CAYLEY, SIR GEORGE, 6TH BARONET

born Dec. 27, 1773, Scarborough, Yorkshire, Eng. died Dec. 15, 1857, Brompton, Yorkshire English pioneer of aerial navigation and founder of the science of aerodynamics, who built the first successful man-carrying glider. Absorbed from childhood by problems of flight, Cayley rejected the notion of using movable wings for flight and devoted himself to the problems of the fixed-wing airplane, the helicopter, and the airship. By 1799 he had established the basic configuration of the modern airplane, complete with fixed wings, fuselage, and a tail unit with elevators and rudder. In 1804 Cayley flew the first of his successful model gliders and in 1809 published his first researches, which form the basis of modern aerodynamics. He devoted much of his life to aeronautical research and writing, including the advantages of streamlining, problems of longitudinal and lateral stability, the design of wing surfaces for maximum lift, rudder and elevator action, and superposed wings (which were eventually used in biplanes and triplanes), testing all of his ideas with small models. Cayley's efforts culminated in 1853 with a full-size glider that carried his reluctant coachman on the first manned glider flight. Cayley also invented the light-tension wheel (forerunner of the bicycle wheel), the expansion-air engine (hot-air engine) about 1805, and the caterpillar tractor (1825). He founded the Regent Street Polytechnic Institution, London, in 1839. Among other fields in which he did research were scientific education, land reclamation, acoustics, railway equipment, lifeboats, ballistics, optics, and electricity.