerial photography is in wide-spread use for a diverse set of commercial, industrial, agricultural, governmental, and private clients, the most common use for aerial photography is aerial mapping. Even the public can easily view aerial images on web sites such as Google Earth, TerraServer, and more. Aerial maps have proven to be an extremely valuable tool and will continue to advance over the coming years.
Aerial photography, a method of taking photographs from an elevated position, is commonly accomplished with the use of an airplane, helicopter, blimp, or balloon. There are various classifications of aerial photographs, one of which is vertical photography (also known as orthophotography). Orthophotos, or aerial maps, are photographs that have been corrected so they can be used as maps. These are graphic representations of the physical features (natural, artificial, or both) of the earth’s surface. They tend to be very accurate, particularly because multiple geometric transformations are applied to the images, and variations in the terrain are accounted for and corrected.
