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.
tetrahedral cells and kites
The corners connectors were designed by Bell and Hector McNeil in 1905.
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.
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 and a worker hold this tetrahedral kite steady until it starts flying.
Believing that any structure could be built with these tetrahedral cells, Bell built this observation tower at Beinn Bhreagh in 1907.
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.”
The Cygnet II was motorized and larger but its engine wasn’t powerful enough to lift it into the air when tested in 1909.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
The Silver Dart had been designed to be a passenger-carrying craft, but after Selfridge’s death, Bell vetoes the idea.
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.
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.
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.
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.
the Silver Dart
members of AEA
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.
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.
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.
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.
After Bell’s death, Beinn Bhreagh was left to Baldwin so he could continue experimenting with hydrofoils and tetrahedral designs.
So we’ve learned that 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.
