The Cygnet (or Aerodrome #5) was an extremely unorthodox early

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

aircraft, with a wall-like "wing" made up of 3,393 tetrahedral cells. It was a powered version of the Cygnet

tetrahedral kite A tetrahedral kite is a multicelled rigid box kite composed of tetrahedrally shaped cells to create a kind of tetrahedral truss. The cells are usually arranged in such a way that the entire kite is also a regular tetrahedron. The kite can be desc ...

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Te ...

in 1907 and built by the newly founded

Aerial Experiment Association The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. The AEA produced several different aircraft in quick succession, with eac ...

Design and development

Bell's experiments with tetrahedral kites had explored the advantages of utilizing great banks of cells to create a lifting body leading to the Cygnet I. On 6 December 1907,

Thomas Selfridge Thomas Etholen Selfridge (February 8, 1882 – September 17, 1908) was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in an airplane crash. He was also the first active-duty member of the U.S. military to die in a crash whil ...

piloted the kite as it was towed into the air behind a motorboat, eventually reaching a height of 168 ft (51 m). This was the first recorded heavier-than-air flight in Canada. While demonstrably able to fly as a person-carrying kite, it seemed unpromising as a direction for research into powered flight. It was difficult to control, and was in fact destroyed when it hit the water at the end of the flight. The following year, a smaller copy of the design was built as the Cygnet II, now equipped with wheeled

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

and a

Curtiss Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decade ...

V-8 engine.

Operational history

Attempts to fly the Cygnet II at

Baddeck, Nova Scotia Baddeck () is a village in northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated in the centre of Cape Breton, approximately 6 km east of where the Baddeck River empties into Bras d'Or Lake. Local governance is provided by the rural municipality ...

between 22 and 24 February 1909, met with failure. When the

AEA Silver Dart The ''Silver Dart'' (or ''Aerodrome #4'') was a derivative of an early aircraft built by a Canadian/U.S. team, which after many successful flights in Hammondsport, New York, earlier in 1908, was dismantled and shipped to Baddeck, Nova Scotia. ...

was ready for flight testing, the engine was removed from the Cygnet II, and then returned. Rebuilt again as the Cygnet III with a more powerful 70 hp Gnome Gamma engine, its final flight was on 19 March 1912, at

Bras d'Or Lake Bras d'Or Lake (Mi'kmaq language, Mi'kmawi'simk: Pitupaq) is an irregular estuary in the centre of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. It has a connection to the open sea, and is tidal. It also has inflows of fresh water from rivers, ma ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, piloted by John McCurdy.Dailey 2010, p. 42. The results were highly unsatisfactory with the Cygnet III only able to lift off the ground for a foot or two, typically considered remaining in ground effect. After a final trial on 17 March, the tetrahedral cell bank failed structurally, leaving the aircraft irreparably damaged. The Cygnet II and III were abandoned following this flight attempt.Molson and Taylor 1982, p. 103.

Specifications (Cygnet III)

References

;Notes ;Bibliography
"Aerial Experimental Association (A E A)."
''Aerofiles,'' 1 June 2005. * Angelucci, Enzo. ''World Aircraft: Origins to World War 1''. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co, 1975. . * Dailey, John R. ''Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: An Autobiography''. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2010. . * Milberry, Larry. ''Aviation in Canada: The Pioneer Decades, Vol. 1''. Toronto: CANAV Books, 2008. . * Molson, Ken M. and Harold A. Taylor. ''Canadian Aircraft Since 1909''. Stittsville, Ontario: Canada's Wings, Inc., 1982. . * Payne, Stephen, ed. ''Canadian Wings: A Remarkable Century of Flight''. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2006. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Aea Cygnet

Cygnet A cygnet is a young swan. Cygnet may also refer to: Places *Cygnet Island, a small islet in south-eastern Australia *Cygnet, Ohio, a village in the United States *Cygnet River, South Australia, a locality on Kangaroo Island *Cygnet, Tasmania, a ...

1900s Canadian experimental aircraft 1900s United States experimental aircraft Victoria County, Nova Scotia Alexander Graham Bell Single-engine aircraft Multiplane aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1907

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Cygnet III)

See also

References