M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
WEISS glider 'Olive' (Jose Weiss, Houghton House, Amberley, Sussex)
Jose Weiss, a Frenchman living in England, was an artist and engineer who experimented with models from 1902 to 1907, basing his work on the shape of bird's wings. In the course of his experimental work, Weiss arrived at a swept wing shape, with curved leading edge, and thick section inboard, tapering outwards to a thin flexible section, which he patented under cover of patent No.17150/1908. In 1908-1909 he made a full size glider, named 'Olive' after one of his five daughters, which was tested on the Sussex Downs at Amberley in 1909, being flown by Gordon England, Graham Wood, Gerald Leake and others.
The glider was a small tailless single-seater, with lift struts and a central skid and retractable wheels. The wing incidence changed from positive inboard, to negative outboard. The wing was made in halves for ease of transport, the spars projecting into steel tubes in the nacelle, to which they were bolted. Control was by 'righting planes', namely small flaps on each inboard trailing edge, serving as elevators and ailerons. The machine was crudely made largely of bamboo, referred to as Tonkin Cane.
Weiss formed the Weiss Aeroplane and Launcher Syndicate on 10 June 1908, to exploit his patent. Handley Page, with whom he had collaborated on earlier research, took a financial interest in the syndicate. The two men had become acquainted through the Aeronautical Society and Handley Page went on to build several of his early machines with Weiss type wings.
Data
Span 26ft
Area 108 sq. ft
WEISS man-powered monoplane
After his first full size glider, the 'Olive', Weiss made a pedal powered monoplane, possibly using the wing of the glider, to which it showed some similarity. However, it was mounted on four wheels and was propelled by a tractor propeller at the nose; this was driven by a long drive shaft terminating in a bevel gearbox driven by chain from the pedals.
The wheels were not driven and the machine was to be started from the top of a ramp, fifteen feet high with a forty-five feet base, at a location on Bury Hill, Sussex. It is doubtful if sustained flight was achieved. The machine may then have been powered and identified as 'Elsie', which was itself subsequently converted back to the glider 'Olive'.
P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
Weiss 1909 Glider
Jose Weiss was a French engineer and painter domiciled in England who, at the turn of the century, was fascinated by the challenge of flight. After several years of experiments carried out between 1902 and 1907, during which about two hundred models were made, he evolved his formula for automatic stability of a tailless monoplane with curved, swept-back wings. To prove his theories he constructed a full-size aeroplane, a single-seat glider based on one of his large models, incorporating the qualities of natural stability found in the shapes of birds which Weiss believed of fundamental importance in the design of man-carrying aircraft. His answer to the problem was demonstrated in the curvature of the wings, the section of which was thick at the roots, but which tapered outwards until the tips were flexible. The positive incidence at the fuselage was decreased until, at the tips, a negative incidence was produced by wash-out and by turning the trailing-edge upwards. Hinged elevators extended from the wing-roots to part of the way along the trailing-edge to provide experience with control surfaces. The glider was christened Olive after one of Weiss's daughters, and was tested at Amberley, Sussex, during 1909 by E. C. Gordon England, Graham Wood (shown in cockpit) and others. Successful flights as a glider led to the installation of a J. A.P. engine, succeeded by an Anzani. The machine was taken to Fambridge, Essex, for powered experiments there, but it failed to leave the ground.
