Late great engineers: Percy Pilcher - unsung hero of early aviation

Amy Johnson, Chuck Jaeger, Neil Armstrong and the Wright brothers. Just a few of the iconic names of aviation history that spring to mind and seem destined for immortality. But what of Percy Pilcher, British shipyard engineer whose engine-powered triplane should have propelled him into the limelight, who was meant to be the first to achieve sustained powered flight in the twilight years of the nineteenth century? But for a broken crankshaft, he would never have taken to the air in his substitute glider Hawk. But for the crowd of spectators and sponsors eager to see a display of aviation, on that fateful day of 30th September 1899 Pilcher might have cancelled the event entirely and rescheduled his triplane’s record attempt. And then disaster struck when Hawk’s tail snapped, and Pilcher plunged to the earth sustaining fatal injuries. Four years later in 1903 at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, the Wright Flyer made its 12-second flight, and Pilcher was all but forgotten.