BUILDING AND TESTING GLIDERS

Chanute hired Augustus Moore Herring, from New York City, to first build, then test and evaluate glider models. Herring had recently built a full-size Lilienthal-type glider and was quite successful with this machine. Chanute felt that there was enough expertise in Herring's glider to warrant meaningful experimentation. The models, using different wing shapes and structures, were test flown in New York and along Huron Street Beach in Chicago. One of the models, the "ladder-kite" is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry.

In addition to Herring, Chanute hired a local carpenter and electrician William Avery. Good progress was made and soon two flying machines were ready for testing and experimentation.

LILIENTHAL-TYPE MACHINE

On 22 June 1896, Chanute, his son Charles, partners Augustus Herring and William Avery and the two family dogs (Rags and Tatters), took flying equipment on the train to Miller Station, now an eastern suburb of Gary, IN. They then carried all equipment and gear two miles to the southern shore of Lake Michigan.

Here, Herring's rebuilt Lilienthal-type machine was tried first, "so that the known could be tested before passing to the unknown". It proved very difficult to balance in the air and "cranky." After a bad landing, the machine was discarded.

Chicago Record, 29 June 1896.

"Mr. Herring’s Flight with the improved Lillienthal Soaring Machine".

Courtesy of the Octave Chanute Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Courtesy of the Octave Chanute Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

KATYDID

The next machine, Chanute's design of a soaring machine, was the Katydid, a multi-plane glider. It was re-rigged six times; each new experiment preceded by releasing bits of feather-down in front of the machine and watching the path of air currents sweeping past the wings. The most successful wing variation used five sets of wings in the front and one as tail.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL TO FLY?"

In two weeks of practical experiments, Chanute learned more about flying than he did in two decades of theory. Even though Chanute did not attempt to fly himself, several photos exist showing him standing in the correct takeoff position: How does it feel to fly? Back in Chicago, results of the New York and Huron Street Beach experiments were tabulated and evaluated. Gliders were repaired or rebuilt. A new tri-plane design was built in William Avery's shop. Chanute's knowledge of Pratt trussing from bridge building was applied to this new machine, resulting in strength and stiffness with a minimum of weight.

THE EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED

Experiments continued on 20 August 1896. This time the team consisted of Avery, Herring, Chanute and Charles Chanute, Dr. Ricketts and a Russian sailor, William Paul Butusov. Butusov stated that he had made true soaring flights in Kentucky several years earlier. The group took a flatbed boat to Dune Park, a desolate site at Lake Michigan where it was hoped that newspaper reporters would not find them as easily as they did during the previous month at Miller Beach.

This photo was taken 11 September 1896 near Dune Park. The pilot is unknown, but could possibly have been William Avery or A.M. Herring.

The photo was published in the Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, vol 2 no. 5, October 1897 accompanying an article on “Gliding Experiments” by Octave Chanute.

1896 CHANUTE-TYPE BIPLANE

One of the first machines tested was the tri-plane glider. After a few flights, Avery removed the bottom wing. Together, Avery and Herring then devised and mounted an elastic attachment to the tail [Chanute, 1908 #1]. This 1896 Chanute-type biplane proved to be a key step on the road to the invention of the airplane. For a moment it was the most successful heavier-than-air flying machine in the world [Crouch, 1981 #3].

The experiments continued through the following year, as Matthias Arnot (another aviation enthusiast) from Elmira, NY had ordered a biplane glider. It was again built in Avery's shop, under Herring's supervision. Chanute and Arnot split the cost of experiments for the first two weeks of testing in September of 1897. During the second week Chanute invited noted aeronautical publisher James Mean from Boston to witness the glider flights.