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Aviation Pioneers
Samuel P. Langley: Samuel P. Langley flew a steam powered glider for three-quarters of a mile. Due to his success with
John Stringfellow: John Stringfellow, who had grown up in the lace and carriage building industries, had a real appreciat Along with Frederick Marriott and D. E. Colombine, Henson and Stringfellow incorporated the Aerial Transit Company in 1843, to build and operate a passenger-carrying version of the "ARIEL." Their first large model "ARIEL" failed to fly and they went on, over the course of almost two years, to construct a larger version with a 20 foot wing span. Between 1844 and 1847 Henson and Stringfellow made a series of attempts to fly their "ARIEL" models but they simply did not fly. In 1848 Henson left the enterprise and moved with his wife and family to the U.S., leaving Stringfellow to pursue aeronautical research on his own. The first result of Stringfellow's efforts was the 1848 machine shown below, which was powered by two contra-rotating propellers driven by one of Stringfellow's powerful and lightweight steam engines. The first attempt to fly the 10 foot wing span machine took place indoors, and a lack of proper balance resulted in a failure and damage to the machine. The second attempt was a rather wonderful success, for the flying machine left a guide wire and flew straight and true for about 30 feet. John Stringfellow and his son Frederick J. Stringfellow collaborated on the experiments and built a number of flying machines together and individually. Perhaps the most famous of John Stringfellow's machines was his steam powered triplane of 1868, which was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in London, England. The superimposition of wing surfaces was an idea which Stringfellow borrowed from Francis Wenham. Except for the lack of a vertical tail surface, it is the very image of an early aero plane. It was tested a number of times while at the Crystal Palace and did, on occasion, manage to leave the guide wire and fly for a distance. This very flying machine (the steam engine of which won first prize at the Crystal Palace exhibition) is on display in the Early Flight Gallery of the National Air & Space Museum, Washington, D. C. Frederick J. Stringfellow built his own flying machine in 1868 also, a steam powered twin-propeller tandem-winged monoplane, and it too was displayed at the Crystal Palace. John Stringfellow had planned to eventually build a flying machine which would carry him aloft, and equipped a building for just that purpose. Age and illness intervened, however, and that machine was not built.
Francis Wenham: Francis Wenham (an engineer who was also interested in microscopy, photography, optics, and engine “I think the paper just read is one of great interest and importance, especially as it points out the true mechanical explanation of the curious problem, as to how and why it is that birds of the most powerful flight always have the longest and narrowest wings." It was this one paper which established Wenham as a significant figure in aeronautical research, for his conclusions were published in the Aeronautical Society's journal, presented in Octave Chanute's 1894 "Progress In Flying Machines" and reprinted, in 1895, in James Means' "Aeronautical Annual" and again in 1910 by the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, all of which were widely distributed and widely read. One of Wenham's suggestions was that aerial research should begin with a thorough study of "kites," meaning small winged structures, or model flying machines (a point which Lawrence Hargrave took to heart). He also managed to demonstrate that wings of greater span generate more lift than wings of greater depth (chord), even though the total surface area of both such wings are the same, and suggested that lifting surfaces might be superimposed to reduce overall width. Wenham also understood that to turn a flying machine in flight, more lift should be generated on one side than on the other, contrary to the then-prevailing opinion that a rudder, akin to that on a ship, was necessary to turn a flying machine. In addition to his very important 1866 research paper, Wenham and John Browning designed and constructed what was almost certainly the world's first wind tunnel, in 1871, and obtained results which established the relationship between pressure and velocity. In "Aerial Locomotion" Wenham presented possible configurations for gliding machines, as shown above: Figure 1. Is the top view of a gliding machine, illustrating the total surface area required to sustain aloft a human of average weight; Figure 2. is the rear view of the same design, showing the prone position which Wenham suggested for the gliding machine's operator; Figure 3. is a front view of a multi-winged gliding machine trussed with "thin bands of iron" (c) and vertical wing struts (d); Figure 4. represents a more refined design, incorporating small wing-like propellers on each end, operated by motion of the operator's feet and arranged so that the propellers could be operated more on one side or the other ("... thus enabling the machine to turn..." by generating more lift on one side than one the other) or together; Figure 5. shows an even more refined design, with wing-like propellers at the ends of long arms (reminiscent of Hargrave's later "Trochoided planes"), a cellular wing structure with vertical supports (struts), wing trussing, and a horizontal position for the operator; Figure 6, is a side view of the machine depicted in Figure 5. Francis Wenham's keen observations and superb deductive reasoning permitted him to understand the requirements and underlying mechanics of flight in a way which, apparently, no one had previously. Wenham's "Aerial Locomotion" can be seen as standing, in a theoretical sense, between George Cayley and Lawrence Hargrave, two other major figures in aeronautical history. The widespread availability of "Aerial Locomotion" during the mid-1890's, just prior to the period of great aerial research activity between 1895 and 1903 probably encouraged many experimenters to pursue and refine their research. It is striking to note that at least four significant aerial vehicle design elements suggested by Wenham in 1866 can be seen on the series of successful Wright gliders and on the 1903 Wright Flyer: 1) superimposed wings, 2) vertical upright supports between the superimposed wings, 3) the prone position of the operator, as in Wenham's design with superimposed wings, and 4) that turning in flight ought be accomplished by means of generating more lift on one side of the aerial vehicle than on the other, rather than through the use of a simple rudder. It is also important to restate that Wenham's paper "Aerial Locomotion" was readily available to Wilbur Wright (as well as to Orville) in the 1895 "Aeronautical Annual" which the Smithsonian Institution recommended to Wilbur Wright in June of 1899 (along with other aeronautical reading material), and which he soon thereafter obtained and read.
Alexandr Fyodorovich: Aleksandr F. Mozhaiski was an Imperial Russian Naval officer who spent a total of 24 years in the service of In mid-1880, he applied for a patent on his design for a large steam powered monoplane, which was granted in November of 1881. Apparently his design was seen as having merit for he was given a grant of 2,500 Imperial Russian rubles (a considerable sum of money) with which he was to build his steam powered monoplane. The construction of the machine took approximately a year. He purchased three steam engines, two of 20 h.p. and one of 10 h.p. His flying machine had three four-bladed propellers, one mounted as a tractor driven by the 10 h.p. steam engine, and two inset in slots in the surfaces of the wings as pusher propellers driven by a single 20 h.p. steam engine through chains and gears. A large horizontal tail surface and a large vertical rudder comprised the flight controls. It appears that Mozhaiski had also planned to use a differential in power to the two inset propellers as a method of turning. The Mozhaiski monoplane was a very large machine, having an overall length of 75 feet 6 inches and a wing span of 74 feet 9 inches. The extreme chord (width) of the wing, 46 feet 6 inches, in relation to the span (the "aspect ratio"), would have limited the lift which the large surface area could generate. Another lift limiting factor would have been the fact that the wings were constructed as literal "aero planes" (flat wings), having no camber (curve). The first powered, assisted take off (not the first flight) of a heavier-than-air craft carrying an operator is generally credited to Felix du Temple in 1874. In 1884, Mozhaiski's machine apparently made the second such hop, covering between 65 and 100 feet after rolling down an incline under power at Krasnoye Selo, then just outside St. Petersburg, Russia. Upon landing, the large machine hit a wing and was seriously damaged. The true and complete story of Mozhaiski's magnificent monoplane was made murky after his exploits were discovered by propaganda officials working under Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. Mozhaiski became a Russian proletarian "sailor" rather than an Imperial Russian Naval officer after Soviet "historians" did their work. His modest hop after leaving the ramp was likewise shamelessly dealt with, becoming in the official Soviet Grand Encyclopedia the first true flight of a heavier-than-air machine in history.
Alphonse Penaud: Often termed "The Father of Flying Models," Alphonse Penaud was the first person to build and successfully It was one of Penaud's rubber band powered helicopters which first interested two of Bishop Milton Wright's sons, of Dayton, Ohio, in the possibility of flight. The most common depiction of it is actually of the Launoy & Bienvenu "Helicoptre" of 1784, not of the Penaud toy helicopter. The main difference between the two being that the earlier toy relied on spooled thread under tension to turn the mechanism, while Penaud's design utilized a twisted rubber band. Alphonse Penaud and Paul Gauchot's 1876 design for a large amphibious monoplane with retractable landing gear and twin tractor propellers was very well thought out. The control system was also well designed and featured a unified elevator and rudder control. An appropriate set of instruments would also have been available to the aviator, including an anemometer, wing mounted pressure gauges and an inclinometer. Penaud and Gauchot attempted to attract interest in building a full sized, human carrying machine, but were rebuffed by the Aerial Navigation Society of France. Penaud became deeply despondent when he realized his machine would not be built. He placed detailed drawings which he and Gauchot had prepared of the machine in a small wooden coffin, delivered the morbid gift to pioneer aeronaut Louis Giffard and then went home and committed suicide. Penaud's influence was felt far and wide in aeronautical circles, a fact which might have thoroughly surprised Alphonse Penaud for he died believing his aeronautical work had been largely unappreciated and unacknowledged. Samuel Langley, Octave Chanute and Wilbur and Orville Wright all held Penaud's accomplishments in the highest regard.
Felix du Temple: Felix du Temple de la Croix (known almost universally as "Felix du Temple ") patented his design for an By 1874 the du Temples had constructed a large finely-built monoplane, at Brest, France, with a wing span of some 40 feet and a weight (minus the operator) of only about 160 pounds. At least one attempt to actually fly the machine was made and it is generally agreed that after gaining speed down an incline, the flying machine lifted off for a short time and then returned to the ground, with both machine and operator uninjured.
Lawrence Hargrave: Lawrence Hargrave was firmly committed to sharing the fruits of his research, even though he conducted his Hargrave's experiments with a series of powered experimental model flying machines were of great interest to people then involved with aeronautics and aerial research. Chanute's now-classic 1894 book "Progress In Flying Machine" devoted more than thirteen pages to Hargrave's work. Chanute opened his section on Hargrave by writing: "'If there be one man, more than another, who deserves to succeed in flying through the air, that man is Mr. Lawrence Hargrave, of Sydney, New South Wales. He has now constructed with his own hands no less than 18 flying machines of increasing size, all of which fly, and as a result of his many experiments (of which an account is about to be given) he now says, in a private letter to the writer, that : 'I know that success is dead sure to come.'" The full quote from Hargrave's private letter to Chanute reads "The people of Sydney who can speak of my work without a smile are very scarce; it is doubtless the same with American workers. I know that success is dead sure to come, and therefore do not waste time and words in trying to convince unbelievers." " Chanute seemed particularly impressed with the fact that Hargrave kept and maintained detailed notes and logs of his work "... so that a stranger, if an expert, could come into his shop, study his notes and drawings, pick up his tools and continue his work, and thus no portion of it would be lost." Hargrave and Chanute shared an unshakable and deep belief that aeronautical work would progress only through the continuity of labor and research of a number of people over time, which had, after all, been Chanute's motivation for writing "Progress In Flying Machines." Hargrave's series of experiments began with some 50 "Trochoided plane" model flying machines which sought to reproduce the propelling motions of birds and fish. Some of these models were powered by clockwork mechanisms. Using data derived from these experiments, Hargrave derived the average of the most successful of them and used those averages to design the next series of machines, using stretched (not twisted) rubber bands as power. He built and tested about 10 of these models. The first of Hargrave's models to be powered by compressed air driving "Trocoided Planes" was #10, which flew a remarkable 368 feet in 1890. Hargrave #10 weighed a little over 2 1/2 pounds, had a length of slightly over 4 feet, its compressed air engine weighed in at only 6 1/2 ounces, and its wings were made of paper. That same year Hargrave built model #12, a development of #10, which, while heavier, nonetheless flew 343 feet. He powered his #15 with a chemical-reaction "explosion" engine which did not succeed, while his #17 and #18 machines were powered by lightweight yet powerful steam engines (which caused him considerable trouble). Hargrave is most remembered, however, not for his numerous remarkable model flying machines but for his series of "cellular kites." He invented the box-kite, a lightweight yet very strong configuration of lifting surfaces which defined most aeronautical design prior to The Great War, WWI. Alberto Santos-Dumont's biplane No. 14-bis which flew in 1906 was the embodiment of Hargrave's box-kite, an inspiration which Santos-Dumont acknowledged. Gabriel Voisin first advertised his famous Voisin biplanes as "Hargrave" machines. The Herring and Chanute biplane and triplane gliding machines of 1896-1898 were based on Hargrave's box-kite, as, indeed, were the Wright Flyers and the biplanes produced by Glenn Curtiss, as well as the Voisin and Farman biplanes. It's difficult to imagine the pre-WWI period of aviation without the incorporation of the Hargrave's box-kite design, so dominant was the cellular structure on biplane and triplane aero planes. Hargrave introduced the design in a paper read at the great International Aerial Navigation Congress held during August of 1893 in Chicago, Illinois. Of particular note in Hargrave's 1893 paper is the comparison made to the lifting ability of the box-kites illustrated below, "E" and "F." Although they were virtually identical in all respects, save one, Hargrave box-kite "E" generated almost twice the lift of box-kite "F." The difference, which was noted with great interest at the time, was that the horizontal surfaces of box-kite "E" were curved in section while those of "F" were flat. Lawrence Hargrave was not one to claim credit where it was not deserved and he duly noted that it had been Francis Herbert Wenham in 1866 who first suggested superimposing lifting surfaces in his classic paper "Aerial Locomotion." Hargrave sought to preserve his models for further study. After failing to find any other institution which he thought would be up to that task, in February of 1910 he donated 176 of his model flying machines to the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Allied bombing of Germany in WWII destroyed all but 25 of Hargrave's flying machines. The remaining Hargrave models were later transferred to Sydney, Australia’s Powerhouse Museum, where they form the central exhibit of Hargrave's work. Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo, born in Vinci, Italy, possessed a genius which went far beyond simply being a remarkable artist.
Victor Tatin: Victor Tatin of France was a superb mechanician and an active aerial experimenter who made a series of
Sir George Cayley: Sir George Cayley is one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him the In 1804 Cayley designed and built a model monoplane glider of strikingly modern appearance. The model featured an adjustable cruciform tail, a kite-shaped wing mounted at a high angle of incidence and a moveable weight to alter the center of gravity. It was probably the first gliding device to make significant flights. The following year Cayley discovered that dihedral (wings set lower at their center and higher at their outer ends) improved lateral stability. He continued his research using models and by 1807 had come to understand that a curved lifting surface would generate more lift than a flat surface of equal area. By 1810 Cayley had published his now-classic three-part treatise "On Aerial Navigation" which stated that lift, propulsion and control were the three requisite elements to successful flight, apparently the first person to so realize and so state. By 1816 Cayley had turned his attention to lighter-than-air machines and designed a streamlined airship with a semi-rigid structure. He also suggested using separate gas bags to limit an airship's lifting gas loss due to damage. In 1837 Cayley designed a streamlined airship to be powered by a steam engine. In 1849 Cayley built a large gliding machine, along the lines of his 1799 design, and tested the device with a 10-year old boy aboard. The gliding machine carried the boy aloft on at least one short flight. Soon thereafter, in 1853, Cayley built an even larger gliding machine and had his coachman aboard when he tested the device that same year. An oft-repeated story holds that after the short flight Cayley's coachman stated that he had been hired to drive a coach not to fly a glider. It appears the names of both the boy and the coachman have been forgotten. However, Sir George Cayley's endeavors (including in areas other than aeronautics) have hardly been forgotten, for he is seen as, perhaps, the single most important aerial researcher and theoretician of his time. His theories and activities inspired the next wave of aeronautics, which included William S. Henson and John Stringfellow.
Wright Bros.: "The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine." —Orville Wright on the first flight in the Wright Flier Even as children mechanics fascinated the brothers. After reading about the death of pioneer glider pilot Otto Lilienthal in 1896, they became interested in flying. They began serious reading on the subject in 1899, and soon obtained all the scientific knowledge of aeronautics then available. By the fall of 1903, they had constructed a powered airplane with wings 40.5 feet (12 meters) long and weighing about 750 pounds (340 kilograms) with the pilot. They designed and built their own lightweight gasoline engine for the airplane. On December 17, 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made the world's first flight in a powered, heavier-than-air machine. With Orville at the controls, the plane flew 120 feet (37 meters) in 12 seconds. The brothers made three more flights that day. The longest, by Wilbur, was 852 feet (260 meters) in 59 seconds. The Wrights believed that airplanes would eventually be used to transport passengers and mail. When the Wrights first offered their machine to the U.S. government, they were not taken seriously, but by 1908 they closed a contract with the U.S. Department of War for the first military airplane. Wilbur died in 1912, just as the airplane was beginning to make great advances. Orville worked on alone and in 1913 won the Collier Trophy for a device to automatically balance airplanes. In 1915 he sold his interest in the Wright Company, and continued work on the development of aviation in his own shop. In 1929, he received the first Daniel Guggenheim Medal for his and Wilbur's contributions to the advancement of aeronautics. He died on January 30, 1948. Orville was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in New York City in 1965. The original plane flown near Kitty Hawk is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Basic principles of that plane are used in every airplane. |
his model, Congress gave him a grant for $50,000 to build a full scale or man-carrying plane. One problem which he encountered is the weight of the steam engines. He approached the problem by using an internal combustion gasoline engine. Langley’s assistant, designed such an engine. Even though it solved the problem of the engine, Langley failed time and again to get the Aerodrome in the air and keep it there. What Langley failed to do was learn how to control the aircraft once it was flying. Nine days after his last failure the Wright Bros. succeeded in powered flight in North Carolina. 
ion for machines, and most especially for steam engines. He became intimately familiar with the oddities of steam power plants and demonstrated a remarkable ability at designing and building light steam engines. Within a short time after William S. Henson patented his design for the "ARIEL" Aerial Steam Carriage in 1842, John Stringfellow became his associate. It's possible that Henson went looking for someone skilled in steam engine design and fabrication and thus found Stringfellow, for Henson's skill was in engineering and design, not fabrication. 
design) first became actively interested in aerial research while on a trip to Cairo, Egypt, in 1858 and wrote a report on his findings in 1859. He examined birds' wings and determined that it was the curve, the camber, of the birds' wings which generated the maximum lift and further, that the greatest amount of lift existed near the front edge, the leading edge, of the wing. He also concluded that while the mechanical principles involved in bird flight must be utilized, "all imitations of natural wings" must be repudiated. He also wrote that "... in designing a flying-machine, any deviations (NOTE: from the design of natural bird wings) are admissible, provided the theoretical conditions involved in flight are borne in mind." In 1866 Wenham presented his paper "Aerial Locomotive" to the first meeting of the Aeronautical Society in London, England. At the close of Wenham's presentation, the Society's Chair, the Duke of Argyll, made the following comment 
The Czar. As a young man Mozhaiski studied bird flight and the wings of birds, and contemplated the requirements for a heavier-than-air flying machine. He applied for and received funds from the Ministry of the Military in the 1870's to pursue his aerial research. When, in 1878, he sought additional funding to study designs for aerial propellers, he was denied. Within two years he was using his own resources, building large kites, and about 1880 he was lifted off the ground by an array of such kites. 
fly heavier than air rubber band powered model flying machines. He flew his remarkably modern looking Planophore at Tuileries Gardens in Paris, France, on August 18, 1871. The Planophore, powered by a rubber band driven pusher propeller, flew 181 feet in 11 seconds. Penaud is also credited with being the first to employ a cruciform tail (which became known generally as "Penaud" tails) on his flying models. 
aerial machine in 1857. The design featured retractable wheeled landing gear, a tractor propeller, an internal engine and a boat-shaped hull ( Mons. Du Temple had been a French Naval officer). He believed that a 6 h.p. engine would suffice to lift the machine, which had an estimated weight of about one ton. To pursue his design, Felix du Temple constructed numerous bird-shaped models and deduced that a dihedral angle to the wings would assist in stability, as well as placing most of the weight to the front of the machine. He ultimately worked with his brother, Louis, to build a large-sized version of his design. Finding existing steam engines to not be lightweight and powerful enough, in 1867 the two brothers built and patented an innovative "hot air" steam engine. 
experiments in Australia, far from the bustle of European and American aeronautics. He regularly communicated with the Royal Society of New South Wales and through that group (of which he was a member) to the rest of the world. He didn't patent the ground-breaking results of his research, believing that whatever he could do to promote the development of flying machines would be reward enough. Hargrave was also an historian, and remarked that the inventor of a new mode of transportation had never been made rich by that invention, patented or not. Octave Chanute certainly knew of Hargrave and appreciated the importance of what Hargrave was then doing. One of Hargrave's earliest achievements was to demonstrate that for a wing to lift and move through air efficiently, the center of pressure ought to be located at about 25% of the chord length of the wing section. This was an understanding of great significance and to ensure that it would find application by any aerial experimenters so interested, Hargrave published his discovery. It seems quite likely that Chanute had a hand in Hargrave's donation of his No. 14 (which made a flight of 312 feet in 19 seconds, powered by compressed air driving flapping-wing-type propellers which he termed "Trochoided planes") to the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago, Illinois, during 1894. 
He was, perhaps, the first European interested in a practical solution to flight. Leonardo designed a multitude of mechanical devices, including parachutes, and studied the flight of birds as well as their structure. About 1485 he drew detailed plans for a human-powered ornithopter (a wing-flapping device intended to fly). There is no evidence that he actually attempted to build such a device, although the image he presented was a powerful one. The notion of a human-powered mechanical flight device, patterned after birds or bats, recurred again and again over the next four centuries. 
important test model flying machines in the 1870's. About 1875 he began his series of experimental models building ornthopters ("Oiseau Mechanique" - "artificial birds"), the flapping wings of which were powered by rubber bands. Arguably his most important flying machine of that period was the Tatin Monoplane of 1879. This large machine (with a wing span of some 6 ft. 3 in.) made public circular flights tethered to a pole on the grounds of the French Army compound at Chalais-Meudon. The Tatin 1879 Monoplane, powered by compressed air, would take off under its own power, rise into the air, fly perhaps 50 feet through the air and then land, often causing damage to the fragile wheeled landing gear. The steam-powered model monoplane of 1890 featured design elements which later appeared in the beautiful Antoinette Monoplane of the Pre-War period. The Musee de l'Air has a fine collection of Tatin's model flying machines. Victor Tatin is distinguished by the almost unique circumstance that he continued his aerial experiments well into the 1900's and went on to design and participate in the construction of a number of successful aero planes in the pre-WWI period, including the dramatic, streamlined and quite modern Tatin-Paulhan "Aero-Torpille" of 1911. 
first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying principles and forces of flight. His built his first aerial device in 1796, a model helicopter with contra-rotating propellers. Three years later, Cayley inscribed a silver medallion (above) which clearly depicted the forces that apply in flight. On the other side of the medallion Cayley sketched his design for a monoplane gliding machine.