Aerial Experiment Association

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File:McCurdy in plane.jpg
AEA member John Alexander Douglas McCurdy at the controls of the AEA Silver Dart during an aviation 'meet' near Toronto, Canada, c. August 1911.

The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.[1]

The AEA produced several different aircraft in quick succession, with each member acting as principal designer for at least one. The group introduced key technical innovations, notably wingtip ailerons and the tricycle landing gear.

According to Bell, the AEA was a "co-operative scientific association, not for gain but for the love of the art and doing what we can to help one another."[2] Although the association had no significant commercial impact, one of its members, Glenn Curtiss, later established a large and successful aeronautical manufacturing company. The AEA was disbanded on 31 March 1909.

Origins

The AEA came into being when John Alexander Douglas McCurdy and his friend Frederick W. "Casey" Baldwin, two recent engineering graduates of the University of Toronto, decided to spend the summer in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. McCurdy had grown up there, and his father was the personal secretary of Dr. Bell. He had grown up close to the Bell family and was well received in their home. One day, as the three sat with Dr. Bell discussing the problems of aviation, Mabel Bell, Alexander's wife, suggested they create a formal research group to exploit their collective ideas. Being independently wealthy, she provided a total of US$35,000 (approximately $920,000 in current dollars[[#cite_note-inflation.2Ffn-U.S.-3|[ 1]]]) to finance the Association, with $20,000 made available immediately by the sale of property.[3][4][5]

Curtiss, the American motorcycle designer and manufacturer and a recognized expert on gasoline engines, was recruited as a member of the association. Curtiss had visited the Wright brothers to discuss aeronautical engineering and offered them use of a 50 hp engine. Wilbur cordially declined, saying that a motor of their own development met their power needs, unaware that the AEA was about to become a serious competitor in powered flight. Bell wrote to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to have an interested young officer who had volunteered his help, US Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, officially detailed to Baddeck. Selfridge was assigned to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps on 3 August 1907, two days after its formation, and was sent to Nova Scotia. A year later, on 17 September 1908, while riding as a passenger with Orville Wright on a demonstration flight for the U.S. Army, he became the first person killed in an aircraft accident.

First experiments

In 1898, Bell experimented with tetrahedral kites and wings constructed of multiple compound tetrahedral kites covered in maroon silk.[N 1] The tetrahedral wings were named Cygnet I, II and III, and were flown both unmanned and manned (Cygnet I crashed during a flight carrying Selfridge) in the period from 1907–1912. Some of Bell's kites are on display at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site.[7]

Later AEA designs

The AEA's work progressed to heavier-than-air machines, applying their knowledge of kites to gliders. The AEA collaboration led to very public success.
Casey Baldwin became the first Canadian and first British subject pilot on 12 March 1908 flight of Red Wing.[2][8] [N 2]

Its successor, White Wing, also of 1908, was the first airplane to have Bell's ailerons.[10] The following design, the June Bug, also of 1908 and piloted by Curtiss, won the Scientific American Trophy by making the first official one kilometer flight in North America,[11] although, the Wrights had already accomplished this in 1904.

Their fourth flying machine, the Silver Dart, also constructed in 1908, made the first controlled powered flight in Canada on 23 February 1909 when it was flown off the ice of Bras d'Or Lake near Baddeck by McCurdy, who had been one of its designers.[12][13] On 10 March 1909, McCurdy set a record when he flew the Silver Dart on a circular course over a distance of more than 32 km (20 mi), a feat that the Wrights had already accomplished in 1905. The Association made the first passenger flight in Canada on 2 August, also in the Silver Dart.

Much development also took place in Hammondsport, New York where in 1908 pioneering experimentation was done on seaplane carried out by Curtiss.[14] In France Henri Fabre successfully flew the first powered seaplane in history, the Fabre Hydravion, in March 1910.

Organization's dissolution

Bell's organization was established with a fixed term mandate, which was extended to March 31, 1909 by joint agreement of all its members, with Mrs. Bell contributing an additional $10,000 of financing.[15] After Lt. Selfridge's death in September 1908, McCurdy became the organization's secretary and Dr. Bell's cousin, Charles J. Bell, became the Association's legal trustee.

After Curtiss unexpectedly formed a new commercial aircraft building venture, the Herring-Curtiss Company, in March 1909, strained relations arose between Curtiss and the Association's other members.[16] A request for him to attend the association's meeting and resolve the issue went unanswered, and the organization's mandate was not extended a second time. The AEA was disbanded on 31 March 1909.[17][18]

Aircraft designed and constructed

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Bell was inspired in part by Australian aeronautical engineer Lawrence Hargrave's work with man-carrying box kites.[6] Hargrave declined to take patents on his inventions, similar to Bell's decision not to file patents on some of his inventions. Bell also chose maroon-colored silk as it would show up clearly against the light-colored sky in his photographic studies.
  2. ↑ Quote: "Professor Alexander Graham Bell's New Machine, Built After Plans by Lieutenant Selfridge, Shown to Be Practicable by Flight Over Keuka Lake. Portion of Tail Gives Way, Bringing the Test to an End. Views of an Expert. Hammondsport, New York, 12 March 1908. Professor Alexander Graham Bell's new aeroplane, the Red Wing, was given its test flight over Lake Keuka today by F. W. Baldwin, the engineer in charge of its construction. The machine was built by the Aerial Experiment Association for Lieut. Thomas Selfridge, U.S.A."[9]
  3. ↑ Built by McCurdy and Baldwin for Alexander Graham Bell[22]

Citations

  1. ↑ Milberry 1979, pp. 12–13.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Milberry 1979, p. 13.
  3. ↑ Gillis, Rannie. "Mabel Bell Was A Focal Figure In The First Flight of the Silver Dart." Cape Breton Post, 29 September 2008. Retrieved: 24 February 2012.
  4. ↑ "First Airplane Flight In Canada." Nova Scotia's Electric Scrapbook, 2 April 2010. Retrieved: 24 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Toward 1984, pp. 141–155.
  6. ↑ Technical Gazette, New South Wales, 1924, p. 46.
  7. ↑ "Nova Scotia's Electric Scrapbook." ns1763.ca. Retrieved: 29 December 2009.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Casey 1981, pp. 8–11.
  9. ↑ "Selfridge Aerodrome Sails Steadily for 319 Feet. At 25 to 30 miles an Hour. First Public Trip of Heavier-than-air Car in America." Washington Post, 13 May 1908.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Casey 1981, pp. 12–15.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Casey 1981, pp. 16–23.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Casey 1981, pp. 28–33.
  13. ↑ Phillips 1977, pp. 95–96.
  14. ↑ Casey 1981, p. 60.
  15. ↑ Casey 1981, p. 37.
  16. ↑ Casey 1981, pp. 40–41.
  17. ↑ Phillips 1977, p. 97.
  18. ↑ Casey 1981, pp. 36–37.
  19. ↑ Casey 1981, pp. 6–7.
  20. ↑ Casey 1981, pp. 24–27.
  21. ↑ Casey 1981, pp. 34–36.
  22. ↑ Milberry 2008, p. 73.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links


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