Edward Teshmaker Busk

Lieutenant Edward Teshmaker Busk, London Electrical Engineers RE(T) (8 March 1886 - 5 November 1914) was a pioneer of early aircraft design, and the designer of the first full-size efficient inherently stable aeroplane.

He was the son of Thomas Teshmaker Busk (1852-1894) and Mary Busk née Acworth (1854-1935), of Hermongers, Rudgwick, Sussex. After attaining First Class Honours in Mechanical Sciences at Cambridge he became Assistant Engineer at the newly formed Royal Aircraft Factory, Farnborough, later the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Here he devoted much of his time to the mathematics and dynamics of stable flight.

Before the invention of mechanical control devices, inherent stability in an aircraft was a most important quality. Busk took his theories into the air and tried them out in practice. As a result, in 1914 the R.E.1 (Reconnaissance Experimental) evolved and was claimed as the first inherently stable aeroplane.

The remarkable feature of this design was that there was no single device that was the cause of the stability. The stable result was attributed to detailed design of each part of the aeroplane, with due regard to its relation to, and effect on, other parts in the air. Weights and areas were so arranged that under practically any conditions the machine tended to right itself.

Busk was killed while flying his own stable aeroplane, which burst into flames and came down at Laffans Plain (now Farnborough Airfield), near Aldershot. He was buried at Aldershot Military Cemetery with full military honours.

His genius and his courage were recognised by the posthumous award of the Gold Medal of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, and amongst the many letters of condolence received by his mother was one from King George V.

His youngest brother, Hans Acworth Busk (b.1894), was reported missing on 6 January 1916, last seen flying a heavy bombing aeroplane against the Turks at Gallipoli. They were both survived by their mother, by sister Mary Agnes Dorothea Morse (1888-1960) (author of "E.T. Busk, a pioneer in flight") and by brother Henry Gould Busk (1890-1956).

Memorials

* Busk Crescent. Farnborough.
* The Busk Memorial, R.A.E. Farnborough, a small lily pond and fountain with memorial plaque.
* Holy Trinity Church, Rudgwick.

Bibliography

* " Hunsaker, Jerome C. Dynamical Stability of Aeroplanes, U. S. Navy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology"
* "Cross & Cockade International, Volume 14 - 1983, Number 3. E T Busk, an Irreparable Loss : Marvin L Skelton"