The Grahame-White Baby was an early
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
aircraft designed by pioneer aviator
Claude Grahame-White
Claude Grahame-White (21 August 1879 – 19 August 1959) was an English pioneer of aviation, and the first to make a night flight, during the ''Daily Mail''-sponsored 1910 London to Manchester air race.
Early life
Claude Grahame-White was born ...
in 1910.
Design
The Grahame White Baby was a single-seat
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
pusher, of the then orthodox "
Farman
Farman Aviation Works (french: Avions Farman) was a French aircraft company founded and run by the brothers Richard, Henri, and Maurice Farman. They designed and constructed aircraft and engines from 1908 until 1936; during the French national ...
" layout, with a frontal elevator and a rear-mounted
empennage
The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...
consisting of a biplane horizontal stabilisers with single elevator mounted on the top surface and a single central rudder. As the name suggests, it was considerably smaller than most contemporary aircraft of a similar layout, having a wingspan of only . In comparison, the wingspan of a standard
Bristol Boxkite
The Boxkite (officially the Bristol Biplane) was the first aircraft produced by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company (later known as the Bristol Aeroplane Company). A pusher biplane based on the successful Farman III, it was one of the ...
was 34 ft 6 in (10.5 m). An unusual feature of the aircraft was the mounting for the 50 hp (37 kW)
Gnome
A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...
rotary engine, which was mounted on a pair of angled beams so that the engine was midway between the upper and lower wings.
The
Burgess Company
The Burgess Company was a U.S. airplane manufacturer between 1910 and 1918.
History
The business was incorporated in 1910 as the "Burgess Company and Curtis, Inc." (after W. Starling Burgess and Greely S. Curtis, its co-founders with Frank Henr ...
in the United States purchased a licence to build it as the Model E.
Specifications
See also
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*Lewis, P. ''British Aircraft 1809-1914'' London, Putnam 1962
*Taylor M.J. H. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation''.London: Studio Editions, 1989
* ''Flugsport 1911''
aerofiles
{{Grahame-White aircraft
1910s British sport aircraft
Biplanes
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1911
Rotary-engined aircraft