L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Robart
Many of the early aviation pioneers are known only through one or more photographs of the same aeroplane; but when even partial information about their work chances to survive, it sometimes then becomes clear that they in fact had studied carefully for years, step by step; and although they may have stopped short of success, they achieved as much as many others better known. This is the case with Henri Robart, whose name was even at the time often misspelled as Robert.
Born in 1876 the son of a mechanic in Amiens, in northern France, he was soon cycle-racing with some success. He was about 20 when he began his research on flying machines; though he flew balloons regularly, his prime interest was in heavier-than-air. In 1899 he studied helicopters, building propellers of varying sizes up to 10 meters in diameter, some of them contra-rotating, which he than tested with electric motors. In February 1901 he obtained lift measured at 8 kg with 2 propellers each 2.5 m in diameter and driven by a 100 kg electric motor. At this same time he began work on gliders, which he tested at Berck. There he met such pioneers as Ernest Archdeacon, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Gabriel Voisin, and Ferdinand Ferber. In April 1904, on Archdeacon's request, he tested Voisin's biplane glider. By this time he had himself built a monoplane glider. The 12 hp motor Robart was building may have been meant for this glider: the motor weighed 30 kg.
(Span: 8 m; wing area: 12 sqm (reported foldable); weight: 12 kg)
In 1908 Robart began testing a large monoplane which underwent substantial alterations before hopping on 21 December. The rectangular wings, covered only on the bottom, curved gracefully upwards at the tips. The rectangular fuselage was covered on the sides only; the triangular tailplane, also curved up at the tips, was covered only on the bottom. There was a forward elevator with a triangular fin set like an arrowhead in the middle; a triangular rudder was fitted on top of the tailplane. The machine stood on 2 close-set wheels with a single tailskid aft and a semicircular skid fitted with shock-absorbers out in front. The overall construction seemed rough, the fabric loose. Modifications leading to flight included removing the forward fin, replacing the long rudder with a tall rectangular one, and adding a straight rectangular wing panel, also covered on the bottom only, above the middle of the monoplane wing. It retained the 4-cylinder water-cooled 40 hp Antoinette with the 2 tractor propellers on outriggers from the nose.
(Span (with upper wing): c 12 m; length: c 12 m)
On the airfield of La Croix Rompue (broken cross) near Amiens, the tests of the monoplane were most likely unsuccessful in spite of its hops; and Robart built a second aeroplane, this time a biplane.