P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
Watson Biplane No. 1
An unusual form of lateral control was originated by Preston A. Watson, an early Scottish flying enthusiast, who incorporated it in his biplane, which was built in either late 1908 or early 1909. The upper wings were arranged to rock sideways by means of a hanging control stick, and this was expected to help the machine to maintain its equilibrium. A four-cylinder horizontally-opposed Dutheil-Chalmers engine was fitted before the aircraft was dismantled and reconstructed during 1910 as a glider for the Dundee Aero Club.
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M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
WATSON biplane glider (Preston A. Watson., Dundee, Scotland)
This first machine was a primitive Wright type glider, built in 1903, and fitted in 1906 with a small French engine. This was not a success and the aircraft was discarded. Many years later, members of the family claimed that flight had been achieved, which, if substantiated, would have been among the earliest in Britain.
WATSON biplane No.1
Watson built this machine in 1908-1909, incorporating a novel type of control in the form of a 'rocking wing'. This was intended to control the machine in both roll and yaw.
The aircraft was built about a tubular structure with A-frames, to which the main wings were attached low down, with the rocking wing pivoting at the apex of these. To the bottom of the frames were attached twin skids and wheels. Tail booms of bamboo, tapering to a point in elevation, carried a boxkite elevator, the end panels being fixed. The upper boom tapered to a point where it met the rear A-frame. The pilot sat on the lower center section and controlled the rocking wing with a hanging stick.
The first attempts at flight were probably made as a glider, but later a Dutheil et Chalmers two-cylinder horizontally opposed engine was fitted. In 1910 the machine was reinstated as a glider and was passed to the Dundee Aero Club, who experimented with it in the summer of 1911.
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