Frank McClean

by Philip Jarrett

  About noon on Sunday Mr McClean started on his return journey and kept on the surface of the water under all the bridges, but when he had passed the Tower Bridge Mr McClean turned round so as to rise against the wind, and rose to about 50ft. In turning down stream again, the machine was caught by a gust and side-slipped into the water, apparently narrowly missing some barges and a boat. On hitting the water one of the floats collapsed, so the machine was towed into one of the docks and taken to pieces for transport to Sheppey.

  Shorts set about repairing S.40 on 14 August and the job was completed on the 17th. In Flight for that date it was reported that the Committee of the RAeC, of which McClean was a member, was considering the desirability of flights over the Thames through London, and had decided, pending a conference with the authorities, to forbid such flights. (In 1911 the RAeC had suspended D Graham Gilmour’s aviator’s certificate for a month after he flew over Henley when the Regatta was in progress on 7 July that year, ruling that his flying was ‘dangerous to the public safety’.) In the Editorial of the following issue it was announced that ‘A conference is to be held at which the police, the Home Office, the Army and Navy and the Club itself are to be represented to consider the whole question of flights over the Thames and, if they are to be allowed at all, under what restrictions’. The magazine remarked:

  Dismantling the damaged S.40 in Shadwell Dock after its attempted take-off from Shadwell Reach on 11 August 1912. Frank McClean, on the left, looks decidedly disgruntled. (FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM)

  … whatever their value, it cannot be denied that there is an element of danger in them which we do not think should be unduly encouraged at the present moment. Under proper regulation, the worst of that danger would disappear, and, we take it, it is just this element of regulation which the proposed conference may be looked to to supply. As it is, it would seem to be open to everyone owning any jurisdiction at all over the river to make whatever regulations he likes – it appears to us it was really because of the restrictions suddenly enforced by someone in authority that Mr McClean came to grief on his return journey – and the sooner that is all changed the better.

  The ‘Double-Dirty’

  One of the most mysterious of all Short aeroplanes made its debut at Eastchurch on Saturday 21 September 1912. Allotted type number S.46, it had been ordered by the Admiralty on 25 March, the same day as S.47 was ordered, and was described as ‘One Hydro Monoplane H2 fitted tandem fashion with 2 70 h.p. Gnome Engines. Machine No 46.’ In its 26 September issue The Aeroplane reported, ‘The new twin 70-h.p. engine Short monoplane made its appearance but did not essay a flight on account of heavy wind. The two 70-h.p. engines are fore and aft of the pilot and passenger; who sit side by side. The lateral control is by means of ailerons. She has been built for water work only.’ Despite this last remark the S.46 was destined only to be flown as a landplane. In its issue for 12 October Flight reported: ‘The twin-engine system has recently been installed on a monoplane built by Messrs. Short Bros., and during tests made by Commander Samson at Eastchurch, the machine, which has two 70 h.p. Gnome engines, performed very satisfactorily.’ The Gnomes were mounted at the front and rear of a short nacelle, driving one tractor and one pusher propellen and the tail surfaces were carried on open braced booms as with conventional pusher machines. The undercarriage carried streamlined pneumatic flotation bags which would not have enabled the machine to take off from the sea, so it seems that it was meant for launch from a shipborne runway As the occupants were subjected to a fierce slipstream laden with castor oil lubricant, the S.46, given the Admiralty serial number 12, was soon nicknamed the ‘Double-Dirty. When C G Grey of The Aeroplane visited Eastchurch early in October; the ‘great 140 h.p. experimental monoplane’ S.46 ‘was having some repairs and alterations made’. On October 21 the machine was ‘again out at Eastchurch with Commander Samson’, and on the afternoon of the 23rd Samson flew it twice, taking Engineer-Lieutenant Briggs, RN, as a passenger on the second flight. The next day Samson flew the monoplane from Eastchurch to the navy’s new and yet-to-be-commissioned hydro-aeroplane station on the Isle of Grain, opposite Sheerness, with Briggs in the passenger seat. He was back at Eastchurch flying S.38 in the afternoon, apparently having suffered a mishap with the S.46 at Grain, as there is record of a landing accident, with the aircraft being ‘towed to Grain’ on that day.

  An entry in the Short’s order book, dated 24 October records: ‘To repair Twin 70 h.p. Monoplane No 12 after damage at the Isle of Grain’. It was repaired by the following day, and in its issue for 2 November Flight reported that ‘Last week… the new Short 140 h.p. double-engined monoplane’ was ‘being tested over the River Medway in the neighbourhood of Sheerness’. But it was evidently damaged again at the end of the month, as an order book entry for 30 October records: ‘Monoplane No 12. To repair the above Machine at the Isle of Grain’.

  On the morning of 6 November Samson, with Seaman Twelvetrees as his passenger flew S.38 to the Isle of Grain and then flew back solo in S.46, while Lieutenant Hewlett brought Twelve-trees back in S.38. Samson flew the monoplane again on the afternoon of 8 November; and on the afternoon of the 9th he made ‘several flights’ in it. On 23 November Shorts supplied ‘one manganese steel shock absorber band’ for No 12, and on the 26th the company provided ‘14 complete inlet valves, new pattern’ for its Gnome engines. After that the S.46 vanishes from the record until it is recorded as being dismantled in the week ending 2 August 1913. No drawings or photographs of it have ever been found.

  On Sunday the 18th McClean put in a good 30-minute flight on S.36 at Eastchurch, but he may have had a rough landing, as on the 19th it was at Shorts, having a new tailskid and a spare wheel fitted. McClean appears to have done no flying in September, and on the 9th S.36 was back at Shorts to have its wings doped with Cellon and then given a coat of varnish. This was completed on the 14th.

  In Flight for 7 September and The Aeroplane for 12 September it was reported that the Home Secretary had informed the RAeC that he proposed to call a conference at the Home Office, about the middle of October, to discuss the question of the control of aviation over London and up the Thames, and had invited the Club to send representatives to the conference. It was hardly surprising that McClean was one of the four appointed representatives.

  There were several fatal accidents during August/September 1912, and McClean was involved in some of the subsequent investigations by the RAeC’s Public Safety and Accidents Investigation Committee. One victim was H J D Astley, from whom McClean had bought the Universal Birdling Blériot-type monoplane in 1911, who crashed at Belfast on Saturday 21 September. McClean attended Astley’s funeral on 26 September.

  At Harty Ferry from 1 to 3 October Short Brothers’ staff removed the floats from S.40 and replaced them with a wheel undercarriage. Then, at the factory on the 4th, work started on dismantling the aircraft and reconstructing it ‘as instructed’ by McClean. It was to undergo a dramatic transformation.

  On the 7th S.36 went into the works for repair work to its petrol tank and other components, this work being completed on the 12th. The following day, Sunday 13 October, McClean took two lady passengers in turns on S.36, and on the afternoon of Saturday the 19th he gave his sister Anna a flight in the same machine. His passenger on the morning of the 21st was Miss Greg, and he also made a 30-minute flight in the afternoon. The machine then went into Shorts’ factory to have a new axle fitted and to have its tail altered ‘as instructed’. This was completed on the 24th, and a 20-minute flight in S.36 was made by McClean on 25 October. On 7 November he took Staff-Surgeon Wells, RN, for a flight in the afternoon. He was aloft again with a passenger on the afternoon of the 9th.

  On 29 October McClean attended an RAeC Committee meeting at which the following notice was directed to be issued to all aviators:

  The Royal Aero Club, being the sole authority under the provisions of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for regulating all matters relating to aeronautics and aviation in t
he British Empire, hereby issues the following notices and regulations to aviators of all nationalities within its jurisdiction.

  (1)

  Flying, to the danger of the public is hereby prohibited. This shall be taken to include:

  (a)

  Unnecessary flights over towns or thickly populated areas or over places where crowds are temporarily assembled.

  (b)

  Flying over River Regattas, Race Meetings, Meetings for public games, and sports, except flights specifically arranged for in writing with the promoters of such Regattas, Meetings, &c.

  (2)

  Any disregard of the above notices and regulations will render the aviator liable to censure, suspension of certificate and removal from the Competitors’ Register.

  Changed beyond recognition

  The reconstruction of S.40 was completed on 15 November, and when it re-emerged it was so different that had been renumbered S.58. Unfortunately both Flight and The Aeroplane ceased reporting on activities at Eastchurch at the end of 1912, so progress with this machine is not recorded, apart from a brief reference in the 28 November issue of The Aeroplane, stating:

  Messrs. Short Bros, are to be congratulated on the success of their new biplane built on the lines of the ‘S.38,’ described recently in this paper. This machine has the pilot and passenger well out in front of the lower plane and the planes themselves are swept back further than in the ‘S.38,’ With a 70 hp Gnome engine, the machine, piloted by Lieut. Parke, RN, who was accompanied by two passengers, rose to 1,000 feet in 9 minutes without actually being forced up, and it is said to be exceptionally handy and stable.

  By this time the ancient S.38 had undergone several repairs and a major rebuild, and it no longer looked like the Short-Sommer biplane of its original form. On 22 July Shorts had started a thorough overhaul and repair, including the fitting of 9ft extensions to the upper wingtips and the installation of a compass and aneroid, this being completed on 5 September. Further modifications were then immediately instructed by Lieutenant Parke, and on 6 September Shorts began ‘Alterations to tail outrigger etc & controls’, these taking until 18 October to complete. In fact the rebuilt S.38 was flying before that date, as C G Grey of The Aeroplane saw it in the air, piloted by Lieutenant Seddon, when he visited Eastchurch in the week preceding the issue of the magazine dated 17 October, in which he described it.

  After it was wrecked on 9 July 1912, S.38 was rebuilt It emerged in much-altered form, with a long nacelle, reduced gap, extended wings, revised tail surfaces and shortened booms carrying the forward elevator It carries its naval serial number; 2, on its rudder (AUTHOR)

  In its new form the extended sections of the upper plane have a pronounced dihedral angle, and taper sharply backwards. The gap between the planes has been reduced. The chassis is lower. The engine and its bearers are considerably above the lower plane, and are fixed to a raised body or fuselage, in which the pilot sits a good way in front of the leading edge. The passenger is slightly in front of the leading edge, and has an excellent view below and on each side. His seat is on the same level as the pilot’s, so that he is comfortably protected from the weather, and he has plenty of leg-room in which to stow drawing tackle, maps and instruments. The front elevator is very small and practically flat, and it is placed only a few feet in front of the pilot; in fact it seems to be there to keep him company more than for any other reason. As a matter of fact, it has quite a lot of effect, for the machine is very quick on her controls, though practically automatically stable when once in the air and going ahead, as was shown by the fact that the machine was scarcely moving when the others were pitching and rolling badly.

  Even when landing and catching the wind off the sheds she just gave a slight kick and came back at once. Her performance may have been due to Mr Seddon’s fine flying, but it would have been impossible on anything but a very good machine. Also, it must be remembered that she does not owe any of her stability to her speed, for she is a very big machine with only a 50hp Gnome, and consequently she is one of the slowest machines in the Service, for her power goes in lifting efficiency and stability.

  By January 1913 the S.38’s nacelle and undercarriage had undergone further changes, as seen here. The aircraft formed the prototype of a small batch of similar machines, these having the forward elevator carried on small supports extending from the nacelle. (AUTHOR)

  In its ultimate form the S.38 soldiered on for some time. These shots of it in flight at Eastchurch were taken on 10 October 1912, when Lieutenant L’Estrange Malone was carrying Lieutenant Clark-Hall as a passenger On 29 November 1913 Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was given a flight in this machine by Lieutenant G.V. Wildman-Lushington, RMA, who allowed Churchill to take the controls. Churchill thus became the first Cabinet Minister in the world to control his own aircraft. (AUTHOR)

  So the S.58 was very like the rebuilt S.38 as described by Grey, but with an extra 20hp. The old Farman-type forward elevator carried on booms extending well ahead of the mainplanes was done away with, the elevator being carried on much shorter struts extending only a short distance from the nacelle housing the occupants. The 70hp Gnome attached to the rear of the nacelle drove a two-blade pusher propeller. Three-bay wings of 70ft 6in span, with large overhangs on the upper surface, replaced the original two-bay units. Four booms from the upper and lower trailing edges carried a high-set monoplane tailplane and elevator, beneath which were twin rudders. Although S.58 initially flew as a landplane, it was soon fitted with floats. On 17 December Shorts strengthened the seating of ‘hydro aeroplane S.58’ and supplied and fitted an aneroid, this work being completed two days later.

  Frank McClean had a motive for this drastic rebuild. He and the explorer John Herbert Spottiswoode were planning a seaplane expedition up the River Nile, to see the Aswan Dam and investigate the cataracts between there and Khartoum. McClean later wrote that the scheme came about because, in the early years, when aeroplanes had ‘poor or non-existent instruments and unsheltered seating’, the British climate ‘brought about continual inactivity during the winter months’. The S.58, with its high power and low wing loading, essential requirements to enable it to take off in a hot climate, was to be the chosen vehicle.

  By now McClean was finding the role of test pilot to Short Brothers too exacting to continue on an honorary basis. The company’s order book testifies to the fact that work for the Admiralty, building, maintaining, repairing and modifying machines, had increased steadily through 1912. Consequently it was announced in the 5 December issue of The Aeroplane that ‘Mr Gordon Bell, who has probably flown more different makes of machines than any pilot in the world, has signed on as chief pilot with Messrs. Short Bros., of Eastchurch, and will pilot the Machines they are building to naval and military orders when undergoing their official tests’. Bell retained his status as a freelance pilot, however, and would continue to fly other manufacturers’ aeroplanes as well.

  CHAPTER 6

  1913: Successful Negotiations; Unsuccessful Aeroplanes

  Frank McClean’s friend Griffith Brewer, who acted as UK patent agent for the Wright brothers, had become concerned that no action had been taken to restrain infringement of the patents in the UK. At the time of Wilbur’s death in 1912 the foreign patents had yielded no income, and Brewer was worried that the fourteen-year monopoly for the 1903 patent would expire on 23 March 1917 with nothing having been done. When he visited Orville in November 1912, therefore, Brewer said that if Orville would be unable to take any ‘vigorous action’ he would be glad to form a company amongst the Wrights’ British friends, with the aim of enforcing recognition of the invention in England, and especially gaining recognition from the British Government. Orville expressed his willingness for Brewer to do this, so Brewer returned home and immediately enlisted the support of Alec Ogilvie, Frank McClean, Percy Grace and Maurice Egerton, ‘all of whom were anxious to see that the Wrights were treated better in England than they had been up to that time on the Co
ntinent’.

  Brewer outlined a company of £6,000 capital with these friends of the Wrights as his associates. They were to put up £3,000 to take half the shares, and give the other £3,000-worth of shares to Orville in exchange for his British patent. Brewer recalled:

  The company proposed to approach the British Government and endeavour to exact royalty in recognition of the validity of the Wrights’ claim. Seeing that the Crown cannot be sued for infringement of a patent granted by the Crown and that an action to force such a claim was unprecedented, we had little hope of obtaining a settlement and still less of succeeding in any action which it might be possible to bring. We were out in the true crusader’s spirit and were prepared to risk our £3,000 to twist the lion’s tail.

  Orville approved of this scheme, and on 31 January 1913 the British Wright Co Ltd was registered as a private company with a capital of £6,000 in £1 shares, ‘to carry on the business of constructors of aeroplanes and other aircraft, etc., and to acquire certain patents in the names of Orville and Wilbur Wright’. Its first directors were O Wright (chairman), G Brewer, A Ogilvie, G N Ogilvie and T P Searight. Each shareholder paid cash for the face value of the shares and no company promotion expenses or commission was paid to anyone. While they were in England in February 1913, Orville and Katharine Wright met with McClean on the 18th and 19th, and Orville attended a meeting of the directors on the 21st.

  A formal application was then made for compensation for the British Government’s infringements, but after a year there was no sign of a reasonable settlement being reached. Brewer therefore applied for permission to sue the Crown through a nominee, and the Government named Colonel Mervyn O’Gorman, Superintendent of the Royal Aircraft Factory, as the defendant against whom the action could be brought. When the action began, a commission was appointed to go to the USA to take Orville Wright’s evidence, Brewer also going.