Commercial

History

Alexander Albert Holle was born on 10 June 1872 in Buitenzorg (today Bogor), Java, Dutch East India (Indonesia) to Adrianus Walraven Holle and Johanna Adriana Louise Holle (née van Motman), a prominent East Indies Tea growing family. He appears to have arrived in the U.K. sometime in the 1890’s, marrying Caroline Phebe Lankester on 21 July 1898 in Hampstead, but appears then to have moved on to Holland, living in Haere House, Olst. The couple divorced in the Haque on 13 December 1906.

The Varioplane Co. Ltd was established in September 1913 with the object “To acquire and take over from Alexander Albert Holle, of Clarges Street, W., certain patents; to enter into an agreement with A. A. Holle; and to manufacture and deal in aerial conveyances of all kinds and component parts thereof, and to provide and maintain hangars and aerodromes for aerial conveyances”. Capital was £16000 in £500 shares, and first Directors were Holle, G.J.L. Nicholson and G.P.M Van Weel. Registered office was34-36, Gresham Street, E.C., London.

By July 1914, The Aeroplane was reporting that The Varioplane Company had moved into a shed at Brooklands, near that of Sopwith’s, and were construction a monoplane. By early 1915, the company was operating from premises in Surbiton Road, Kingston-on-Thames. The monoplane finally appeared in 1917, first flying at Brooklands, and the machine later went to Farnborough to be tested.

In 1918, the patent for the Alula wing concept was applied for. The aim was to manage the flow of air over the wing’s surface through the application of wash-out and taper and to eliminate the need for drag-inducing ailerons by altering the air-flow and lift over the wing by the use of auxiliary aerofoils on the leading edge. The Alula Wing was a novel design which resembled a bow, having a straight trailing edge and a curved leading edge coming to a point at the wingtips. It was also unusual in being an unbraced monocoque structure, having no spars, only light spanwise stringers, strength being provided by the wood covering.

In 1919, a new company was formed to build and test an Alula wing and exploit the potential. The new company was the Commercial Aircraft Wing Syndicate Ltd, with capital of £30,000 in £1 shares. It was a co-venture between Holle, The Varioplane Co Ltd and the Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Co Ltd, with Varioplane appointing three directors and Blackburn two. It was not the intention of the company to enter aircraft the construction business, but rather to issue licences for the use of Alula wings by existing aircraft manufacturing firms.

During 1920, as a means of extolling the virtues of the Alula wing’s suitable for carrying heavy loads at moderate speeds, Harris Booth was contracted to do a design study for a cargo machine to carry four tons. This is known as the "Pelican 4 Ton Lorrv", a large cantilever monoplane designed for two 460 h.p. Napier engines.

An experimental Alula wing was constructed of wood and fabric in 1920 by Blackburn and taken to Sherburn-in-Elmet to be strut-braced to a D.H.6 fuselage, which had been re-engined for the experiment with a 200 h.p. Bentley B.R.2 rotary. The resulting monoplane was flown successfully by Captain Clinch on 2 January 1921. Unfortunately, the weakness of the wing structure allowed aeroelastic twist of the wingtips, rendering useless the conventional ailerons that had been fitted. As a result, Holle provided two hinged slats in the leading edge for lateral control, but results were not encouraging and Blackburn’s were commissioned to build further wings. These were of thicker section for cantilever mounting and were planked overall with thin mahogany.

One of the new wings was fitted to the Martinsyde Semiquaver G-EAPX. Although the basis of the earlier claims for the wing were for its load-carrying capability, Holle set about adapting the Alula wing for racing. The shape of the wing precluded the use of span-wise spars. The resultant wing structure consisted of only thin span-wise stringers and chord-wise formers covered by eighth-inch mahogany veneer. It was claimed that the wing had a load factor of 7, but as might be predicted, when sent to Farnborough on 11th June 1921, the wing was found to be too flexible and failed the load test, having a load factor of only 1.75. After a delay during which some redesign took place, a second wing was sent in July to the French Institut Aérotechnique at St-Cyr. Either the third or the fourth set replaced the biplane wings of the Semiquaver.

The “Handalula” or “Semi-Alula-Quaver", as it was nicknamed, was assembled at Addlestone and towed to Northolt where Frank Courtney was to test it prior to flying it in the 1921 Aerial Derby the next day. Due to its top-heaviness and instability on its narrow undercarriage, Courtney declined to fly it. It eventually was test flown by Reginald Kenworthy, before being returned for modifications. Three months later, with a stiffened undercarriage of wider track, The aircraft was demonstrated before a group of leading military aviation personnel under the guise of an “aircraft destroyer”, but the results were deemed very unconvincing.

At this point, Holle seems to have lost interest all in aircraft, and after 1921 all his patents refer to road vehicles. Alexander Albert Holle died on 20 August 1955 in Nice, Alpes Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d''Azur, France.

Company References

1. British Aeroplanes 1914-18, J.M. Bruce (Putnam, 1957)
2. British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 1, A.J. Jackson (Putnam, 2nd Ed., 1973)
3. Windsock Data File 106 – The AMC DH.6, Bruce Robertson
4. The Martinsyde File, Ray Sanger (Air Britain Historians, 1999)
5. The Aeroplane 21 Jul 1920
6. The Aeroplane 4 Aug 1920
7. Flight 22 Jul 1920
8. Flight 5 Aug 1920
9. Flight 25 Oct 1921
10. Aeroplane Monthly Jan 1976
11. https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/the-alula-wing-design-and-its-applications.7447/
12. Aviation Week 15 Sep 1920

Project Data

Production Details and Type Description

Total Commercial/Varioplane Production1