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| Epps 1909 Monoplane | |
|---|---|
| Role | General aviation |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Epps |
| Designer | Ben T. Epps |
| First flight | August 28, 1909 |
| Introduction | 1909 |
The Epps 1909 Monoplane was a fixed-wing aircraft that was designed and built in 1909 in Athens, Georgia by Ben T. Epps and his business partner Zumpt Huff. [1]
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with a single main wing plane, in contrast to a biplane or other multiplane, each of which has multiple planes.
A fixed-wing aircraft is a flying machine, such as an airplane or aeroplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft, and ornithopters. The wings of a fixed-wing aircraft are not necessarily rigid; kites, hang gliders, variable-sweep wing aircraft and aeroplanes that use wing morphing are all examples of fixed-wing aircraft.
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city–county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about 70 mi (113 km) northeast of downtown Atlanta, a Global City and the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, being in the top ten of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation. It is a component of the larger Atlanta–Athens–Clarke County–Sandy Springs Combined Statistical Area, a trading area. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and a R1 research institution, is in the city and contributed to its initial growth. In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original City of Athens abandoned its charter to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to jointly as Athens–Clarke County. As of 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau's estimated population of the consolidated city-county was 125,691; the entire county including Winterville and Bogart had a population of 127,064. Athens is the sixth-largest city in Georgia, and the principal city of the Athens metropolitan area, which had a 2017 estimated population of 209,271, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The city is dominated by a pervasive student culture and music scene centered on downtown Athens, next to the University of Georgia's North Campus. Major music acts associated with Athens include numerous alternative rock bands such as R.E.M., the B-52's, Widespread Panic, and Neutral Milk Hotel. The city is also known as a recording site for such groups as the Atlanta-based Indigo Girls.
The aircraft consisted of an open framework suspended below a wire-braced monoplane wing.
The undercarriage consisted of three bicycle wheels, [2] one at the front of this frame, and two behind it. A buggy seat [2] was located beneath the wing for the pilot. A 15-horsepower (11 kW) two-cylinder Anzani [3] [4] motorcycle engine [5] [6] was mounted behind the seat and drove a two-bladed propeller from an exhaust fan [5] mounted pusher-fashion behind the wing's trailing edge. A biplane elevator unit was carried on struts at the front of the aircraft, and a single rudder on struts to its rear. The airframe was made from scrap timber collected from a sawmill, [5] with the flying surfaces covered in cotton. [5] Only the undersurfaces of the wings were covered. [7]
Anzani was an engine manufacturer founded by the Italian Alessandro Anzani (1877–1956), which produced proprietary engines for aircraft, cars, boats, and motorcycles in factories in Britain, France and Italy.
Inspired by the Wright Brothers [5] [8] and pioneering European aviators, [5] Epps first conceived of the design at the age of sixteen. [9] In 1909, he built the aircraft in the workshop of his bicycle, electrical contracting, and automobile repair business on Washington Street, Athens. [2]
On August 28, 1909, [1] he flew the machine from a cow pasture [6] near Brooklyn Creek. [5] After rolling downhill, [2] [5] [6] Epps took off and flew around 100 yards (90 metres) at a maximum altitude of around 50 feet (15 metres). [2] [6] The flight ended in a crash, [7] [8] but made Epps Georgia's first aviator. [6] [8] In 1949, Lola Trammel told The Atlanta Journal Magazine that Epps had already made a successful flight in the machine prior to the public demonstration, testing the machine by moonlight with the help of friends at two o'clock in the morning. [10]
In his 2016 book "To Lasso the Clouds," and his 2017 article published in Air & Space Magazine, Dan A. Aldridge Jr. documents how the history of this plane was misconstrued for decades. For years it was thought that the plane first flew in 1907. The book shows how the Epps aircraft was actually the first monoplane to fly in the United States, predating by 106 days the monoplane flight of Henry Walden, who allegedly has been mistakenly credited with the historic milestone for many years. [1]
