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166:, farmland to the west of Glasgow, in the summer of 1895. By September of that year, taking advantage of the long university vacation, Ella and Percy had modified the Bat to the point where it would carry one of them aloft for 30 seconds, double that if towed by a rope. Percy did most of the test flying, but Ella took at least one tethered flight. They also worked on two other models, which did not turn out so well: the Beetle and the Gull. For the Gull, Ella managed to sew 300 square feet of sailcloth into the wings specified by Percy in less than a month.
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Street, Glasgow (the landlady at Byres Road objected to the birds and the models), and began constructing the aircraft in five sections. They used the best materials they could get with their limited funds: pine, sailcloth, steel plates, piano wire and bamboo. It was difficult to lay out the fabric in order to cut and sew it at home, and they were lent a room at
Glasgow University by its principal, the physicist
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134:, who at 19 joined the army to pay for the schooling of his sisters. Percy was enrolled as a naval cadet at the age of 13 and upon graduation pursued an apprenticeship in the engineering department of a Glasgow shipyard. Ella went with Percy to Glasgow as his companion and housekeeper, while Ada Violet stayed south with Thomas.
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in the glider. She oversaw the installation and operation of a rope pulley across the valley from Percy's launch site, and was instrumental in the success of the day, in which Percy achieved impressive tethered and free flights. One of the scientists who attended, phonograph enthusiast and fellow of the
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closely, and made scale models of gliders which he would fly around the apartment. In early 1895 the siblings decided to make a full sized prototype of what they called a 'soaring machine'. Percy did the design, carpentry and tensioning. Ella was in charge of the fabric. They moved house to
Kersland
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as his assistant in April 1896. Percy was given space at Maxim's flight test site at
Eynsford in Kent to house and trial the Hawk. Ella helped Percy organise a demonstration of the Hawk on Sunday 20 June 1897 - Percy was hoping to find an investor to support him in developing and installing a motor
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Ella
Pilcher appears with Percy and the gliders in over half of the photographs dating from 1895–6, which the siblings must have commissioned in order to send to the press. By the spring of 1896, the Pilchers had featured in a number of publications in Britain, the United States and Germany, though
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and husband of an
Italian marchioness. He was in his sixties for most of his children's births and died in 1874. Sophia took Ella and her siblings Thomas, Ada Violet and Percy to Germany but then herself died only three years later. The orphans returned to England, the charges of the eldest brother
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She donated Percy's models, sketches and photographs to the Royal
Aeronautical Society that year, and went on to contribute an article about him to the Aeronautical Journal in 1909. Over a decade later she corresponded with the society again in order to offer more material and information about
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The demonstration also saw a (possibly unplanned) flight by
Dorothy Rose Pilcher, Ella's cousin, who was given a tow by Percy but then crashed into the cinematograph camera which had been set up to take stills of the glider in flight. Neither the aviator nor the apparatus was damaged.
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I hope I may be permitted to remark that Mr. Pilcher has been, fortunately, blessed with the possession of a sister, who not only acted as the presiding goddess of the tea-table on the present occasion, but actually made most of the wing surfaces with her own
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Ella supported her brother's passionate interest in aeronautics which, she remembered, he had had since childhood. At Byres Road they kept birds in order to observe them in flight and landing. Percy followed the experiments of German pioneer glider
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and a few others. Despite bad weather, Percy insisted on making a flight in the Hawk and suffered an accident. He died from his injuries three days later, Ella at his side. Within a month Ella had embarked for Cape Town to serve as a nurse in the
207:. At this point Ella probably stepped back from her role as Percy's collaborator, and may have begun training as a nurse. Nonetheless, she still accompanied Percy on his most important trial flights, and helped him prepare for lectures.
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to a
Scottish mother, Sophia (née Robinson), and Somerset-born father, Thomas Webb Pilcher. Her father was on his second marriage, having had a previous life as curator of a British gallery in
230:, who had been a supporter of the Pilchers' gliding experiments and was de facto president of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain (which was later renamed the
105:/4 - 19 May 1939) was a British pioneer aviator, and the first woman to fly in a glider in the British Isles. She co-created and flew in gliders designed by
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257:. According to her niece, Ella was still running down hills in her seventies, teaching her great nephew to fly a kite, months before she died in 1939.
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only Percy was ever mentioned by name. They were working on a new model, the Hawk, which would remain their highest achievement in aeronautics.
159:, despite his friendly scepticism towards aeronautical progress. Ella was helped by Iris Biles, the daughter of the professor Percy assisted.
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141:, Glasgow, and were remembered by friends as bright, clever and attractive. Ella was, according to friends and family, a great singer.
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Interview notes with Thora
Forrester taken by production assistant on a 1950 television documentary on Percy Pilcher. Privately held.
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109:, her younger brother, in the 1890s and is considered to be the first woman who sewed wings. She was made an honorary member of the
418:"Letter from Ella Pilcher, October 31st 1899." Letter in ‘Pilcher letters’ file at the National Aviation Library, Farnborough, UK.
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While it did not yield an investor, the demonstration was impressive enough for Percy to start up a company with a colleague,
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Lecture notes in Percy and Ella's handwriting in
Pilcher file at National Aviation Library, Farnborough, UK.
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She moved down to London when Percy was invited to join American-born arms magnate and aeronautical pioneer
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Ella married Colonel Edward C. Tidswell in the autumn of 1902, and accompanied him on his stationing in
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On her husband's retirement from military service, the couple moved to Jersey, where they lived at
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Aviation pioneers Ella and Percy Pilcher with their Hawk glider, Glasgow, 1896. Via Philip Jarrett.
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Ford, Lily (2024). "'Up Here I Must Seem Proper': Ella Pilcher and Early Aeronautics in Britain".
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Tidswell, Ella (1909). "The Work and Experiments of Percy S. Pilcher".
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Pilcher letters file at National Aviation Library, Farnborough, UK.
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They called this first glider the Bat, and began test flying it at
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Aviation pioneer Ella Pilcher, Glasgow c. 1895. Via Philip Jarrett.
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Archibald, Douglas (1897). "A New Experiment in Soaring Flight".
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In the late summer of 1899 another demonstration was planned, at
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in Leicestershire, for the benefit of prospective investor
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Mavor, Sam (1934). "Memories No. 4: A Pioneer of Flight".
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Another Icarus: Percy Pilcher and the quest for flight
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First woman to fly in a glider in the British Isles
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65:19 May, 1939 (aged 73–74)
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384:McKernan, Luke (21 August 2018).
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232:Royal Aeronautical Society
111:Royal Aeronautical Society
474:British aviation pioneers
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484:British women aviators
469:Aeronautical engineers
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188:Meteorological Society
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479:English glider pilots
343:. Summer 1934: 57–62.
283:Women's History Today
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430:Aeronautical Journal
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216:John Henniker Heaton
205:Walter Gordon Wilson
228:Robert Baden Powell
386:"Icarus ascending"
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464:1939 deaths
183:Hiram Maxim
157:Lord Kelvin
103: 1863
70:Nationality
453:Categories
261:References
238:Later life
139:Byres Road
117:Early life
78:Occupation
323:923869578
56:, England
395:28 March
164:Cardross
145:Gliding
81:Aviator
73:British
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244:Kumasi
195:hands.
123:Harrow
54:London
50:Harrow
46:1863/4
397:2020
319:OCLC
309:ISBN
289:(9).
127:Rome
62:Died
43:Born
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