Forum attic Item #13

[Varese2002]

The irregular series Forum attic has been down for quite a time and is in need of resurrecting. If you do not know what the object is of the Forum Attic read here.

Sometimes it looks that we know all of every aspect of World war one, but quickly the foots are again firmly on the ground when you find this ....

........unearthed the plans of an earlier model which actually flew before the revolution. A great-uncle of mine, Count Youri Golovkine, invented just such a flying machine during the 1914-18 war. He was a young cavalry officer who transferred to the Imperial Russian Flying Corps as a result of a keen interest in aircraft design. The machine in question, which was called the Golovkine ornithopter, was built in 1915 at government expense and given official Army trials in 1916. The principle on which it worked involved slots controlled by valves which closed on the down-beat and opened as the wing was raised. The power was entirely manual. Plans were actually approved for a production order of 14,000 of these ornithopters to equip a full division, but the revolution intervened. Count Golovklne left Russia in 1919 with the designs of his machine, but was unfortunately drowned while sailing in the Bosphorus in 1920.

Source: Flight July 15, 1955 page 100. Letter sent to the editor by Y. Galitzine in reaction to the report of Flight of the Soviet Air Day 1955, where a flapping glider was showed to the public.

There was a reaction from the russian / soviet aviation expert DENYS J. VOADEN in the issue of Flight of July 29, 1955 page 171, which reads in part ...

As far as I can recall, the Golovkine ornithopter has until now been unknown outside Russia. There is an article on Russian ornithopters, mainly gliders with only manual power, in Letectvi, 26, 245-250 (1950) but this Czech journal does not mention Golovkine.

That's all I can find in the attic The story may be a hoax or not, but as far as I know this is about all there is about Count Youri Golovkine and his ornithopter that I can find.

Is there other information ?

Cheers

Kees

[Varese2002]

A lot of people have looked at this rarity, but no reactions at that . Probably this is one of those things we will never know.

Cheers

Kees