John William Dunne (2 December 1875 – 24 August 1949) was a British soldier,

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

and philosopher. As a young man he fought in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, before becoming a pioneering aeroplane designer in the early years of the 20th century. Dunne worked on automatically stable aircraft, many of which were of tailless swept wing design, to achieve the first aircraft demonstrated to be stable. He later developed a new approach to dry fly fishing before turning to speculative philosophy, where he achieved some prominence and literary influence through his "serialism" theory on the nature of time and consciousness, explained in his book '' An Experiment with Time''.

Biography

John William Dunne was born on 2 December 1875 in

Curragh Camp The Curragh Camp ( ga, Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel. History Longstanding ...

, a British Army establishment in County Kildare, Ireland. He was the oldest son of Irishman Sir John Hart Dunne KCB (1835–1924) and his English wife Julia Elizabeth Dunne (née Chapman). 1911 Census of St George, London, RG14/442, John William Dunne, Belgrave Mansions, Belgrave, London. Despite being born in Ireland of an Irish father, he had an English mother and was born in Ireland only because his father was Lieutenant-Colonel of the British 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment, who happened to be stationed there at the time. He spent most of his childhood and subsequent career in England. At an early age he suffered a bad accident and was confined to bed for several years. During this time he became interested in philosophy. While still only nine years old he asked his nurse about the nature of time. At the age of 13 he had a dream in which he was in a flying machine that needed no steering.Dunne, J. W. ''An Experiment with Time''. London: Faber, 1927.

Military career

Following the outbreak of the

, Dunne volunteered for the

Imperial Yeomanry The Imperial Yeomanry was a volunteer mounted force of the British Army that mainly saw action during the Second Boer War. Created on 2 January 1900, the force was initially recruited from the middle classes and traditional yeomanry sources, but s ...

as an ordinary Trooper and fought in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

under General Roberts. In 1900 he was caught up in an epidemic of

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...

fever and was invalided home. Recovered and commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the

Wiltshire Regiment The Wiltshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot and the 99th Duke of Edinburgh's (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot. The ...

on 28 August 1901, he went back to South Africa to serve a second tour in March 1902. He fell ill again and was diagnosed with heart disease, causing him to again return home the next year. Much of his remaining time in the Army would be spent on aeronautical work while on sick leave.

Aeronautics

upAs a civilian pioneer While on Army sick leave in 1901, Dunne began a systematic study of flight. His first attempted model was inspired by a Jules Verne novel but failed to fly. Like many other pioneers he closely observed birds in flight. However, unlike most, he was convinced that a safe aeroplane needed to have inherent aerodynamic stability. Encouraged among others by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

tailless swept wing configuration.Walker (1974). On his return to England for the second time he resumed his study of flight and by 1906 had developed a tailless, swept-wing "arrowhead" configuration which was inherently stable and would become his trademark. At the request of Colonel John Capper, the unit's commanding officer, in June 1906 he was assigned to the new

Army Balloon Factory The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

in South Farnborough. Dunne wanted to construct a monoplane, but at the time the Army demanded biplanes and Capper instructed him accordingly. A manned glider, the D.1, with provision for fitting engines and propellers, was constructed under great secrecy and, in July 1907, was taken to

Blair Atholl Blair Atholl (from the Scottish Gaelic: ''Blàr Athall'', originally ''Blàr Ath Fhodla'') is a village in Perthshire, Scotland, built about the confluence of the Rivers Tilt and Garry in one of the few areas of flat land in the midst of the Gr ...

in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...

for flight testing. On its one successful flight, Capper flew it for just long enough to demonstrate its stability before crashing into a wall. It was repaired and fitted with its powered chassis, but was damaged on its first and only attempted flight when the takeoff trolley veered off course. In the winter of 1907–1908 Dunne designed the

Dunne-Huntington triplane The Dunne-Huntington triplane, sometimes referred to as a biplane, was a pioneer aircraft designed by J. W. Dunne and built by A. K. Huntington. It was of unusual staggered triple-tandem configuration and an early example of an inherently sta ...

and a smaller glider, the D.2, to test the design. The glider was not built but the full-scale craft would eventually be built by A. K. Huntington and flown successfully from 1910. The 1908 season at Blair Atholl saw two new machines brought up from Farnborough, the D.3 glider and the D.4 powered aeroplane. The glider flew well at the hands of Lt. Launcelot Gibbs, while the D.4 had limited success being badly underpowered and consequently, in Dunne's words, "more a hopper than a flyer"."Correspondence: Letter from Science Museum."
''Flight,'' 17 June 1955, p. 852. Dunne returned to the Balloon Factory in the midst of a Government Inquiry into military aeronautics. As a result of its findings the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

stopped all work on powered aircraft and in the spring of 1909 Dunne left the Balloon Factory. By now, he was also an official in the Aeronautical Society. Dunne flyinhg machine

With his friends' financial investment Dunne formed the Blair Atholl Aeroplane Syndicate to continue his experiments and took up hangar space on the

Aero Club A flying club or aero club is a not-for-profit, member-run organization that provides its members with affordable access to aircraft. Many clubs also provide flight training, flight planning facilities, pilot supplies and associated services, as ...

's new flying ground at Eastchurch on the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is derive ...

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

had a manufacturing facility there and were contracted to build the D.5, a broadly similar biplane in which Dunne installed a more powerful 35 hp

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

engine. Following a series of increasingly successful flights, on 20 December 1910 Dunne demonstrated the inherent stability of the D.5 to an amazed audience who included two official observers, Orville Wright and

Griffith Brewer Griffith Brewer (23 July 1867–1 March 1948)Penrose 1967, p.575 was an English balloonist, aviator and patent agent. He was also a founding member of the Royal Aero Club. He became a friend of the Wright Brothers, and was one of their mai ...

, making it the first aeroplane to be demonstrably stable in flight. He was able to take both hands off the controls and make notes on a piece of paper. Dunne's next design, free of Army influence, was a monoplane, the D.6. This and its derivatives, the D.7 and D.7bis, flew throughout 1911–1913. British-built examples were flown both at Sheppey and at

Larkhill Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It lies about west of the centre of Durrington village and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury. The settlement ...

on Salisbury Plain, and one was also built by the Astra company in France. Parallel with the monoplane work, the

Dunne D.8 The Dunne D.8 of 1912 was a tailless swept wing biplane, designed by J. W. Dunne to have inherent stability. One example was supplied to RAE Farnborough. License-built Burgess-Dunne models were used by the US Signal Corps and United States ...

biplane was developed from the D.5. In 1913 an example was bought by Nieuport (who had taken over Astra's aeroplane business) and flown across the Channel to France. The next year a much reorganised Farnborough evaluated the type. Production was licensed to both Nieuport in France and Burgess in America, however only the Burgess-Dunne was manufactured in any quantity. From 1913, Dunne's continuing ill health forced him to retire from active flying. Mainstream aircraft design was now established along an entirely different path and, although the principle of inherent stability was proven and slowly gaining acceptance, Dunne's designs were now obsolete. The Blair Atholl Syndicate was eventually liquidated and Dunne moved on to other work.

Later years

Dunne published his first book, on dry fly fishing, in 1924, with a new method of making realistic

artificial flies An artificial fly or fly lure is a type of fishing lure, usually used in the sport of fly fishing (although they may also be used in other forms of angling). In general, artificial flies are an imitation of aquatic insects that are natural food of ...

(see below). Meanwhile, he was studying precognitive dreams which he believed he and others had experienced. By 1927 he had evolved the theory of serial time for which he would become famous and published an account of it, together with his dream researches, in his next book '' An Experiment with Time''. In 1932 the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to co ...

(SPR) tried to replicate his experimental results on dream precognition, but their investigator

Theodore Besterman Theodore Deodatus Nathaniel Besterman (22 November 1904 – 10 November 1976) was a Polish-born British psychical researcher, bibliographer, biographer, and translator. In 1945 he became the first editor of the ''Journal of Documentation''. From ...

failed amid some controversy. The SPR's journal editor even prefaced his report with a disclaimer distancing the Society from his findings and Dunne gave his own version two years later in a new edition of his book. When the playwright

J. B. Priestley John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator. His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...

premiered his 1937 time play ''Time and the Conways'', Dunne lectured the cast on his theory. He later gave a television broadcast. Dunne continued to work on serialism throughout the rest of his life and wrote several more books, as well as frequent updates to ''An Experiment with Time''. On 3 July 1928, at the age of 52, he married the Hon. Cicely Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, daughter of

Geoffrey Cecil Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 18th Baron Saye and Sele Geoffrey Cecil Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 18th Baron Saye and Sele (3 August 1858 – 2 February 1937) was an English soldier and Liberal politician from the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family. He served as Comptroller of the Household between 1 ...

, and they lived for a good deal of time after that at the family seat of

Broughton Castle Broughton Castle is a medieval fortified manor house in the village of Broughton, which is about two miles south-west of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England, on the B4035 road (). It is the home of the Fiennes (in full Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes) ...

. They had two children and he wrote up some of his bedtime stories to them in two more books, ''The Jumping Lions of Borneo'' and ''St. George and the Witches'' (published in the US as ''An Experiment with St. George'').

Death

Dunne died in

Banbury, England Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

on 24 August 1949, aged 73.

Aircraft

Dunne created some of the first practical and stable aircraft. The majority were unusual in being of tailless swept configuration. Stability was achieved by progressively rolling the leading edge down from root to tip, a feature known as washout. Careful balance of its characteristics allowed the use of only two flight controls. A disadvantage of this was that, without a rudder, crosswind landings were not possible and the approach had to be made into the wind. Aircraft designed by Dunne included: * D.1, 1907. Biplane, flown first as a glider, then the powered version was damaged on its first takeoff attempt. * D.2. Proposed small test glider for the

, not built. *

, designed 1907–1908, flown 1910. Triple tandem wing with high-mounted central wing and smaller fore wing, leading some to refer to it as a biplane.Lewis 1962, pp.231-232.Jane 1913, p. 47. Constructed by Professor A. K. Huntington to Dunne's design, the only type which was not of tailless swept configuration. * D.3, 1908. Biplane glider, flew well. * D.4, 1908. Powered biplane, achieved short hops. * D.5, 1910. Powered biplane. First Dunne aeroplane to fly, first tailless aeroplane to fly, stable in flight. Following an accident it was rebuilt in modified form as the D.8. * D.6, 1911. Monoplane, never flew. * D.7, 1911. Monoplane, flew well. The D.7-bis was a Gnome-powered version of the D.7. * D.8, 1912. Biplane, several built. The D.8-bis was a Gnome-powered version of the D.8; an example flew from

Eastchurch Eastchurch is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Sheppey, in the English county of Kent, two miles east of Minster. The village website claims the area has "a history steeped in stories of piracy and smugglers". Aviation history Eastch ...

to Paris in 1913. * D.9, 1913. Unequal-span biplane or sesquiplane project, never completed. * D.10, 1913. Shorter-span version of D.8. Proved a failure. * Burgess-Dunne. License-built variants derived from the D.8 and manufactured under license in U.S. from 1913 to 1916; land- and seaplane versions; flew with U.S. and Canadian military air arms.

Dry fly fishing

Dunne was a keen

dry fly Dry fly fishing is an angling technique in which the lure is an artificial fly which floats on the surface of the water and does not sink below it. Developed originally for trout fly fishing. The fish and the dry fly Fly fishing for trout can be ...

fisherman. At the time Halford's theories were fashionable and his flies commonplace, but Dunne noticed that they did not match the real flies he saw while fishing. He was one of the first writers to challenge the Halford school, developing new theories and a number of dry flies based on the translucence of a fly when seen from underneath in direct sunlight. In Dunne's flies the hooks were painted white to reflect light, bound in methodically coloured fibres and oiled to make the fibres more translucent. He published his theories and fly dressings in a book, ''Sunshine and the Dry Fly'', in 1924. The first part of the book is primarily a treatise on the vision of the trout and its response to various kinds of prey or lure. The second part comprises instructions for tying the flies which he had designed. His work proved revolutionary, "amounting almost to heresy." Writers who have endorsed Dunne include Robert Hartman and Arthur Ransome. Flies to his pattern were still available from Hardy Bros. as late as 1966.

Dreams and serialism

Dunne believed that he experienced precognitive dreams. The first he records occurred in 1898, in which he dreamed of the time on his watch before waking up and checking it. Several such experiences, some quite dramatic, led him to undertake a scientific investigation into the phenomenon. Based on years of experimentation with such precognitive

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

s and

hypnagogic Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep: the ''hypnagogic'' state of consciousness, during the onset of sleep. Its opposite state is described as the transitional state from sleep into wakefulness. Menta ...

states, both on himself and on others, he claimed that in such states, the mind was not shackled to the present and was able to perceive events in the past and future with equal facility. He used this to support his new theory of time and consciousness. His landmark '' An Experiment with Time'' (1927) recounts the story and also includes his account of the theory of serial time. Dunne proposed that our experience of time as linear is an illusion brought about by human consciousness. He argued that past, present and future were continuous in a higher-dimensional reality and we only experience them sequentially because of our mental perception of them. He went further, proposing an infinite regress of higher time dimensions inhabited by the conscious observer, which he called "serial time." In ''The Serial Universe'' (1934), ''The New Immortality'' (1938), ''Nothing Dies'' (1940) and ''Intrusions?'' (1955), he further elaborated on the concept of "serialism," examining its relation to current physics in relativity and

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...

, and to

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...

and Christian theology. Dunne's theory offered a scientific explanation for ideas of consciousness being explored widely at the time. It became well known and was discussed by philosophers such as J. A. Gunn,

C. D. Broad Charlie Dunbar Broad (30 December 1887 – 11 March 1971), usually cited as C. D. Broad, was an English people, English epistemology, epistemologist, history of philosophy, historian of philosophy, philosophy of science, philosopher of sc ...

and M. F. Cleugh, and by the parapsychologist G. N. M. Tyrrell. While some accepted his dream observations and the general thrust of his arguments, the majority rejected his infinite regress as logically flawed. The ideas underlying Serialism were, and continue to be, explored by many literary figures in works of both fiction and criticism, most notably in the time plays of

.Stewart, Victoria; "J. W. Dunne and Literary Culture in the 1930s and 1940s", ''Literature and History'', Volume 17, Number 2 / Autumn 2008, pp. 62-81, Manchester University Press.

Published works

* ''Sunshine and the Dry Fly'' (1924) * '' An Experiment with Time'' (1927) * ''The Serial Universe'' (1934) * ''The League of North-West Europe'' (1936) * ''The Jumping Lions of Borneo'' (1937) * ''The New Immortality'' (1938) * ''An Experiment with St. George'' (1938), published in the US as ''St George and the Witches'' * ''Nothing Dies'' (1940) * ''Intrusions?'' (1955)

References

Notes

Sources

* Jane, F.T., ed. "''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1913''". London: Sampson Low, 1913, reprint: David & Charles, 1969. * Lewis, P. "''British Aircraft 1809–1914''". London: Putnam and Co., 1962. * Poulsen, C.M
"Tailless trials, Tribute to a British Pioneer: The Dunne Biplanes and Monoplane."
''Flight'', 27 May 1943, pp, 556–558

* Walker, P.; "''Early Aviation at Farnborough, Volume II: The First Aircraft''", Macdonald (1974).

External links

* E.T. Wooldridge; "History of the Flying Wing"

Century of Flight. (retrieved 23 August 2017).

''Flight'', 3 September 1910, Pages 709–710. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunne, John William 1875 births 1949 deaths Angling writers Aviation pioneers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British fishers British philosophers British spiritualists Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society Parapsychologists People from County Kildare Philosophers of time Wiltshire Regiment officers