Constantin-d'Astanieres

   The young Francois d'Astanieres designed in 1911 and patented in 1912 (Patent No 8486,10 April), an automatically-stable monoplane; he entered a model of it at the 1912 Salon, looking for financial support. The patent included a forwardly-retractable landing gear, which seems not to have been used on the full-scale machine.
   Louis Clement built the aeroplane at St Cyr, Bielovucic tested it in the summer of 1913, and Granel tested it further later that year. It was finally entered in the 1914 Concours de Securite as the Constantin d'Astanieres, and may have included some of the safety features patented by Louis Constantin, such as concave leading-edge flaps (to increase the lifting depression above the upper surface), or inverted controls for the elevator (to reduce speed at landing even with the engine turning at full power).
   A streamlined rectangular covered fuselage carried a 4-cylinder automobile engine aft of the cockpit driving through chains a high-set pusher propeller. The rear tail surfaces were standard in shape, but the forward elevator was mounted high on outriggers level with the high parasol wing; the two elevators could be worked together through moving the pilot's seat amidships. The wings pivoted on a longitudinal axis to absorb gusts, the wings being "slightly flexible" fore and aft.