Thomas Moy
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Thomas William Moy (1823–1910) was an English engineer and
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best known for his ''Aerial Steamer'' of 1875.


Early life

Moy was born in the Liberty of the Rolls (now part of
Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
) in London around 1823. In the 1851 census of Islington he is listed as living with his wife Henrietta and six-month-old daughter and is described as a 28-year-old law stationers clerk. 1851 Census of Islington, RG8/1500, Folio 415, Page 6, Thomas Moy, 15 Freeling Street, Finsbury. In 1881 Moy was living in
Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...
and was described as a 58-year-old civil engineer. 1881 Census of Camberwell, RG11/676, Folio 66, Page 35, Thomas Moy, 64 Anstley Road, Camberwell. In 1901 he was still living in Camberwell but was now described as a 78-year-old mechanical engineer and patentee; his wife also with him, but she died a few months after the census. 1901 Census of Camberwell, RG13/508, Folio 65, Page 13, Thomas Moy, 130 Ivydale Road, Camberwell.


Aeronautics

Moy's introduction to aeronautics was through
balloon A balloon is a flexible membrane bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. For special purposes, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), ...
ing but he soon became interested in heavier-than-air flight, and performed some experiments with lifting surfaces by towing surfaces in the
Surrey Canal Surrey Canal is an area in inner south east London, situated 2 miles south of Tower Bridge, which was formerly home to a section of the Grand Surrey Canal. It is formed by the meeting point of three districts: Bermondsey, Deptford and New Cross ...
in 1861. Moy was one of the earliest members of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain (later the
Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest Aeronautics, aeronautical society in the world. Memb ...
), founded in 1866, and presented a number of papers at its meetings, including one in 1869 describing the soaring flight of
albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Paci ...
es in a wind. His best-known work, the ''Aerial Steamer'', was constructed in 1874 and tested at the
Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...
in South London in July 1875, with limited success: the aviation historian
Charles Gibbs-Smith Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith (22 March 1909 – 3 December 1981)Octave Chanute Octave Chanute (February 18, 1832 – November 23, 1910) was a French-American civil engineer and aviation pioneer. He advised and publicized many aviation enthusiasts, including the Wright brothers. At his death, he was hailed as the father of ...
's contemporary and detailed account, the aircraft never came close to flying because it was unable to reach the speed necessary for takeoff. The society described it as "one of the most determined attempts at solving the problem f powered flightwhich has yet taken place." Shortly after the first test, the machine was damaged in a storm. Moy rebuilt it with substantial modifications, but after brief tests, the project was abandoned owing to lack of money. He was also involved in a dispute over patent rights with Mr. Shill, the engineer who had worked with him on the development of the engine. In 1879 he demonstrated the ''Military Kite'' to a meeting of the Aeronautical Society. This was a rubber-powered model, capable of taking off under its own power. Around 1901 Moy was experimenting with an
ornithopter An ornithopter (from Greek language, Greek ''ornis, ornith-'' 'bird' and ''pteron'' 'wing') is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers sought to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may dif ...
mounted on an elevated track at
Farnborough, Kent Farnborough is a village in Greater London, England. Situated south of Locksbottom, west of Green Street Green, north of Downe and Hazelwood, London, Hazelwood, and east of Keston, it is centred southeast of Charing Cross. Suburban develop ...
. In March 1904, Moy gave a lecture to the Aeronautical Society on mechanical flight. After his lecture the president announced: Moy died in 1910.


The ''Aerial Steamer''

The ''Aerial Steamer'', sometimes called the ''Moy-Shill Aerial Steamer'', was an unmanned
tandem wing QAC Quickie Q2 A tandem wing is a wing configuration in which a flying craft or animal has two or more sets of wings set one behind another. All the wings contribute to lift. The tandem wing is distinct from the biplane in which the wings are ...
aircraft driven by a
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...
using
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as fuel. This drove a pair of six-bladed propellers placed between the two
bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...
and stretched
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wings, of which the rear had a span of and an area of . The front wing was slightly smaller, with an area of . A third smaller surface was mounted at the rear of the aircraft; this was adjustable for the purpose of altering the
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. It was long and weighed about , of which the engine accounted for , and ran on three wheels. Moy's first set of propellers consisted of a number of individual wooden blades attached to the six spokes of the assembly, their pitch becoming finer the further they were from the hub. This propeller arrangement was replaced by stretched fabric blades before the flight test. The propellers were fitted with a mechanism designed to alter the pitch of the blades as they rotated, so that the blades moving downwards were at a coarser pitch to provide a lifting force. It was tested in tether around an ornamental fountain at the
Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...
in South London in June 1875 on a circular rolled gravel track of nearly diameter. A first trial churned up the gravel and achieved very little. A wooden deck was then laid over the gravel, and a second attempt made. Moy later told
Octave Chanute Octave Chanute (February 18, 1832 – November 23, 1910) was a French-American civil engineer and aviation pioneer. He advised and publicized many aviation enthusiasts, including the Wright brothers. At his death, he was hailed as the father of ...
that it did not reach a speed of above and did not lift off; he had calculated that a speed of around would be necessary. However, it is credited with being the first steam-powered aircraft to have left the ground under its own power by the historian
Charles Gibbs-Smith Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith (22 March 1909 – 3 December 1981)helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
. In this configuration it now weighed . He tested it under cover, and it was found that by suspending it and counterbalancing of its weight it would lift off, the "aerial wheels" (as Octave Chanute called them) providing lift.


The ''Military Kite''

In 1879 Moy demonstrated his ''Military Kite'' to a meeting of the
Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest Aeronautics, aeronautical society in the world. Memb ...
. This was a small model aircraft propelled by a pair of rubber-driven propellers which rotated in opposite directions. This had two lifting surfaces like the ''Aerial Steamer'', but was more like a modern aircraft in that there was a principal lifting surface mounted in front of a second lifting surface of half the span and a quarter of the area. The bow-shaped surfaces were made of
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, had dihedral and an adjustable angle of incidence and were fixed to on a central pine box-girder, mounted on wheels. Unlike
Alphonse Pénaud Alphonse Pénaud (31 May 1850 – 22 October 1880), was a 19th-century French pioneer of aviation design and engineering. He was the originator of the use of twisted rubber to power model aircraft, and his 1871 model airplane, which he called ...
's ''Planophore'' of 1871, which had to be hand-launched, the ''Military Kite'' could take off under its own power.


References


Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moy, Thomas 1823 births 1910 deaths English inventors Aviation inventors