Riley Estel Scott
Riley Estel Scott was an American aero inventor noteworthy for developing a bombsight. He had been an artillery officer. Scott was admitted as a US Army cadet in 1900 from West Virginia[1] and was promoted in the army in 1904.[2]
Scott tested his bombsight, with Lieutenant Thomas De Witte Milling, at the Army's aeronautical testing ground at College Park on 9 October 1911. The tests showed high accuracy but the US Army declined to sponsor further development. Scott went to Paris and entered the Aéro-cible Michelin contest. He won a $27,500 prize from Michelin and sold the bombsight to the French government.[3]
He published a discussion of the how aircraft could attack the Panama Canal: Can the Panama Canal be destroyed from the air? in Sunset magazine. Relatedly, he was arrested in 1914 and charged with disclosing photos or other info about the Panama Canal that should have been kept secret.[4]
Patents whose inventor or applicant is Riley Estel Scott
- Patent US-1911-991378 (English title: Means for dropping projectiles from aircraft, Filing date: 1910-05-04)
- Patent FR-1911-429878 (English title: Apparatus for releasing or launching explosive projectiles from an aerostat or other aerial machine, Filing date: 1911-05-06)
- Patent FR-1912-444692 (English title: device for maintaining a telescope in a vertical line of aiming on a graduated sector carried by a moving vehicle, such as an aeroplane or other aircraft, Supplementary to patent: Patent FR-1911-429878, Filing date: 1912-06-06)
References
- ↑ List of Cadets Admitted Into the United States Military Academy, ...
- ↑ Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress (1904), January 1, 1905, page 139
- ↑ Hallion, 2003, pp. 300–302. "Not being as penurious or shortsighted as Scott's countrymen, the French government promptly bought his bombsight, and, indeed, American mercenary pilot Bert Hall flew for the Bulgarians with a version of the Scott sight during the Balkan War of 1912."
- ↑ Editor and aviator are arrested for disclosing military secrets, The Morning Press, Santa Barbara, Calif., July 11, 1914; his name is listed as Riley A. Scott not Riley E. Scott, but it has to the the same person since he had published about the Panama Canal.
Sources and archives
- He's got a page on Wikisource.
| Names | Riley Estel Scott |
|---|---|
| Birth date | |
| Death date | |
| Countries | US |
| Locations | College Park |
| Occupations | artillery officer |
| Tech areas | instruments |
| Affiliations | U.S. Army, Michelin prize |
| Wikidata id |
