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Percy Sinclair Pilcher (January 1866 — 2 October, 1899) was a United Kingdom inventor and pioneer aviator who, in one of the big "what if" events of history, could well have become the first person to achieve controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight well before the Wright brothers had he not been tragically killed in a glider accident.

Early life Pilcher was born in Bath, Somerset in 1866 to a Scottish mother, and served in the Royal Navy for seven years from 1880. Thereafter he became an apprentice with the shipbuilders, Randolph, Elder and Company, of Govan in Glasgow.

Career flying his Hawk hang glider. UK, 1897.In 1891 Pilcher began work as assistant lecturer at Glasgow University and took a growing interest in aviation. He built a History of hang gliding called The Bat which he flew for the first time in 1895. Later that year Pilcher met Otto Lilienthal, who was the leading expert in gliding in Germany. These discussions led to Pilcher building two more gliders, The Beetle and The Gull. Based on the work of his mentor Otto Lilienthal, in 1897 Pilcher built a glider called The Hawk with which he broke the world distance record when he flew 250 m (820 feet) at the grounds of Stanford Hall in Leicestershire, England.

Pilcher set his sights upon powered flight: he developed a triplane that was to be powered by a 4 Horsepower (3 kW) engine; however, construction of the triplane put him heavily into debt, and Pilcher needed sponsorship to complete his work.



Death On 30 September 1899, having completed his triplane, he had intended to demonstrate it to a group of onlookers and potential sponsors in a field near Stanford Hall. However, the engine broke down and, so as not to disappoint his guests, he decided to fly the Hawk instead. Whilst flying, the tail snapped and Pilcher plunged 10 metres (30 feet) to the ground: he died two days later from his injuries with his triplane having never been publicly flown.

He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Legacy A stone monument to him stands in the field near Stanford Hall at the point where he crashed, and a full sized replica of his "The Hawk" glider is also displayed at Stanford Hall.

Renewal of interest Pilcher's plans were lost for many years, and his name was also long forgotten except by a few enthusiasts. With the upcoming centenary of flight, a new effort was made to find the lost work, and some correspondence was found in a private American collection. From this it was possible to discern the general direction of his plans and the basis of his design. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Pilcher had worked out how to produce lift using winglike structures, but at this time a full mathematical description was years away, so many elements were still missing. In particular, Pilcher was stuck trying to design a wing that could lift the weight of an engine, the aircraft itself and the occupant - each increase in wing area increased the weight so much that yet more lift was required, requiring a larger wing - a seemingly vicious circle. Pilcher's breakthrough, thanks to correspondence with another pioneer, Octave Chanute, was to stack smaller, lighter wings one atop the other in an arrangement we know today as the biplane or triplane. This allowed the wings to generate much more lift without a corresponding increase in weight.

In 2003, a research effort carried out at the School of Aeronautics at Cranfield University, commissioned by the BBC2 television series "Horizon (BBC TV series)", has shown that Pilcher's design was more or less workable, and had he been able to develop his engine, it is likely he would have succeeded in being the first to fly a heavier-than-air, powered aircraft under control. A replica of Pilcher's aircraft was built, and after some problems, achieved a sustained controlled flight of 1 minute and 26 seconds, significantly longer than the Wright Brothers' first flight. In addition, this was achieved under dead calm conditions, whereas the Wrights needed a steady 25 knot+ wind to achieve enough airspeed on their early attempts.

Also see

• Aviation history#Picking up the pace

External links

• Lots of info about Pilcher
• More info about Pilcher
• Guardian story about Pilcher
• The BBC Horizon programme's website about Pilcher

Percy Sinclair Pilcher (January 1866 — 2 October, 1899) was a United Kingdom inventor and pioneer aviator who, in one of the big "what if" events of history, could well have become the first person to achieve controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight well before the Wright brothers had he not been tragically killed in a glider accident.

Early life Pilcher was born in Bath, Somerset in 1866 to a Scottish mother, and served in the Royal Navy for seven years from 1880. Thereafter he became an apprentice with the shipbuilders, Randolph, Elder and Company, of Govan in Glasgow.

Career flying his Hawk hang glider. UK, 1897.In 1891 Pilcher began work as assistant lecturer at Glasgow University and took a growing interest in aviation. He built a History of hang gliding called The Bat which he flew for the first time in 1895. Later that year Pilcher met Otto Lilienthal, who was the leading expert in gliding in Germany. These discussions led to Pilcher building two more gliders, The Beetle and The Gull. Based on the work of his mentor Otto Lilienthal, in 1897 Pilcher built a glider called The Hawk with which he broke the world distance record when he flew 250 m (820 feet) at the grounds of Stanford Hall in Leicestershire, England.

Pilcher set his sights upon powered flight: he developed a triplane that was to be powered by a 4 Horsepower (3 kW) engine; however, construction of the triplane put him heavily into debt, and Pilcher needed sponsorship to complete his work.



Death On 30 September 1899, having completed his triplane, he had intended to demonstrate it to a group of onlookers and potential sponsors in a field near Stanford Hall. However, the engine broke down and, so as not to disappoint his guests, he decided to fly the Hawk instead. Whilst flying, the tail snapped and Pilcher plunged 10 metres (30 feet) to the ground: he died two days later from his injuries with his triplane having never been publicly flown.

He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Legacy A stone monument to him stands in the field near Stanford Hall at the point where he crashed, and a full sized replica of his "The Hawk" glider is also displayed at Stanford Hall.

Renewal of interest Pilcher's plans were lost for many years, and his name was also long forgotten except by a few enthusiasts. With the upcoming centenary of flight, a new effort was made to find the lost work, and some correspondence was found in a private American collection. From this it was possible to discern the general direction of his plans and the basis of his design. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Pilcher had worked out how to produce lift using winglike structures, but at this time a full mathematical description was years away, so many elements were still missing. In particular, Pilcher was stuck trying to design a wing that could lift the weight of an engine, the aircraft itself and the occupant - each increase in wing area increased the weight so much that yet more lift was required, requiring a larger wing - a seemingly vicious circle. Pilcher's breakthrough, thanks to correspondence with another pioneer, Octave Chanute, was to stack smaller, lighter wings one atop the other in an arrangement we know today as the biplane or triplane. This allowed the wings to generate much more lift without a corresponding increase in weight.

In 2003, a research effort carried out at the School of Aeronautics at Cranfield University, commissioned by the BBC2 television series "Horizon (BBC TV series)", has shown that Pilcher's design was more or less workable, and had he been able to develop his engine, it is likely he would have succeeded in being the first to fly a heavier-than-air, powered aircraft under control. A replica of Pilcher's aircraft was built, and after some problems, achieved a sustained controlled flight of 1 minute and 26 seconds, significantly longer than the Wright Brothers' first flight. In addition, this was achieved under dead calm conditions, whereas the Wrights needed a steady 25 knot+ wind to achieve enough airspeed on their early attempts.

Also see

• Aviation history#Picking up the pace

External links

• Lots of info about Pilcher
• More info about Pilcher
• Guardian story about Pilcher
• The BBC Horizon programme's website about Pilcher

Percy Pilcher: Brief Notes
Percy Pilcher was born in Bath, England in 1867. In 1891 he flew his glider named The Bat for the first time and met Otto Lilienthal, the German ...

Percy Pilcher Monument Home
A Monument built at Upper Autin Lodge Eynsford, dedicated to British Aviation Pioneer Percy Pilcher

University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Percy Pilcher
Summary. Percy Pilcher Engineer and Aviator Born 16 January 1867. Died 2 October 1899. University Link: Lecturer Occupation categories: aviators; marine engineers

Percy Pilcher
Percy Pilcher was born in Bath in 1867. He joined the Royal Navy in 1880 but resigned seven years later to become an apprentice with the ...

Percy Pilcher S Flying Machine Programme

FLYING MACHINES - Percy Sinclair Pilcher
Percy Sinclair Pilcher 1866 - 1899 © 1998-2003 Carroll Gray All Rights To This Web Domain And Web Site And Contents Thereof Are Reserved. Percy Pilcher's interest in flight began ...

Percy Pilcher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Percy Sinclair Pilcher (16 January 1866 — 2 October 1899) was a British inventor and pioneer aviator who, in one of the big "what if" events of history, could well have become ...

Percy Pilcher
Philip Jarrett, national Museums of Scotland Publishing, 30 pages, softback, ISBN 1901663566: Reviewed by George Miller in Vol 32 No 3, Autumn 2001

Percy Pilcher and the Challenge of Flight
Percy Pilcher and the Challenge of Flight ... Percy Sinclair Pilcher was the first Briton to fly in a heavier-than-air aircraft, and the first to lose his life in an accident to ...

Percy Pilcher : Oxford Biography Index entry
The Oxford Biography Index is an authoritative and accurate index of notable people – their names, their dates, and their fields of activity.