M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
MOY Aerial Steamer (Thomas Moy, Crystal Palace)
This tandem wing monoplane was the tangible result of inventions by Moy, and initially with Richard Edmund Still, patented in 1871 (No.3238) and 1874 (No.2808). The machine was powered by a 3hp steam engine and, although intended to carry a man, lifted itself only, when tried at the Crystal Palace in 1875. The tests were carried out on a circular track and a speed of 33mph was reached.
The machine was constructed of light tubing with a semicircular front plane, behind which a pair of 12ft diameter propellers, of unusual design, revolved. These took the form of circular wheels, made of tubing, with six spokes on which eight 'aeroplanes' of reducing length were mounted; the attitude of these was adjustable to provide lift as well as thrust.
A biplane tail was used as an elevator. The patent also refers to pendulum control as well as manual control.
Moy was still involved in aeronautics at a much later date. Photographs of a model ornithopter on test, dated 1901, exist; however none of his ideas resulted in practical aircraft.
A.Andrews. The Flying Machine: Its Evolution through the Ages (Putnam)
One year after the du Temple take-off at Brest the English engineer Thomas Moy built a steam engine weighing 80lb and developing 3hp, which he installed in a tandem-wing monoplane of about 15ft wing-span. Either in deference to Henson, or in an attempt to borrow his withered laurels, he called his creation the Aerial Steamer, and ran it tethered to a central fountain on a circular track at the Crystal Palace, in south London. Propelled by twin fan-type airscrews 6ft in diameter, the steamer did lift some 6in off the ground, but there was no semblance of aerial control and, of course, no pilot. The whole contraption weighed some 120lb.