WELS, Franz Xaver

Upon completion of elementary school W. attended secondary modern school in Graz and finished handicraft school as an industrial engineer in 1891. After serving in the army between 1893 and 1897, he spent some time in England. His interest in flying machines led to a meeting with the Austrian aviation pioneer Wilhelm→ Kress in 1901. W. offered to fly his aircrafts but Kress would not let anyone take the role of pioneer in flying the engine airplane. Nevertheless, following the recommendation of Kress, W. got a job with the Ig → Etrich in Trutnov (Czech Republic). He gave him the task of literature researching and W. found a hint for flying seed “Zanonia macrocarpa” in the publication of F. Ahlborn from Hamburg. In 1904, he according to several studies and models created a glider with range of six meters, which led to a first successful gliding experiment. Further intensive studies led to patent record No. 23465 “Igo → Etrich and Franz W. in Oberaltstadt Trautenau (Slovakia) – a flying machine”, which was filed by them on 3rd March 1905. According to the patent drawing this flying machine had just wings, two propellers and one engine. It was designed by W. First, the airplane was tested without the engine, but a glider with the range of 15 metres proved to be unstable. At the beginning of 1907 they tested a smaller motor airplane (" Etrich I "), but failed. After the glider was scientifically remodeled, W. succeeded in flying it for the first time on 2nd October 1907. When W. was in Paris in 1908, he saw the successful flight of Wright Brothers Bi-plane and he suggested to Etrich to change the concept, which was based on monoplane. In addition to that there was still a need for new colleagues (among them Karl Illner and Pavel Podgornik). He was for some time separated from Etrich, who with his rich experience and the help of new recruits successfully built a monoplane called "Taube" (Pigeon). W. subsequently worked as an independent inventor. Between 1905 and 1938 he patented 33 inventions, but had no major commercial success with them. When he was still with Etrich, he built the propeller-driven snowmobile. During World War I he was concerned with the prosthetics and with the drives for sporting and transport facilities in the 1920s. In 1934 W. set up an experimental workshop and devoted himself to developing the “cycloidal aircraft”- a kind of helicopter with a horizontal rotor. In 1935 he patented his invention but could not finance the construction of the prototype. His latest, thirty-third patent, was a fin drive. He died impoverished and forgotten in Vienna shortly afterwards.