Francis Herbert Wenham

Who was Francis Herbert Wenham?

Francis Herbert Wenham was a British marine engineer who studied the problem of manned flight and wrote a perceptive and influential academic paper which he presented to the first meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society in London in 1866.

Wenham's report, "Aerial Locomotion," was published in the Society's journal and reprinted in widely distributed aeronautical publications in the 1890s, including Octave Chanute's "Progress In Flying Machines". The paper introduced the idea of superposed wings in a flying machine, a concept Wenham tested in 1858 with a multiwing glider, although it did not actually fly. In 1866 he patented the design, which became the basis for biplanes, triplanes and multiplanes that took to the air as gliders in the 1890s, and as airplanes in the early decades of the 20th century. Superposed wings increased the lifting area and avoided the structural problems of excessive wing length. According to some sources John Stringfellow was influenced by Wenham's works or possibly even by his personal communication when creating his steam engine triplane model aircraft which was demonstrated publicly on the international exhibition in the Crystal Palace in 1868.