Glider
© Defence Evaluation Research Agency
In 1905 Cody built a very large but light biplane glider. The pilot
would lie prone, in a hammock contraption in the centre of the lower wing,
the machine would then be sent up as a kite on a line and then set free to
glide down to the ground. The wing span was 51 feet (16 metres), the
wing area was 807 square feet (75 square metres). Its weight when empty
was 116lbs and, with Cody as pilot 320lbs. It had two small auxiliary
control surfaces of diamond shape under the lower wing. These were used
as ailerons for stability, as elevators for rise and descent and were called ‘elevons.’
Later
a supplementary elevator or balancing tail was added to the rear. The
pilot moved the ‘elevon’ cords with his hands and the rear elevator
with his feet. Despite its size the glider was easily transported, capable
of being folded down into a reasonably small area and quickly erected in twenty
minutes.
The glider was built in 1905 at the Crystal Palace, London when Cody was on leave from his duties as Kite Instructor at the Balloon School in Aldershot. It was there that Sir Hiram Maxim watched the machine successfully fly. It was later taken to Jubilee Hill near Aldershot where many more flights were made with both civilian and army pilots. The best glide achieved was 740 feet (225 metres) with a drop of 350 feet (107 metres). That same year the machine crashed when piloted by Vivian Cody.
There are not many photographs of the glider. The examples here show one image of the glider in flight and two others of the machine held on the ground.
© S.F.Cody Archive of Originals. LTD
© S.F.Cody Archive of Originals. LTD
© S.F.Cody Archive of Originals. LTD