[ARP]

For those of you that did not see the original showing of this film (in 2003) about Percy Pilcher and his flying machine you can now see it on youtube:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efCMbwdhXjM

I was lucky enough to see the first attempt (spot me in orange hi-vi) which resulted in a few short flights. Had fate not intervened the history of aviation may have been a bit different as Pilcher was nearly ready to fly in 1899 four years before the Wright brothers.

[Frank Colver]

Very nice! Thanks for posting that link.

I don't know about making the leap to an alloy modern 2 stroke engine which would have a much higher power to weight ratio than Pilcher's primitive iron engine, but it is fun to see it fly.

I was surprised that when they were talking about the wing with the cutouts they didn't mention the huge amount of drag that all those vorticies at each panel's edges would create. All they mentioned was the loss of total wing area but the many vorticies would be much more damaging to performance. The panels were so narrow that I would bet that the vorticies would actually meet over the rearward center of each panel.

Frank Colver

[ARP]

Hello Frank,

Pilcher did not leave full working plans for the triplane so it is not clear what the final design would have been. I suspect the sketch, they do have, was done to show a test piece providing the construction technique and not the finished wing. I doubt Pilcher would have had cut outs in the finished wing as it would have made the wing weaker in construction, reduce surface area and would be less efficient aerodynamically.

Pilcher was in partnership with Walter Wilson, an auto engineer, (Wilson and Pilcher Limited) so the gasoline engine might have been derived from their automobile engine. Their 1901 four seat car had a horizontally opposed four cylinder engine, and was noted for "its almost entire freedom from noise or vibration". Interesting to see that most light aircraft to this day use flat four horizontally opposed engines. It is thought the triplane was to be fitted with a two cylinder version.

Try finding a copy of Philip Jarrett's book (now out of print) "Another Icarus- Percy Pilcher and the Quest for Flight" as it contains far more detail than I can provide here.

Tony

[JoeF]

Pilcher's Hawk
Approximate: span 25 ft. Empty weight: 50. See museum's specs for more accuracy.
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Two kingposts kept spread by a hard beam. Why?Quote:"The Hawk was equipped with the world's first sprung-wheeled undercarriage and helped Pilcher to break the world distance record in 1897."

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Source: HERE Wonderful video of museum's restoration work is on the site.

During this time he corresponded with leading aviation pioneers of the day, including German hang-glider Otto Lilienthal. These exchanges inspired him to build four gliders – the Bat, the Beetle, the Gull and the Hawk.

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Memory device: HGBB, Hawk, Gull, Bat, Beetle. This is not time ordered.===============================
Caution: Bat Mark 2 and 3 to be studied ...
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Bat glider by Percy Pilcher

Bat glider by Percy Pilcher

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See also page: HEREmore
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Beetle glider by Percy Pilcher
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Gull glider by Percy Pilcher

Pilcher_Gull500PIXEL.jpg (63.01 KiB) Viewed 1580 times

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http://aviadejavu.ru/Site/Crafts/Craft202791.htm
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DRAWING BY PERCY PILCHER: https://aerosocietyheritage.com/collect ... -drawings/