Horatio Frederick Phillips
Horatio Frederick Phillips was an aero inventor and experimenter who used a wind tunnel of his own construction to test new types of airfoils.[1]
His apparatus used steam injections to form a pressure gradient in a tunnel—a significant adjustment from Francis Wenham's design. Phillips tested cambered (curved) airfoils, which achieved aerodynamic efficiency more than double that of flat plates.[2] The lower surface of the airfoil had a shallower curve than the upper, with a point of maximum thickness at between 1/3 and 1/2 of the distance from the front.[3]
He later developed flying machines which used numerous wings, including one which featured 50 of them, arranged vertically.[2]
Maxim reports experimenting with Phillips-type steam condensers which also produce lift.[4]
One one patent Phillips gave his occupation as Gunsmith, and his address as 131 High Street, Harlesden, County of Middlesex, England.[5]
Patents whose inventor or applicant is Horatio Frederick Phillips or Horatio Phillips
- Patent GB-1884-13768 (English title: Cambered airfoils for deflecting air, Filing date: 1884-10-17)
- Patent GB-1890-20435 (English title: Flying machine, Filing date: 1890-12-15)
- Patent GB-1891-13311 (English title: Flying machines, Filing date: 1891-08-06)
- Patent GB-1908-23048 (English title: Improvements in or relating to flying machines, Filing date: 1908-10-29)
- Patent GB-1917-115968 (English title: Aerofoils for aeronautical machines, Filing date: 1917-07-26)
References
- ↑ w:Horatio Frederick Phillips
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hallion, 2003, pp. 118–119. "After Phillips, what might be termed the impact model of lift rapidly disappeared, and camber, in various forms, was king. Phillips recognized this, patenting a family of airfoils having pronounced camber. Above all, however, he firmly believed that the higher the aspect ratio, the better. He carried this to an extreme in 1893, constructing a tethered airplane test rig having a virtual Venetian blind for a wing; no less than 50 wings, one above the other, each having a span of 19 feet and a chord of only 1.5 inches, giving it the extraordinary aspect ratio of 152. Run around a circular track, this rig produced a lifting force of nearly 400 pounds at 40 miles per hour, proving the value of camber, though otherwise it was a completely impractical configuration."
- ↑ Crouch, 1981, p. 35.
- ↑ Maxim, 1909, Artificial and Natural Flight, p. 60.
- ↑ Patent GB-1897-1016 at espacenet
More good sources: https://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/phillips/Tech4.htm, http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/phillips.html, https://patents.google.com/?inventor=horatio+phillips&oq=horatio+phillips
Names | Horatio Frederick Phillips; Horatio Phillips; H. F. Phillips |
---|---|
Birth date | 1845 |
Death date | 1924 |
Countries | GB |
Locations | Harlesden, County of Middlesex |
Occupations | gunsmith |
Tech areas | Camber, multiplane, aerofoil |
Affiliations | |
Wikidata id |