Weiss Aeroplane and Launcher Syndicate Ltd.

José Weiss (Alsatian-born naturalized Englishman), a landscape artist, founder and designer. E.C. Gordon England and Gerald Leak, both pilots. Dr. Alex Keith, designer. Exact year of firm's founding or demise is not known but it appears to have been founded by 1905.

From about 1900 experimented with model stable gliders based on bird forms; received a Great Britain patent in 1908. In 1909, built a full-sized glider tailless glider designed on these same principles. In it, on 27 Jun 1909, E. C. Gordon England achieved the world's first piloted soaring flight in a glider, a feat repeated subsequently in Weiss gliders (at least one more glider was completed in 191l) by England and Gerald Leak. Weiss also built at least one pusher and two tractor monoplanes, 1909-1910, that could be controlled without warping or ailerons; like the gliders, they were based on the lines of the albatross. England also flew Weiss's monoplanes. In later experiments, Weiss became associated with Dr. Alexander Keith and their creations are under the entry of Keith-Weiss.

Gordon England's soaring feat in 1909 was from the top of Amerberly Mount on the South Down range of hills in Sussex, Southern England. Handley Page studied the work of Jose Weiss and his earliest airplanes incorporated the back-swept crescent-shaped wings and washed-out angle of incidence that Weiss had used for stability.

Sources

• Gunston, 1993, p324
• Gunston, 2005, p499
• SD304, 167; 1911FM40; 1939FM627; 315LA43; WGC

Names	Weiss Aeroplane and Launcher Syndicate Ltd.
Country	Great Britain
City	Sussex, Southern England
Affiliations
Keywords
Started aero	by 1905
Ended aero
Key people	José Weiss, E.C. Gordon England, Gerald Leak, Alex Keith
Wikidata id