flyingmachine

Tail of an early flying machine. "the first powered heavier-than-air flight took place in 1890 (Clement Ader, steam engine on bat-winged monoplane, 60 yards). "

Strong connection between bicycles and first flight machines. The wright bros were "wheelers" bicycle makers.

Could be related to another photo of the Clonbrock collection: catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000524081 That, according to the caption, was taken at Trinity College in Dublin.

This is definitely Trinity, that's the Chemistry building.

Congratulation for your beautiful Album.

Wonderful .

The raked wings are very unusual, and no stagger. Hmm. Aha! John William Dunne! Dunne worked initially on early military aircraft, concentrating on tailless swept wing designs to achieve the first certified inherently stable aircraft. He later developed a new approach to dry fly fishing before turning to philosophy, where he achieved some pre-eminence and literary influence through his theory on the nature of time and consciousness, which he called "Serialism".

An even more unusual feature is that this plane had no tail - it was a flying wing design.

It's a Dunne tailless biplane, as designed by J.W. Dunne. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Dunne The powered planes were driven by a pair of pusher propellers, which I can't see here, which at first makes me think it's a D1 or D3, which were gliders, but I'm wondering if it might be the D4, D5 or D8, rolled out before completion, or maybe the propellers are hidden behind the wing and just don't show well at this resolution? Anyway, if it's the man himself, that puts it between the building of the D1 in 1907 and 1914, when he more or less stopped work on tailless planes.

Nigel Leyland I don't think we could miss the engines and propellors if they were present, see this diagram. I think this is a D5 before the engines are fitted.

The wikipedia article has a photo labelled "John William Dunne in his D.5 biplane at Eastchurch, 14 June 1910." The plane has propellors, but Dunne is wearing a dark jacket and flat cap like the gent at right here. The photo is tagged as by "Unknown - probably a Life magazine photographer "

Sir Hiram Maxim died November 24, 1916. His death was widely reported.

From his Wikipedia entry as cited by Seuss. "Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (February 5, 1840 – November 24, 1916) was an American inventor who moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 41. He remained an American citizen until he became a naturalized British subject in 1900. He was the inventor of the Maxim Gun – the first portable, fully automatic machine gun – and held patents on mechanical devices such as a mousetrap, hair-curling irons, and steam pumps. He laid claim to inventing the lightbulb, and even experimented with powered flight, but his large aircraft designs were never successful. However, his "Captive Flying Machine" amusement ride, designed as a means by which to fund his research while generating public interest in flight, was highly successful."

Thanks Seuss and swanq. We'll add his full name and since he died in 1916, we'll change the date range.