Country of origin:

Australia

Description:

Commercial airliner

Power Plant:

TBA

Specifications:

History:

George Brougham Hubert Austin was born in South Yarra, VIC on 28 February 1860 and during his career worked as an architect with the Department of Public Works in Victoria, being responsible for a number of buildings in Melbourne. In 1907 he attended the First Aero Exhibition in London, UK and began, thereafter, experiments with the design and construction of a ‘self balancing aeroplane’. The machine has also been referred to as the Austin Equitorial Balance Aeroplane.

In January 1912 Mr Austin demonstrated a working model of one of his designs, and later in 1912 produced plans for a monoplane fitted with two Gnome rotary engines. Media reports of the time refer to plans for a 750 kw (1,000 hp) aircraft capable of lifting 15 tons and travelling at 320 km/h (200 mph).

Patents for his designs were registered in Australia and the United Kingdom. One design was said to be able to carry 100 passengers and have ten engines producing 3,730 kw (5,000 hp). Passengers were to be carried in a swinging car suspended under the fuselage.

During 1912-1913 at the cycle manufacturing facility of Austin & Chambers in Melbourne, VIC a 25 per cent scale model of one of his airliner designs was built, construction using cycle metal tubing joined by means of brazing, struts of hickory, laminated wood, and fabric covering. The engine was an air-cooled V-4 side-valve engine built by George Austin Jnr, Mr Austin’s son. It was built at Bay Street Motors in Melbourne. The propeller was built by James Moore and Company of South Melbourne. The machine was said to have a mechanical automated pilot which was claimed to be the first such unit in the world. The aircraft had a tricycle undercarriage. The engine was installed in the middle of the aircraft and drove two propellers, one forward and one to the rear. It was said it could not loop as the balance was always preserved.

The almost complete scale model was shown to American pilot A B Wizard Stone who was in Australia at the time. He agreed to be the test pilot of the full size aircraft when it was completed, stating at the time “After viewing the working of your automatic airship, there is no doubt in my mind that you have evolved the airship of the future for both carrying passengers with safety, but also that it should be of the greatest value in military usage. Should you have your machine completed before I leave Australia, I would be very pleased to have the honour of being the first aviator to take it up in the air”.

Trials of the scale aircraft commenced in April 1914 on the estate of Mr Moylan at Mt Kororoit, Melton, near Diggers Rest, VIC, the machine being assembled in a hangar on the property. Reports of the time stated that these trials absolutely established the value of the principle introduced and gave convincing proof of the automatic stability of the machine. Tests revealed the model could lift 173 kg (380 lb). Test flights were made with the 9 kw (12 hp) engine running at full throttle and it ran up a launching ramp before taking off. On one occasion, on 2 July 1914, after a short flight, it crashed and damage was caused to the wings, undercarriage and propellers. It is not known to have been repaired and flown again.

A company known as The Austin Automatic Balancing Airship Company was set up to build what became known as The Air Dreadnought & Future Passenger Airship. A prospectus was issued on 17 November 1915. The invention was to be forwarded to the United Kingdom where a full-size machine was to be built by a leading aviation company and tested to the approval of the British Military Authorities.

Eventually Mr Austin informed the Australian  Department of Defence on 5 April 1917 he could not afford to take the invention to England. Sadly, Mr Austin died aged 61 years on 27 June 1921. The design seems to have proceeded no further but some small parts of the scale model have been reported to be held by the Brighton Historical Society, VIC.