Signal Corps Specification Number 486
Signal Corps Specification Number 486 was the bidding protocol issued by the U.S. Army Signal Corps for the first American military airplane. The requirements it established were notoriously stringent considering the state of aviation in 1907.
The primary author of this document was Major George O. Squier.[1]
The Signal Corps received 24 bids and issued two (?) contracts. Congress refused a requested $200,000 funding, requiring the Army to seek funds from the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications.[1]
The Wright Brothers bid successfully and won a contract in February 1908, promising to deliver an aircraft to Fort Myer, Virginia, within 200 days, and demonstrate its performance within the following 30 days.[2]
Berriman, 1913, Aviation, pp. 220–221:
On 23 December, 1907, the American Army Signal Corps invited tenders for army aeroplanes, the purchase to take place conditionally upon certain tests that were regarded, by those whose actual knowledge of what had been accomplished was limited to the public achievements in France, as so severe as to be preposterous. The more interesting and important clauses of this famous document are as follows:
(3) The flying machine must be designed to carry two persons having a combined weight of about 350 lb., also sufficient fuel for a flight of 125 miles.
(4) The flying machine should be designed to have a speed of at least 40 miles per hour in still air, but bidders must submit quotations in their proposals for costs depending upon the speed attained durng the trial flight, according to the following scale: 40 m.p.h., 100%; 39 m.p.h., 90%; 38 m.p.h., 80%; 47 m.p.h., 70%; 36 m.p.h., 60%; less than 36 m.p.h. rejected; 41 m.p.h., 110%; 42 m.p.h., 120%; 43 m.p.h., 130%; 44 m.p.h., 140%.
(6) Before acceptance a trial endurance flight will be required of at least one hour, during which time the flying machine must remain continuously in the air without landing. It shall return to the starting-point, and land without any damage that would prevent it immediately starting upon another flight. During this trial flight of one hour it must be steered in all directions without difficulty, and at all times under perfect control and equilibrium.
(10) It should be sufficiently simple in construction and operation to permit of an intelligent man to become proficient in its use within a reasonable length of time.
(12) Bidders will be required to furnish with their proposal a certified cheque amounting to 10% of the price stated for the 40 miles speed. Upon making the award for this flying machine, these certified cheques will be returned to the bidders, and the successful bidder will be required to furnish a bond, according to Army Regulations, of the amount equal to the price stated for 40 miles speed.
Full contract reproduced in Flight, 14 June 1913, p. 651.
Orville Wright delivered the "Wright Military Flyer" to Fort Myer on 20 August 1908 and made a demonstration flight lasting over an hour on September 9. (At the same time, Wilbur Wright was demonstrating an airplane in France.)[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sweetser, 1919, The American Air Service, p. 8.
- ↑ David R. Chenoweth, "Testing the Military Flyer at Fort Myer, 1908–1909", Air Power History, Winter 2002.
- ↑ Villard, 2002, Contact!, p. 55.
