Aerial Experiment Association
The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the tutelage of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.[1] According to Bell, it 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]
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[edit] 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 $910,000 in current dollars[3]) to finance the Association, with $20,000 made available immediately by the sale of property.[4][5][6]
Glenn H. Curtiss, the American motorcycle designer and manufacturer and recognized expert on gasoline engines, was recruited as a member of the association. Curtiss had visited the Wright Cycle Company to discuss aeronautical engineering with Wilbur and Orville Wright, and wrote offering them use of a 50-hp engine, but Wilbur cordially declined, assuring him 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 detailed to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps on 3 August 1907, two days after its formation, and sent to Nova Scotia. A year later he became the first person killed in an airplane accident while flying with one of the Wright Brothers on 17 September 1908.
[edit] First experiments
In 1898, Bell experimented with tetrahedral box 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.[8]
[edit] Later 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] [N 2]
Its successor, White Wing was the first plane to have Bell's ailerons. One of their aircraft, the June Bug, won the Scientific American Trophy by making the first official one kilometer flight in North America, although, the Wrights had already accomplished this in 1904. Their fourth flying machine, the Silver Dart, 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.[10]
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 experimentation was done on development on Curtiss' pioneering seaplane experiments, before Henri Fabre in France successfully flew the first powered seaplane in history, the Fabre Hydravion, in March 1910. The AEA organization disbanded on 31 March 1909.[11]
[edit] Aircraft designed and constructed
- Aerodrome 1 Red Wing (1908) Single-seat single-engine biplane
- Aerodrome 2 White Wing (1908) Single-seat single-engine biplane
- Aerodrome 3 June Bug (1908) Single-seat single-engine biplane
- Aerodrome 4 Silver Dart (1909) Single-engine biplane
- Aerodrome 5 Cygnet (1912) Single-engine single-seat aircraft with unorthodox wing
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ Bell was inspired in part by Australian aeronautical engineer Lawrence Hargrave's work with man-carrying box kites.[7] 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.
- ^ 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]
- Citations
- ^ Milberry 1979, pp. 12–13.
- ^ a b Milberry 1979, p 13.
- ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "First Airplane Flight In Canada." Nova Scotia's Electric Scrapbook, 2 April 2010. Retrieved: 24 February 2012.
- ^ Toward 1984, pp. 141–155.
- ^ Technical Gazette, New South Wales, 1924, p. 46.
- ^ "Nova Scotia's Electric Scrapbook." ns1763.ca. Retrieved: December 29, 2009.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Phillips 1977, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Phillips 1977, p. 97.
- Bibliography
- Milberry, Larry. Aviation in Canada. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1979. ISBN 0-07-082778-8.
- Phillips, Allan. Into the 20th Century: 1900/1910 (Canada's Illustrated Heritage). Toronto: Natural Science of Canada Limited, 1977. ISBN 0-919644-22-8.
- Toward, Lilias M. Mabel Bell: Alexander's Silent Partner. Toronto: Methuen, 1984. ISBN 978-0-458-98090-1.
[edit] External links
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