Preston Albert Watson (17 October 1880 – 30 June 1915) was a Scottish aviation pioneer, who conceived his own original method of controlling an aeroplane in flight. This was his rocking wing method of lateral control, which consisted of a secondary smaller wing mounted above the main wing on an A-frame that could pivot about its longitudinal axis.Patent No. GB1909000047 Improvements in Flying Machines Watson's method of lateral control was applied by him in three different aeroplanes; the first was built in late 1909, the second in July 1910 and his third in 1913.Mr Watson's Flying Machines. Retrieved 15 July 2015.J. D. Gillies and J. L. Wood. Aviation in Scotland (Glasgow branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society)Michael H Goodall & Albert Tagg. British Aircraft Before the Great War (Schiffer, Atglen, PA 2001)Peter Lewis. British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam, London, 1962)
On 16 March 1915, Watson gained his Royal Aero Club Certificate No. 1,117 (equivalent of a pilot's licence) with the London and Provincial School at the London Aerodrome, Hendon, having sought a commission with the Royal Naval Air Service with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.The Aeroplane magazine 7 July 1915 Obituary On 30 June 1915 he was killed when the Caudron G.3 aeroplane he was flying disintegrated in flight and crashed in Dunlye Field, a few miles from the Cross-in-Hand Hotel near Heathfield, Sussex. Watson is buried in Dundee's Western Cemetery. CWGC Casualty Record, Preston Albert Watson, retrieved 9 November 2021.
Preston Watson's achievements have been clouded by claims of powered flight before the Wright brothers. This originated from his younger brother James Watson, who brought it to the public's greater attention in an article published in the Manchester Guardian newspaper in December 1953. There was an article in The Scots magazine in October 1953 released by one J.D. Leslie, but it is dismissed owing to inaccuracies. Since then, Preston's name has been associated with this false claim and his actual work in promoting aviation is often overlooked.
This claim has been repeatedly proven to be false,Newman, Grant. First to Fly? Preston Watson – Fact and Myth. Air Enthusiast, No. 112, July/August 2004. ISSN 0143-5450Charles H. Gibbs-Smith. The Aeroplane: an Historical survey of its Origins and Development (HMSO, London 1960) but the myth frequently reappears in Scottish newspaper articles and most recently in a book published in 2014 with the support of the Dundee Museum of Transport titled The Pioneer Flying Achievements of Preston Watson by Alistair W. Blair and Alistair Smith.
Early history He was born in Dundee, Scotland on 17 October 1880, the son of Mr Thomas Watson of Balgowan and his wife Jane Yeaman.Birth Entry of Preston Albert Watson, Scotlands People, Statutory registers Births 282/1 815, 1880, Scotland. His father was partner in Watson & Philip a wholesale food distributor in Dundee.Dundee Post Office Directory 1905
He was a pupil of the High School of Dundee and showed considerable interest in things mechanical from an early age. Young Preston possessed an analytical mind, and quite often, he, according to the Sunday, 27 October 1984 edition of The Courier and Advertiser newspaper;
It was whilst studying engineering at University College, Dundee that his interest in aeronautics flourished, but there was little to read on the emerging science of aviation. If aviation was to become the field in which he was going to start a career, he would have to do his own research.
His brother James Yeaman Watson was to later recount in the December 1955 issue of Aeronautics magazine that;
According to the late Mr James Manson, who worked as a labourer with Watson's father's food produce business, Messrs Watson and Philip, Preston built small model aeroplanes and dropped them from the bridge at Ninewells.
On 25 October 1907 Watson applied for a patent that, "...relates to flying machines, the object being to raise and propel a machine through the air without aerostats." Accepted in its entirety nearly a year later, Patent No.23,553 of 1907, titled "Watson's Flying Machines" comprises eight pages of descriptions of an indigenous rotary-wing means of creating lift and five illustrations to which the description pages are keyed. These show different configurations of aircraft using the same rotary aerofoil devices that resembled the sheathing mechanism of a combine harvester. No evidence survives to suggest Watson began constructing any of the bizarre creations in the patent.Patent No. GB190723553 Flying Machines
Accepted in its entirety on 8 October 1908, by that time Watson's ideas on what constituted successful flight, and specifically how lift was achieved had changed dramatically from his patent. In July 1908 Watson published the pamphlet Power Necessary in Flight (John Leng & Co. Ltd. Dundee, 1908), which contained his theories on; "...the best curvature of an aerodrome [sic], and, further, the result of a calculation regarding the best proportion of the weight of wings to weight of structure for the attainment of flight with the least horse-power."Watson, Preston A. Power Necessary in Flight (John Leng & Co. Ltd. Dundee, 1908)
Influenced by Frederick William Lanchester's paper titled "Aerodynamics", constituting the first volume of a complete work on aerial flight published in December 1907, Watson's work contains an analytical approach to aerodynamics, far removed from the outlandish theories he expressed in his first patent. Watson's introduction mentions that he had read Lanchester's work, stating that their findings are similar, but that he arrived at his theories independently.
His next patent represented the body of his aeronautical work that he spent the rest of his life researching; his rocking wing concept of lateral control. Applied for on 1 January 1909, the complete specification is dated 23 July 1909 and was left with the Patent Office a day later and accepted on 16 December that year. Patent No.47 of 1909 comprises three pages of descriptions and a single page with an illustration of the rocking wing concept as applied to a theoretical aeroplane.
From examining the illustration supplied with the patent and surviving photographs of Watson's aeroplanes, it is plainly evident that he had fully intended on constructing an aircraft based on his patent. Exactly when he completed his first aeroplane is not known, but on page 400 in the 2 November 1909 issue of The Aero magazine is the following statement:
Although clearly a typographical error with regards to the location of "the secluded little village of Forgendenny, Perthshire, near Preston" and Watson's name, this article seems to confirm a likely completion time period of his first full size aeroplane based on his rocking wing patent.
Rocking wings Although somewhat neglected by aviation historians, Preston Watson's aeronautical experiments are contemporary with those of better known British pioneers, such as Alliott Verdon Roe and Geoffrey de Havilland. In many ways Watson's experiments are of at least equal historic interest today as those of his contemporaries, since his primary focus was developing an alternative means of controlling an aeroplane in flight – his "rocking wing" method of lateral control.
Watson is known to have built three aeroplanes incorporating rocking wings, only two of which successfully became airborne under their own power.
It is likely that Watson's second patent, "Improvements in Flying Machines" dated 1 January 1909 was the first published description of Watson's rocking wing theory of lateral control, the function of which in a practicable sense is described by him as, "above [the main] plane...and carried by the frame of the machine is a rocking aeroplane...capable of rocking about a fore and aft central axle..."
"The pivot...is above the fore and aft central axis of the main plane and depending from the rocking plane and at right angles to it is a lever...fixed rigidly to such rocking plane. This lever is fixed in so far that it can tilt the plane...to one side or the other..." The actuation of which by the pilot induces the rocking motion of the wing.
When in flight the rocking wing functions in the following manner, "when the rocking aeroplane...is tilted out of the horizontal...by moving the lever...to one side, the normal pressure of the rocking aeroplane...is inclined out of the vertical and gives rise to a horizontal component pulling its axle...to one side relative to the line of flight."
"The [aircraft is] thus caused to rotate about the line of flight, that is to say, the [rocking wing] becomes tilted about the line of flight and out of the horizontal. The normal pressure of the [main plane] is thus inclined out of the vertical and gives rise to a horizontal component pulling the [aircraft] to one side of the line of flight."
To climb and descend in the aircraft, the vertically mounted lever, "...is moved fore and aft, thus causing the front edge of the rudder [tailplane, none of Watson's aeroplanes were fitted with a vertical rudder. The Wrights also initially referred to their horizontal stabilisers as horizontal rudders] to be moved downwards or upwards."
Because of the dual actuation of the control lever, "...the [rocking wing] and the [tailplane] can be moved so as to cause the machine to move up and down while at the same time moving to the one side or the other, that is to say that by simply moving the hand which actuates the lever in any desired direction and the trim altered."
Watson's declaration as a conclusion to the patent is in two points, as follows: "In aeroplanes the use of a rocking plane situated on a higher level than the main plane, for preserving lateral stability and for steering right and left and controlled by a lever which also operates the horizontal rudder as described and illustrated on the drawings annexed." "In aeroplanes the combination of a fixed main plane with an upper rocking plane as described and for the purposes set forthwith."
Despite Watson's firm belief in his system of control, the reality behind it, however ingenious, was that it was no more efficient that wing warping or the use of ailerons in its aerodynamic effect on an aeroplane in flight. Prompted by Charles Gibbs-Smith, when analysed by aerodynamic experts at the Royal Aeronautical Society in the late 1950s, it was found that the rocking wing had a significant disadvantage; it had the effect of a single combined aileron and rudder.Newman, Grant. WW1 Aero – The Journal of the Early Aeroplane No.196, May 2007: Preston Watson's Aeroplanes
To execute a banked turn from flying straight and level, the rocking wing worked moderately effectively, but when the aeroplane's lateral equilibrium had been compromised, tipping the rocking wing in the opposite direction to the down-going wing to right itself had a tendency to yaw the aircraft in that direction. In effect, the rocking wing did not fully assist in correcting conditions of instability since the pilot had no means with which to induce or correct a yawing motion. Another possible reason behind the rocking wing idea not progressing beyond Watson's experiments was that it could only be applied to relatively light and small aircraft.
Had Preston Watson survived, it is possible that with continual experience flying his aeroplanes he would have thought up an ingenious solution to this problem. Although he would have had to forsake, in his mind, the biggest advantage of his system over contemporaries, the simplicity of operation of the rocking wing method (by a single control lever for pitch and roll), by perhaps adding another actuating device to adequately control his aeroplane.
Despite this however, the rocking wing means of lateral control as Watson proposed it, although it had no precedent in aviation's fledgling years, its influence and impact on history have proven to be negligible.
Aircraft