The Cody Michelin Cup Biplane was an experimental aircraft designed and built in Britain during 1910 by

Samuel Franklin Cody Samuel Franklin Cowdery (later known as Samuel Franklin Cody; 6 March 1867 – 7 August 1913, born Davenport, Iowa, USA)) was a Wild West showman and early pioneer of manned flight. He is most famous for his work on the large kites known a ...

, a prominent showman and aviation pioneer. Cody had worked with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

on experiments with man-lifting kites and in October 1908 had successfully built and flown the

British Army Aeroplane No 1 The British Army Aeroplane No 1 or sometimes Cody 1 was a biplane built by Samuel Franklin Cody in 1907 at the Army Balloon Factory at Farnborough. It made the first recognised powered and sustained flight in the United Kingdom on 16 October 19 ...

, making the first officially verified powered flight in the United Kingdom. Cody broke the existing endurance record twice in the aircraft, the second flight, made on 31 December 1910, winning him the

Michelin Cup The Michelin Cup refers to a number of competitions sponsored by the French tyre manufacturer Michelin for long distance flight made in aeroplanes. The first Michelin prize was announced in March 1908. The principal prize, to be awarded annually ...

for the longest-lasting flight made over a closed circuit in the United Kingdom before the end of the year.

Background

In 1910 there were a number of prizes on offer, offering both prestige and in some cases large sums of money. Among them were the £4,000 Baron de Forest prize for the longest all-British flight to a destination in mainland Europe, the Michelin Cup and £500 endurance prize for the longest flight observed over a closed circuit and £10,000 offered by the '' Daily Mail'' newspaper for a flight between London and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Design

After his success with the Army Aeroplane Cody started work on a new design for 1910. This was a three-bay biplane of similar design. A large elevator, divided into two sections at the centre, was carried in front of the wing on three sets of booms, one at each end and the third at the centre.Lewis 1962 p.191 A rectangular rudder was carried on two booms extending aft, the lower attached to the apex of inverted V struts below the engine bearers, which also supported the long skid projecting back from below the lower wings's

leading edge The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...

. Lateral control was by ailerons mounted on the outermost

interplane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s of each wing. The

elevators An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

were operated by a pair of bamboo push-rods, leading to control horns mounted at the centre of each half of the elevator. It had a

tricycle undercarriage Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

, augmented by a long skid projecting back behind the wing

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 199 ...

and small wheels mounted on the wingtips. The aircraft was initially powered by a Green water-cooled engine mounted on the lower wing using a chain to drive a single two-bladed pusher propeller mounted on a shaft halfway between the wings.

Operational history

The aircraft was flying by June 1910. On 7 June Cody was awarded his Aero Club certificate, the seventh issued, having made his qualifying flights at Laffan's Plain, Farnborough. After a crash, which kept Cody in bed for a few days in June, the Green powerplant was replaced by a E.N.V. Type F engine. A fixed horizontal surface was added to the rudder and the ailerons were moved inwards and back, so that they were between the rear struts and the outer bay of each wing. On 21 July, Cody stayed in the air for 2 hours 24 minutes, covering a distance of over a closed circuit at Laffan's Plain, setting a new British endurance record. This record was beaten by

Thomas Sopwith Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, CBE, Hon FRAeS (18 January 1888 – 27 January 1989) was an English aviation pioneer, businessman and yachtsman. Early life Sopwith was born in Kensington, London, on 18 January 1888. He was the e ...

in November, but on the last day of the year Cody managed to stay aloft for 4 hours 47 minutes at Laffans Plain, so winning the Michelin Cup and a prize of £500. Cody continued flying the aircraft in 1911 while working on a new aircraft to compete in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Air Race, in January making a remarkable flight carrying three passengers, one of whom had to stand on the wing.Laffan'sPlain

Flight magazine ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

, 21 January 1911 In March 1911 the aircraft was displayed at the 1911 Aero Show at Olympia.

Specifications

Notes

References