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John Kitchen’s annular-winged biplane at Middleton Sands, circa 1911. via Bill Rose vided by a small forward-mounted in combustion engine driving a two wooden propeller and the pilot sat im ately behind the motor. The underce was formed from twin skids with two p what look like pram wheels at the froi small runners at the rear of the aircraft struction was almost entirely from with fabric covering each wing. The mz appears to have been rather delicate ar ceptible to damage. Kitchen soon lost interest in the idea ing to make his aeroplane fly and | stored away in a large shed at Mid Sands, near Heysham, Lancashire. TI craft was then sold to Cedric Lee, a w vided by a small forward-mounted internal combustion engine driving a two-blade wooden propeller and the pilot sat immedi- ately behind the motor. The undercarriage was formed from twin skids with two pairs of what look like pram wheels at the front and small runners at the rear of the aircraft. Con- struction was almost entirely from wood, with fabric covering each wing. The machine appears to have been rather delicate and sus- ceptible to damage. Kitchen soon lost interest in the idea of try- ing to make his aeroplane fly and it was stored away in a large shed at Middleton Sands, near Heysham, Lancashire. The air- craft was then sold to Cedric Lee, a wealthy weaver, who brought in his friend George Tilgham Richards (who was an engineer and designer) to assist. Lee and Richards com- pleted work on the aircraft in mid-1911 and it was test flown on several occasions as a glider. Piloted by Cedric Lee, the biplane is said to have been very stable, although Richards made ongoing modifications to the leading edge while trials continued. How- ever, the aircraft was damaged during a rough landing and finally destroyed when the storage shed at Middleton Sands collapsed during a strong gale in November 1911. Before building a replacement aircraft, Lee and Richards decided to complete two small model gliders and experiment further with alterations to the leading edge camber. Each model had a span of 4ft 7%in (1.42m) and most flights were conducted inside a hangar. 7h wn A ttine pinnae cies They soon discovered that extra camber pro- duced a flatter glide angle, which encour- aged them to build a second one-man biplane glider. This was finished in 1912 and featured an upper annular wing with a diam- eter of 22ft (6.7m) and a wing area of 400ft’ (37.17m’). Additional control surfaces were added as testing progressed. The initial empty weight for the second Lee-Richards aircraft was 215lb (97.5kg), which rose to 710Ib (322kg) with the pilot and some ballast. Test flights were mainly conducted by Lee at Sellet Banks, alongside the River Lune between Whittington and Kirkby Lonsdale. The glider was launched using a catapult and track arrangement that used a large weight within a tripod frame. The aircraft proved to be very stable in flight and fairly easy to con- 14 One of John Kitchen’s pre-World War One circular- wing aircraft designs. via Bill Rose Secret Projects: Flying Saucer Aircraft