L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
1912: In the Exposition, the experimental Obus (see below), and a 12-panel 2-seater with cut-out wing-roots, probably the model taken up by the military for school purposes.
L'Obus (artillery shell): This handsome streamlined monocoque racing monoplane was shown at the 1912 Salon, and held the world's distance record from Vincennes to Biarritz. The fuselage was a wooden structure overlaid with very thin sheet-wood meant only for covering and not for strength. A distinctive feature was the bulbous cowling which surrounded the rotary engine completely down to the propeller hub, leaving only the bottom quadrant open; the formed sections were held together with 4 large flanges. A solid pyramidal structure in front of the pilot carried the top wing bracing; the wings were swept back, as were the fin and rudder. A smaller rudder was set underneath.
(Span: 9.5 m; length: 6 m; wing area: 14 sqm; empty weight: 245 kg; loaded weight: 430 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
Jane's All The World Aircraft 1913
BOREL. G. Borel & Cie, 25 rue Brunel, Paris. Established 1910. Capacity: about 25 machines a year.
MODEL 1913 1913 1913
Monoplane Monocoque Racer Hydro-mono.
2-Seater
LENGTH...... 22 feet (6.70 m.) 19 feet (5.80 m.) 27 feet (8.30 m.)
SPAN........ 30 feet (9.15 m.) 26 feet (8.00 m.) 37 feet (11.25 m.)
AREA........ 152 sq.ft.(14 m?.) 116 sq.ft.(11 m?.) 237 sq.ft.(22 m?.)
WEIGHT
....total 530 lbs.(240 kgs.) 608 lbs.(276 kgs.) 880 lbs. (399 kgs.)
....useful 287 lbs.(130 kgs.) ... ...
MOTOR....... 50 Gnome 80 Gnome 80 Gnome
SPEED(p.h.) 71 m. (115 km.) 94 m. (150 km.) 62 m. (100 km.)
Note.--The monocoque is of wood and steel construction, the others wood only. The monocoque has coque body, the others ordinary rectangular section. Floats of the hydro as illustrated. For the rest the ordinary mono. is practically on the same lines as the 1912. The racer is somewhat on Deperdassin lines, but the body is built up inside. No fixed tail. The hydro. is an enlarged edition of the mono. Floats display nothing very original, except that a float under tail is interconnected with the rudder, and that the two front floats are fitted for being rowed. Fitted with a self-starter.
Журнал Flight
Flight, November 2, 1912.
THE PARIS AERO SALON.
Borel.
BOREL'S exhibit of three monoplanes, one of them fitted for water flying, is one of the most interesting in the Show. He has a 50-h.p. Gnome single-seater, a racing monocoque with an 80-h.p. Gnome and the hydro monoplane equipped with a similar motor. We may put aside the single-seater machine for, except for detail improvements here and there, it is no different from the one that Vedrines brought so much into the limelight by his magnificent flying during the earlier part of 1911.
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The third machine of Borel's is the monocoque, inspired probably by Deperdussin's. Its fuselage is built up in a similar manner to that of the latter machine - in three-ply wood. But whereas the Dep. has no framework inside, the shell of the Borel is supported by six longerons, united by circular formers. In front, the 80-h.p. Gnome revolves under a dome, of which a quarter segment is cut away to allow for the sufficient cooling of the motor. Its wings, in which little curvature and little angle of incidence are noticeable, are of the papillon type - they are smaller in chord at the root than at the tip. For the chassis, it consists of two V's of streamlined steel tubing, to the base of which the axle uniting the two disc wheels is strapped by elastic bands. The tail, like the two-seater Morane-Saulnier machine, has no fixed stabilizing surface; it merely has elevators rocking about their approximate centres of pressure. A small vertical fin precedes the rudder. Each wing is stayed on the underside by only two cables, a double one running from one side of the chassis to the opposite wing, and one staying the rear-spar and actuating the warping.
The monocoque has not yet flown, and when it does - which will be as soon as the machine can be got away from the Salon - speeds of over 90 miles an hour are expected.
