Alexander Graham Bell and the Aerial Experiment Association
Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor, scientist, and engineer who had a deep inquisitiveness about the world of flight.
Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor, scientist, and engineer who had a deep inquisitiveness about the world of flight.
DALLAS – Alexander Graham Bell is a name that is synonymous with the invention of the telephone, but not many people know that he was also a pioneer in aviation.
Bell was an inventor, scientist, and engineer who had a deep inquisitiveness about the world of flight. His contributions to the field of aviation may not be as widely known as his work on the telephone, but they were just as significant.
While Bell is best known for his work on the telephone, he also made significant contributions to the field of aviation. The inventor had been interested in flight from a young age and had a deep fascination with birds and their ability to fly.
In 1891, Bell started experiments to produce a heavier-than-air aircraft that a motor could power. He believed that he could devote the principles of flight to the development of aircraft.
The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air.
Alexander Graham Bell
His interest and work in aviation covered three and half decades and more than 1,200 experimentations. It became his primary scientific and breakdown movement for a good portion of his life.
Bell's home at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, afforded ideal conditions for his scientific curiosity in flying kites. It is here, over the next three and a half decades, that Bell digs profoundly into the frivolous and futuristic – projectiles, heavier-than-air flying machines, water distillation, tetrahedral towers, sheep breeding, hydrofoil boats, and more.
He was particularly interested in the idea of vertical flight, or the capability to take off and land vertically like a bird. This led him to devise a series of experiments with different types of flying machines, including kites and gliders.
Between 1898 and 1910, Bell focused his work on the tetrahedral kite, a multicelled rigid box kite comprised of tetrahedrally shaped cells to form a kind of tetrahedral truss. Bell derived the design after expanding the design of the popular rectangular-celled box kite which Hargrave of Australia invented.
Bell's tetrahedral kite is a predecessor to modern-day hand gliders. The Tetrahedral kite consisted of interlocking wooden or metal rods forming a pyramid-like structure to make it sturdy and big enough to accommodate a person and a powered motor.
One of his contributions to extending the design of the tetrahedral kite was his introduction of diagonal cross bracing, which improved the kite’s strength and solidity. This arrangement is still used in modern-day hang gliders, enhancing the craft’s capability to resist windy conditions.
The Cygnet, a kite with 3393 cells that Bell invented, managed to lift an individual 50 meters (164 feet) above the surface for approximately 7 minutes. Bell remarked on his discovery of this concept in the June 1903 issue of National Geographic magazine; the piece was titled "Tetrahedral Principle in Kite Structure."
Bell stated, “I have been continuously at work on experiments relating to kites. Why I do not know, except perhaps because of the intimate connection of the subject with the flying-machine problem.”
He further added, “I have had the feeling that a properly constructed flying machine should be capable of being flown as a kite; and conversely, that a properly constructed kite should be capable of use as a flying machine when driven by its propellers. I am not so sure, however, of the truth of the former proposition as I am of the latter.”
Following his experiments with kites, Bell met Glenn H Curtis, an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer and later a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. Bell also had a friendship with Samuel Langley, 3rd Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, which greatly influenced his work.
Bell would later meet other inventors of his time experimenting to maneuver and power the first manned heavier-than-air flight, an endeavor coalesced in what would become the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA).
The AEA came into existence after John Alexander Douglas McCurdy and his friend Frederick W. "Casey" Baldwin, Canadian engineers met Bell at his house. During their discussions on problems in aviation, Mabel Bell (Graham Bell's entrepreneur wife) suggested they initiate a formal research group to exploit their collaborative ideas.
"For many years past, in fact from my boyhood, the subject of aerial flight has had a great fascination for me and I was therefore much interested in the researches of Langley.”
Alexander Graham Bell
On September 30, 1907, the world's first aeronautical research group included like-minded inventors and engineers. Mabel Bell became the first woman in history to propose, establish and fund a research group.
She provided a total sum of US$35,000 (equivalent to US$1,060,000 in 2021) to fund the AEA, selling her property to finance the association that included the following members responsible for the design and development of the aircraft:
The first aileron-controlled aircraft, the AEA White Wing, which was flown by engineer and aircraft designer Frederick Baldwin on May 18, 1908, as a member of the Aerial Experiment Association led by Alexander Graham Bell, was later imitated by American aeronautical pioneer Glenn Curtiss with the AEA June Bug that same year.
Bell would say, "The aileron was the first successful application of the principles of flight to a machine intended to carry human beings.”
“We breathed an atmosphere of aviation from morning till night and almost from night to morning…I may say for myself that this Association with these young men proved to be one of the happiest times of my life.”
Alexander Graham Bell
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The AEA's first successful aircraft was named 'Red Wing', which was designed by Selfridge and built by AEA in 1908. Baldwin piloted the plane off the frozen Keuka Lake near Hammondsport, New York, on March 12, 1908. The aircraft had the capacity to occupy a sole flyer and was powered by a single Curtiss B-8 air-cooled V8 engine, 40 hp (30 kW).
This flight is considered the first public demonstration of a powered aircraft flight in the United States as well as the first flight by a Canadian pilot. The Washington Post wrote, "Selfridge Aerodrome Sails Steadily for 319 Feet. At 25 to 30 miles an Hour."
After five days, Baldwin attempted a second flight from the same venue, but this time it crashed after 20 seconds from takeoff, and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
The June Bug was designed and flown by Curtis and built by AEA in 1908. The aircraft got its distinctive name from Bell, after the common Phyllophaga, a beetle known colloquially in North America as the "June bug."
White Wing was another aircraft designed by Selfridge and built by AEA in 1908. The aircraft's notable feature was the wheeled landing gear and ailerons. The use of ailerons ensued in a legal dispute with the Wright Brothers as they had a patent on movable wing surfaces.
The aircraft was piloted from May 18 to May 23 by all members of the AEA, excluding Bell, with Selfridge becoming the first Army officer to fly an airplane. White Wing met the same fate as Red Wing and was damaged beyond repair.
"The flying machine of the future will not be born fully fledged and capable of a flight for 1,000 miles or so. Like everything else, it must be evolved gradually. The first difficulty is to get a thing that will fly at all. When this is made, a full description should be published as an aid to others."
Alexander Graham Bell
The Silver Dart was the fourth aircraft that evolved from its predecessor and was built by AEA in late 1908. It flew successfully at Hammondsport, New York, earlier in 1908, and for demonstration flights, it was dismantled and shipped to Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
They enhanced the wing skin covering furthermore, this time utilizing a rubberized silk balloon material, making it more long-lasting than any of its predecessors.
On February 23, 1909, Douglas McCurdy piloted the aircraft from Baddeck Bay's ice, a Bras d'Or Lake sub-basin. The Silver Dart became the first powered, heavier-than-air plane to fly in Canada.
During that day, it glid only half a mile (800 m) at a height of three to nine meters and a pace of approximately 65 kph (40 mph). The aircraft had the capacity to occupy two other people onboard along with the pilot. It was designed to fly with a range of 20 mi (32 km).
While on 10 March of the same year, the McCurdy set a record with the aircraft as it flew on a circular route over a stretch of more than 32 km (20 mi). This record was already held by the Wright brothers in 1905. Later that year, on the 2nd of August, the AEA started the first passenger flights in Canada.
As stated above, the AEA also flew orthodox aircraft, which they named Cygnet, based on the tetrahedral kite. It had a wall-like "wing" constructed of 3,393 tetrahedral cells.
Following their failures during McCurdy's test flights and inability to provide satisfactory results to AEA, the association decided to forsake the project and focus its efforts on other aircraft.
Oionus I, also known as 'Bell Oionous I,' was a tetrahedral aircraft developed after combining the design of the Silver Dart and Cygnet.
The aircraft was built by Feb 1910, but it took a month to get it ready for a test flight. Finally, on March 25, 1910, the aircraft made its first and only flight from Baddeck Bay but failed to achieve flight as its three-of-four wheels came off the ground.
With this, the AEA's aircraft experiments concluded, and the Oionus I is considered the Bell's final aviation pursuit. After the fatal crash of Thomas Selfridge on an aircraft developed by the Wright brothers in 1908 and Curtiss's departure to create the major aircraft manufacturing operation in the United States in March 1909, the AEA was dissolved.
Bell would later enact a law that stated that no one should carry passengers during test flying; this was also known as Bell's law during that time. However, the rule was said to be ignored in 1909 when Dolly MacKay MacLeod flew as a passenger during a trial flight of the Baddeck No. II, steered by Baldwin.
There is no concrete evidence of the aforementioned, but, If true, MacKay would be the first woman to fly in the British Empire.
Following the success of Silver Dart, Graham Bell, and his companion decided to commercialize their study by starting the Canadian Aerodrome Company (CAC). The remaining members, which included Baldwin and McCurdy, formed the CAC in 1909, and Bell was the mentor and financier of the company.
The CAC became the first Canadian aircraft company and was located at Bell’s estate of Beinn Bhreagh. McCurdy and Baldwin both performed the most advanced aviation analysis to that point.
The aviation duo accurately measured aircraft ground speeds and begotten engine performance charts and specified engine power and fuel essentials at higher altitudes. They also concluded that the higher altitudes resulted in lesser fuel consumption, and various studies helped achieve transatlantic flights.
The Canadian company obtained the patent rights from the country and made numerous modifications to Silver Dart. The modifications resulted in a better version, and they named it Baddeck No. I. Later with further changes, they developed Baddeck No. II, as well as the Hubbard monoplane. Hubbard became the first aircraft shipped from Canada.
Unfortunately, the lack of support from the government, despite demonstrating successful flight, led to the dissolution of the CAC. Following this, McCurdy was compelled to fly for Curtiss's firm, while Baldwin stayed by Bell’s side, operating Bell’s laboratory at Beinn Bhreagh.
https://youtu.be/uxcz1j1-hCo
Bell, through his technical and scientific expertise, advised his team to make various changes after the crash of its aircraft.
After the crash of Red Wing, Bell suggested the use of Ailerons. He also advised its team to dope (or lacquer) the porous wings of the June Bug. Following the Baddeck No. I crashed, he advised changes that enhanced the flight attributes of that aircraft, and he also contributed to the fine-tuning of Baddeck No. II.
Thanks to this research and analysis to avoid future accidents, Bell would become the world's first aviation accident investigator.
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“I have no doubt that a machine will be driven from the Earth’s surface at enormous velocities by a new method of propulsion – think of tremendous energies locked up in explosives – what if we could utilize these in projectile flight!”
Alexander Graham Bell in 1915
Feature Image: Aerial Experiment Association members Casey Baldwin, Tom Selfridge, Glenn Curtiss, Alexander Graham Bell, John McCurdy, and Augustus Post served as an observer from Aero Club of America. Photo: Unknown author - Aero Club of America early records, Public Domain
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