M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
AERIAL WHEEL monoplane. (Aerial Wheel Syndicate Ltd., Ralph Platts and George Sturgess, Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire.)
This most unorthodox monoplane arrived incomplete at Larkhill for the Military Trials in September 1912 but although entered as No. 18 it took no part in the trials. The machine, which was built in Birmingham, was a tractor canard with swept wings and was powered by a 50hp NEC four-cylinder, water-cooled, two-stroke engine. A nacelle between the booms that supported the front elevator housed both engine and crew and was surrounded by a circular frame incorporating a revolving tread which, with skids under the wings, constituted the landing gear. Patent No.26 924/1908 was an early version by the Sturgess brothers.
Pilots were reluctant to test the Aerial Wheel and it is believed that the machine was abandoned unflown. It was still in existence in a hangar at the Midland Flying School at Billesley Common, King's Heath, Birmingham when it was wrecked by a gale in the autumn of 1915.
P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
Aerial Wheel Monoplane
The Aerial Wheel was one of the most unorthodox of the machines entered for the 1912 Military Trials at Salisbury Plain, it was given the entry number 18 and arrived at Larkhill for the contest, but did not take part in the tests and remained hidden in its shed.
A side-by-side two-seat canard tractor monoplane, it was powered by a 50 h.p. N.E.C. engine, the crew being seated at the leading-edge of the swept-back wings. The designers were Ralph Platts and George Sturgess and the machine was built at Birmingham by the Aerial Wheel Syndicate Ltd., of Mablethorpe, Lines.
