America's Early Free-Flight Models Continued

America's Early Free-Flight Models text with a vintage male portrait on a dark background.

This is additional content for the December 2024 Model Aviation feature "America's Early Free-Flight Models" by C. David Gierke.

Early Experimenters

During the late 1880s and early 1890s, aeronautical experimenters in the heavier-than-air arena were faced with a multitude of problems, for which diverse courses of action were pursued.

• Octave Chanute (American) insisted that the problem of automatic stability be addressed before any attempt at powered, manned, flight be attempted.

Three people holding a large, early glider on a sandy hill.

Octave Chanute poses with his Katydid glider, 1896.

• Sir Hiram Maxim (American expatriate, living in England) held that the most important factor for successful manned flight was a powerful engine.

• Otto Lilienthal (German), John Montgomery (American), and Percy Pilcher (English) believed that the best route toward manned, powered flight was to proceed with manned, gravity-powered gliders.

Early flying machine with large wings and a person suspended, against a cloudy sky.

Lilienthal’s Double Decker glider, 1896.

• Chanute, Augustus Herring, and Samuel Langley asserted that flying models and kites represented a relatively inexpensive and safe method for identifying the best combination of components needed for powered, manned flight.

Man flying a kite with intricate design in a grassy field.

Herring flying his Aspirating Kite, 1896.

Because most of the questions related to heavier-than-air, manned flight had previously been answered by early aeronautical experimenters, Herring observed, “The aeroplane has a good many daddies.”

Herring’s Patent

Herring’s tendency for secrecy carried over to his other projects: The world’s first successful internal combustion engine-powered, free-flight model of January 1903, was photographed without its cruciform tail/regulator and wing sails for a March 13, 1904, article in the New York Daily News—and apparently no one questioned their absence! By 1907, Herring was still secretive. One of the few photos known to exist of this historic model was taken at a sportsman show in New York's Madison Square Garden, and you guessed it—the tractor-biplane was still missing its empennage.

Black and white illustration of an early airship design with text below.

Flyin’ Fish free-flight, gas model, without its regulator tail and wing sails. (New York Daily News, Sunday, March 13, 1904.)

The following year (1908) Herring would await a decision from the U.S. Patent Office on another of his automatic stability applications. This time, his original regulator would be used in part to justify the new device. Seventeen years after its inception, Herring still regarded his original regulator to be pertinent and, therefore, subject to intellectual property thievery.

Note: Herring had good reason to be careful in dealing with his many aviation-related inventions. His 1922 civil action lawsuit, Herring-Curtiss Co. v. Glenn Curtiss et. al. (Supreme Court for the Seventh District of New York), detailed how many of his inventions had been filched.

Herring’s success with the Flyin’ Fish prompted him to write a letter to the Wright brothers (December 26, 1903). After congratulating them for their accomplishment, he got straight to the point:

… (I)t seems that our work is going to result in interference suits [between the two of us] in the patent office, and loss of value of the work owing to there being competition.

… Would you consider our joining forces and acting as one party [form a company] in order to get the best of terms, broadest patent claims, and to avoid future litigation?

The Wrights didn’t respond to Herring’s overture.

Note: As mentioned earlier, in 1903, the U.S. Patent Office regarded heavier-than-air flight and perpetual motion as twin delusions—therefore, a working model would always be required. In fact, the Wrights had experienced Patent Office rejection nine months earlier (March 1903), when their application didn’t include the required working model. As a result, the process dragged on for nearly three years before they were grudgingly granted a patent of invention on May 22, 1906. (Flying Machine, #8211393).

Two men in suits sitting on porch steps, one with crossed legs. Black and white photo.

Wright brothers, 1909.

Historians have speculated as to the value of the Wrights taking on Herring as a partner, but one thing is certain: Without Herring’s help in providing immediate, demonstratable proof that powered, automatically stabilized, heavier-than-air machines already existed via his model, the Patent Office would continue to drag its feet with the Wrights’ application. Recall that Langley’s man-carrying Great Aerodrome failed spectacularly (twice) in 1903.

Rejecting Herring’s support, the ever-suspicious Wrights kept details of their invention secret by refusing to fly in public, give technical interviews, or allow public inspection of their machines. The delay proved detrimental because other experimenters began developing their own flying machines.

For example, on September 30, 1907, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association [AEA], a group of like-minded individuals whose sole purpose was to “get into the air.”

By March 12, 1908, AEA’s first aeroplane, Red Wing was tested unsuccessfully. Three months later (June 21, 1908), Glenn Curtiss’ June Bug flew successfully. Two weeks later (on Independence Day), Curtiss, won (Phase 1) the Scientific American trophy, by flying 5,360 feet in 1 minute, 40 seconds.

Early biplane flying low over a grassy field, black and white photograph.

Glenn Curtiss’ June Bug, 1908.

The Wrights had yet to fly in public. Nonetheless, Orville Wright contacted Curtiss, saying that he and his brother had not given him permission to use their “control system for exhibition or in any commercial way.” Eight months later, Curtiss partnered with Herring to form the Herring-Curtiss Company (March 19, 1909), America’s first commercial aeroplane company. The bell had been rung.

The fight for control of America’s aeroplane industry had begun and continued unabated until the United States’ entry into World War I, when Congress enacted The Cross-Licensing Agreement of 1917, which established that the US aviation industry would be required to operate without major patents.

Ideas and techniques were to be shared openly among members of the Manufacturers Aircraft Association. This law effectively ended the Wrights’ 11-year (1906-17) legal stranglehold against individuals and/or companies who dared to infringe upon their patent for lateral control.

Finally, our atrophied aviation industry would be allowed to thrive.

Summary

Explores early aeronautical experimenters' challenges and contributions to free-flight models leading to manned flight advancements.