Thursday 13th November 2014
At the November meeting on Thursday in the Expanse Hotel the chairman, John Heaton, welcomed members and passed on information about invitations to attend meetings at Beverley, Driffield and Filey Probus Clubs. After an excellent lunch the chairman then introduced Roger Stanley, a club member to speak about Sir George Cayley, the aeronautical pioneer.
Cayley was born in 1773 and became 6th Baronet of Brompton in 1792. He is remembered in the names of the Cayley Arms, which was a public house in Brompton until two years ago and in the Cayley Arms at Allerston. He lived at Brompton Hall which is now a special school. Brompton Dale opposite the hall was the scene of his glider tests and Roger suggested it should be regarded in England in the same manner in British aviation history as Kittihawk is in America. He also suggested that Sir George should be regarded as a kind of Leonardo da Vinci of Yorkshire.
Cayley was born in Paradise House, adjacent to the castle, in Scarborough. He was educated in York, Nottingham and London having shown aptitude in science and mathematics.
His early inventions included a tension spoke wheel, a universal railway for track laying and a railway buffer and brake. He also invented an artificial hand for one of his tenants after an amputation. Sir George also had a lifetime of public service and developed a drainage scheme in Muston, an allotments scheme and established the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. He was for a brief period M.P. for Scarborough in 1832.
It is in aviation development that Sir George is best remembered. In 1796 he produced a toy helicopter and his plans for an early aeroplane are recorded on a silver disk, made in 1799 and kept in the Science Museum. In a progression towards manned flight he produced a ‘whirling arm’ glider, a ‘gunpowder engine’ and after observing trout in a stream, that body shape design for flight.
In 1853 he developed a manned glider flown at Brompton Dale by his groom, John Appleby. A replica of which is in the Yorkshire Air Museum. In 2003 Sir Richard Branson came to Brompton and flew a replica to mark the 150th anniversary of that flight.
In 1909 Wilbur Wright, no less, acknowledged Cayley’s progress and influence towards manned flight.
His legacy is that he separated lift and propulsion, introduced the science of the bi and tri plane, the internal combustion engine, lift and drag, stability in pitch and the propeller for propulsion.
The vote of thanks for a most interesting and well presented talk was given by David Rawding.