The Maxim Flyer
When the Wright brothers telegraphed home after Kitty Hawk, the only bit of their telegram which was commented on by the local press was "Wright brothers home for Christmas". Why wouldn't the press be carrying "Wright brothers first to fly" banners if they had just made history? The answer is that they hadn't. Everyone knew that powered flight had already been achieved, so the important portion of the communique was that they would be home for Christmas.
The first person to fly a powered, heavier than air vehicle (aeroplane) was Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, (who is more famous for his machine gun). On Tuesday 31st July 1894 at Baldwyn's Park (formerly the site of a mental hospital, now a housing estate) in the London Borough of Bexley, his flyer was launched for the first time and successfully flew.
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The Maxim Flyer
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The Maxim Flyer
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The flyer had a 40 foot hexagonal "kite" centre section, which supported the pilot platform, on the front of which was mounted the engine. Front and back of the centre kite section were placed the elevators which were controlled in unison by an adjustment wheel mounted on the rear of the engine housing.
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Centre 'Kite' section in front of Baldwyn's Park
House
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To each side of the centre section were placed wings, which Maxim termed 'aeroplanes' thus using the expression for the first time. The wings extended out at the level of the kite and the platform, thus creating a biplane with a total 104 foot wing span.
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View of flyer with wings and elevators attached
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The most interesting thing about the flyer was that it was powered by steam, using a coiled pipe boiler heated by naptha. Although the coiled boiler was a mere 8 feet long, 6 feet high and 4 feet wide at the base, the use of piping in this manner provided 800 feet of heatable surface area, while the complete boiler weighed in at less than 1000lbs. The boiler could develop 362 h.p. and a pressure of 3201lbs.
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The boiler from Maxim's flyer
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The burner from the engine
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The engine powered two 18 feet long proppeller blades which were mounted to the shaft by splines rather than the (until then) standard method of clamping the blade in an angle bracket, another innovation of Maxim's.
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The twin props of the flyer
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Carrying three people, the flyer lifted from its base guiding track to a height of 9 inches where the wheels engaged a restraining rail. Held by the restraining rail, the flyer moved under its own lift above the ground for 1000 feet, after which one of the axle-trees buckled. The buckling axle-tree meant that only three of the wheels were in touch with the restraining rail, resulting in an uneven load which broke the restraining rail (9" thick Georgia pine). The flyer broke free and at a speed of 42mph it flew under the power of one screw, (the other having been damaged by the desintegrating restraining rail) for a further 15 seconds while Maxim shut off the engine.This free-flight was at a height of three feet above the rail.
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Distance Calculations |
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Distance covered under the guiding rail:
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1000 feet |
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Distance covered in free flight:
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42mph = 61.6 feet per second for 15 seconds = 924 feet |
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Total distance during which the weight of the vehicle
was supported by its own lift (i.e. in flight):
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1924 feet. |
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Altitude Calculations |
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Height of lower track:
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8 inches
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Distance between lower track and restraining rail:
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9 inches |
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Therefore height of restraining rail:
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17 inches (altitude during restrained flight)
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Thickness of restraining rail:
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4 inches
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Height of free flight above restraining rail:
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3 feet (36 inches)
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Total altitude from ground in free flight:
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17" + 4" + 36" = 57" = 4 feet
9 inches
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The restraining track was 1800 feet long and the flyer made a controlled descent of short duration and impacted into the soft ground with no skidding. The impact which buckled the platform, also resulted in a head injury to one of the three pilots.
The impact site was 246 feet further than the track's termination, therefore the Maxim flyer obtained lift approximately 122 feet along the track from its starting position.
Photographic evidence of the impact site suggests that the descent angle was around 55 degrees:
That means that the Maxim flier moved forwards 2 feet as it descended from its stable (unrestrained) flight path. Consequently, the flyer flew for 922 feet in level free flight at a height of 57 inches.
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The flyer after crashing
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The damage to the aeroplane was not however catastrophic, the flyer was repaired und made several more test flights until the project's backers withdrew their support in 1897.
Heavier than Air flight is termed as "the ability of a vehicle to lift its own weight using its own power," The lifting of the flyer to engage the restraining rail nine inches higher shows without doubt that the vehicle was supporting its own weight and thus flying. Some people vulgarly describe the Maxim flyer as being nothing more than a 'Lift Test Rig'. This could not be further from the truth. Lift test rigs are generally stationary, with the air flow being blown over the wing area from an external source. A model in a wind tunnel is a 'Lift Test Rig'. The Maxim Flyer is an aeroplane. Even if the duration of the flight under the restraining rail is disputed as being 'Flight', the machine's breaking free and subsequent stable and level flight at three feet altitude for 924 feet, although not within Maxim's intentions is still 'flight'. As a consequence of this, it can not be denied that Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim was the first person to fly a heavier than air machine.
The first flight was conducted in front of many spectators including personal friends invited by Sir Hiram, specifically the Prince of Wales, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but most importantly, H G Wells who used Maxim and his flying machine as the basis for his short story "Arganauts of the Air" (1895), the inventor of the flying machine in this story is called 'Monson'. In addition, in 1897, Well's Science Fiction masterpiece "The War of the Worlds" depicts a Martian flying machine which bears uncanny resemblance to Maxim's flyer.
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Swainson's illustration of the Martian flying machine
(Pearson's Magazine)
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The Wright brothers were the first people to activly control their flight. They were not only able to fly, but to turn the vehicle around and return to its point of origin, an amazing achievement. Unfortunately patriotic re-write history drum-bangers ignore this in preference to toppling Maxim from his rightful place with the higher prize of being the first. It is unfortunate that most of the world's history books today perpetuate this mis-information, which is in fact nothing more than proof that anything said loudly enough and often enough becomes gospel.
