Vintage Wings - Lee-Richards Annular Biplane - 1911

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Lee-Richards Annular Biplane - 1911

Cedric Lee was a wealthy engineer whose interest in aviation started in 1909. In late 1910 he met George Richards and invited him to assist as a mechanical engineer.
Lee had bought the Annular Biplane from his designer and builder, J. A. Kitchen, who had done very little with it, so Lee and Richards decided to carry on with the project.
The unusual aircraft had two circular wings constructed by the traditional method of a wooden structure covered in fabric. The lateral balance was provided by two alirerons mounted on the wings struts, and the tail configuration was more or less traditional: two vertical fins for directional control and one horizontal elevator commanded from a lever in the cockpit. The unusual looking aircraft was powered by a radial 50 Hp. Gnome engine.
The machine was taken to Famine Point to start the flying trials, which were not particularly satisfactory (there are no records that could eventually fly).
In november 1911, while was hangared being repaired after an accident, a windstorm destroyed the hanger and the aircraft, and never was reconstructed.
Nevertheless, was the starting point for Richard's experiments with annular winged machines.

A non-flying replica of this machine was specially made for the 1965 film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, one of the unsucceful machines used by Count Ponticelli (Alberto Sordi).

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