While looking at the pictures we took showing the rest of the museum, I’ve realized that we have too many for just 1 post. So this post is about Bell’s desire to get into the sky, just like the Wright brothers did at Kitty Hawk in 1903. But in all he did, it seems like his heart was with his wife, his daughters, and his grandchildren. This is one of the pictures I loved seeing.
Bell with his grands
tetrahedral cells and kites
Here’s the 2-year timeline of Bell experimenting with 3 equilateral triangles joined to form a 4-sided shape.
The corners connectors were designed by Bell and Hector McNeil in 1905.
Bell realized that modular connectors could be mass-produced. With them, structures of any size could be assembled easily and quickly. Over the years Bell and his associates designed a number of connectors for different applications.
From the aerohistory.com website, I found this information about why Bell started working on these cells and kites:
“While working on the telephone, Bell mentioned to Watson that their next project would be a flying machine.On his honeymoon, he told his wife Mabel that he dreamed of flying machines with telephones attached. Like the Wrights and other aviation pioneers, Bell chose to test light, wind-supported kite and glider designs before attempting risky human-powered flight trials.”
In 1898 Bell began experimenting with kites since he thought they offered the safest approach to developing a flying machine.
He thought gliders and powered craft were too dangerous to start off with since the first mistake could result in a death. If he could start off building a kite capable of carrying someone while flying steady regardless of the wind, the techniques of flight could be mastered fairly safely so that when propellers and an engine were added, the kite could serve as a practicable flying machine.
Bell flying an early kite.
Bell and a worker hold this tetrahedral kite steady until it starts flying.
Bell was convinced that kites were the clue to a stable, safe flying machine.
Some of the kite winders Bell used during 1901-1902.
Believing that any structure could be built with these tetrahedral cells, Bell built this observation tower at Beinn Bhreagh in 1907.
He pioneered space-frame construction almost 30 years before it came into general use.
the tower
These connectors were designed by Casey Baldwin (more later) for this tower.
the AEA
Have you ever head about this association? We hadn’t either. It was a think tank created in 1907 and headed by Bell “to know the unknown, to have a mental craving for making the impractical a matter of fact, to feel in your bones that the impossible is within reach.”
In just 18 months this group of 5 (Mabel was an honorary member) built and flew 4 airplanes and 2 man-carrying kites, as well as taking ideas and concepts and making them real.
The Cygnet I was a non-motorized giant kite with 3393 silk-covered cells, a 42 foot span, and a hollow space to carry a men. It was already under construction when the AEA was formed, so their first task was to complete it.
The Cygnet II was motorized and larger but its engine wasn’t powerful enough to lift it into the air when tested in 1909.
The AEA called them “dromes,” but Bell didn’t know that name will take off (pun unintended).
In 1908, the AEA started building Hammondsport glides to provide the pilots with valuable gliding experience (and let young pilots actually “fly” like they were itching to do). For stability, these biplane gliders were outfitted with a small flat tail. The craft was foot-launched—powered by the pilot as he ran toward the crest of a hill). After 2 months, the AEA’s 1st motorized plane, the Red Wing, was ready for flight and so were the pilots.
Drome 1 is renamed Red Wing for the red silk fabric that covers its wings.
In September, the AEA met in Halifax to sign a formal 1-year agreement to get a man into the air.
In December, towed behind the steamship The Blue Hill, the Cygnet I was lifted into the air without a man aboard. A couple of days later, it flies for 7 minutes at a height of 167 feet with Thomas Selfridge aboard. When a tow rope doesn’t release on landing, the kite is dragged through the water and destroyed. Selfridge was unhurt.
Later that month after this successful flight, the AEA’s headquarters move from Bell’s home in Beinn Bhreagh to Curtiss’ machine shop in Hammondsport, N.Y.
In March 1909, Casey Baldwin, chief engineer of the group, is chosen as pilot and becomes the first Canadian to fly. The Red Wing flies 318 feet over the ice near Hammondsport.
During the 2nd flight, a gust of wind drops a wing top into the ice and flips the plane. This aircraft is also wrecked, but Baldwin is able to walk away from the crash.
Drome 2 is built to replace the downed flying machine. With the supply of red silk running out, white cotton nainsook is used to cover the wings so the plane is called the White Wing.
Baldwin is its first pilot and flies the machine 278 feet. This AEA flying machine is the only one to be flown by all 4 younger AEA members.
Innovations for this machine include a lighter laminated propeller, allerons at the wing tips for lateral control, and a steerable tricycle undercarriage. (Allerons—or ailerons—are a hinged surface in the trailing edge of an airplane wing, used to control lateral balance.)
Seeing the 1st flight of Drome 3, Bell notes similarity with a common spring beetle so names the machine June Bug. Its cloth-covered wings are “doped” with a mixture of paraffin, turpentine, and gasoline to make the material less porous. Yellow ochre is added so the plane will photograph better.
death of an AEA member
Thomas Selfridge, while riding as a passenger aboard a Wright brothers’ aircraft, dies when the plane crashes at Fort Myer, Virginia.
He becomes the first person to be killed in an airplane crash when a new propeller broke.
Bell and Baldwin get the news while traveling to Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of the association. His death has a profound effect on the remaining members.
Wright had stopped the engine, but the aeroplane pitched forward and dove 50 feet. Wright broke his thigh and 2 ribs but recovered.
The Silver Dart had been designed to be a passenger-carrying craft, but after Selfridge’s death, Bell vetoes the idea.
The Silver Dart had used a front elevator to increase stability, and the wing tip allerons are larger than those on the other AEA planes.
In January 1909, the June Bug had its final flight and then was packed up and never flown again. With more than 20 flights, it is the only one that never crashed. Later that month, the Silver Dart was disassembled and shipped to Bell’s home in Nova Scotia.
After arriving, the Silver Dart was reassembled and flown from the ice of Baddeck Bay, near Bell’s home, on February 23, 1909, making it the first controlled powered flight in Canada. The aircraft was piloted by one of its designers and AEA member, John McCurdy.
This homecoming for Bell and McCurdy was also a celebration for the local residents. Classes were cancelled and businesses closed their doors so residents could witness the flight.
Hopes fell temporarily when during the first attempt to fly a fuel line broke. But the Silver Dart lifted into the air and landed safely. McCurdy wanted to fly more, but Bell wisely invited the spectators home to celebrate this first flight. Over the next month, more than 30 flights were successful.
Silver Dart getting ready to take off.
end of the AEA
With the death of Selfridge and Glenn Curtiss focusing on his own company, the remaining members—Bell, Mabel, Baldwin, and McCurdy—decided to close down the association after 18 months in the same location where the association was formed, in front of the fireplace at Beinn Bhreagh Hall.
They have shared in the joys of discovering the unknown, of building practical, motorized aircraft, and of transforming the world.
Their last act was to thank Mabel for all she had done. And at the stroke of midnight, the association was dissolved.
But in 2005, the AEA was reborn with the goal of building a full-scale model of the Silver Dart and flying it at Baddeck to honor Canada’s upcoming centennial of flight in 2009. Today we can see it.
AEA reborn with a specific goal
the Silver Dart
full view
members of AEA
Alexander Graham Bell, chairman
While on his honeymoon in Scotland in 1877, he sketched the shape of a plane with pilots outfitted with parachutes. By the time he died, airplanes were crossing the Atlantic in 16 hours.
Mabel Bell, honorary member
Mabel had learned to lip read and speak a number of languages. Attending many AEA meeting, she had a deep understanding of the scientific and technical discussions. By selling property her father had left to her, she funded the AEA with $30,000—becoming the 1st female venture capitalist to invest in research and development in the new field of aviation.
John McCurdy, treasurer and secretary after Selfridge dies
McCurdy became Nova Scotia’s 20th Lieutenant-Governor but was the AEA’s youngest member at the age of 21. In 1910 he flew the longest flight over water from Florida to Cuba. He opened Canada’s 1st flight school in Toronto and trained pilots for Britain’s Royal Air force during WW1. After the dissolution of AEA, he formed Canada’s 1st aircraft manufacturing company with Bell and Baldwin.
Thomas Selfridge, secretary until he died
Selfridge was AEA’s unofficial aviation historian after graduating from West Point in 1903 and appointed second lieutenant in the artillery corps. The U.S. Army trained him to pilot dirigibles. As the Army’s only officer with airplane flying experience, he was invited to join Orville Wright in a test flight where he died in a crash. His death began the American tradition of naming airfields in honor of fallen U.S. military pilots.
Glenn Curtiss, director of experiments
Before joining the AEA, Curtiss was already a successful motor manufacturer and businessman. Following the AEA, he produced the Curtiss JN-4 (also known as Jenny) to use during WW1. He became one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the U.S.
“Casey” Baldwin, chief engineer
Baldwin had studied mechanical engineering and aerodynamics and was the 1st Canadian to fly. As captain of the HD-4 in 1919 (next post), he became the fastest man on the water when he crossed the Atlantic in just 15 days in 1920. After Bell’s death, Beinn Bhreagh was left to Baldwin so he could continue experimenting with hydrofoils and tetrahedral designs.
So Alexander Graham Bell was one of the leading figures in the development of airplanes and flights. Now let’s turn to his work with hydrofoils as he took his designs to the water.
