Frost Airship Glider

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The Frost Airship Glider was designed and constructed by William (Bill) Frost in the mid-1890s. According to the patent specification 1894-20431 issued in London, the craft was simply called 'A Flying Machine'.

The preamble to the specification states:

The flying machine is constructed with an upper and lower chamber of wire work covered with light waterproof material. Each chamber formed sharp at both ends with parallel side. The upper large chamber to contain sufficient gas to lift the machine. In the centre of upper chamber a cylinder is fixed in which a horizontal fan is driven by means of a shaft and bevelled gearing worked from the lower chamber.^[1]

William Frost flew this machine for the first and only time on 24 September 1896. It seems to have travelled about 500 metres - considerably further than the flight of 120 feet claimed by Wilbur Wright over seven years later – before making a forced landing and crashing into bushes. A storm that night destroyed the craft and scattered the remains.^[2]

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