George Cayley

Sir George Cayley, 6th Baronet (1773 to 1857), called the Father of Aerodynamics, was a prolific English engineer from Brompton-by-Sawdon near Scarborough in Yorkshire. He was born in Scarborough on 27 December 1773, inherited Brompton Hall in 1792, and sat as Member of Parliament for Scarborough from 1832 to 1835. He helped found the Royal Polytechnic Institution, now the University of Westminster, and was a founding member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. His engineering projects ranged from self-righting lifeboats, tension-spoke wheels and caterpillar tractors to automatic railway crossing signals, seat belts, small helicopters and an early internal combustion engine fuelled by gunpowder. He is mainly remembered for his flying machines: he built and flew the first known model glider, a larger model glider in 1808, and a working piloted glider, and many now regard him as the first aeronautical engineer.