L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Ponnier
Ponnier's early work appeared while he was working for Hanriot; his first designs were known as Hanriots. The F I, the first design to carry his name at all, also bore the name of Pagny - the Ponnier-Pagny was a single-seat armored pusher biplane with an 80 hp Gnome. The covered nacelle was shovel-nosed; the outrigger tail structure was triangular in section with the single beam at the bottom.
(Span: 13 m, 8 m; length: 7.95 m: wing area: 30 sqm; weight empty: 240 kg; weight loaded: 550 kg: speed: 105 kmh.
A second version had an uncovered box nacelle with a distinctively sloping front.
Журнал Flight
Flight, September 13, 1913.
AEROPLANE TYPES.
THE PONNIER-PAGNY BIPLANE.
SPECIAL interest is attached to this biplane owing to the fact that last week, in France, Bielovucic carried out some successful tests with an 80 h.p. two-seater model built for the War Office.
Although in general appearance similar to the Henry Farman biplane, this machine has several very distinctive features, viz. :- tubular steel construction, Constantin wing section with blunt entering edge, and the arrangement of the plane-struts, of which there are six pairs. The two central pairs are arranged in the form of a V and extend below the front and rear spars of the lower plane. The apex of the front V joins the axle, and that of the rear V joins the lower tail outrigger; both are connected by a central strut. The outer plane-struts slope outwards from the lower to the upper spars. Pilot and power plant are carried in a nacelle situated between the main planes and extending well forward. The tail plane, to which are hinged two elevator flaps, is non-lifting and set at a negative angle of incidence, and is mounted on two upper outriggers secured to the rear spar of the top plane. Lateral control is obtained by warping the main planes (ailerons have also been employed), by means of a wheel mounted on a rocking column, a to-and-fro movement of which operates the rear elevators for longitudinal control. The directional rudder is operated by a horizontal foot-bar.
The principal dimensions of the two-seater model are as follows :- Span - (Upper plane) 12,500 m.; (lower plane) 5,500 m. Length - 7,200 m. Chord - 1,700 m. Gap - 1,600 m. Supporting area - 30 sq.m. Weight - (Empty) 350 kilogs.; (useful load) 300 kilogs. Speed - 115 kiloms. Engine - 80 h.p. Gnome.
VEE JAY.
