Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Flight, Benjamin
FLIGHT, BENJAMIN (1767?–1847), organ-builder, was son of Benjamin Flight, of the firm of Flight & Kelly, organ-builders. In conjunction with his son J. Flight and Joseph Robson he constructed the apollonicon, an instrument with five manuals, forty-five stops, and three barrels. This ingenious contrivance was exhibited in 1817 and the following years until 1840. The partnership with Robson was afterwards dissolved, but Flight continued to interest himself in certain inventions and improvements in the mechanism of organs. He died, aged 80, in 1847, leaving the business in the hands of his son, J. Flight, who carried it on until 1885.
[Grove's Dict. i. 74, 532; Rees's Cyclopædia, private information.]