The "Aviator One" tested by the Wright brothers in 1903 was a biplane. It was not uncommon for early aircraft to use more than one layer of wings. There were biplanes, triplanes or four wings, but how many layers could an aircraft have at most? Wings?
Many of the early aircraft were biplanes. The main purpose of this design was to obtain a larger lift area and generate greater lift. Another benefit is that the structure of the biplanes plus struts and tension lines is relatively strong and can meet the needs of Aircraft structural strength requirements. Theoretically, the more wings there are, the larger the area and the greater the lift. But making an airplane fly is not just about having enough lift. Historically, there was an aviation pioneer who worked hard to generate enough lift with so many wings that his plane looked like the shutters on an old house, but unfortunately, so many wings did not allow him to fly. Dreams become reality. The pioneer was an Englishman named Horatio Frederick Phillips.
Horatio Frederick Phillips (1845-1924)
Practitioner of curved airfoils
In 1845, Phillips was born outside London. His father was a gunsmith, and little Phillips had an interest in machinery since he was a child. Deep interest. At that time, the problem of flight was a major scientific and technological issue that many scientists and engineers struggled to find breakthroughs. Phillips was also passionate about it. He paid close attention to the aeronautical research conducted by the Royal Aeronautical Society using rotating arms and wind tunnels. After much research, Phillips felt that the progress of the Royal Aeronautical Society was too slow and thought he could do better, so he built his own wind tunnel and started experiments himself. At this time, he was less than 40 years old. In the
experiment, he found that compared to flat airfoils, airfoils with curved arcs can produce greater lift. If he goes further, the lift characteristics of wings with upper surface curvature greater than lower surface can be further improved. George Kelly proposed this theory as early as the early 19th century, but at that time the pioneers of aviation paid little attention to it. Phillips' research data brought this theory to the forefront in an empirical way for the first time, arousing the interest of aviation pioneers around the world. Attention. Since then, nearly all flight pioneers have adopted curved airfoils on their gliders or powered aircraft, including Germany's Lilienthal, America's Langley and the Wright brothers. It can be said that Phillips' airfoil research helped them a lot.
In the 1880s, Phillips carefully studied the relationship between airfoil and lift. But he was too obsessed with the number of wings and paid little attention to the stability and control of the aircraft. From 1893 he began building a series of multi-wing aircraft, initially a coal-fired aircraft with 50 layers of wings - the shape of each wing was not chosen at random, but instead used Phillips' double-surface wing Patented design. The wing he designed is very narrow and long, with an aspect ratio as high as 1:152. 50 layers of such wings are stacked. Although the lift generated is not small, the stability of the aircraft has become a sacrifice. This aircraft was a test aircraft and did not fly with humans. It should be said that this point still has scientific rigor. Phillips intended to use it to test the lift characteristics of his original wing form. After some testing, Phillips found that the wing's carrying capacity could reach 400 pounds (180 kilograms).
1893 Phillips' 50-story wing test aircraft, which was powered but not manned, was tested on a circular track.
The Failure of the Venetian Shutters
With the optimistic conclusions from his 1893 test aircraft at the end, Phillips set out to build an aircraft that could actually fly humans. Eleven years later, in 1904, he completed his new aircraft (the 1904 aircraft). The number of wings of this 1904 aircraft was slightly reduced to 20 layers, and a cross-shaped tail was added to improve stability. Below is a tricycle landing gear. The chord length of the wing (which can be understood as the width) is still very small, only about 10 centimeters, and it still does not get rid of the curse of the blinds. The engine was also built by Phillips himself and drove a two-blade pull-in propeller. The results of the test were regrettable. The aircraft could not achieve sustained flight, let alone controllability.Tests showed the aircraft had poor stability and was uncontrollable. The best test flight is said to have only jumped 15 meters (50 feet). However, people seem to have not forgotten this aircraft. In the opening scene of the famous 1965 aviation-themed film "The Good Guys in the Aircraft", an elaborate replica of the Phillips 1904 appeared.
The 20-story multi-wing manned aircraft built by Phillips in 1904 only focused on lift and did not address stability and controllability. The aircraft only jumped and flew 15 meters. The failure of the
1904 aircraft did not discourage Phillips, and he was determined to keep trying. However, he obviously did not realize the key reason for the previous failure. He always believed that the lack of lift caused the aircraft to be unable to continue flying. This directly led to the 1907 aircraft he built later to use as many as 200 ailerons, just like a trypophobia patient. Nightmare. The aircraft was equipped with a 22 hp (16 kW) engine driving a 7 ft (2.1 m) propeller, and during tests on 6 April 1907, it was said to have achieved a range of 150 m (500 ft). Although the Wright brothers' "Flyer One" had achieved the first successful flight of a powered manned aircraft in the United States as early as 4 years ago, Phillips' shutter monster is still regarded as the first powered aircraft to fly in the UK. airplane.
The 200-wing Phillips aircraft of 1907 seemed to have perfect blinds, but this aircraft could only fly farther, and control problems were still a stumbling block to success. (Wang Yu/picture)
Being able to fly is of course an essential feature of an airplane, but just being able to fly is not enough to make it a good airplane. Compared with conventionally designed aircraft at the time, Phillips's aircraft had an extraordinary and even deviant appearance, but its performance was incomparable. Phillips' repeated efforts failed to improve flight performance. Seeing more and more conventional layout aircraft becoming the new favorite of society, he finally gave up the design of manned aircraft.
In 1946, the American Northrop Company quoted Pelips' louvered aircraft in an advertisement, using this failed attempt as a starting point to show Northrop's many innovations in wing design, including 1929 Inner-supported wings in 1932, split flaps in 1932 and retractable ailerons in 1941, until the last astonishing flying wing.
In the opening scene of the famous 1965 aviation film "The Good Guys in the Aircraft", a carefully crafted replica of the Phillips 1904 appeared.
