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Belbin

H.W.G. Belbin


History

H.W.G. Belbin was in fact born Henry William George Belben, on 20 November 1874 at Abbas & Temple Coombe, Milborne Port, Somerset, one of nine children of George and Catharine Belben. The family name appears as Belben up until the census of 1891, after which it appears to become Belbin.

Belbin was a blacksmith with an inventive turn of mind and decided to enter for the Peugeot Prize of £400 for the first man to clear 20ft on a man powered cycle aeroplane. Belbin achieved 6ft 11in, which so impressed Claude Grahame-White that he gave him free unlimited access to Hendon aerodrome so that he could continue his experiments there.

The Belbin machine was of quite sophisticated appearance, with ailerons, elevator and rudder, with an auxiliary aerofoil surface mounted above the aviator's head.

In the 1920’s Belbin went on to design, build and test amphibious bicycles. As a water cyclist he covered over 900 miles on the River Thames and on the sea at Weston-Super-Mare, Westcliff and at Southend, Essex.

Henry Belbin died on 25 August 1942 in Lambeth, London.

Company References
  1. http://www.belbin.net/




Project Data top

Project No
Type No
Name
Alternative Name(s)
Year
Spec
Status
Qty
Description
References
     Cycleplane    ??    Proto  1  Man powered cycle aeroplane  1

Project References
  1. British Aircraft Before The Great War, Michael H. Goodall and Albert E. Tagg (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001)



Production Data

   Total Belbin Production     1   

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V1.4.4 Created by Roger Moss. Last updated August 2020