He also discovered the importance of cambered wings, the characteristic curved shape that is fundamental to flight.
A replica of George Cayleys flying machine which he flew in 1853.
The glider is currently on display at the Yorkshire Air Museum.
Photo:Yorkshire Air Museum
Sir George Cayleys fascination with flight started from early childhood.
The balloon flights of the Montgolfier brothers in the 1780s captivated his fecund mind.
But Cayley wasnt interested in passive ascent.
He wanted to build a real flying machine.
His first gear was a replica of a toy helicopter designed by Frenchmen Launoy and Bienvenu in 1784.
The helicopter had two contra-rotating rotors operated by bow strings.
George Cayleys helicopter toy.
Previous designers tried to imitate birds and built machines with huge flapping wings.
Few, if any, were successful at all.
But Cayley thought differently.
He imagined a fixed-wing machine propelled by an auxiliary mechanism.
Cayley used it test aerofoil designs at various angle of incidence.
Shortly after, he built the first model monoplane glider of strikingly modern appearance.
Sir George Cayley
George Cayleys first working glider.
Cayley’s biggest hurdle was finding an appropriate power source to propel his aircraft.
Cayley knew that power produced by human muscle alone would be insufficient to sustain flight.
But mechanical power sources of the time were unsuitable for a nimble machine like an airplane.
For the next three decades, George Cayley put his dreams on hold and pursued other occupations.
In 1853, he built a larger glider and sent his coachman flying 900 feet across a Brompton dale.
Some say it was his grandson and not the coachman who took flight.
Still others insist it was neither, but the butler instead.
The Boy Carrier flown in 1849.
The Governable Parachute first flown in 1853.
Cayley died in 1857, shortly before his 84th birthday.
Wilbur Wright, 1909.
