Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith

Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith (22 March 1909 – 3 December 1981) was a British polymath historian of aeronautics and aviation. His obituary in The Times described him as "the recognised authority on the early development of flying in Europe and America" Richard P. Hallion called him "The greatest of all historians of early aviation".

Biography

Charles Gibbs-Smith was born in Teddington, Greater London in 1909 to a medical family which included in its line John Harvard, the founder of Harvard College. and Westminster School in central London before earning a Master of Arts degree at Harvard University in 1932.

Between 1947 and 1971 he was Keeper of the Department of Public Relations at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In this role he arranged museum exhibitions, conducted scholarly research, and wrote on a variety of topics, including a study of the Bayeux Tapestry and a centenary collection of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Starting in 1976 he had a Research Fellowship at the Science Museum in London.

Gibbs-Smith investigated the disputed subject of inventor Clément Ader's 1897 aeronautical experiments. Gibbs-Smith's 1968 book on Ader thoroughly described the documented evidence that Ader did not make a controlled flight in 1897, and only claimed to have done so in 1906, after others had already flown.

In his 1960's "definitive" work The Aeroplane: An Historical Survey Of Its Origins And Development,

Gibbs-Smith also investigated reports of the paranormal, including ghosts, flying saucers and parapsychology. He defended his studies among more sceptical colleagues. The Invention of the Aeroplane 1799–1909 (1966), London: Faber & Faber. A Directory and Nomenclature of the First Aeroplanes 1809 to 1909 (1966). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office Clément Ader – his flight claims and his place in history (1968), London: Science Museum Aviation: an historical survey from its origins to the end of World War II (1960; 1970; 1985), London: Science Museum The Bayeux Tapestry (1973), London; New York, Phaidon; Praeger The Rebirth of European Aviation 1902–1908 (1974). London: Science Museum