ATDTDA (1): Maxim whirling machines

[Tim Strzechowski]

"Against the sun as yet low across the Lake, wings cast long shadows, their edges luminous with dew.  There were steamers, electrics, Maxim whirling machines [...]" (p. 27).


In November, 1890, M. Hiram S. Maxim the celebrated American inventor of a writing telegraph, of several systems of electric lighting, and of the "Maxim automatic machine gun," addressed a letter to the New York Times in which he stated that, before sailing back to England, he thought it would be well to state what he was doing toward constructing a flying machine which had been alluded to lately by the American press. 

[...]

In May 1891 M. Maxim again visited the United States, and he gave to various newspaper reporters, notably to one from the New York Sun, some particulars concerning the flying machine, or "first kite of war," which he was building in England, and upon which he had spent up to that time (including the preliminary experiments) some $45,000.

[...]

http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Aero_Oct1893.html

http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Aero_Nov1893.html


[...] In the 1890's he rented Baldwyns Park in Kent, erecting a hangar and building a huge whirling arm test rig (a predecessor of the wind tunnel) that could test models at up to 80 miles per hour. Then, assisted by two émigré American mechanics, he built his most significant aeronautical invention: a large biplane test rig powered by two large steam engines driving two huge propellers.

This rig, which Maxim did not consider a true airplane, but which could have, with some modifications, possibly successfully flown before the Wrights, was immense even by the standards of the present day. It had a wing area of 4,000 square feet, and ran along a 1,800 foot railway track for test purposes. Each of its two steam engines generated 180 hp, and spun a 17 foot diameter propeller. Although intended strictly as a propulsion and aerodynamic test rig, Maxim did give the craft a workable control system of front and rear elevators, but it lacked a rudder (he believed he could turn it via differential engine operation, an awkward concept at best), and had no provision for roll control (as developed by the Wrights later). [...]

http://www.af.mil/history/sirhirammaxim.asp

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Prehistory/late_1800s/PH4G1.htm

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Prehistory/late_1800s/PH4.htm
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