Patents, publicity and priority: The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, 1897–1919

During the first decade of the twentieth century, the long cherished ambition of powered flight was finally achieved. For the amateurs who had been exchanging information freely in pursuit of this common goal there appeared the new prospect of a commercial aviation industry, which posed more acutely the dilemma of whether to continue such open exchanges or to seek private profits through trade secrecy and patent protection. The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain espoused an ethos of open communication yet its Journal (established in 1897) encouraged its readers to obtain patent protection. Our paper explores this dilemma and analyses, in particular, the strategic use of publication and patents by the leading aero- and motor-engineer, F. W. Lanchester (1868–1946). With 426 patent applications to his name, not only was Lanchester a prolific patentee; he was also a regular contributor to engineering journals and the author of important works on the theory of aerodynamics and the military deployment of aircraft.

► UK aeronautical patents multiplied after the Wright brothers’ first flight in Dec 1903.
► The Aeronautical Society urged members to patent inventions as preferable to secrecy.
► Mass patenting but no litigation indicative of primitive state of British aviation.
► F. W. Lanchester first published his circulation theory of flight in 1898 UK patent.
► Lanchester’s patent was ignored: only a flight could have made it more than a text.