Category:Hiram Maxim

Maxim's flying machine [image info]

1923: Model of Hiram Maxim's Flying Boats [image info]

Sir Hiram Maxim (1840-1916) was a prolific US-born inventor who battled against Edison for the right to claim himself inventor of the lightbulb, and who, after he'd moved to England in his forties, is chiefly remembered for having invented the Maxim machine gun.

Flight

Where most aircraft pioneers concentrated on trying to get airborne, Maxim's work was distinguished by a determination to keep the apparatus on the ground so that data could be collected efficiently, under controlled conditions. Maxim built a half-kilometre track in his garden for scientifically testing aircraft designs at ground level, which suffered from the problem than even with heavy weighting he had trouble keeping his test aircraft on the ground (the opposite problem to most aircraft pioneers). His (correct) conclusion was that a powered practical aircraft would require a more efficient engine than was currently generally available.

The elderly Maxim co-founded the Grahame-White, Blériot, and Maxim Company in 1911 with hopes to produce a practical warplane, but by this time Maxim no longer had the time or energy to drive the new enterprise to successful completion.

Fairground ride

His scientific work on testing lift from aerofoil designs, which involved a sweeping designs around in a circle on the end of a long rotating arm, inspired him to produce a fairground ride, which was originally intended to have gondolas with real aerofoils and control surfaces, so that the occupant could practise the skills of actually flying a real aircraft. However, this aspect of the ride was abandoned due to safety concerns.