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This is another episode of Alabama Flying Machine Blogging, in which we promote a story about a Flying Machine that was designed, built, managed, integrated, and/or flown with a significant Alabama role. When we started this blog, one of our goals was to present Alabama to the world, and also present the world to Alabama. This post is a presentation of Alabama's role in aviation or space history, either by a machine, a program, or a flyer. So, let's get down to it: In April 1908, an airplane left the ground in northern Madison County in Alabama. Today, it is hanging in the Davidson Center at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center. Yes, it's the same machine.  It was designed and built by Mr. William Quick, a farmer, father of ten, gristmill operator, blacksmith, machinist, and aviation enthusiast who lived and worked near modern-day Hazel Green. Like many other experimenters of his day, Mr. Quick was not a highly-educated man, but he was intelligent and observant. He studied "buzzards, bumblebees, and all that flew well", read voraciously, and finally turned his understanding into a working aircraft. Join me below the fold, for the story of William Quick's monoplane: |
It looks like we expect an airplane to look nowadays - a tractor (propeller in front) monoplane (single wing) with the tailplanes at the aft end of the fuselage and wheeled landing gear. But in 1900, this was far from being an accepted convention. The fuselage is formed from four bows of ash wood, which are joined at the forward and aft ends and spread to about 24 inches apart in the center, making a roughly football-shaped profile. The pilot sat inside the open fuselage with just his head protruding, which if you ask me, is a heck of a lot safer place to be than lying on your belly on the wing (like the Wright brothers did). 
The wheel you see midway down the fuselage controlled the steerable tailwheel, so the airplane could be taxiied. Control in the air was a bit more elaborate - the pilot tilted the seat back and forth for pitch (nose-up/nose-down) control, twisted his shoulders to move the rudder, and controlled roll by pushing either side of a footbar down to change the dihedral (angle made with horizontal) of either wing independently. Wing pitch could be individually controlled as well - it seems that Mr. Quick was trying to duplicate all the moves of a bird's wing, except flapping. Wingspan is 38 feet, and the airplane is about 18 feet long. Construction started in the early part of 1900, and by 1908, he had installed a Ford Model R engine and made a propeller. It was time for flight test. It turned out that the engine/propeller combination still did not generate enough thrust to get the machine off the ground with Will Quick aboard. So, he enlisted his then 16-year-old son, William Massey Quick, to fly the aircraft. According to eyewitnesses, William took off and leveled out at 10 feet or so. One account has him turning at the end of the pasture, catching a wingtip on the ground, and crashing sideways. A different story put him at 15 feet altitude and 200 yards when he leaned forward to admire the view below him. Leaning the seat forward pitched the nose down, as I mentioned above, and that was how the plane crashed. In any event, William Massey lived to tell the tale, but the aircraft was pretty beat up. It wound up stored in one of Will Quick's barns for fifty-four years. Will applied for patents for his flying machine, but found that the Wright brothers were there ahead of him. Apparently he was working somewhat in isolation and was not aware before how far aviation had progressed by 1908. This may be why he did not pursue aviation any further. However, several of his ten children learned to fly, including one daughter, Cady. He kept up his interest in science, especially astronomy, and in his later years became interested in the prospect of life on other planets. Will Quick died in 1927 at the age of 68. In 1964, members of the Huntsville chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA 190), contacted members of the Quick family and found the airplane in the barn. Over a period of about 8 years, they restored the Will Quick Monoplane, including finding a Model R engine and fabricating the missing fuel tank and radiator. And now it hangs in the entryway of the Davidson center, as a reminder of Alabama's early start in aviation. |
