Lanzius Aircraft Co.
Lanzius appears to have built and flown a variable speed biplane for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, 1917; this craft developed into a single seat fighter, 1919. This must pertain to Patent US-1916-1289206.
We have this firm as "a Corporation of Delaware" to which George Lanzius assigned patent rights.[1] Lanzius was incidentally filing from a hotel in New York. There may have been a slapdash or fly-by-night aspect to some of these matters of formal status.
A source says that Erroll Boyd "was testing the Lanzius I, the first all-metal welded plane which incorporated a changeable angle of incidence. Its designer, George Lanzius, was an inventor originally from Holland." Flight Lt. Boyd of RNAS, plunged and crashed in this "untried biplane of unique design" (quoting the Montreal Gazette). "The Lanzius Aircraft Company had ... three factories in New York, Tennessee, and New Jersey, and executive offices on Broadway according to their advertisement." "Their variable-speed plane of cantilever construction embodied new aviation principles" enabling a quick take-off. Boyd thought other airplane manufacturers would adopt the design. An observer wrote that the aircraft was very unstable and that Mr. Lanzius, who witnessed the crash, was upset about the plane and ignored Boyd's "miraculous escape", and says Boyd was in a Canadian uniform. "In 1918 George Lanzius built four scouting aircraft for the army air services fitted with the powerful 400 hp Liberty engine. . . . [his] company pilot L. E. Holt was killed when the Lanzius aircraft he was flying shed its wings." And, little further was heard from the firm, write Smyth, p.45.[2]
Patents associated with organization named Lanzius Aircraft Co.
- Patent US-1916-1289206 (Inventors: George Lanzius, English title: Aeroplane, Filing date: 1916-01-21, Applicant firm: Lanzius Aircraft Co.)
Sources
References
- ↑ Patent US-1916-1289206
- ↑ Ross Smyth, The Lindbergh of Canada: The Erroll Boyd story pp 43-45
- Gunston, 1993, p176
- Gunston, 2005, p275
- SD174
- w:Lanzius L II - an article about a biplane sold by Lanzius to the US military
| Names | Lanzius Aircraft, Lanzius Aircraft Co., Lanzius Aircraft Corp. |
|---|---|
| Country | US |
| Locations | Brooklyn, New York City, NY |
| Affiliations | |
| Keywords | Aeroplane, frame, incidence, biplane |
| Started aero | 1916 |
| Ended aero | 1919 |
| Key people | George Lanzius |
| Wikidata id |
