Improvements in Flying Machines.
Year: 1899

page_text: Improvements in Flying Machines.
I. WILLIAM GEORGE WALKER, of 47, Victoria Street, in the City of West-
minster, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
"
I propose to lift my aerial machine by means of screws or rotary aeroplanes
mounted on upright vertical shafts, so that the screws or aeroplanes revolve in
a horizontal plane when lifting. The screws may have four or more blades, the
blades fixed one above the other and connected together by diagonal struts and
ties the blades are of sufficient vertical distance apart to allow of the free
passage of the air, the object in placing a blade immediately above another
blade is to increase the strength and stiffness of the blades, a pair of blades are
thus, from a structural point of view similar to a warren or lattise girder"
supported at one end, the upper and lower blades of one pair constituting the
upper and lower flanges of the girder respectfully, when the screws are lifting the
members of the upper blade are in compression and the lower one in tension,
more than two blades may be placed above each other and connected together
by ties and struts, the ties and struts should offer as small a resistance to the
air as possible, I prefer to make the structure of the blades of steel tubes brazed
together by suitable sockets and tied by wire, the framing being covered by
canvass or other suitable material.
A screw may be used arranged with the pair of blades as above revolving in
one direction, mounted on a vertical shaft, or a couple of screws may be
employed revolving in the opposite directions on the same axis driven by steam,
oil, gas, or electric motors, one above the other by means of a hollow shaft
having another internal shaft revolving in the other direction so that the two
screws may react against each other. I propose to fix the framing of the steam
or oil engine to the outer shaft, and the crank shaft of the engine
to the inner shaft, by this means the framing of the engine not
being fixed relatively to its crank shaft, as is the case in the ordinary engines, but
only fixed to the outer shaft, the engine framing, cylinders, guides, crossheads,
pipes etc. will revolve due to the reaction of the connecting rod. Therefore the
crank shaft will revolve in one direction, and the engine not being fixed relatively
to its shaft as in the ordinary way will rotate in the opposite direction. I
prefer to place the cylinders exactly opposite each other so as to produce a
balance. The cylinder, framing, and reciprocatory parts, revolve therefor with
the screw connected to the outer shaft and the crank shaft with the screw con-
nected to the inner shaft.
These revolving engines act as a gyroscope and gives stability to the machine,
by means of the inertia in revolving weight of the engines.
In the case of electric motors, the armature would be connected to the inner

page_text: shaft and the field magnets to the outer one, so that the armature will revolve in
the same direction as one shaft and the field magnets with the other shaft.
I employ a cage or car freely suspended to the main shafting by suitable ball
or other bearings and which does not revolve, on the cage may be placed the
steam boiler from which steam is supplied to the revolving engines by means
of a suitable stuffing box or trunnion. To prevent the rotation of the cage it
may be partially connected when necessary either to the outer shaft or the
inner shaft by means of friction gear.
Where steam is used I prefer to place the condenser on the revolving blades
the exhaust steam being taken up the vertical shaft.
I can if desired rotate the screws by means of supplementary screws placed at
the tips of the blades having their axis horizontal and tangential to the tips of
the or by means of jet propulsion reacting tangential at the tips of the blades,
the jet propulsion may be either steam or caused by an explosive mixture. With
screws revolving by means of supplementary propellers or jets, there will be no
necessity to employ screws revolving in the opposite direction as the supple-
mentary propellers or jets at the tips will in themselves produce the necessary
reaction. A jet or supplementary propeller may be employed to prevent the
cage or car revolving with the shaft; or when a single screw is employed, reaction
may be obtained by a supplementary screw acting on the end of a cantilever.
I propose. to navigate my machine by tilting the axis out of the vertical, i.e.
by altering the centre of gravity, by means of a sliding weight or weights attached
to a suitable bar, this bar together with the weight may be revolved to any
particular vertical plane of the compass and the weight moved out or in, tilting
the disc plane of the screws to any desired angle which will give the machine
a horizontal motion either when rising or falling
I can also navigate my machine by means of rudders which may be tilted
either in a vertical or horizontal plane.
The disc area of the revolving screws approximates a single aeroplane of the
equivalent area. And in order to utilize the power of the winds as far as
possible. I propose to introduce considerable area in the central part of the
screws which area may be in a plane or planes at right angles to the axis of the
screws, in which case I rely on the outer portions of the screw blades for lifting
purposes.
·
Dated this 5th day of September 1899.
Improvements in Flying Machines.
I, WILLIAM GEORGE WALKER, of 47, Victoria Street, in the City of West-
minster, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
I propose to lift my flying machine by means of screws or rotary aeroplanes
mounted on vertical shafts. I construct the screws with the blades arranged
so that they do not all revolve in the same plane. In order to explain my
meaning suppose we fix an ordinary screw-propeller of four blades on to a
vertical shaft. in which case all the blades will revolve in the same horizontal
plane, then place another similar screw-propeller on the same shaft and at a con-
venient distance above the other one and it will rotate in a different horizontal

page_text: plane, now rotate the upper screw-propeller until its blades are just over the
blades of the lower one so that the respective four blades of the upper propeller
are in the same vertical planes as the respective blades of the lower one but with
a space between the respective propellers, then fix both propellers. We now
have a single eight bladed screw-propeller made up of two four bladed ones,
consisting of four sets of two superimposed blades, in the same manner we can
fix a third similar screw-propeller which would form a propeller consisting of
four sets of three superimposed blades or twelve blades in all. If necessary the
propellers may be fixed so that the superimposed blades are not in the same
vertical plane.
In my aerial screw-propeller I connect the different superimposed blades
to-gether by struts and ties whereby the strength is very much increased; in
the case of an ordinary screw-propeller employed for aerial work and where the
blades are of considerable length and yet must be as light as possible they tend
to bend and break off at the roots of the blades, this difficulty is to a great extent
overcome by arranging the blades superimposed so that they can be conneted
to-gether by struts and ties after the manner of a lattice girder, so that a set
of two superimposed blades are from a structural point of view somewhat
similar to an ordinary lattice girder fixed at one end. The struts and ties
should offer as small a resistance as possible to the air. The main object in
the above arrangement of superimposed blades is that they shall be as stiff and
strong as possible for a minimum amount of weight. I prefer to construct the
propeller with as many blades as possible arranged superimposed as before
discribed so that I can obtain a large blade area with small diameter propeller.
I prefer to make the structure of the blades of steel tubes brazed to-gether by
suitable sockets and tied by wire, the framing being covered by canvass or other
suitable material. A screw may be used having blades as above revolving in
one direction mounted on a vertical shaft, or a couple of screws may be em-
ployed revolving in the opposite directions on the same axis driven by steam oil
gas or electric motors one above the other by means of a hollow shaft having
another internal shaft revolving in the other direction so that the two screws may
react against each other.
I propose to fix the framing of the steam or oil engine to the outer shaft and
the crank shaft of the engine to the inner shaft, by this means the framing of
the engine not being fixed relatively to its crank shaft as in the case with he
ordinary engine but only fixed to the outer shaft the engine framing cylinders
and other parts will revolve due to the reaction of the connecting rod, therefor
the crank shaft will revolve in one direction and the engine in the other.
prefer to place the cylinders exactly opposite each other so as to produce a
balance. The cylinders framing reciprocatory parts, revolve therefore with the
screw connected to the outer shaft and the crank shaft with the screw con-
I
nected to the inner one or the framing may be connected to the inner shaft and
the crank shaft to the other one. These revolving engines act as a gyroscope and
gives stability to the machine, by reason of the revolving weight of the engine
acting like a fly wheel. In some cases where I drive the propellers by gearing
I fix the crank shaft and allow the cylinders to rotate instead, this is a great
advantage especially in the case of oil or gas engines of the Otto cycle as it
dispenses with the flywheel and the cylinders are kept cool by their revolving
motion through the air. In the case of electric motors the armature would be
connected to the inner shaft and the field magnets to the outer one or vice versa.
I employ a cag or car freely suspended to the main shafting by suitable
ball or other bearings and which does not revolve, on the cage may be placed
the steam boiler from which steam is supplied to the revolving engines by means
of a suitable stuffing box or trunnion. To prevent the rotation of the cage it
may be partially connected when necessary either to the outer shaft or inner
shaft by means of friction or other suitable gear,

page_text: Where steam is used I prefer to place the condenser on the revolving blades
the exhaust steam being taken up the vertical shaft.
I can if desired rotate the screws by means of supplementary screws at the tips
of the blades having their axis horizontal and tangential to the tips of the
blades, or by means of jet propulsion reacting at the tips of the blades. The
jet propulsion may be either steam or caused by an explosive mixture. With
screws revolving by means of supplementary propeller or jets, there will be no
necessity to employ screws revolving in opposite directions as the supplementary
propellers produce the necessary reaction."
A jet or supplementary propeller may be employed to prevent the car from
revolving with the shaft, or when a single screw is employed reaction may be
obtained by a supplementary screw acting at end of a lever, or by a suspended
vane or surface at right angles to the axis of the propellers.
I propose to navigate my machine by tilting the axis out of the vertical, i.e.
by altering the centre of gravity, by means of a sliding weight or weights
attached to a suitable bar, this bar to-gether with the weight may be revolved
to any particular vertical plane of the compass and the weight moved out or in,
tilting the disc plane of the screws to any desired angle which will give the
machine a horizontal motion either when rising or falling. I also navigate my
machine by means of rudders which may be tilted either in a vertical or hori-
zontal plane. The disc area of the screws approximates an aeroplane of equivalent
area. And in order to utilize the power of the winds as far as possible I propose
to introduce considerable area in the central part of the screws which may be a
circular plane or disc at right angles to axis of the
in which case I rely
on the outer portions of the screw blades for lifting purposes.
The drawing shews the plan and elevation of the flying machine with two
propellers revolving in opposite directions about the same axis, each propeller
has twelve blades arranged in four sets of three superimposed blades the lower
propeller is connected to the outer shaft which is attached to the engine framing
and the upper one to the inner one which is connected to the crank shaft.
A is the cradle B the motors.
screw,
Referring to the drawing CC is a propeller connected to the inner shaft D D
being another one connected to the outer shaft, each of these propellers are
composed of four sets of three superimposed blades or twelve blades each. The
superimposed blades of the top propeller are lettered EE E-and the lower
one F FF. The struts and ties connecting the different superimposed blades
are shewn by the inclined lines lettered G G.
H is the ballance weight for steering the flying machine. When the pro-
pellers are rotating in a horizontal plane, the apparatus will be lifted in a
vertical direction and when the speed of the screws is sufficiently reduced it will
also descend in a vertical direction. If however the axis of the propellers is
tilted out of the vertical so that the disc area of the propellers is inclined to the
horizontal plane, then if the machine is caused to descend by the reduction of
speed of the propellers it will tend to glide down an inclined plane due to the
angle at which the discs of the propellers are inclined. In the drawing the
bar I is attached to the cradle and at right angles to the axis of the propellers.
K is a pulley fixed at the end of the bar I and J is another pulley near the
centre of the cradle, L is a cord attached to the ballance weight at M and
passing round the two pulleys. By rotating pulley J either in one or the other
direction the weight M can be moved to any position on the bar and the axis of
the propellers thereby tilted, when moved to a position at the extreme end of
the bar near K the propellers will be tilted to their greatest angle: The cradle
is freely suspended and may be turned by partial connection with one of the
revolving shafts so that the bar I points in any direction and if the weight is
then moved out tilting the machine it will when descending travel in the
direction at which the bar points. N is the boiler the steam pipe.
I can if necessary navigate and control the flying machine from the ground

page_text: either by electrical or other mechanical means, and the necessary electric energy
for the motors may be supplied from the ground.
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) Constructing an air-propeller with blades fixed in different planes having
regard to the plane of rotation.
(2) A steam oil or gas or electric motor where the cylinders or fields rotate
in an opposite direction to the crank shaft or armature.
(3) A cradle which is prevented from rotating by partial connection to one or
the other of the two shafts.
(4) An aerial propeller which contains a disc of surface in centre of propeller,
substantially as herein described.
Datad his lat day of Lun 1000