Sir George Cayley

Sir George Cayley (27 December 1773 – 15 December 1857) also known as, “The Father of Aviation”,
was an English engineer, inventor, and aviator. He is one of the most important people in the history
of aeronautics. Many consider him the first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to
understand the underlying principles and forces of flight.

Cayley literally has two great spurts of aeronautical creativity, separated by years during which he did
little with the subject. He was the first to identify the four aerodynamic forces of flight weight, lift,
drag, and thrust and their relationship. He was also the first to build a successful human-carrying
glider. Cayley described many of the concepts and elements of the modern airplane and was the first
to understand and explain in engineering terms the concepts of lift and thrust. Before him,
researchers thought that the propulsion system should generate both lift and forward motion at the
same time, as birds were able to do. So they constructed their flying machines with flapping wings
(called ornithopters) to resemble the motion of birds. Cayley realized that the propulsion system
should generate thrust but that the wings should be shaped so as to create lift. Finally, Cayley was
the first investigator to apply the research methods and tools of science and engineering to the
solution of the problems of flight.

In his experiments, Cayley would first test his ideas with small models and then gradually progress to
full-scale demonstrations. He also kept meticulous records of his observations. One of his first
experiments as a young man was to build a small helicopter model. This toy was rooted deep in
European history. The earliest ancestors of the device date to the 14 thcentury. Cayley was inspired by
a version developed in 1784 by the Frenchmen Launoy and Bienvenu. It had two rotors consisting of
feathers stuck in corks and was driven by a string from a bow. The design demonstrated an
understanding of how a propeller worked. It also addressed Cayley's interest in finding a means of
powering an aircraft. He attempted to use an engine fueled by gunpowder but it was unreliable. His
inability to find a means of propulsion caused him to revert temporarily to Leonardo da Vinci's
concept of using flapping wings as a means of propulsion.

This resulted in his 1843 convertiplane model called the Aerial Carriage. Cayley reverted to
ornithoptering propulsion and vertical flight ideas on several occasions in his career. It incorporated
four circular discs that were designed to raise the machine vertically, rather like a helicopter,
whereupon they were to form circular wings. This ambitious design was never actually built but
remains an example of Cayley’s remarkable understanding of the principles of flight. Also, he built his
first aerial device in 1796, a model helicopter with contra-rotating propellers.

References:
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/cayley.html
http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/to%20reality/Sir%20George
%20Cayley.htm#targetText=His%20inability%20to%20find%20a,model%20called%20the%20Aerial
%20Carriage.&targetText=George%20Cayley's%20design%20for%20an,George%20Cayley's
%201853%20glider.
http://www.flyingmachines.org/cayl.html
https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10321809