L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
By the end of 1910 the Avia company was nearly ended. The Bonnet-Labranche brothers had gone on designing their own monoplanes in a workshop on rue Lecourbe in Paris, with the assistance of Charles Roux, who was reported by the end of 1910 to be "adjusting" an ABL monoplane at Issy. The next ABL designs, Nos 6, 7, and 8, were variations of a quite successful earlier Avia monoplane.
No 6: A school single - or 2-seater, with Bleiiot-style fuselage and inverted double-V mast. The main difference between No 6 and the Bleriot XI lay in the undercarriage, a simple boxlike structure with 2 long skids across which lay the axle. The machine was offered with a 25 hp 3-cylinder Anzani, a 50 hp Viale or Gnome; at least 2 were built, probably more.
(Span: 8.5 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 17 sqm; gross weight: 220 kg with the Anzani; top speed: 75 kmh)
No 7: A 2-seat racer (course deux places), similar to the previous model, though fitted with a 50 or 60 hp Anzani or a 50 or 70 hp Gnome, it had a greater span, greater dihedral, and slightly flatter airfoil than No 6. At least 2 were built, probably more.
(Span: 9.6 m; length: 8.6 m; wing area: 20 sqm; gross weight: 280 kg with 50 hp Gnome; top speed: 100 kmh)
No 8: A military 3-seater (militaire trois places), it was probably never completed. It was registered for the Concours Militaire in November 1911, but did not enter; moreover, the photograph of this machine in the Bonnet-Labranche catalogue is in fact of the 2-seater. In the first rendering the passenger sat behind the pilot and slightly higher; in the second, below him in the box of the undercarriage!
(Dimensions and engines as on No 7.)
Albert and Emile Bonnet-Labranche founded the Revue de V Aviation Illustree in 1908, and also the Aero Garage Parisien, where they sold new aircraft and used spare parts. In 1910 they opened a flying school at Issy-les-Moulineaux (taken over by de Baeder and Duparquet in 1911-1912); another in Orleans at the Camp de Corcott; and a third in Oran, in Algeria; others were planned in many other cities. Janoir, a famous pilot who later built a large aircraft factory during WWI, was chief pilot for the Bonnet-Labranche monoplanes at Issy and Cercottes.