AN IMPROVED FLYING ENGINE
Year: 1884

page_text: I JOHN KINNERSLEY SMYTHIES of The Tye in the Parish of Great Bentley in
the County of Essex, Barrister at Law, do hereby declare the nature of my
Invention for AN IMPROVED FLYING ENGINE to be as follows:-
A carriage with three or four wheels and seats for passengers is fitted with
structures resembling and acting like wings, and with a Steam Engine, Gas
Engine or Electro motor to flap them and raise the carriage with its load and
propel it through the air without any balloon: If a Steam Engine is employed a
reciprocating action is to be given to it as in the Steam hammer and other steam
Engines without fly-wheels, but in other respects no special form is required. The
wing may be made like that of a bird, bat or insect, the anterior margin being
rigid and the posterior flexible, and the resistance of the air to its elevation is to
be reduced either by shortening it just before its elevation and extending it just
before its descent as most small birds do; or by making it in several parts each
overlapped by the one behind it like the primary feathers in the wing of a
partridge or Grouse, opening to let the air through them while the wing ascends
and closing while it descends; or by altering the angle made by the plane of the
wing with the horizon by a rotation of the wing round its axis through an angle
of about 40 degrees depressing the posterior margin of the wing during its ascent
and elevating it on its descent; or by a combination of these methods. A wing
on the last plan, which seems the best, may be made of a long, elastic and tapering
steel rod diminishing in depth and thickness from the end nearest the engine to
the tip, or of a series of seamless steel tubes fitted into each other like the joints of
a fishing rod, the rod or composite tube being so curved that the rotation of the
wing in its socket may sufficiently change the angle of its plane in ascent and
descent and not shift its centre of gravity, as shewn in fig: 1, on a smaller scale
than the other drawings.-This steel forms the anterior margin of the wing, the
posterior margin being formed by a cord connecting the outer end or tip of the
steel with the top of a rod, whose lower end is fixed to the boiler behind the
wings, and a silk or linen web is to be stretched between the steel and cord.
The inner end of this cord is to be fixed at the same height as the inner end of
the wing and so far behind it as to bring the centre of pressure of the wing behind
its centre of gravity, and to give the wing the required breadth.-The inner end of
the steel rod or tube is to be placed within a short tube A B E (fig: 2) forming its
socket or bearing and confined in its place by the pin F passing through the socket
and a slot in the steel rod or tube so that it may turn round thro' an angle of
D

page_text: 40 degrees but not slide in its socket. The tube A B. E is to be connected with
the cylinder by two pairs of links A C and B D pinned at one end to the bearings A
and B contained in and moving with it; and at the other end to the fixed
bearings C and D so that it may move round a point between A and B in a
vertical plane through an angle of 90 degrees. It is also connected with the
crosshead of the piston rod by the pair of connecting rods F. G. and while it is
flapped up and down by the engine the wing changes the angle it makes with the
horizon at the beginning of each up and down stroke by the greater pressure of
the air behind than before its centre of gravity.
Or the tube forming the Socket of the Steel rod or tube A. D. E. (fig: 3) may be
pin jointed to the fixed bearing A by a pin passing also through a pair of curved
links A. B. C. D at A and by another pin through D while the curved links are
pin jointed to a pair of straight links B. E by a pin through B. and to the pair
of straight links C. F. by a pin through C and the pair of straight links C. F are
pin jointed at the upper end by a pin through C and at the other by a pin
through F to the cross-head of the piston rod The pin hole at D is to be a slot
open upwards (fig: 3) so that the curved links push the tube upwards but do not
pull it down as the tube is pulled down by the pin E only. In the triangle made
by straight lines joining the points A. B. and C. the angle at C must be less than
30 degrees and the angle at B inust be 45 degrees less by balf the angle at C. The
pin at E passes also through the slot in the steel rod or tube before named.
A pair of wings are to be placed symmetrically on each side and above the
Cylinder, and the fixed bearings above named are to be in a cross-lead supported
by vertical rods on the Cylinder or its cover, which will also act as guides for the
piston rod, and must be above the centre of gravity of the machine with its load
and in a vertical plane passing through the centre of gravity.
Though any prime mover may be used to flap the wings I prefer a vertical
multitubular boiler with very small tubes and a double acting vertical engine or
cylinder bolted to the centre of the upper tube plate inside a vertical chimney.
A cylinder of thin sheet steel fitted on to the bottom of the boiler forms the
furnace.
The Carriage with three or four wheels to facilitate the descend is to be fixed to
the boiler so that the wheels and the frame-work are below it and the seats on
each side of it.
A Condenser cooled by the current of air is to be added with a feed pump
force the Condensed water into the boiler as fast as it is formed.
to
The fuel should be of benzoline or other hydro-carbon, whose boiling point is
below that of water, to be boiled by admitting part of the exhaust steam through
A pump is
a regulating cock into a jacket surrounding the Vessel containing it.
to force air into this Vessel and the mixed vapour and air is to be forcibly driven
through fine needle-holes in a hollow circular copper ring in jets directed to the
centre of the ring. The strength of the fire is regulated by the amount of steam
admitted to the jacket.
The two pumps may be worked by the main engine or better by a small
auxiliary engine to work when the engine is standing.

page_text: I JOHN KINNERSLEY SMYTHIES of the Tye in the parish of Great Bentley in
the county of Essex barrister at law do hereby declare the nature of my
invention for AN IMPROVED FLYING ENGINE and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
A carriage with wheels and seats for a driver and passengers is to be fitted with
structures resembling and hereinafter called wings flapped by a steam engine or
other prime mover and thus raised and driven without a balloon. If a steam
engine is used, to avoid the weight of a flywheel a reciprocating action may be
given as in the steam hammer or other steam engines without a flywheel, and any
known prime mover that will give a similar action to the piston rod may be used.
The wing may be made of a steel shaft and silken or linen web in the form of that
of a bird, bat or insect, the anterior margin being rigid and the posterior flexible,
and the resistance of the air to it's ascent is to be reduced either by making it in
several similar parts each partly overlapped by the one behind it like the primary
feathers in the wing of a partridge, opening by the air's resistance while the wing
ascends and closing by the air's resistance while it descends; or by giving the
shaft of the wing liberty to turn in it's socket through an angle of about thirty five
degrees by the resistance of the air depressing the posterior margin during ascent
and raising it during descent; or by a combination of these methods.
The shaft of the wing may be a long steel rod tapering in depth and thickness
from it's joint to it's tip, or of a series of seamless steel tubes fitted like the joints of
a fishing rod, curved backwards at the tip so that the wing may have sufficient
breadth and it's plane be sufficiently changed by the rotation of the shaft. A cord
or wire from the tip of the shaft to a fixed point behind and a little below the
pin D' fig 1, round which the wing turns, forins the posterior margin of the wing,
between which and the shaft a silken or linen web is tightly stretched. The
pin D2 and the point, to which the cord is fixed, are to be above the centre of
gravity of the machine and it's load, the pin being before and the cord's attachment
behind it. The larger end of the shaft is to fit into the tube E figs 1 & 2 and to
be held therein by a pin passing through the tube and a slot in the shaft so that
it may turn through an angle of about thirty five degrees but not slide along
the tube.
The connection of the piston rod with the wings is shown by fig 1. a front or
back elevation and fig 2 a sectional plan on the line X X.
A A are vertical steel rods fixed below into the cylinder cover A¹ and supporting
two fixed crossheads A* A* each consisting of a pair of parallel steel bars between
which the pistonrod B passes through guiding sockets. A short crosshead B¹ is
fixed to the pistonrod and travels with it as far as it can without touching the
crosshead A or A³ for a distance equal to the stroke of the engine. A link C is
pinjointed to the crosshead B¹ on each side and to the lower end of the bent
lever D. A steel tube E is placed on each side between the pair of bars of the
crosshead A³, which touch and keep it in a vertical plane, and is jointed thereto
by the pin D passing through it and the bars of the crosshead and the eccentric on
the bent lever D on each side. This bent lever D has on it's inside a circular boss
or eccentric with it's centre a short distance below the centre of the pin D' fitting
into an eccentric strap at the inner end of the link F (figs 1, 3, 4). The ascent of
the pistonrod pulls up the lower end of the bent lever D by the link C and turning
it round the pin D* pulls down the link F, which pulls down the tube E with a

page_text: .
very oblique action. The shaft of the wing being fitted into the tube descends
with it and turns through an angle of about thirty five degrees by the action of
the air. The pin D' at the upper end of the bent lever D touches the under side
of the tube E and is idle during the ascent of the pistonrod, but on it's descent
presses up the tube.
5
The angle between the two straight lines from the centre of the pin D2 and the
centre of the eccentric boss meeting at the centre of the pin G should not exceed
ten degrees, and the angle between the two straight lines from the centres of the
pins D and G meeting at the centre of the eccentric boss should be 45 degrees
minus half the beforenamed angle, though flight may be obtained with other angles. 1
The diminution of the smaller angle increases the lifting power and diminishes
the speed.
A flat horizontal sail of silk or linen should be stretched out behind to act as a
tail in steadying the flight; and if this is double and waterproof the steam may be
condensed by being blown into the bag so formed. Or any condenser that is tight
and in a form to cause little resistance to the air may be placed behind to condense
the steam, and the water of condensation is to be returned into the boiler as fast as
it collects by a feed pump or injector.
If a steamengine is used to flap the wings any furnace or fuel may be used,
but I prefer a cylindrical furnace made of light nickel plated sheet steel of the
same diameter as the boiler with a diaphragm of nickel plated sheet copper
perforated with holes not exceeding it's thickness in diameter, on which benzoline
vapour supplied from below and mixed with enough air to burn with a blue
smokeless flame is burnt.
The engine may be guided by shifting the centre of gravity backwards to ascend,
forwards to descend, and to one side to turn to that side, and this can be done by
the driver by shifting his seat or inclining his body.
To alight gently the engine's head is to be turned to the wind and steam shut
off till it is just insufficient to sustain the engine.
Any forin of light carriage with wheels and springs may be fitted with any
number of these engines each working one pair of wings.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1. The connection of the engine with the wings substantially as described so as
to cause an upward thrust on the joint of the wing while it is pulled down.
2. The combination of parts forming a flying engine substantially as described.
31
Stambon & D 1884