Clout Mechanical Air-Ship

The Clout Mechanical Air-Ship was a British unmanned helicopter, created by George Clout, a tradesman from Durrington, West Sussex, in the early 1900s. Clout had reportedly spent thirteen or fourteen years studying aerial navigation by 1904, inspired by a toy helicopter. His design featured two large fan-shaped rotor blades that rotated by running along a circular steel rail. The fuselage was a trellis-like structure of oak and steel tubing, supporting the rail and a rudder assembly.

Each rotor blade had three transverse trussed spars on its upper side. A 3.75 hp air-cooled petrol engine at the base of the rotor assembly drove, via a belt drive, propellers mounted above each rotor blade. These propellers each had two fan-shaped blades and a square canard surface positioned just ahead of them.

Clout acknowledged that the machine’s weight prevented it from carrying an occupant, but believed a version built with lighter materials like aluminium could. He envisioned a crewed aircraft controlled by the pilot shifting their weight. The machine debuted in 1903 and was tested in a field in Worthing, West Sussex, but failed to lift off.

On 11 June 1903, Clout filed a patent for a "Mechanical Air-Ship," though the application did not progress. After failing to gain War Office support, he traveled to Montreal, Canada in November 1905, then to New York in early 1906, seeking capital to build a practical machine. In May 1906, ill health prompted his return to Great Britain, but he died en route and was buried at sea.