MAXFIELD biplane (Alfred P. Maxfield, Gosta Green, Birmingham)

   A motor engineer who experimented from 1902, Maxfield described in 1909, in a letter with sketches to The Aero, a biplane with an unusual central portion to the top and bottom wings. These were made in overlapping segments and able to flap to assist lift at takeoff and landing, and could assist control in flight. The machine had a biplane tail, and biplane front elevators carried on booms, and was propelled by a six-cylinder engine driving a pusher propeller. The design was superseded by a monoplane later that year.