Percy Pilcher

Percy Pilcher may have beaten the Wright brothers to inventing and flying the first aeroplane – if he hadn’t died trying.

Percy testing his fourth glider Hawk in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow in 1896. (Credit: Philip Jarrett)

Percy was a pioneer of unpowered flight. After serving in the Royal Navy and working as a shipbuilding apprentice, he began building a series of successful hang-gliders in Glasgow in the 1890s. He then set his sights on creating a powered plane.

Percy and his sister Ella with his glider, Hawk. Ella assisted with Percy’s experiments and trial flights, and also made and stitched the fabric wings of his planes. (Credit: Philip Jarrett)

Percy’s sister Ella and their cousin Dorothy took towed flights in Percy’s gliders. This probably makes them the first women ever to fly in an aircraft. (Credit: Philip Jarrett)

Percy put himself into serious debt inventing and building his ‘tri-plane’, fitted with an oil engine. He needed to find sponsors quickly so, in 1889, he arranged to demonstrate the plane to potential investors at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire. The display was just about to begin when, to his intense frustration, he found that the new plane’s engine had broken down. Not wanting to disappoint the sponsors, he decided to fly his latest hang-glider, Hawk, instead.

Percy’s contribution to the development of the powered plane is recognised around the world. This replica of his 1895 glider, The Bat, was built by aviation enthusiasts in 2007 and displayed in Glasgow's Riverside Museum. (Credit: Kim Traynor)

It was a stormy day, so Percy waited for a lull in the weather before taking off in Hawk. He was caught by a gust of wind, which caused the glider’s tail to snap and it crashed. Percy died of his injuries two days later, and his powered tri-plane was never tested in public.

This monument, in a field near Stanford Hall, marks the place where Percy crashed. (Credit: Mat Fascione)

Further information

• National Museums Scotland: Conserving the Hawk
• National Museums Scotland: Pilcher's Hawk
• Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame
• The Percy Pilcher Monument at Eynsford