Lyman Gilmore on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Lyman Wiswell Gilmore, Jr. (June 11, 1874 – February 18, 1951) was an
In 1935, Lyman's airplane hangar and the two aging monoplanes were destroyed by fire. The fire cancelled plans to exhibit the larger monoplane at the World Fair in Chicago. Gilmore began mining for gold and died a poor man in Nevada City, California. His grave can be found in Pine Grove Cemetery, about a half mile outside of town.
The Lyman Gilmore Middle School in Grass Valley has the motto, "Flying into the Future" and a mural depicting first flight. School children made a YouTube presentation about Gilmore including old video footage of Gilmore and an interview with people who knew him."In Search of Lyman Gilmore"--a student production as an entry in the California Preservation Foundation film contest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdUOe0vdJhA
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
pioneer. In Grass Valley, California
Grass Valley is a city in Nevada County, California, United States. Situated at roughly in elevation in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, this northern Gold Country city is by car from Sacramento, from Sacramento I ...
, he built a steam-powered airplane and claimed that he flew it on May 15, 1902. Due to the requirement of a heavy boiler and the dependency on coal as a power source, the flights would have been unsustainable. Records and evidence relating to his claim were lost in a 1935 hangar fire.
First flight
Gilmore, in a 1936 interview, reported a successful tethered glider flight in 1893 and a free glider flight in 1894. Gilmore further added that (although he had not reported it until 1927) he made a controlled steam-powered flight on May 15, 1902; however, all records and papers related to his aircraft were destroyed in a fire. There are photographs from 1898 showing Gilmore's machine, but none showing it in the air. The claims of the aircraft achieving flight are unconfirmed, and given the weight evident by the grounded aircraft photos, the possibility of flight is highly unlikely.Work
Lyman Gilmore was in contact with other flight pioneers likeSamuel Langley
Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22, 1834 – February 27, 1906) was an American aviation pioneer, astronomer and physicist who invented the bolometer. He was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a professor of astronomy a ...
and, eventually, the Wright brothers.
In 1902, Gilmore was granted two patents on steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
s. He invented in other areas too: for example, a rotary snowplow
A snowplow (also snow plow, snowplough or snow plough) is a device intended for mounting on a vehicle, used for removing snow and ice from outdoor surfaces, typically those serving transportation purposes. Although this term is often used to re ...
. On March 15, 1907, Gilmore opened the first commercial airfield
An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...
, Gilmore Airfield, in Grass Valley. There is now a middle school named in his honor on the site of the airfield.
In 1935, Lyman's airplane hangar and the two aging monoplanes were destroyed by fire. The fire cancelled plans to exhibit the larger monoplane at the World Fair in Chicago. Gilmore began mining for gold and died a poor man in Nevada City, California. His grave can be found in Pine Grove Cemetery, about a half mile outside of town.
The Lyman Gilmore Middle School in Grass Valley has the motto, "Flying into the Future" and a mural depicting first flight. School children made a YouTube presentation about Gilmore including old video footage of Gilmore and an interview with people who knew him."In Search of Lyman Gilmore"--a student production as an entry in the California Preservation Foundation film contest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdUOe0vdJhA
See also
*Early flight
''Early Flight'' is a 1974 compilation album by the American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released as Grunt CYL1-0437. It features previously unreleased material from 1966, 1967, and 1970 as well as both sides of a non-album 1970 sin ...
- for other pre-Wright-brothers inventors.
* Mystery airship
Mystery airships or phantom airships are a class of unidentified flying objects best known from a series of newspaper reports originating in the western United States and spreading east during late 1896 and early 1897.. According to researcher ...
References
External links
* http://www.aerofiles.com/_ga.html * http://www.ncngrrmuseum.org/ * http://www.flyingmachines.org/gilmore.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilmore, Lyman 1874 births 1951 deaths People from Thurston County, Washington Aviation inventors Discovery and invention controversies History of aviation People from Nevada City, California People from Grass Valley, California