The Royal Aeronautical Society The First Fifty Years

Extract

Thomas Moy's declaration at the 1873 Meeting of the Society, that he and his partner Shill were constructing a large-scale model of a flying machine, roused considerable interest. Twelve months later, at the Meeting held on 15th May 1874, he said:

“We have not got on so fast as we had hoped. Various difficulties had arisen which had to be mastered one by one as they cropped up. As their machine was only a working model, the aeroplane required to be made of some light material. Some time ago I was trying to get thin steel rolled and corrugated but I was unable to get anything suitable. I next tried a fine kind of brown holland for our wing sails, but found this would not take the curves kindly, but got into wrinkles. I am now making use of thin pine lathes nicely planed and fitted so as to form a sectional screw surface, and I think they would answer very well, and would form the nearest approach to a perfect screw that can be obtained.”