Sir George Cayley, Father of Aerial Navigation (1773-1857)

Extract

“The true inventor of the aeroplane and one of the most powerful geniuses in the history of aviation” are the words used by a modern French authority, Charles Dollfus, to describe Sir George Cayley (1773-1857), a scholarly Yorkshire baronet who until fairly recently was unknown to many historians of applied science. This curious state of affairs has been righted by the researches of the late J. E. Hodgson, of Dollfus, of the late Captain J. L. Pritchard, and of the present speaker, who have now secured universal agreement in regarding Cayley as the true inventor, or perhaps originator, of the modern aeroplane, and the originator of the science of aerodynamics as applied to aircraft. And, in 1962, the Royal Society itself admitted that “the absence of the name of Sir George Cayley from the Roll of Fellows is one of the most notable omissions”.