M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
AEROPLANE BUILDING and FLYING SOCIETY gliders. (Sec. W. le Maitre, Workshop Kings Rd., Hammersmith. Shed at Kensal Rise Athletic Ground.)
J.D. North, later chief designer at the Grahame-White Company and Boulton and Paul Aircraft designed a biplane glider with front elevator and tail. This was built in 1910-1911 and donated to the society. Because of the lack of gradient at the ground, a launching apparatus consisting of a trolley on two ropes, giving a gradient of 1 in 6 was prepared. This seems to have been used successfully.
Later it was fitted with a 15hp JAP engine lent by one of the members. It had two propellers, one on each side of the tail. There is no evidence that the machine flew in this form.
A monoplane glider, with a span of 30 ft, designed by AN Myers and donated to the Society was in the shed at the ground in October 1910 and awaiting the fitting of an engine.
Data
Biplane glider
Span 27ft
Length 30ft
Chord 5ft
Weight 130 lb
P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
Aeroplane Building and Flying Society Glider
A Farman-type biplane glider was built during 1911 by the Society, whose members experimented with it at Kensal Rise, London. As their flying-ground was without sufficient natural slope for easy launching, they developed an artificial launching track of parallel ropes, along which ran a trolley down a gradient of about 1 in 6, the glider being mounted upon the trolley.
