First Controlled Flight, 1885 Style

Editor’s note: Our friends managing the upcoming Golden West Regional Fly-in and Airshow in California (Yuba County Airport, KMYV, June 7-9) tipped us off to this year’s special attraction, a full-sized, flyable, replica of the John Montgomery glider Santa Clara. So what is the big deal about a glider? How about the fact that it was developed in the mid 1880s and successfully flown in controllable flight about 15 years before the Wright Brothers started flying their gliders! Given the current controversy about “who made the first controlled flight?” In Flight USA contacted the builder of this remarkable reproduction, Thom Taylor, and asked for a personal account of his adventure into the world of aviation pioneer, John Montgomery. Enjoy!

By Thom Taylor

John Montgomery standing by the Santa Clara, circa 1904-5. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)As a young child I always had an interest in airplanes and model aircraft. As I grew older I developed a keen interest in history around the era of the two world wars, and the way technologies advanced in time of conflict. I also studied the history of California. When I retired, I turned to woodworking as a hobby. I quickly learned woodturning, mastered woodworking’s other skills.

After reading a book about the Wright Brothers, I decided to build a 1/3 scale model of the 1902 Wright glider using period materials and construction techniques, from the stand point of a woodworker, having no personal flying experience. The glider, which took me 1,200 hours and a year to build, is on display at the California Aerospace Museum in Sacramento, Calif. The museum’s curator asked what my next project might be, and having no idea he suggested a John Montgomery type aircraft. Like most people with no knowledge of John Montgomery I set out to learn about this most amazing Californian.

Daniel Maloney preparing to launch the Santa Clara from the balloon, circa 1905.Born in 1858, in the small mining town of Yuba City, Calif. and watching birds flying in the area, Montgomery developed an early curiosity of flight. His parents moved to Oakland, Calif. to afford him the opportunity of a better education. After finishing high school and college in Oakland and San Francisco, he and his family moved to the Otay area of San Diego, Calif. where he developed his theory of flight. Using these theories of flight he built a small, 20-foot, mono-winged glider, which he named The Gull after the birds he studied. The wings were curved like the bird, and Montgomery’s first flight was 600 feet, following the curve of the land. Montgomery showed control of the craft by a simple form of wing warping and weight shifting. This was done in 1884, 19 years before the Wright brothers took to the air and seven years before Otto Lilienthal began his experiments in gliding.

In 1893 Montgomery presented his paper, “Soaring Flight,” at the Aeronautical Congress’ Conference on Aerial Navigation in Chicago, Ill. having accomplished the first controlled flight of man in a heavier-than-air craft at Otay Mesa. Montgomery continued to build scale models of different aeroplanes and testing glides. He settled on a tandem winged craft he called the Santa Clara, after the college he was working at near San Jose, Calif.

In 1904 Montgomery trained Daniel Maloney to fly two full-scale planes that had been completed in 1903 with a new design: a tandem wing aeroplane. The two presented at several exhibitions in 1905, in which a plane was raised 500 to 4,000 feet by a hot air balloon, then cut free and maneuvered safely while doing figure eights to the ground. The exhibitions stopped when Maloney was killed on July 18, 1905 by a malfunctioning balloon rope. Shortly after Maloney’s death Montgomery received patent No. 831,173 “For Improvement in Aeroplanes.” This was to be the basis of a 1921 suit brought by Montgomery’s widow, Regina Cleary Montgomery, and other family members, and the subject of a planned film to be released in December of this year.

Gill Wright tieing down the keel beam to the body. (Courtesy of Thom Taylor)I was able to locate a replica of the Santa Clara at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, Calif. along with the Evergreen, another replica of a Montgomery mono-wing glider. I was able to examine the construction techniques of the gliders, and I learned that Montgomery had been a professor of math and science at Santa Clara College. To help in my research of the gliders of Montgomery, I contacted the University of Santa Clara in California and visited the archives of John Montgomery. While doing research at the University I met two people who would help me in my endeavor to build the Santa Clara: John Burdick, and Craig Harwood. Burdick, a retired teacher had actually built a Santa Clara aeroplane, but it was lost after the earthquake of 1987. Harwood is a descendant of John Montgomery and was in the process of writing a book about Montgomery.

Chris Taylor holding a wing spar to the starboard longeron. (Courtesy of Thom Taylor)Based on the information I found, I decided on my next project – to build a full-size replica of John Montgomery’s Santa Clara glider. Using the same types of materials that John Montgomery had, I started to frame the aeroplane wings (he coined the term aeroplane) using Sitka Spruce and Ash, hand laminating the wing ribs using the modern glues that are available today in a rib press to create the curvature of the wing, with a chord of 42 inches and a camber of 1:12. Using a single rib press, I made 125 ribs. Sitka Spruce was used to make the wing spars, each 12-feet long, I used eight spars to create the tandem wing glider. The unusual tail feature of the Santa Clara, a cruciform tail of equal portions I nicknamed “the twins” was again of laminate design. For the covering of the glider, in keeping with the off-the-shelf ideas of Montgomery, I used the same type of materials he used, a simple cotton muslin with a thread count of 200 and no doping of the fabric. Fortunately my neighbor, Darrell Sharp, is a sewing marvel and did all the stich work on both the Wright 1902 and Montgomery gliders.

Testing the firt of the front wing starboard wing fabric. (Courtesy of Thom Taylor)Not being a pilot or knowing flight techniques myself, I contacted the local chapter of the EAA and met members of Chapter 52 in Sacramento, Calif. After learning of my project to build an aeroplane, they were eager to help provide the information I requested. I learned about the EAA organization and their goals and soon found myself a member wanting to build an operational replica of the Santa Clara instead of a static display. Fellow EAA member Gill Wright has taken the building of the Santa Clara to heart, helping with the planning, rigging, running and standing types, and the assembly of the framed components into the shape of the famed glider.

When the organizers of the Golden West Fly-In and Airshow, who’s theme this year is about Montgomery’s works, learned of the project to build the Santa Clara, I was asked to exhibit the glider at the three-day event.

Darrell Sharp working on a rib and fabric test section. (Courtesy of Thom Taylor)The glider is a work in progress and will be for some time. In researching John Montgomery I found he was largely overlooked by history, and his contributions to early aviation are nearly forgotten due to his early death and being overshadowed by the achievements of the Wright Brothers. By building and testing the Santa Clara in the same locations as Montgomery did, and by showing the Santa Clara throughout California, I hope to rekindle the spark of California aviation history.

In a side note: John Montgomery with aeronaut (pilot) Robert Defolco flew three exhibit flights at the 1905 California State Fair in Sacramento, Calif.

Gill Wright and Thom Taylor holding the framed tail section of the Santa Clara. (Courtesy of Thom Taylor)