Horatio Frederick Phillips

Horatio Frederick Phillips (1845 – 1924) was an English aviation pioneer, born in Streatham, Surrey. He was famous for building multiplane flying machines with many more sets of lifting surfaces than are normal on modern aircraft. However he made a more lasting contribution to aeronautics in his work on aerofoil design.

Aerofoils Phillips devised a wind tunnel in which he studied a wide variety of aerofoil shapes for use in providing lift. The tunnel was unusual in that the gas flow was provided by steam rather than air. His 1904 Multiplane was a development of the 1893 test vehicle in a configuration that could be flown by a person. It had 21 wings and had a tail for stability, but was unable to achieve sustained flight. Its best performance was . Though successful, the 1907 model showed poor performance compared to more conventional contemporary types. This caused Phillips to end his attempts at manned flight.