H.King Aeromarine Origins (Putnam)
As amazingly 'advanced' in design as was Fabre's glorious canard 'elementary' was a contemporary (early 1910) flying boat, having a catamaran hull, rear elevator, variable-incidence wing and a tractor propeller driven by a 50-h.p. three-cylinder Anzani. Designed by Monsieur Gabardini, it was constructed by MM. Seron and Lavagnau.
L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Gabardini
Though a Milanese, Gabardini designed and had built 2 aeroplanes in France. The first, a small often-modified tractor named Le Monaco, was a monoplane with an all-covered fuselage with triangular section aft, a triangular tailplane, and a Morane-style undercarriage. It was seen in April 1911 flying at La Brague, near Antibes, with a large numeral 10 on the rudder, piloted by Gibert or Desbroueres - the latter sometimes referred to as the builder as well as the designer. It is likely that the machine was built in Marseille by Deschamps et Blondeau. It was later reported flown by Chavagnac at Milan in January 1912. Still later, developed into a Nieuport-style design, it was flying in 1914-15.
A later Gabardini design was the curious monoplane flyingboat built by Sevon et Lavignon (other sources describe Henri Chazal as pilot and builder) in 1912. It was tested, unsuccessfully, in the harbor at Monaco. The hull was short and streamlined, cut off abruptly at an angle aft of the wings. An uncovered framework to the rear supported a small elevator and a large rudder forward of the tailplane. The motor was buried in the hull and drove a tractor propeller mounted high above the nose, through a pair of shafts at right angles: at rest the tips of the propeller were in the water.