Click on title to expand…..Dr John Ackroyd was the speaker at the last meeting and his subject “The Invention of the Aeroplane near Scarborough at the time of Trafalgar”. It was the story of the work of Sir George Cayley, who was born in Scarborough in 1783 and after inheriting his father’s title and estate, Brompton Hall in 1802, developed the idea of a glider, using the power of the wind and gravity.
In 1804 he flew his first glider down Brompton Vale at 10mph and in the following years improved the performances of the glider. In 1809 and 1810 he published three papers in Nicholson’s Journal that were acknowledged by the Wright brothers 100 years later when they flew the first engine powered aeroplane.
The Cayley notebooks were not discovered until1926 and it became a Royal Aeronautical Society paper in 1933. Further discoveries were made in 1954 which became the subject of the RAS Cayley Memorial Lecture and the contents of the most recent discoveries were published in 1962, more that 100 years after his death in1857.
Dr Ackroyd answered questions from members and Mike Johndon gave the vote of thanks.
The Club’s AGM will be held on February 28 followed by a Club Lunch