Apophenia said:
Would I be right in concluding that Joseph Boland was the motor/mechanical partner in the Boland Airplane & Motor Company while Frank E. Boland did the airframe concept/design work?
In accordance to E.T. Wooldridge, who wrote the "Early Flying Wings (1870 - 1920)" article linked above and cited at Wikipedia, you are right: "Frank supplied the enthusiasm, ingenuity, and self-taught flying ability; Joseph provided the mechanical genius to transform ideas into some tangible, workable form; and James had the business sense so often lacking in ventures of that sort."
He also wrote: "In 1907, Frank tried unsuccessfully to build his own airplane without drawings, knowledge, or advice. In 1908, Frank was joined by his brothers, with Joseph applying his considerable talent to designing and building a suitable eight-cylinder water-cooled engine for their next venture."
At Aeronautics Magazine, it is reported that Frank was building an aeroplane, that he was able to perform short flights, which I guess was the failed monoplane design, so then he bought with W.R. Kimball the already flying Dr. Williams Greene's biplane in January 1909. He modified it removing the tail (but keeping the 'head', with the canard) and replacing the rudders an ailerons with his own invention, the vertical jibs, which he patented in march 1910. From that, he developed a conventional biplane, and convinced of his tailless formula, designed his 1912 "racer". It was improved by his brothers in 1913.
I don't know who designed the jib control flying boats of 1914, after Frank's death. Joseph keep designing and manufacturing engines with Aeromarine and other companies for a long time. Joseph's engines even got into Cubs!
