Horatio Frederick Phillips (1845 – 1924) was an English aviation pioneer, born in Streatham, Surrey. He was famous for building multiplane flying machines with many more sets of lifting surfaces than are normal on modern aircraft. However he made a more lasting contribution to aeronautics in his work on

aerofoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. ...

design.Wragg, D.W.; ''Flight before flying'', Osprey, 1974

Aerofoils

Phillips devised a wind tunnel in which he studied a wide variety of

shapes for use in providing lift. The tunnel was unusual in that the gas flow was provided by steam rather than air. By 1884 he was able to register his first patent, and more were to follow. He demonstrated the truth of George Cayley's idea that giving the upper surface greater curvature than the lower accelerates the upper airflow, reducing pressure above the wing and so creating lift.

Multiplane flying machines

Phillips believed that multiple stacked wing planes (or "sustainers" as he called them), in "Venetian blind" configuration, offered advantages. * His 1893 Flying Machine had 50 lifting surfaces and used his patented "double-surface airfoils" in such a way as to produce an aspect ratio of 1:152, providing great lift at the sacrifice of stability. As a test vehicle, it was not designed to be manned, but was used to test lifting capability. Its maximum load was found to be . * His 1904 Multiplane was a development of the 1893 test vehicle in a configuration that could be flown by a person. It had 21 wings and had a

tail The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammal ...

for stability, but was unable to achieve sustained flight. Its best performance was . A specially made replica of the 1904 machine appears in the opening sequences of the 1965 film ''

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines ''Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes'' is a 1965 British period comedy film that satirizes the early years of aviation. Directed and co-written by Ken Annakin, the film ...

''. * His 1907 Multiplane, which had 200 individual airfoils and was powered by a engine driving a propeller achieved a flight on 6 April 1907. This was the first flight of its kind in England, although it was preceded by the Wright brothers by several years. Though successful, the 1907 model showed poor performance compared to more conventional contemporary types. This caused Phillips to end his attempts at manned flight.Angelucci, E. and Matricardi, P.; ''World Aircraft – Origins-World War 1'', Sampson Low, 1977.

References

External links

Guide to Horatio Philips, Letter to Octave Chanute August 25, 1909
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
Aviation pioneers English engineers 1845 births 1924 deaths Phillips {{England-engineer-stub