L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Bazin
One of the numerous and mostly forgotten heavier-than-air enthusiasts of the early part of the century, Alfred Bazin worked in Marseille from 1904-1907. He built a series of gliders with the wings in the shapes of birds; and hanging underneath, he tested them from local hills and in the Camargue. Some of his gliders were built with wing panels that could be swept backward or forward separately or together, to restore equilibrium in gusts. Since he believed that the aeroplane of the future would fly only in the most direct way, that is to say in a straight line, he did not include rudders. After all, he said, did we expect that aeroplanes would circulate in our streets, along the roads, around race-tracks, pull the stopper off the Eiffel Tower? In 1905 he built a more ambitious machine with streamlined fuselage, warping wings and warping swallowtail; it was reported sold to Ferdinand Ferber.
(Span: 11 m; chord: 1.5 m; length: 5 m; weight: 30 kg)
Towards the end of 1907 he designed and built an ornithopter based on his experience with his gliders. It had the general shape of a bird, with a streamlined fuselage; an unidentified 3-cylinder 12 hp engine drove the wingtips up and down over a 40° range, at .8 - 1.6 beats per second. Both wing and tail were bird-shaped in plan, made of bamboo, wire, and silk; there was no rudder, since the machine "was built to fly straight forward, the shortest distance between one point and another being the straight line." A special control allowed the pilot to loosen or tighten the wing fabric. He installed a small motor of 3 cylinders and 12 hp.
(Span: 14 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 22 sqm; gross weight: 178 kg)