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Horatio Phillips' June 26, 1908 To the Editor of Engineering Sir - ... Mr Edgar Wilson states that my machine is a "fair weather craft." It would be interesting to know which machine Mr Wilson is alluding to. Is he alluding to toe machine upward of forty years ago with right and left-handed sheet-steel screws, strengthened by steel tension-rods, working on a vertical axis and driven by a steam engine? Or one with wooden screws, 30 ft. in diameter, driven by the same engine? Both were tested at my workshop and testing-ground at Battersea. They were on the direct-lifting principle. Or a gliding-machine I tried on a circular cement track at Norwood about twenty years ago? This was on the box-kite principle, so much in vogue now. Altogether I have made about half-a-dozen machines on the box-kite principle. Or the gliding-machine tried publicly at Harrow fourteen years ago, with rigid blade-sustainers? Or one tested at Crystal Palace about nine years ago, with right and left-handed screws 33 ft. in diameter, driven by a petrol engine; Or another tested at the Palace, with a pair of screws 20 ft. in diameter, on a girder, driven by a more powerful petrol engine, about seven years ago? These were both on the direct-lifting principle. Or the one I tried at St. Lawrence, Southminster, about six years ago, on the gliding principle, with rigid blade sustainers? This was the first occasion, as far as I know, that a portable track was used for starting the machine from. This track could be laid down in any direction in a few minute, in order that the machine could always be started head to wind. Sir Hiram Maxim laid down a permanent track to start his machine from but this was a great mistake, because it could only be used when the wind was flowing in a line with the track. Or another gliding-machine with rigid blade sustainers tried at Furzle Down Farm, Mitcham, about five years ago? Or a machine tried at Furzle Down farm with a pair of 20-ft. diameter screws on a girder: the axis of the screws at an angle of 1 in 10 from the vertical? This machine was intended to run along the ground before rising. Or one tried at Mitcham, on what is now the golf ground, about three years ago? This was a gliding machine. Or the gliding-machine tried last year at Streatham? With the exception of one or two, they were designed large enough to carry a man. Mr Wilson will see by the above list that I tried almost every conceivable kind of machine. I have never tied a machine fitted with one or more screws working horizontally and one or more working vertically; I do not think the arrangement a desirable one. No doubt others have been working as earnestly as myself, and with what result? A practicable flying machine is as non-existent to-day as it was 40 years ago. Yours faithfully, Horatio
Phillips
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