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Aviation History
1929
1929 - 0340.PDF
FEBRUARY 21, 1929 EARLY BRITISH FLIGHTS SOME time ago the Royal Aero Club of Great Britain appointed a committee, with the following terms of reference : " To investigate the claims of British subjects to early flights with a view to establishing who was the British subject to make the first flight in a heavier-than-air aircraft in the British Isles, and the date of such flight." The committee included The Right Hon. Lord Gorell, Chairman, Captain G. de Havilland, Lieut-Col. \Y. Lockwood Marsh and Harold E. Perrin, Secretary. Following is the report of the committee : The committee met at the Royal Aero Club, 3, Clifford Street, London, W.I, on Thursday, December 6, 1928, Wednesday, January 2, and Tuesday, January 29, 1929. Present (on each occasion) : The Right Hon. Lord Gorell, in the Chair, Captain G. de Havilland, Lieut.-Col. W. Lock- wood Marsh. In attendance : Harold E. Perrin, Secretary, B. Stevenson, Assistant Secretary. 1. The committee decided that, for the purposes of their investigation, free flight in an aeroplane occurs when the machine, having left the ground, is maintained in the air by its own power on a level or upward path for a distance beyond that over which gravity and air resistance would sustain it. 2. The committee also decided that they were excluded by their terms of reference from considering the claims either of the late Mr. S. F. Cody or of the late Sir Hiram Maxim, neither of whom was a British subject in 1908 and the summer of 1909. The late Mr. S. F. Cody did not take out his naturali- zation papers until October, 1909. Moreover, in the claim to a flight in 1894, submitted on behalf of Mr. Hiram Maxim, as he then was, it was admitted that it was not a free flight, and this claim did not, therefore, come under the definition laid down by the committee for the purposes of their investi- gation as set out in paragraph 1. The following British claimants appeared before the committee :—Mr. A. H. Phillips, Mr. A. V. Roe, Lieut.-Col. J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon, M.C., M.P. 3. Mr. A. H. Phillips.—Mr. A. H. Phillips submitted particulars of the experiments of his father, Mr. Horatio Frederick Phillips, commencing in 1887 down to 1911, and claimed to have made his first flight in 1887, but was unable to produce any corroborative evidence in support of any of his claims. 4. Mr. A. V. Roe.—Mr. A. V. Roe claimed to have made flights at Brooklands, Weybridge, in June, 1908, and produced to the committee two certificates signed by employees at Weybridge Track, as follows :— June 2, 1912. " This is to certify that I saw Mr. A. V. Roe on his flying machine on Whit-Monday in the year 1908, rise from the ground of Brooklands Motor Course for about 25 yards (75 ft). Also, on one occasion I saw him fly for several feet, when his propeller came off, and caused him to land." (Signed) W. BOXALL, Gainswood Lodge, Byfleet Road, Weybridge. Brooklands Land, Weybridge. July 13, 1912. " This is to certify that I saw, on a Saturday evening about the middle of June in the year of 1908, Mr. A. V. Roe make a flight on his 24 h.p. Antoinette-driven aeroplane of about 150 ft. at a length of 3 ft. high, only his propeller blade breaking causing him to come down on to the track." (Signed) E. C. HARPER. 5. Mr. A. V. Roe, in his evidence, stated that he was unaware at the time (June, 1908) that the flights had been witnessed. In 1912 when he heard that certain people had seen him flying at Brooklands, he got in touch with them and obtained the certificates quoted above. The committee had before them the following letter dated August 14, 1908, written by Mr. A. V. Roe to the late Mr. Wilbur Wright:— " Perhaps you may remember me writing to you some three years ago, which letter you were kind enough to answer, asking if I could represent you in England, and also stating I had had successful flights with model aeroplanes. Since then I won the ' Daily Mail' model flying machine compe- tition last year, there were over 200 entries, 129 exhibited and only about four entrants, out of all this number, were working in the right direction. " I then built a full-sized machine entirely alone, but have had great difficulties with the Brooklands Track Manager, as he used to point out to me every now and then ' It was a motor-car track not an aeroplane track.' I was only allowed on track between 9 and 10 in the morning, and was not allowed to make a section of the railings detachable, which would have enabled me to take my aeroplane on to track unassisted, whereas it had to be lifted over some 8-foot gate posts, a difficult task for eight people. So I managed to carry out my trials in the early hours before the officials were about, by detaching some railings ; some friends used to smuggle themselves in the night before a trial, in all I managed to get six trials since receiving the 18-24 h.p. Antoinette engine last May, and was fast making progress when I had to leave in July, his excuse being they wanted the ground my shed stood upon, I already having had to move my shed only last March at my own expense, as he would not let me erect it in the first place in a position where it could remain when racing started. " I managed to make several flights towed by a motor car, the power required being very slight. At present my machine is detached and stowed away in the coach-house here." &c. 6. Mr. Roe was asked why he had made no mention in this communication of the free flights in June, 1908, which were now the subject of his claim, and stated that he had not regarded these as of importance and further, that it had been extraordinarily difficult for him to decide when in these early flights he was off the ground and when not. On June 26, 1909, Mr. Roe wrote the following letter to FLIGHT :— " It may come as a surprise to your readers to learn that I have been making dozens of short flights with my British- built aeroplane during the last few weeks ; true, they are hardly more than jumps, being only 2 ft. and 3 ft. high and 50 ft. or so in length. " Personally, I would have preferred to let this fact leak out on its own accord by winning the ^100 and ^1,000 prizes for the 100 yards and 1 mile flight respectively, but, to be candid, to carry 40 lbs. per h.p. has proved a bigger task than I calculated on, for my machine with self aboard, weighs 400 lbs, and is driven by a 10-h.p. air-cooled JAP. motor- cycle engine ; but I am confident there is sufficient power, and there is every reason to believe I shall continue to get better results with further experiments. Although I have been trying various gear-ratios, pitches, width of blades, diameters, two- and four-bladed propellers, and have kept a careful record of each experiment, there still remains quite a number of varieties to be tried yet. " Carrying 40 lbs. per h.p. seems easy enough on paper, but rather different in practice. " The reason the above announcement is made, is because I feel confident that the machine I am now experimenting with has reached a stage well worth while copying and building in numbers, as it is so light and handy, and will obviously keep afloat under perfect control with a little more thrust. " Perhaps my experience may be of interest. The first two flights the machine heeled over, and broke the left tips of lowest plane on both occasions. I thought this was due to the torque of propeller, but am glad to say it was my bad steering, and should the machine lurch over, a slight twist of planes brings it back instantly ; but running against winds of 12 m.p.h. or less, the machine practically balances itself. It can be steered entirely by twisting main-planes in conjunction with rear vertical rudder when running along the ground, and the front or back of machine can be raised first, according to the angle of main-planes. " I usually run along with main-planes at a slight angle ; this allows machine to gain speed, and the tail to rise ; on increasing the angle of main-planes to about 10° the front comes off the ground, but owing to insufficient thrust it soon comes down again ; while it is up it is quite obvious how quickly the machine answers to the steering." &c. 7. Mr. Roe produced to the committee the following letter from Mr. H. H. Morris :— December 18, 1928. " I have to thank you for yours of the 14th instant, and am sorry to say that I have no record of the actual date when I first saw your machine leave the ground at Brooklands. I have always regretted that I did not keep a diary of these early events, but as far as I can remember it happened in the 132
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