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L.Opdyke
French Aeroplanes Before the Great War
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L.Opdyke - French Aeroplanes Before the Great War /Schiffer/
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Etrich
3 Etrich Taubes were copied in France. The first was constructed in 1910 by a C Aman, whose name appeared on the tail. The second was a 2-seater built by Kerchone and Aman, also in 1910; an all-metal variant was built by Louis Clement in July 1911, powered by a 55 hp Aviatik.
(Span: 14 m; length: 9.5 m; 100 hp Aviatik-Rossel)
The third appeared under the names of Allard, a Belgian, and Carbonnier. It was painted with the name Le Vautour, and was distinguished from the first 2 by the small wheel at the end of each wingskid. Aman flew in Wiener-Neustadt with another German pilot, Illner.
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Bristol-Voisin: In 1911 the British Bristol firm commissioned an all-steel monoplane built by Voisin intended for the chairman of Bristols. Powered by a Gnome, it had a triangular-sectioned fuselage, a complex forward structure, 2-wheel undercarriage and tailskid. The rectangular wings had ailerons and corrugated upper surfaces, reminiscent of the later work which Professor Reissner, himself a Voisin purchaser, did with Hugo Junkers.
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Nieuport.
The firm became interested in the tailless Dunne designs, and Commandant Felix was sent to England to evaluate the Dunne. He was impressed, and in 1913 flew one back to Villacoublay to demonstrate. At an air meet at Deauville, Felix thrilled the crowd by getting out and walking on the wing while flying solo. The French firm took out a license and built at least one, but the Army was not interested further.
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JAP
Although the JAP monoplane was not French - it was a British-built copy of the Bleriot XI, powered by a 40 hp JAP motor and built by JA Prestwich in London for HJ Harding. It began with ailerons, which were soon replaced by the Bleriot wing-warping arrangements; we are including it here, since it was often referred to in French aviation journals in 1910. It still exists, and can be seen in the Science Museum, in London.
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Paulhan
Paulhan's firm also license-built 2 Curtiss designs, the Triad amphibian, and the F-Boat. 2 Triads were entered at the Tamise meeting in Belgium, piloted by Barra and Mollien. The Paulhan-Curtiss Triads were 2-seaters, with a forward elevator mounted over the front of the main float.
(Span: 8.75 m; length: 8.3 m)
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The Paulhan-Curtiss F-Boat included many Curtiss-built parts. Paulhan himself flew it on its first test in France on 29 December 1912 at Bezons, on the Seine. It differed from its American cousin in having a flexible, rather than a hinged, elevator surface; a single diagonal strut supported only the leading edge of the wing overhang, rather than the pair used in the American version. At least 4 of the French-made boats were sold to Italy.
(Span: 10 m; length: 8.5 m; gross weight: 500 kg; Curtiss 0X5)
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Reports appeared in 1911 of a new Sloan design, different from the 1910 type: it was shown at the Concours Militaire in August, a handsome conventional-looking 3-seater in green fabric "the color of a frog." The fuselage was covered only in front; the old high rudder was retained, and the top wing, now longer than the lower, drooped only slightly, where the lower wing waved substantially. Big ailerons hung from the top wing only. A leggy curved twin skid held up the tail.
(Span: (upper) 13 m; length: 9.5 m; wing area: 49 sqm; empty weight: 500 kg; 100 hp Gnome)
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Astra-Wright Type L: This designation appeared in Astra advertisements in 1911 for a new school machine used at the Wright Flying School Pau-Pont, south of Bordeaux. It was a 2-seater with dual control without front elevators and with a full tail unit - this machine was very likely a Dayton-built Wright Type B.
Astra-Wright Type E: This designation rarely appeared in print; the aeroplane was developed from the Type 1910, but was larger and more like the original Wright design: no front surfaces, and classical tail configuration. The wheels were paired. The 2-seated nacelle was faired with windows, and a 50 hp Renault cowled in a distinctive big ring was mounted on the lower wing to starboard of the nacelle. In 1912 the nacelle was widened and the windows were made larger and square; the bombardier lay on the floor to the right of the pilot, working a Scott bomb-release device; a machine so equipped won the 1912 Coupe Aero Cible Michelin. The design was still in use in 1913 with a slightly different nacelle fairing.
(Span: 16 m; length: 10.64 m; wing area: 60 sqm; empty weight: 624 kg; 50 hp Renault V-8)
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Albessard
Albessard worked first with Louis Clement (no relation to the Clement of Clement-Bayard), and in the spring of 1912 completed his first and only machine, which he named Autostable. It was a large tandem high-wing monoplane, in which the pilot and unknown number of passengers sat in a 2.5-meter wide cabin behind big rectangular Emaillite windows. The top of the fuselage was flat for extra lift, and was extended into fins along the side for still more. All 4 wing panels were the same, with greater angle of attack for the front pair, and warped for lateral control, through an automatic pendulum device - hence the name Autostable. The aeroplane was tricky to fly, apparently partly because it was heavy for the 85 hp 10-cylinder Anzani, and partly because it was excessively stable. Tests were completed by June 1912 at La Vidamee (Chantilly), north of Paris.
(Spans: 2.5 m; length c 14 m; wing area: 44 sqm; speed reported as 75 kmh)
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Alvarez et de Conde
De Conde worked with a Lieutenant Saunier (not Saulnier), a military expert attached to the laboratory at Chalais-Meudon. Traces of 3 designs remain:
1. Seaplane or flyingboat, model only.
2. An odd high-wing flyingboat with streamlined hull and pointed nose, fabricated from 2 layers of cedrat, a kind of lemon-wood, with fabric in between; the pilot was enclosed along with the engine which drove 2 pusher propellers set on the trailing edge. 4 windows provided him with a view, and small winglets provided stability on the water. The low-aspect-ratio wing was in 3 panels with large ailerons, and was supported on the struts based on special floats; it was entirely of metal construction without welding. The machine was tested around August 1913 at Bellevue on the Seine; the results are not known.
(Span: 12 m; chord: 2.2 m; wing area: 26.5 sqm, Eiffel No 8 airfoil; length: 8.4 m; winglet span: 5.7 m; 60 hp watercooled engine)
3. Existed in proposal only: an all-steel 3-seater armored amphibian combat aircraft for the Navy. It featured an auxiliary 8 hp motor to power the radio, and to start the main engine.
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Antoinette
In May 1906 Leon Levavasseur and Captain Ferdinand Ferber founded the Societe Anonyme Antoinette to build fast motorboats; it was named for the daughter of Jules Gastambide, just as the Mercedes firm in Germany was named after the daughter of the Spanish ambassador stationed in Germany. Among the shareholders were Jules Gastambide, Chairman; Louis Bleriot, Deputy Chairman; Burgeat; Mengin; Demanest; and several others.
Antoinette I: In December 1906 the Board allowed Levavasseur to build one aeroplane for Captain Ferber; they did not believe in aviation, but thought the project would help promote their engines. The construction of the monoplane was undertaken in February 1907 after much research and testing of models. The structure foreshadowed the later more famous Antoinette designs: a long slender wooden fuselage of triangular section with wooden diagonal bracing; pylon-braced multi-spar wings (in this case, 5 main spars) with innumerable light built-up ribs; false ribs and false spars; centrally-mounted undercarriage with skid; propeller built of oval aluminum blades riveted to a steel shaft: Antoinette motor; triangular fin and tailplane.
But No I was very different from its successors: a forward stabilizer was to have been mounted directly above the engine, with Bleriot-style tip elevators; the wings were elliptical and cupped like spoons. These wings were exhibited at the 1908 Paris Salon; the machine itself was later completed or nearly completed, but never tested; Levavasseur was persuaded by his shareholders to work on other designs.
(Span: 10 m; length: 15.5 m; wing area: 30 sqm; gross weight: 500 kg; propeller diameter/pitch: 1.2/1.2 m)
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Antoinette IV: The next design, resembling somewhat the Gastambide-Mengin, rolled out at Issy in November 1908. This single machine was radically modified over a short period of time: changes could have been made even within a few hours, making photographic sequencing nearly impossible.
All versions shared the long triangular-sectioned fuselage of the later Antoinettes, similar wide trapezoidal wings, centrally-mounted undercarriage and triangular sail-like tail surfaces; No IV was the only model with ailerons, the rest having warping wings.
The following brief sketch of the design progression of the first No IV is an estimation; some of the features described here overlapped across several changes. The first undercarriage consisted of 2 wheels on what looked like enlarged bicycle forks, in tandem; triangular ailerons hung loosely, with loose fabric for the trailing edges. The rudder was a rectangular panel between the forward triangular fin and a trailing triangular fin, and the elevator corresponded to it, without the trailing surface. Then the undercarriage was reversed with a single trailing wheel set into the rear of a long skid girder which had a small wheel set out in front of the tip. The rectangular elevator was fixed, and a triangular surface was hinged behind it. The name Antoinette was painted on the sides of the radiators. Further changes included a roller set into the front of the skid, the rectangular rudder taken out and the familiar pair of triangular rudders substituted, the familiar spoked control wheels appeared on the sides of the cockpit, the nose was covered, and small wheels were fixed to the wingtip skids.
Then the bracing mast was set right above the undercarriage strut; the familiar long diagonal skid replaced the horizontal girder; and a close-set pair of wheels were fitted on a crossaxle. Then the fuselage, at least, must have been re-covered, since diagonal tapes showed between the diagonal fuselage bracing, giving a series of diamond patterns; a small wheel was set the tip of the skid. A curved wooden fairing was added to the bow and another fastened to the forward undercarriage brace. Latham attempted the Channel crossing in it when the fuselage veneer extended to the rear of the side radiators, the diagonal nose-wheel strut had been re-set, and the trailing wing skids had been taken off. The machine was destroyed when it crashed in the water.
At Reims in August 1909 another Antoinette, very similar to Latham's No IV, was entered with the number 13 painted on the sides. It differed from Latham's in having a second horizontal brace in the undercarriage, and lacked the little nosewheel on the skid. In the Champagne meet later the same year, this machine appeared again, with a second diagonal brace crossing the skid, now fitted once more with the nosewheel.
Ferber had designed the controls, consisting first of a left-side-mounted wheel for ailerons and rudder, a right-side-mounted wheel for elevator, 2 small wheels in front of the pilot for engine controls, and a foot-pedal with the ignition switch. Revised, the controls were similar, except that the foot-pedal now controlled the rudder. Levavasseur was said to have been asked why he retained such a complicated system, and he replied that flying was not simple, either. But his machines proved very stable and easy to fly, in spite of his control system.
The wing plan was of the type known as 6:3:2 (each panel had a 6-meter span, a 3-meter chord at the root, and 2-meter chord at the tip). The dimensions of the machine remained generally unchanged during its lifetime; in August 1909 they were described as follows:
(Span: 12.8 m; airfoil symmetrical front and back, as on the Antoinette I; angle of attack: 4°; length: 12 m; wing area: 34 sqm; empty weight: 460 kg; 50 hp Antoinette V8, with a propeller similar to that on Antoinette I)
After Antoinette IV was completed and before it was sent to the Channel, at least 4 other Antoinettes had been built, Nos V, VI, VII, and VIII, the latter flying in August 1909. Little is known about Nos V, VI, and VIII. Since Nos IV and VII were progressively retrofitted with the latest improvements, it is reasonable to suppose the same occurred with the other 3, unless they were abandoned too early for this process. Nos V and VI were similar to the first versions of No IV.
Antoinette V: It was built for Demanest with more aluminum parts, especially in the wing, than were used in No IV It had trapezoidal ailerons, closely-paired wheels at the rear of the heavy girder skid with a front-mounted roller, no forward under-fin, and a curved cut-out at each wing-root.
(Span: 12.5 m; length: 10.8 m)
Antoinette VI: This one was built for Captain Burgeat, at first with ailerons. These were later removed and replaced by a wing-warping system which proved more effective and which was used in No VII. With Levavasseur's system, the front spar was fixed and the rear one could pivot up and down. There was a control wheel on the right side as on all Antoinettes, but a second one was mounted like a steering wheel in front of the pilot, with a cushion between him and it.
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Antoinette VII: This was the second of Latham's Antoinettes, used on his second unsuccessful Channel attempt; it was much photographed in its variant forms. It first appeared with a vertical front support for the diagonal landing-gear skid with a roller at the tip and a horizontal brace to the center of the main axle. The familiar separate pair of triangular rudders was replaced by a single triangle with its base well below the bottom line of the fuselage, and the single big triangular elevator was no longer a pair of oddly curved surfaces. 2 small kingposts appeared toward the ends of each wing. After Latham's second crash in this machine, on 25 July 1909, he ordered another No VII, but this time with the familiar raked front support and rudders formed in 2 small triangles. The skid roller disappeared in favor of an upturned skid. On 29 September 1909 Latham flew it to a world's altitude record of 155 m. It appeared at Reims with the race number 13, and was the first of several production Antoinette VII monoplanes.
Antoinette VIII: Little is known about this one, other than that it was flown by Ruchonnet in 1909 at Bordeaux; it probably had a greater span (14 m), a single wheel and a wooden propeller.
It is almost impossible to distinguish the individual Antoinettes after No VIII. There were several cases of the same fuselage being equipped with different sets of wings; No XII was probably under construction towards the end of 1909.
But an overhaul of the firm in October 1909 allowed the development of new engines and aircraft. Levavasseur and Gastambide were forced out of the company when new share-holders led by Pierre Chalmard, the former manager of the Louis Bleriot lamp company, and Maurice Bleriot, Louis' cousin, bought the bulk of the assets. Maurice became Executive Manager, and Hubert Latham, Chairman. Before the return of Gastambide in March 1910, the firm introduced the ENV V8 and the 50 hp Gnome as powerplants for their products. Hubert Latham ordered a new 2-seater, endeavoring to produce a school aircraft with larger wings of 15-meter span. It was probably the same machine shown in French reviews at the end of 1909, with ailerons which were later removed. The wing-roots were cut out in a curve to provide a better view of the ground. The student sat between the pilot's knees, and both seats were further forward for balance.
The firm also built a ground trainer, a sort of rolling barrel in which the pilot sat and controlled its movement with Antoinette controls. The school machine and all subsequent designs were equipped with wooden propellers: Chauviere Integrates or Ratmanoff Normales, or similar makes. Other significant developments during this period were modifications of the airfoil with flattened under-surfaces. A new 100 hp 16-cylinder engine was introduced for Latham's attempt on the Gordon-Bennett Cup Race in October 1910, with the pilot's upper body emerging from a protective cylindrical coaming, a specially modified machine with 3 tanks mounted between the wings for Thomas to use in the long-distance Coupe Michelin in December 1910.
The most remarkable designs of 1910 were the streamlined machines: one of these was named for Wachter after his fatal crash at Reims in 1910; the fuselage was decked over with wood frames and tight canvas from the cockpit forward, with only the cylinder-heads exposed. The second racer was fitted with only a 50 hp motor completely cowled; the wheels were covered over and the landing gear legs were faired. The wings were shortened.
In 1911 the company's position was still bad, and the performance of the Antoinette engines was a distinct drawback: they were generally underpowered for the firm's aircraft, which tended to be heavy. The landing gear was not strong enough for prolonged taxiing, and there were too many unexplained wing failures - the problem of most contemporary monoplanes.
How many aircraft did the company build before WWI? Jane's reported 50 in 1909 and 30 in 1910, but there is no proof for such high numbers for a rather ill-fated design. An inventory of the factory is mentioned by Wachter in May 1910 at Chalons, describing the highest serial number stocked there as 32. Henri Levavasseur, the last son of Leon, claimed that he did not think that more than 50 were built altogether.
Herbert Latham demonstrated his No VII at Johannisthal on 23 September 1909, and Dr Hirth ordered one for himself upon seeing the demonstration; he and Otto Wiener founded the Albatros Flugzeugwerke shortly after, on 29 December, hiring Michael Gabriel as Chief Engineer. One French-built Antoinette VII was delivered in 1909, and Gabriel worked out drawings; a second one was delivered in 1910, fitted with a 50 or 70 hp Gnome. The design proved too heavy for the German army. One was exported from France to Argentina; Harry S Harkness lent 3 of his own machines to the US Navy, and they appeared at the Curtiss training station on North Island, off San Diego. The price of an Antoinette with either an Antoinette or an ENV engine was 25,000F, average for the aircraft of the period, though these aeroplanes were probably the most carefully built and handsomest aircraft of the pre-1914 years.
There are 3 surviving Antoinettes: the aircraft at the Science Museum in London, No 50, is probably the most original; this No VII was used by Latham and flown also by Robert Blackburn. The 2-seater fuselage and 50 hp Antoinette motor are the only original parts of the newly restored machine in Paris. The Antoinette in Krakow will be restored, but information as to its history and serial number is so far missing.
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Antoinette Monobloc (or Latham Type): This large new 3-seater, also known as the Military 3-Seater, was nearly finished by the end of 1910; it was Levavasseur's and Gastambide's entry for the Concours Militaire in October 1911. (At this time there was only one Antoinette military 2-seater, of 16-meter span.) The big wooden wing was built around 4 spars, one fixed and the other 3 (1 fore, 2 aft) pivoting for the wing-warping. The controls themselves were in the form of a distortable rectangular fame which could be pushed fore-and-aft or rocked from side to side for warping. Highly streamlined, the aeroplane stood on 2 large covered legs, each housing 2 wheels on a single short axle towards the rear, and a single smaller wheel at the front, in case of nose-overs. The crew sat in a single opening in the smooth turtle-deck of the top, and copper-tube radiators for the inadequate 60 hp Antoinette ran back along each side. The airfoil section was very thick, to allow for internal heavy bracing "similar to a biplane" - 70 cm at the root. The tail appears in 2 configurations: a long low fin and rectangular rudder both with and without an oddly curved high extension over the fin.
It arrived at Chalons for the competition with a small 16-liter tank and was unable to fly because of excessive weight, although it may have managed a short hop of several meters.
(Span 15.9 m; length 12.25 m; wing area (probably including horizontal tail): 56 sqm; wing chord from 4 to 3 m; empty weight (official): 935 kg; gross weight (never achieved): 1300 kg)
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In 1912 the company tried to sell another Antoinette monoplane to the Army: it was a classic design similar to the Wachter machine, called the Triplette - perhaps because it was to be a 3-seater. It retained the classic Antoinette undercarriage with a small front outrigger wheel added. On 17 October Blanc demonstrated it in front of an Army commission, and in the climb a wing tore off. This machine is often called the last pre-War Antoinette design.
Levavasseur died in 1921, after having completed 2 other monoplanes with Jules Gastambide as a partner, these with experimental variable surfaces. The only surviving wing of this type, painted blue, white, and red, was destroyed in the fire at Le Bourget in 1990.
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Anzani
Alexandre Anzani was a famous engine designer and builder, and he encouraged aeroplane construction by sponsoring some builders and modestly awarding prizes to special performers. One aeroplane carried his own name, introduced late in 1909. The pilot sat aft of the high wing behind a 40 hp 3-cylinder Anzani driving the tractor propeller through belts. A 4-leg undercarriage bore 2 wheels and long skids. Alternately, the same engine appeared mounted just forward of the leading edge of the wing.
This aircraft was sometimes referred to as the de Mas: since Anzani was not wealthy in 1909, he may have asked de Mas to finance the monoplane.
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Archdeacon
The wealthy lawyer Ernest Archdeacon, long an enthusiast of mechanical speed, and one of the most eager and efficient proselytes for aeronautics, became interested in it in 1902; in 1903, with Renard, Herve, Drzwiecki, Tatin, Besancon, Balsan, Soreau, and Ferber, he founded the Aviation Committee of the Aero Club de France, and thus gave worldwide aviation a significant boost. It is less well known that he worked out the designs for 3 gliders, whose primary significance was that they helped launch the aviation career of Gabriel Voisin.
In 1904 Archdeacon commissioned Dargent, a model-builder at Chalais-Meudon, to build a glider patterned on the Hargrave kites and the 1902 Wright. Both Gabriel Voisin, then a young art student from Lyon, and Captain Ferdinand Ferber, on leave from the French artillery, flew it in April 1904 at Merlimont on the Channel coast near the town of Berck-sur-mer: Voisin recalled making 34 "flights" in it. Covered with silk, it had no elevator and a single tail fin, but later underwent many modifications with a front elevator, tail fins, and skids.
(Span: 7.5 m; wing area: 21.6 sqm; weight: 34 kg)
By October 1904 Archdeacon had formed the Syndicat de l'Aeronautique with Girardot, Maas, Turgan, de Vogue and Loisel, and he commissioned Voisin to build a second glider, similar to the first, with tailplane and fins added for stability; the design resembled a stabilized Wright. Archdeacon thought the elevator would do better at the rear, and put it there.
Voisin built the glider for the Syndicate at Levallois, north-west of Paris, in Turgan's workshop; it was tested there with twin propellers driven by an unsuccessful flat-twin 16 hp Turgan engine. The work was then transferred to the Etablissements Surcouf, later to become the Astra Company. Voisin wisely tested the glider unmanned, with a sandbag and no engine; on 26 March 1905 it was towed down a slipway by automobile at Issy-les-Moulineaux, the tail broke off, and the glider was demolished.
(Span: 9.6 m; length: 4.5 m; wing area: 27 sqm)
Voisin
Any account of the work of the brothers Voisin must cope with the problem, greater with this firm than with any other, of the number of aeroplanes designed and built in part or in whole by the Voisins for other people whose names then became associated with the aircraft. The Voisins decided early on to accept work from others; these basically Voisin designs will appear in this section, though since some have become better known under their owners' names, they will be described more fully elsewhere.
Born on 5 February 1880, Gabriel Voisin became early interested in things mechanical, and he and his brother Charles built some pieces at the machine shop in his father's gas-works. They built kites; and discovering Hargrave's work in Australia, developed several large box-kites, and by 1898 they became interested in flying machines, and tested gliders at Neuville au Saone. In 1899 they added a pair of bars under one of their big Hargrave-type kites and tried it several times, unsuccessfully, stopping the tests before attempting to launch Charles from a 60' cliff in a quarry. At the 1900 Paris Salon he met Ader and saw his Avion; inspired, he went on to study the work of Octave Chanute, and based on the American's trussed box structure, the brothers built another glider.
Glider 1903: a biplane built of bamboo with cruciform tail copied from Chanute: this form was flown as a man-carrying kite, and the tail removed and replaced with the rear cell of their Hargrave kite. It was modified, or at least 2 and possibly 3 others were built in addition by 1908.
(Span: 6.4 m; wing area: 18 sqm; empty weight: 24 kg)
At Chalais-Meudon Voisin met Ernest Archdeacon and saw his Wright-based glider; Archdeacon asked Voisin to pilot it in 1904 at Berck-sur-Mer on the Channel coast, and subsequently to be the engineer in a new aeroplane-building firm, Le Syndicat d'Aviation. The gliders built by this firm are described under Archdeacon. One of the observers at the tow-testing from the Seine of the later Voisin-built Archdeacon glider was Louis Bleriot, who asked Voisin on the spot to build him a similar machine and become a partner in aeroplane-building; their first three products, Bleriots II, III, and IV, all unsuccessful, are described under Bleriot. After these failures the partnership was given up.
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Arnoux
Before World War I Rene Arnoux was known as a designer and builder of recording gasometer equipment for automobiles, some of them, like his fuel-flow meter for gas engines, extremely advanced. He was at the same time vice-president of the Technical Committee of the French Automobile Club and member of the Technical Committee of the Ligue Nationale Aerienne, when he designed the first of his tailless aeroplanes in 1909: none was successful. In about 1912 he coined the names Stabloplane and Stablavion for his designs which were to be automatically stable.
No 1: This tailless biplane with a 4-bladed pusher propeller driven by a chain was built by Astra and was to be tested by Gaudard in 1910. The frame looked heavy; it was supported on 2 wheels with up-curved skids forward and aft.
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No 5: The last Stablavion, a 2-seat pusher monoplane with an 80 hp Gnome, resembled No 3 but with a quadrilateral 4-wheel undercarriage, the Bleriot double pylon, and high vertical fins at each wingtip. It was tested at Issy in June 1914.
Observers as late as 1913 reported that Arnoux had succeeded only with his gliders. After the War he worked with Felix Madon, the WWI ace with 41 confirmed victories, to develop a series of tailless racing planes under the name Arnoux-Simplex.
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Astra Triplane: Sponsored by Henri de la Meurthe, this marvelous large machine was built by Gabriel Voisin; it is described under Voisin.
In 1912, Astra took over Train, and former Train designs were then called Astra-Train. In 1913, Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe merged the heavier-than-air division of Astra with the Nieuport firm he had just bought; the merger was completed after the War, and gave rise to the later Nieuport-Astra designs. In 1915-1916 the firm designed a big twin-boom biplane with a span of 25.5 m; propellers were mounted at the nose of each boom, driven either by a single central engine or one in each boom. The machine was either not begun or not completed.
Voisin
Astra Triplane: Sponsored by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, Voisin was called to help the Astra firm design and build a huge armor-plated triplane made of steel tubing; even the wing bracing was steel tubing and not wire. 4 huge main wheels were centered on the lower wing leading edge, 2 on each side; 2 small wheels, one on each side, held up the rear end of the fuselage. One 75 hp Renault V8 was considered power enough to fly the huge machine; it did in fact fly, carrying its crew of 2. Big hanging ailerons were fitted to the 2 top wings; the long covered fuselage and neat single tail unit were remarkably modern-looking for 1911.
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Astra Type C: The first typically Astra design first appeared in 1910 and flew in August 1911. It was built in small numbers through 1913, a 2-seater first of wood and later of steel and wood. It had the long triangular-section fuselage and cross-axle-and-post undercarriage of the Antoinettes.
(Span: 12.5 m; length: 10.4 m; wing area: c 48 sqm; empty weight: 500 kg; gross weight: 800 kg; speed 81 kmh; 60 hp Chenu)
Astra Type CM: Type C was developed as the military CM, with 3 seats, rounder wingtips and wider wings; more metal was used in the frame.
(Span: 12.32 m; length: 10.95 m; empty weight: 673 kg; gross weight: 1000 kg; speed: 85 kmh; 80 hp Chenu, or an 85 hp air-cooled Renault)
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A seaplane variant was developed directly from the Type C; perhaps the original aircraft was also mounted on Tellier floats. Another, with a 160 hp Gnome, was entered at Deauville in August, but failed to appear.
(Span: 16 m; length: 12 m; wing area: 54.2 sqm)
The Greek government bought one, named it Nautilos, and fitted it with a bomb-release mechanism. The British Navy ordered one, to be numbered 25, but the order was canceled.
Astra Hydro: In 1912 the CM was fitted with 3 Tellier floats; at least 2 were built powered by 100 hp VI2 Renaults. The first was flown by Labouret to win the St Malo race on 14-26 August 1912. 2 seem to have been ordered by the British Navy, to be numbered 106 and 107, but they never materialized.
(Span: 12.3 m; length: 11 m; wing area: 50 sqm; empty weight: 800 kg; 2 main floats 4.5 x 1.15 m, and one small tail float)
The second, with unequal-span wings and powered by a 110 hp flat radial liquid-cooled Salmson Systeme Canton-Unne engine, flew and crashed at Monaco. At St Malo the rules favored competing aircraft with the most seats, so Labouret's machine was introduced with 5 seats.
In 1912 a C or CM was tested with exhaust pipes on a 75 hp Renault, and at the 1912 Salon an identical aircraft was shown all made of steel tubing, the fuselage uncovered. The CGT flew this one between Nice and Monaco in regular charter service for several weeks.
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Audineau
This firm was best known for building horse-drawn vehicles and later car bodies. At the 1910 Paris Exposition, they showed a monoplane with a long streamlined tubular fuselage made of cylinders assembled on wooden spars. The wing ribs were built from a web of cork with ash flanges; the wings were tapered, with curved tips. The tailplane was of long chord with split elevators. The undercarriage resembled that of the Bleriot XI with forward skids, but with a different springing arrangement. It was flown or at least tested at Juvisy in 1910 by a pilot named Merle. Audineau also built the 1911 Pivot-Koechlin.
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Auffm-Ordt
Clement Auffm-Ordt, associated with a M Heeren, designed his first aeroplane in 1908, a light monoplane similar to the Demoiselle. The tail at the end of the single curved fuselage boom was a Hargrave box cell with the elevator in the middle and the rudder at the rear. The inner sections in each wing panel were adjustable apparently differentially for balance from dihedral to cathedral, and the wingtips curved up elliptically. The machine was built by Voisin and tested at Buc.
(Span: 8 m; wing area: 20 sqm; moving surfaces: span 2.4 m; 30 hp REP engine, with a 2-bladed REP prop of c 2.5 m in diameter)
The second machine was built in 1909, perhaps a radical modification of the first. This one had an aluminum frame, skids instead of wheels, a biplane tail with twin rudders, and control panels in the wings similar to those of the first design, though the wingtips did not curve upwards. It seems likely that the wings could be swept backwards independently. Powered by the same REP engine, it was tested for 2 months at St Moritz in Switzerland before managing at least one flight at an altitude of 2 m. One photograph shows what seems to be the end of a ramp; perhaps the flight that ended in a crash was attempted down this artificial slope.
Voisin
Auffm-Ordt: Voisin built this little monoplane in April 1908, described under Auffm-Ordt.
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Bachelier-Dupont-Baudrin
This large flyingboat was designed for military use and completed during the spring of 1913. The hull, in the shape of a half nutshell, had a steel-tube frame covered with wood strips and 2 coats of waterproofed fabric; it formed an unsinkable boat. The pilots sat side by side directly on the deck at the front; the tail was carried high on a single steel-tube outrigger. The engine was set below the upper wing and drove a 4-bladed pusher propeller through a one-meter driveshaft. The aeroplane may not have actually flown, though it is said to have remained for a whole month in the water with no problem.
(Span (upper): 11.2 m; (lower): 9 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 22 sqm; empty weight 380 kg; 50 hp 6-cylinder Anzani)
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Badaire
In August 1913 Maurice Badaire tested an "automatically stable monoplane with elastic wings linked together by a common axis." It had a covered fuselage with a tiny front elevator mounted on struts on each side of the propeller. The machine was registered for the 1914 Concours de Securite, but may not have been actually entered.
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Balassian de Manawas
At the Concours de Securite of 1914, the monoplane designed by Balassian de Manawas was one of the curiosities. Thinking to improve the stability of his machine, especially in the case of engine failure, he arranged the wings of his "avion planeur" to be attached to the fuselage with springs so as to vary the position of the center of lift: the wings could move fore and aft automatically or under pilot control - as he claimed it occurred with gliding birds. The fuselage consisted only of 2 spars with a fabric seat slung between them; the large tank mounted on the same spars behind the motor provided little protection against the wind, but completely blocked forward vision. The springing of the undercarriage was unique: each wheel was set into a horizontal frame pivoting on the steel tube axle, the wheels forward and below the axle, with a long horn extending backward from each frame, the end hung from 2 heavy shock cords attached to the underside of the fuselage. Damaged during the qualification tests, it did not participate in the contest.
(Span: 11 m; length: 6 m: empty weight: 225 kg; 50 hp Gnome with Chauviere Integrale propeller)
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Balsan
A wealthy businessman and Deputy Chairman of the Aero Club de France, Jacques Balsan had been one of the first members of the Aviation Committee, an experienced pilot in both lighter - and heavier-than-air machines. In 1911 Liore et Olivier had completed the graceful Balsan monoplane, and Balsan was flying it at Mourmelon in the summer of 1911 and most of 1912. fitted with a 60-70 hp semi-radial REP motor; it was exhibited at the 1911 Salon de la Locomotion Aerienne with a 50 hp Gnome, mounted between steel and copper plates. Balsan donated it to the French army in September 1912 - a common practice with single prototypes. It is not clear who designed this neat monoplane. Balsan himself or engineers at Liore et Olivier. The rectangular wings had elliptical tips and built-in ailerons; the front of the fuselage was rectangular in section and covered with 2 mm ply; the rear was triangular, with the spine at the top. The machine was all wood, fabric-covered, and remarkably clean, the finish being comparable to that of the 1912 Deperdussins. The cross-shaped tail was made of fabric-covered steel tubing; the 4-wheel undercarriage was of Zens design.
(Span: 11.4 m; length: 9 m; wing area: 18 sqm; gross weight: 438 kg)
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Baron
The Aero Ramo-Planeur designed in 1911 and perhaps built by A Baron seems to have been based on an uncovered Bleriot-style fuselage, with a more or less standard set of wings and tailplane. In addition, a pair of long narrow fore-and-aft panels were fitted behind of the trailing edge of the wings, and odd leaf-shaped surfaces fitted forward of the wings. All these surfaces were arranged to pivot, and some of them perhaps to flap. A small rudder at the tail seemed conventional in shape and function.
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Bastier
In 1911 Bastier was studying aviation at Juvisy with de Brageas and Sotinel; the following year he designed a biplane similar to the Goupy. It was finished in April 1912 and flown by Francpourmoi at Juvisy. The design featured deeply-curved staggered wings at a time when flat sections were generally in fashion, and a lifting-Bleriot-style tailplane with inset elevators. The wooden fuselage, as on the Bleriots, was covered only in the forward section.
(Spans: 10 m and 7 m; length: 9.5 m; total weight: 490 kg; 60 hp BJ 4-cylinder incline water-cooled motor)
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The second Bathiat-Sanchez at the 1913 Salon was another big pusher biplane, looking very much like some of the Voisins of the period, also built partly of metal. The single elevator had no tailplane, and the twin rudders showed above and below it; the tail-booms came together at the elevator leading edge, changing direction along the way and further braced to the tops and bottoms of the 2 rudder posts. The 4-wheel undercarriage was typically Voisin, with a pair of close-set nose-wheels. There were a great many rigging-wires, even for 1913: the machine was dubbed Sanchez-bizarre.
(Span: 13.5 m; length: 10.1 m; wing area: 46 sqm; gross weight: 825 kg; empty weight: 550 kg; speed: c 90 kmh; the 70 hp Renault was soon replaced by an 80 hp Gnome)
And in 1921 appeared the Toussaint, also by Sanchez: it featured no fewer than 21 wings!
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At the end of 1912 Roger Sommer gave up his business, and Sanchez-Besa bought back his shops and those of Train, at Mourmelon. Some time earlier Sommer had left to Leon Bathiat, his chief testpilot, the rights to Sommer's monoplane, to which Bathiat made some useful improvements. Bathiat then joined Sanchez-Besa to form a new firm, Bathiat-Sanchez.
The first machine from the new combination was introduced at the end of the spring of 1913 and was developed directly from the third Sanchez-Besa, but with equal-span wings, a rudder extension above the elevators, and tail-booms joined at the tail. The floats were large and flat and turned up at the nose. A rotary engine was mounted at the rear of the nacelle and through a chain drove a pusher propeller. Rugere tested it on the Seine, apparently with little success, since a few months later the firm produced a new seaplane for the Paris-Deauville race and the meet at Deauville at the end of August 1913. But this machine was nothing more than the 1912 Voisin military biplane pusher fitted with a large flat pontoon float and wing-tip floats: it was known as the "13.5 meters" and became the Type L.
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The last Bathiat-Sanchezes were shown together at the 1913 Salon. The first was known as Type E, originally a Sommer Type F with slight differences: the wings had no dihedral and resembled a Morane. Some articles on the Type E were illustrated by the earlier Sommer - but Sommer Type E, not Type F!
(Span: 8.9 m; length: 7.1 m; wing area: 16 sqm; empty weight: 290 kg; top speed: 115 kmh; 50 hp Gnome)
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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)
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Bedelia
The firm Bedelia (B + D + lia) founded by Bourbeau and Devaux was known for its small 2-seater automobiles known as voiturettes. Although reported to have been working on flyingboats since 1908, their first and only design appeared first at the 1912 Salon de la Locomotion Aerienne. It was ambitious and unsuccessful, a small-span all-steel biplane with a short wide teardrop-shaped hull of rectangular section, on top of which was mounted the biplane cellule. The 2 wings were supported on 4 vertical struts, almost side-curtains, with interplane ailerons, Curtiss-style, mounted behind the outermost struts. The large tailplane was mounted on 2 similar struts, with the rudder between them. A 4-cylinder uncowled 50 hp Clerget sat next to the pilot in the hull, driving an overhead shaft which ran between the upper wing and the tailplane, with the pusher propeller just forward of the tailplane leading edge. On occasion the Bedelia appeared fitted with wheels and 2 long skids reaching far ahead of the hull.
Bourbeau and Devaux founded a hydroplane center on the coast of Picardy, without much success; at the time, they modified the Bedelia with a tractor propeller, smaller struts without the side-curtains, twin tail-booms and twin rudders.
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Bellamy
This 1906 design was similar to the Voisin-Archdeacon and Voisin-Bleriot seaplanes, with a biplane tail cell with 3 vertical surfaces, a forward elevator, twin floats, and 4 side-curtains between the flat-surfaced biplane wings. 2 tractor propellers chain-driven similar to the Wright were set between the outer bays; it also appeared with 4 tractor propellers, photographed on the Lac du Bourget.
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Another much more modern monoplane appears under the name Berger in September 1913, at Vidamee: it is clearly a copy of the Nieuport IV, with the same wings and tail, but with a more graceful fuselage and simpler undercarriage.
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Berger-Gardey
Between 1904-1907 there was a lot of gliding experimentation throughout France; among the oddest of the machines was a glider built at Lyon by Berger, and tested by 19-year-old Gardey, who proceeded to break a leg after taking off down a steep 45° ramp while slung underneath his glider. The glider is said to have flown for 20 m. It was in the form of a flat rectangle c 2 m long and 3 m wide, with 4 little paddle-shaped flaps at each tip. A photograph under the same name - perhaps the same designer? - shows a model of what might be a powered version of this same glider; it stood on 4 small wheels, with a curious arched shape set between the flat forward and rearward surfaces.
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Berthaud
The name of the designer Berthaud is better-known in connection with the automobile firm of Prini-Berthaud in Lyon. But in collaboration with Prini, Moreau, and Wroblesky-Salvez, he achieved some aeronautic success as well, particularly in metal construction. With Prini, he designed a 2-cylinder inline 2-cycle engine in 1910-1911, a year after they had built the Prini-Berthaud biplane.
Prini-Berthaud: This 1908 design was clearly a Wright copy and probably an unsuccessful one, judging by its nearly flat and inverted airfoil and its heavy all-steel frame. There was no forward outrigger: instead, a low elevator was fitted below the rudder at the rear of the long fuselage formed by elliptical skids. Ailerons were mounted between the outer wing panels. Pusher propellers, Wright-style, were driven by an odd semi-radial 3-cylinder water-cooled Anzani. The pilot sat in front of a large radiator at the left of the motor.
(Span: 10.8 m; length: 9.49 m; chord: 2.2 m; wing area: c 50 sqm; gross weight 550 kg; 3-cylinder water-cooled Anzani)
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For other machines it is likely that Berthaud was the builder and financial partner - cf Melin.
Moreau-Berthaud: Associated with a Moreau (not the famous Albert Moreau), Berthaud built this monoplane similar to the early Sommer design: an uncovered fuselage, possibly made of steel tubing; Bleriot-style inverted-V cabane struts which ran down to the skids which in turn supported the wheels. It was powered by a 50 hp 2-stroke double-acting 4-cylinder radial Berthaud.
Berthaud Monoplane W: Designed and built in 1911-12, this successful machine was referred to as a Berthaud, in fact designed by Pierre Wroblewsky - who with his brother Gabriel were known as the Salvez brothers! Like a former Salvez design of 1909, the W was based on the Antoinette model, but of metal construction, with 2 seats in tandem; the engine was mounted at the front of the triangular-sectioned fuselage whose aft end was diamond-shaped; a small steel ladder was attached to the port mid-fuselage longeron for easy access to the cockpit. In 1913 the Monoplane W was mentioned in flight reports at Amberieu, and on 1 Mar 1914 Gabriel Wroblewsky was reported "killed in the crash of a monoplane designed by his brother Pierre, who was injured," after a wing broke off. The boy Antoine de Saint Exupery took his first flight in one of these machines.
(Span: 13.5 m; length: 10.5 m; wing area: 32 sqm; empty weight: 420 kg; 70 hp water-cooled Aviatik)
From 1912 to the start of the War, Berthaud worked with Moreau at building automobiles in Vincennes under the trade-mark Moreau-Berthaud or Moreau-Luxior.
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After the failure of his third helicopter, Bertin built a small monoplane also at Puteaux, more or less derived from the early Antoinettes and Deperdussins, with a slender rectangular-sectioned covered rear fuselage. Powered with the new 60 hp flat 6-cylinder 68 kg Bertin, it was brought to the Terrain des Courlis (Curlews Field) at Houeilles in southern France, where Bertin's son Rene flew it for the first time on 25 March 1910. In September Leonce Bertin won a 5000F prize with it at the same field. A year later, in November 1911, it crashed at Chateaufort (now Toussus Le Noble, southwest of Paris). It was fitted with a 2.3-meter diameter Roland propeller.
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His 5th design, a 2-seat racing monoplane, was announced in January 1912, but appeared only later in the year in time for the 1912 Paris Salon. The long fuselage was of pentagonal section with the deck flat; the wings were rigged without dihedral, and to warp. It flew successfully until 14 July 1913 when one of the wings collapsed; Bertin as passenger and his son Rene as pilot were both killed.
(Span: 10.4m; length: 8.8 m; wing area: 21 sqm; empty weight: 350 kg; top speed 115 kmh; 100 hp twin X 8-cylinder motor)
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Bertrand
The name Bertrand appears in several different connections. In 1909 a curious machine (also known as Unic-Bertrand) was completed at the Avionnerie, the workshop of the Societe Anonyme de Construction d'Appareils Aeriennes (SACAA) managed by de Marthe, Ader's son-in-law; and Espinosa, formerly Ader's mechanic. Designed by Rene Bertrand, it consisted of a 2-meter diameter tunnel covered with fabric; a heavy automobile engine was mounted towards the front end, driving counter-rotating propellers at 400 rpm, one at each end of the tunnel. Large oval monoplane wings sprouted from each side; a high-mounted forward horizontal surface with tip elevators reached out in front, and 2 trailing elevators brought up the rear. It rode on fore and aft pairs of Bleriot-style undercarriage wheels. In May 1910 it was returned to the Avionnerie for unknown modifications.
(Span: 13.4 m; chord: 2.4 m; wing area: 40 sqm; gross weight: 461 kg; 25-30 hp Unic)
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A classic monoplane, this second machine with the name Bertrand had a fuselage of rounded triangular section, warping wings, no rudder pedals but a single control stick with a wheel mounted at the top.
(Span: 8.6 m; length: 7.3 m; gross weight: 190 kg; 25-30 hp 2-cylinder Velox-Suere)
Another, probably the third, Bertrand, was a Bleriot XI copy with a 2-cylinder opposed engine; its Bleriot-style undercarriage was damaged in December 1910. The Roman numeral III was painted on the rudder. Since Rene Bertrand had family connections in southern France, this design which appeared in Montpellier (southern France) was probably his.
(Span: 13.3 m; length: 11.8 m; gross weight: 540 kg; 40 hp Labor-Picker)
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1879 Biot-Massia
Interested in kites as early as 1861, Gaston Biot built a conical tailless kite, and in 1880 a version stabilized by a free-wheeling propeller. In 1881 the Societe Francaise de Navigation Aerienne reviewed a project submitted by Biot and Dandrieux. Earlier, in 1879, financed and probably assisted by Massia, Biot had built a birdlike glider based on the work of Mouillard, and flew it several times at Clamart. The pilot was placed between 2 perpendicularly-arranged metal rectangles, to which were attached V-struts on either side, at the ends of which were fitted 7 long feather-like surfaces which could be swung back and forth to serve as rudders. The tail consisted of 7 more such feathers arranged to lie flat in a flexible frame which could be twisted for vertical control. It was donated to the Musee de l'Air in 1925 and restored in 1960: it is the world's oldest surviving heavier-than-air machine.
(Span: 8.6 m; length: 4.2 m; wing area: 6.48 sqm; empty weight: 37 kg)
On 7 July 1882, the Count ED Massia wrote Louis Mouillard describing a glider for which, Mouillard wrote Octave Chanute in 1991, Mouillard had given Massia the technical information. The glider proved too heavy, and Massia gave it to Biot, who rebuilt it lighter. In its final version it was of monoplane form, the pilot positioned just forward of the wing and immediately behind a forward control surface; a swallowtail surface extended aft from the trailing edge of the wing. Biot seems to have made this a twisting surface, like his first one. (It is this machine to which Chanute referred, erroneously, as Biot's 1879 design.)
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Blanc, Henri
Henri Blanc was a lawyer; Emile Barlatier was a balloonist and chairman of the Automobile Club de France in Marseille. Early in the century they built and studied kites, and then constructed 2 large powered model kites, one with a 1.25 hp Herdtle-Bruneau engine, the other with a 2.25 hp Buchet, each kite with 2 tractor propellers. In 1906 they began work on a full-scale single-seater monoplane with batlike wings and a large forward elevator surface; it was not successful. Like the kites, it had a centrally-mounted engine driving 2 tractor propellers.
(Span: 14 m; wing area: 60 sqm; 3-cylinder 14 hp Buchet)
Barlatier went off to Canada to become famous as a balloonist, and Henri Blanc worked on with his brother. In 1910 the Blancs developed a new aviation site, the Aerodrome de la Crau, at Miramas, now the location of the test base of the Armee de l'Air at Istres, and they tested a new light monoplane. In 1913 Henri Blanc invented an automatic stabilizer and then disappeared from the aviation chronicles.
Barlatier et Blanc: Their first monoplane was tested at the end of March 1908 at the military camp of Le Rouet, near Marseille, fitted with a 30 hp 7-cylinder REP. The fuselage consisted of 2 parallel wooden box spars with the pilot between them, and a large tailplane at the rear, supporting 4 triangular fins and rudder. Automatic stability was to come through the action of a moving tailplane set ahead of the rearmost one. The REP motor drove a 2-bladed tractor aluminum propeller coupled to a cooling fan, which might also have served as flywheel.
(Span: 14 m; length: 9.5 m; wing area: 45 sqm; empty weight: 240 kg)
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Blanc monoplane: It had a fully-covered fuselage with a flat bottom and curved top; 2 oblong upper and lower fins, the upper with a rudder; a large rear elevator; a Bleriot-style undercarriage; spoon-shaped wings. It was powered by an Anzani engine and weighed altogether only 120 kg. Its construction was sponsored by a M Mopuro de Livoll, whose name does not appear again. This may well have been the monoplane described by Astruc, built by the Blancs and crashed by Astruc.
Blanc. Maurice: A monoplane of this name appeared in 1914.
Blanc (?): There was also a Blanc Morane-style mid-wing monoplane - perhaps the same? - with a long covered tapered fuselage and odd comma-shaped rudder set above the end on its point. Curved ailerons were set into the wings.
(Span: 10 m; length: 8 m; weight: 350 kg; Anzani)
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Blard
Lt Blard's pretty all-metal canard was designed secretly for military use: the plan was to combine the generally better performance of the monoplane with the generally better downward visibility of the biplane. It is reported to have been present, though "under adjustment," when President Fallieres reviewed the "groupe central de I'escadrille volante" at Villacoublay in April 1912; it was tested over a long period with no favorable outcomes. Resembling the Bleriot 33 canard monoplane, it consisted of a simple horizontal tripod, with the pilot and tailplane with tip elevators the engine mounted at the rear, and a forward-mounted tailplane with tip elevators at the extended tip with a curved skid below. The aeroplane sat on 2 wheels and a small rear-mounted skid. Inadequately-sized triangular tip fins and rudders were fitted below the wingtips; these were later enlarged and the machine could then make large-radius turns.
(Span: 10 m; length: 7 m; wing area: 19 sqm; empty weight: 280 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
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Bleriot
Louis Bleriot made his fortune in carbonic-gas lamps for automobiles, but he soon became fascinated with the problems of flight. Captain Ferdinand Ferber, of Chalais-Meudon, persuaded Gabriel Voisin to visit Bleriot in his workshop where he was experimenting with his first ornithopter, and the 2 began a brief and provocative collaboration. Bleriot's first efforts were imitations of the work of others, notably the Wrights and Langley, but only when he began working with his own designs and those of Raymond Saulnier did his work take wing.
I: In 1900 Bleriot built a 1.5-meter span model of his ornithopter design, powered by a carbonic acid motor, and started the fullscale machine the following year. The design called for a single pair of flapping wings each braced with a single long kingpost, centered on what looked like a tall tank for the gas below and the engine mounted above. He built 3 motors in succession and each one exploded. He gave up the project, though the model had seemed promising.
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II: Bleriot had watched Gabriel Voisin at work, and commissioned him to build a glider at the Surcouf works. Bleriot towed the machine, piloted by Voisin, from a motorboat named Antoinette II, on the Seine at Billancourt; on 18 July 1905 the unstable glider caught its left wing in the water and crashed, almost drowning Voisin. It was built with 2 large Hargrave cells, one for the tail and one for the wings, with a single elevator forward. 2 sets of side-curtains were set between the wings on each side, the outer set at an angle. 2 long floats supported the aeroplane.
(Span (forward wing): 7 m; wing area (forward wing): 29 sqm; weight: less than 200 kg)
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III: Undaunted, Bleriot had Voisin build a second machine, this one powered, with 2 large equal-size elliptical cells for wing and tail, the whole rig floating on 3 pairs of small pontoons. An Antoinette engine was installed sideways, driving 2 tractor propellers through flexible shafts. It was tested, unsuccessfully, in May 1906 at Lake Enghien, and Bleriot planned to replace the single Antoinette engine with 2.
(Wing area: 60 sqm; empty weight (with 2 engines): 430 kg; 24 hp Antoinette)
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IV: This new machine, also built by Voisin, retained the elliptical tail cell, but the new wing cell was rectangular again and there was a biplane forward elevator cell. This time there were 2-24 hp Antoinette engines driving 2 pusher propellers. The seaplane was tested on 2 long floats on 18 October 1905, but it did not achieve more than 30 kmh, and could not take off. It was then fitted with wheels and retested at Bagatelle on 12 November, but was wrecked when crossing a gutter. Bleriot planned to rebuild it with a single 50 hp Antoinette. This was the last Bleriot type to be built by Voisin.
(Span (forward wing): 10.5 m; wing area (forward wing): 47 sqm; total wing area: 78.5 sqm; weight: 430 kg; 2-24 hp Antoinettes)
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V: Built and developed from January through March 1907, this little canard was powered with a 24 hp Antoinette and covered in varnished paper. The nose earned a small elevator surface, and a tall forward fin was set under the nose and acted as front skid; the rear of the machine supported on 2 close-set wheels. The wings had upturned tips like a bird's. Damaged at Bagatelle during tests, it was quickly modified. In April it appeared again, this time with a big semicircular rudder behind the aft propeller, the forward vertical surface now equally above and below the nose, and the wings upturned with long trailing areas at the tips. In this version Bleriot managed a first small jump on 5 April. A final modification removed the forward vertical surfaces and added a rectangular keel amidships. The forward fuselage covering was taken off. A brief 4-5-meter flight followed, after which the canard was wrecked at Bagatelle on 8 April. This was the only one of Louis Bleriot's machines known to have been designed by Louis himself.
(Span: 7.8 m; length: 8.5 m; weight: 260 kg; 24 hp Antoinette)
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VI: Patterned on the Langley Aerodrome, Bleriot built this new tandem, named Libellule (dragonfly) at the suggestion of Louis Peyret; Bleriot installed the 24 hp Antoinette and hoped for better stability. The 2 sets of wings were approximately the same size and shape, the forward pair having oyster-shell tip ailerons. 2 close-set wheels in front and one large tailwheel carried the again modified with a larger forward wing and rear end of its fuselage and rudder lengthened, it managed brief flights from 25-143 m in length.
Other changes, from the 24 hp Antoinette to one of 50 hp, and a much longer vertical tail, allowed flights of over 100 m in September; this version was sometimes known as Type VIbis. A final change reduced the aft wing to the size and function of a stabilizer, the long fin and rudder moved to the top of the fuselage, and it crashed on a 184-meter flight on 7 September.
(Span (each wing): 5.85 m; wing area: 18 sqm; weight: 280 kg; 24 hp Antoinette)
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VII: This was a handsome modern-looking low-wing monoplane, fully covered, with broad rectangular surfaces and what would become the typical Bleriot rudder. A 50 hp Antoinette drove a 4-bladed propeller. Tests in October and November 1907 showed the landing gear to be weak, and it was replaced in November and December by what would become the typical Bleriot arrangement with castering wheels and bedstead supporting beams. On 16 November it flew some 500 m, and flew often and well after that; and then it was damaged in its hangar.
In December it appeared again, this time with wings set high on the sides of the fuselage, with a new trapezoidal cabane structure now required to brace the higher wing. Landing after a long flight on 18 December, a wheel broke and the machine was damaged.
(Span: 11m; length: 9 m; wing area: 25 sqm; weight: 425 kg; 50 hp Antoinette)
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IX: In process from February to March 1908, at the same time as the VIII, the Type IX had the most powerful engine Bleriot had used so far, a 60 hp Antoinette. The 2 radiators stood like ladders on each side of the nose; the aft fuselage was triangular in section; the wings were broad, shaped like the later Bleriots, and warped. Although the IX never flew, it is the only one of the pre-Channel types to survive - in the Musee de l'Air in Paris.
(Span: 9 m; length: 12 m; wing area: 26 sqm; weight: 558.7 kg; 60 hp Antoinette)
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VIII: Bleriot had avoided serious injury in the crash of Type VII due to the presence of the new cabane, and he used it regularly on his monoplanes for years after. Built and tested between February and May 1908, Type VIII was a big high rectangular-wing monoplane, all covered with varnished paper, powered by the 50 hp Antoinette; the distinctive big flat radiator was set under the nose between the landing gear legs. The VIIIbis was tested in June with a new broad wing of increased incidence, camber, and curved tips; the rear end of the fuselage was uncovered. It made flights of 400-700 m at Issy. Refitted again with drooping ailerons and the first of Bleriot's famous cloche controls, it made some good flights and impressive turns, and then crashed badly on 23 July.
Reconstructed again, this time as the Vlllter, its fuselage was shorter and the ailerons were replaced by the old oyster-shell tip surfaces; there were 2 staggered horizontal tail surfaces, one above and one below the aft fuselage, which was still uncovered. It flew from August till 4 November, when it was destroyed in a crash, Bleriot himself undamaged.
(Span: 11.2m (later 8.5 m); wing area: 22 sqm; weight: 480 kg; 50 hp Antoinette)
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X: This big tail-first biplane was shown at the Paris Salon of 1908; it had been under construction since September, and the original 50 hp Antoinette had been replaced with one of 90 hp. The pilot and passenger sat in bentwood chairs on the lower wing, flanked on each side by full-gap radiators made of linked loops like doughnuts; the plan was to carry 3 passengers. The engine sat at their right, driving the big pusher propeller through chains. A single elevator and 3 rectangular rudders were set forward on outriggers, and tall triangular fins were fitted to the rearmost of the outboard struts. Interplane elevators which also served as ailerons were set behind the wingtips on outriggers and controlled by the single cloche; there were no rear tail surfaces. It ran on a pair of large doughnut wheels.
(Span: 13 m; length: 8.2 m; wing area: 68 sqm; weight: 620 kg; 50/90 hp Antoinette)
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From its first appearance at the 1908 Paris Exposition, the next new design, the Type XI monoplane, was a success: it was built in various forms and sizes and for various purposes well into WWI, and the designations of these various models have frequently puzzled historians. We will list the variations one after the other, even though some were built while much later type numbers were being designed and flown.
XI Type REP: Beside the big Type X at the 1908 Exposition stood the tiny new Type XI, commissioned by Bleriot and designed by several people including his chief designer, Raymond Saulnier, in some combination of skills. It was fitted with a large tail wheel, which made landings difficult.The soon-to-be-famous bedstead frame for the undercarriage was sprung with shock cord. The rudder was very small, with almost square corners at the rear; and an odd teardrop-shaped fin was at first attached to the top bar of the support pylon. It first flew at Issy on 18 January 1909 with its heavy 30 hp REP engine attached to a 4-bladed metal propeller.
XI Type Anzani: The wing area was quickly increased from 12 to 14 sqm, the rudder enlarged as well, the engine from the 30 hp REP to a lighter 25 hp Anzani with a Chauviere propeller, and the field at Issy to a longer one at Buc. In June and July the cabane fin was removed and the side-covering extended further back. Bleriot flew his new machine in various meets, until he heard of the Daily Mail prize for the first flight across the Channel - and then he heard that Latham had crashed in his Antoinette Type IV in the water on 19 July. He brought his XI, now equipped with an inflatable bag in the aft fuselage, to Calais, and prepared to make the attempt. When the weather finally broke, he took off and flew to a crash-landing at Dover Castle. Latham tried again in his new Antoinette VII after Bleriot had landed, but failed once more, again being pulled from his wrecked aeroplane in the Channel.
(Span: 7.8 m; wing area: 14 sqm; gross weight: 300 kg; speed: 36 kmh; 30 hp Anzani)
The XI was built well into 1914, with many other engine combinations, such as the 50 and 100 hp Gnomes, the 50 hp Anzani, the 2-cylinder Coudert, the 2-cylinder Dutheil et Chalmers, the 4-cylinder Humber, the 2-cylinder Clement-Bayard, and the 4-cylinder Labor-Picker. A common development was the substitution of the 1911 -style one - or 2-piece elevators, often with a reverse-curve airfoil, for the initial tip surfaces. The big tailwheel was retained in many of the later aeroplanes, as was the trapezoidal cabane structure. A M Sacotte experimented with a complex system of shock absorbers and springs designed to cushion the pilot no matter how the aeroplane hit the ground; a small third wheel was set under the pilot's seat.
The famous stunt-flier Pegoud used at least 3 different XIs. His most famous achievement, the first loop, was in 1913 inahalf-Bleriot, half-Borel machine with a 2-piece elevator and a single inverted-V pylon. His experiment with a parachute attached to the top of the fuselage in 1913 was in another XI with a V-leg undercarriage and the tip elevators of a much earlier period. A third one appeared with the high tailskid set shortly behind the cockpit.
Sometimes aircraft were reported under different names: a Bleriot XI belonging to a man named de Villeneuve was described as L'Epervier, which seemed a whole new type.
XI Type Ecole: This April 1912 design was distinguished by considerable dihedral, tip elevators, looped-cane tailskid, and a sharply back-sloping diagonal edge to the forward fuselage covering. It was fitted with a 25/30 or a 30/35 hp Anzani.
XI Type Taxi-Pinguin: Short wings allowed this version of January 1912 barely to "grass-cut," and a remarkably wide tread and 2 long forward skids kept the novice from turning over. The tail was kept up by the high skid aft of the cockpit. It was built in both military and school versions.
(Span: 8.9 m; length: 7.8 m (school: 7.65 m); empty weight: 265 kg (school: 220 kg); gross weight: 415 kg (school: 350 kg); speed: 95 kmh (school: 65 kmh); 50 hp Gnome (school: 30 hp Anzani)
XI Type Artillerie: There were at least 2 versions in March 1912 of this 50 hp Gnome-powered single-seater spotter, one with a rectangular one-piece elevator, the other with a small elevator surface with an oddly-curved trailing edge. The fuselage folded upward onto its own back, for easy transport; the high skid supported the end of the front section.
XI Type 1912: Another single-seater with 2-piece elevators and high fuselage skid appeared in March, this one also featured a single inverted-V cabane and a cut-out in the right-hand wingroot.
(Span: 8.9 m; length: 7.8 m; wing area: 15 sqm; gross weight: 300 kg; speed: 90 kmh; 50 hp Gnome)
XI Type 1913: A German Rozendaal drawing shows what seems to be a straight Channel model, but with the top fuselage longerons arched up over the wing and then down to the motormounts.
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XII: In April 1909 the Bleriot firm designed and built a new monoplane in which the pilot sat under the high wing, behind the 35 hp ENV which drove the tractor propeller with chains. The fuselage was completely uncovered, the top curving downward to the tailpost; a Bleriot Xl-style rudder was flanked by 2 smaller rectangular rudders, with 2 tailplanes set just ahead of them. Small winglets serving as ailerons protruded from each side behind the pilot. The typical Bleriot landing-gear and cabane structures appeared here. After its flights in May, the rudders were all removed and replaced by an awkward-looking rectangular surface mounted high on a post. Bleriot experimented with covering the forward sides of the fuselage. In June he added a long curved fin to the top of the fuselage, and in July a whole new curved fin and rudder assembly.
In August he built the first so-called Type XII for Reims, this one fitted with a 60 hp ENV and a 4-bladed propeller, and a new down-curved rear fuselage, still with the 2 tailplanes. The winglets were gone, and the wing area was reduced for speed by uncovering the trailing edge section from tip to tip. No 22 raced in the Gordon-Bennett meet, but crashed and burned. Grahame-White bought the third aircraft off the line and named it the White Eagle. Replacing the ENV with a 50 hp Gnome saved weight, and one was used as a 2-seat trainer at Pau.
(Span: 10 m; length: 9.5 m; wing area: 22 sqm; empty weight: 600 kg; speed: 100 kmh; 35-50 hp ENV)
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XIbis: This variant of January 1910 was short in appearance, with a pigeon-tail and elliptical elevators, combined with a standard XI-type rudder. The Gnome was half-cowled; the big tailwheel was fitted again. It is sometimes erroneously labeled Type XIII.
(Span: 9 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 16 sqm; weight: 250 kg; Gnome)
XI-2bis: In February 1910 an enlarged XI appeared, with side-by-side seating, to supplement the single-place machines already in use in training schools. Powered with a 50 hp Gnome, it featured a pigeon tail with elliptical elevators, and a handsome elliptical rudder surface. The first one was rebuilt with the engine out ahead of the bedstead, and was sold in large numbers as the XIbis Militaire.
(Span: 11 m; length: 8.3 m; wing area: 19 sqm; gross weight: 350 kg; 80 hp Gnome)
XIV: This handsome side-by-side aeroplane introduced in November 1910 the new fishtail design, in which the rear fuselage tapered quickly down into the leading edge of the stabilizer, with a curved one-piece elevator at the end, and 2 small oval rudder surfaces, one above and the other below. The wines were braced above and below from inverted-V pylons. Access to the seats was through a trap in the bottom of the fuselage. A version with a single angular rudder flew at Hendon. All had the 50 hp Gnome; but it is possible one was fitted with a more powerful engine.
XV: Type XV may not have been built: an August 1910 drawing shows a slender single-seater with a graceful covered fuselage of circular section, a pigeon-tail with 2 oval rudders above and below. Most remarkable: the wing was strut-braced from the landing-gear structure.
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XIII: This big 4-passenger monoplane was conceived in 1909 and built in 1910. Powered with only a 100 hp Gnome set on the trailing edge with its pusher propeller, it carried not only 4 but on occasion 10 people. The big rectangular wing had drooping ailerons, a long uncovered box-girder fuselage, and single large rectangular tail surfaces all set slightly above the fuselage. 2 big wheels supported the front, and a shallow skid the rear. A forward elevator was set on outriggers. One photograph shows one passenger sitting precariously just ahead of the stabilizer.
(Span: 13 m; length: 12 m; wing area: 40 sqm; gross weight: 600 kg; 100 hp Gnome)
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XI-3 Type Concours Militaire: A big 3-seater, it carried 300 kg load for 300 km. 2 were built, one with a Gnome of 100 hp, the other of 140 hp. The engine was mounted out in front in a heavy box frame, and the heavy landing gear featured a pair of triple wheels mounted together on the same axle.
(Span: 11.35 m; length: 8.2 m; wing area: 25 sqm; gross weight: 519 kg; 140 hp Gnome)
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XX: Another fishtail design, also with the 50 hp Gnome, this single-seater was known initially as Le Poisson (fish), because of the small angular fins above and below the fishtail stabilizer. The lower fin was later removed. The design featured a new rectangular wing with flattened camber and special construction to make it more flexible and easier to disassemble. The trailing edges of the wing ribs could be uncovered for less surface and more speed.
XXI: This handsome side-by-side fishtail design of February 1911 came from both the XI-2bis and the XIV, and was bought by several different air services. It could be easily disassembled, and the crew sat aft of the inverted-V pylon instead of in front, making access easier than with the XIV. It had a single angular rudder surface set over the stabilizer. It also appeared on floats.
(Span: 11 m; length: 8.24 m; wing area: 25 sqm; empty weight: 350 kg; top speed: 90/95 kmh; 70 hp Gnome)
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XXIII: 100 hp Gnomes powered these racing aircraft of March 1911, with extremely narrow rectangular wings with curved tips, the fish-tail, and a single angular rudder on top. Alfred Leblanc and Gustav Hamel each flew one in the Gordon-Bennett race, with Leblanc winning a second and Hamel wrecking his machine.
(Spans: 7.16 m, 6.71 m; length: 7.62 m; wing area: 9 sqm, 6.75 sqm; speed: 128 kmh; 100 hp Gnome)
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XXIV: The big Limousine was built in November 1911 for Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, based on the earlier XIII but with an elaborate closed cabin structure for 4 passengers; the pilot sat like a coachman on an exposed seat under the speaking tube and the front windows of the cabin. A small celluloid cone was placed out ahead to provide him with a windbreak. Long curved outriggers supported a forward elevator, and their aft extensions supported a large rectangular tailplane and oddly curved single rudder on top. The original 100 hp Gnome was replaced with one of 140 hp, and then the project was given up.
(Span: 13 m; length: 14 m; wing area: 40 sqm; empty weight: 700 kg; 100 and 140 hp Gnome)
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XXV: Planned as a 2-seat naval machine with the observer seated forward, it was designed to float on the water in an emergency. But it was built in August 1911 as a single-seater, similar to the 1907 canard, and presumably, not much more successful. The wings carried drooping ailerons and small rudder surfaces mounted above the tips; a single elevator was set into the nose, and the wheels were fixed to a single U-shaped spring leg, similar to the early Nieuports.
(Span: 8.9 m; length: 5.5 m; wing area: 12 sqm; weight: 400 kg; 50 hp Gnome mounted aft of the pusher propeller)
XXVI: Another canard, the XXVI was built in September 1911 but apparently not flown. It was a triplane, with short rectangular wings; several short skids under the lower wing supported the rear, and a single wheel forward carried the front: this wheel was designed to retract back up into the fuselage in front of the pilot. The engine was again mounted aft of the pusher propeller.
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XXVII: This single-seat racing monoplane with a 50 hp Gnome was built in July 1911; it stood high on its bedstead-undercarriage. Resembling the XXI but slenderer and with a half-overhanging cowling, it had a short inverted-V cabane made of streamlined tubing.
(Span: 8.9 m; length: 7.5 m; wing area: 12 sqm; gross weight: 430 kg; speed: 125 kg; 70 hp Gnome)
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XXVIII Populaire: The top cylinder of the Anzani Y was hidden in the tiny overhanging cowl; otherwise this was a sporting version of the standard XI; the nose section of the fuselage was thinner, and a long heavy diagonal brace supported each side of the landing gear. The looped-cane tailskid was set amidships instead of under the tail. This design appeared in December 1911, and may also have been built in a 2-seat version.
(Span: 8.9 m; length: 7.2 m; empty weight: 210 kg; 30/35 hp Anzani)
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XXIX: Designed for military observation, this 2-seat side-by-side pusher monoplane was never built. The crew was forward in the nacelle, with the 70 hp Gnome at the rear, with outrigger structures on each side coming to a point and supporting a monoplane tail and an odd oval rudder set below it. A pair of large wheels was set under the leading edge, with a smaller pair on the skids forward. But similar designs would be built later. Among drawings dated 1912 are some of the same aeroplane but with the tail outriggers enlarged and brought together with the propeller turning inside and between them; these are marked XXIXbis.
XXXVII: This seems to have been a further development of the Type XXIX and XXIXbis, designed in January 1913. This time the pusher propeller turned on the top aft longeron outrigger; this, with the 2 lower longerons, supported a standard tail unit. The 2 crew sat forward, the nose of the nacelle hinging downward to allow them access. The centrally-mounted 80 hp Gnome was replaced with one of 100 hp, and after some 10 months of tests, the pilot Perreyon killed himself in it. (Although a photograph was probably shown at the Olympia show in London in February 1913, no single photograph seems to have survived.)
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XXXII: An odd little monoplane design that was never built, the XXXII had an uncovered fuselage shaped like an inverted airfoil, a narrow-tread undercarriage whose axle ran through the bottom of the fuselage. The wings were short and rectangular, the engine was a little 2-cylinder designed by the engineering director of the Bleiiot firm. The controls were "natural," meaning 2 control wheels moved sideways for turning and rotated for elevation; they were to be moved by the hands or by the knees.
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XXXIII Canard Bleu: The 70 hp Gnome for this big 2-seater canard was meant to be mounted amidships, driving the pusher propeller with a shaft; the whole machine rested on 4 wheels. But when the June 1912 tests proved unsuccessful, it was rebuilt with an 80 hp Gnome at the tail, and what looked like a standard Bleriot bedstead undercarriage, with a tall skid mounted forward. The nacelle was uncovered forward, with a long tapered boom carrying the forward elevator. A big triangular rudder was fitted aft of the propeller with another surface forward of the propeller: the 2 were braced together at the top. A third rectangular surface was mounted below the nacelle.
(Span: 10.5 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 24 sqm; weight: 330 kg; speed: 115 kmh; 70 hp Gnome)
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XXXVI Torpille: In October 1912 this neatly streamlined military side-by-side monoplane was shown at the Paris Exposition. The 80 hp Gnome was accessible and easily removed from its bullet-shaped cowling, and the rigging was quickly demountable from the 3-legged pylon; the occupants were protected from rifle fire by a sheet of armor plate. The landing gear was formed of simple steel struts and a long forward skid. The curved rudder was in 2 pieces top and bottom. A single photograph shows what seems like a modification of the XXXVI, with a standard Bleriot rudder and undercarriage; it may have been the 160 hp Gnome referred to in contemporary Bleriot correspondence concerning a projected XXXVIbis.
(Span: 12.25 m; wing area: 25 sqm; weight: 375 kg; speed: 75 kmh; 80 hp Gnome)
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XL: This was a tandem-seated nacelle pusher biplane, similar to some of the early Farman designs: the top wing overhung the lower by a great deal, and the single oval rudder was suspended below a big rectangular tail surface. The wheels were mounted on long hinged arms, unlike other Bleriots. It was first presented at the May 1913 Salon de Turin, and was probably influenced by the work of the Italian firm of Societa Italiana Transaerea (SIT), a licensed Bleriot subsidiary. It was shown to the services at Buc, and then at the December Exposition in Paris.
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XLII: This was another canard pusher, built in March 1913, meant for-observation, apparently an improvement over the Type XXXVII, though it seems unlikely the changes were helpful. The nacelle was short, with a forward window for the observers to look downward, and a long hooked uncovered outrigger structure out in front with the forward elevator. The wings carried ailerons, along with 3 little rudder surfaces on each panel. A big boomerang-shaped rudder was hung behind the propeller, and the whole thing rested on a traditional Bleriot bedstead gear and an awkward rear skid under the 80 hp Gnome and the pusher propeller. The machine was later modified with a tailwheel and only 2 fins on each wing panel.
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XLIII: This tandem 2-seat armored monocoque monoplane was built in November 1913. The engine was set ahead of the landing gear and covered with a horseshoe-shaped cowl. The 2 occupants sat in separated cockpits, communicating through a horn. The landing gear was very tall, with the diagonal braces shown on the Populaire. The horizontal tail was of more conventional shape than most of the Bleriots, the rudder was hinged so part was above and part below the fuselage, and the cabane was a tall 4-strut pyramid.
(Span: 10.1m; length: 6.02 m; empty weight: 350 kg; gross weight: 625 kg; speed: 120 kmh; 80 hp Gnome)
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XLIV Type Artillerie: Built in February 1913, this was similar to the XL with the pilot seated far back for better visibility, a tall 4-strut pylon, and deep curved cut-outs at the wing-roots. It was powered with an 80 hp Gnome.
XLV: Another observation single-seater, this one had a 60 hp Anzani mounted amidships inside the fuselage driving the tractor propeller through a shaft. The pilot was seated far forward, ahead of the leading edge, and straddling the drive-shaft. This even exchange of major weights in the fuselage allowed the use of the same tail surfaces as on the XLIV.
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XXXIX: A single-seater armored monocoque monoplane, this handsome machine intended for reconnaissance appeared in October 1913. The triangular stabilizer was soon replaced with a smaller rectangular lifting tail, and the rudder replaced with a rudder like the Type XI-2.
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In 1913 several other aeroplanes were designed - some were even built - whose designations have been lost. One of them was probably the big side-by-side 3-fIoat seaplane flown by Perreyon; it resembled a float version of the XXI, and was photographed in November 1913. Another was a very modern-looking midwing monoplane designed to shoot down dirigibles: it had a 37 mm cannon firing through the center of the propeller hub.
In July 1914 still another Bleriot armored monocoque monoplane appeared. There may have been only the one; its factory designation is unknown. It had the words La Vache (the cow) painted on the side. A small rudder hung at the aft point of the fuselage, preceded by a tail surface with horn-balanced elevators. It was powered by a 160 hp Gnome.
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XI Type Parasol: Lieutenant Gouin is known as the designer of a Bleriot parasol monoplane, though he had also contributed to at least one aeroplane built with Henri Chazal. In 1913 he modified and patented a Bleriot with the wings set on 4 struts above the fuselage, slightly higher than the pilot's eyes. First shown at the 1914 Concours de Securite, it was Bleriot's effort to compete with the Morane parasol and improve the visibility over the standard midwing monoplane. Since the military specifications also called for short landing runs, Gouin introduced on the first - and only the first - of his parasols his "crocodile rudder," the 2 halves of which were hinged at the leading edge and could be opened wide as air-brakes after landing. The so-called Bleriot-Gouin was also produced for the British RFC, which ordered 15. A 2-seater version was also developed. Production machines were known as Bleriot Parasols.
(Span: 8.95 m; length: 7.8 m; wing area: 7.8 sqm; 80 hp Gnome)
XI-2 Vision Totale: The standard XI-2 design was modified in July 1914 with a parasol wing on 4 vertical cabane struts, and a Bleriot XI-2-style rudder. The pilot sat aft of the wing, and the observer in front with his head up between the wing spars. The fuselage was covered only up to aft of the cockpit, and a streamlined fabric pyramid was fitted inside the longerons to cap off the covered section. It was powered with the 80 hp Le Rhone or the 100 hp Gnome.
(Span: 10.36 m; length: 8.427 m; wing area: 19.5 sqm; empty weight: 600 kg; speed: 100 kmh; 80 hp Gnome)
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Bobenreith
A single photo reprinted in La Voix du Nord may be of the Bobenreith. It is a Wright copy, with biplane forward elevator and biplane rear surfaces - perhaps also elevators - with a rudder between them. Unlike the Wright designs, it had mid-wing ailerons, 2 close-set wheels and curved wing skids. It was built in Turcoing, in the vicinity of Lille (where La Voix du Nord was published).
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Bonamy
The single Bonamy aeroplane was entered in the Concours de Securite of 1914, promising perfect stability even with the engine not running. It was built from a Ponnier (Hanriot Type D) fuselage, and had 2 pairs of wings in tandem, with greater dihedral on the forward wing, and sweepback on the rear wing. Each wing had 2 spars, the front fixed and the rear pivoted at a rib at mid-span: with the engine on, the forced draft raised the rear spar at the inner ends so that the tips were lowered and incidence at the wingtips increased. The difference at the tips was from 4° to 10°. The machine flew with a rotary engine, type unknown.
It is likely that Bonamy's design was based on a misinterpretation of Ferber's theory of the three Vs on aircraft stability: the 1st V was positive dihedral; the 2d V was sweepback on the mainplanes; the third V was positive incidence on the mainplane, negative incidence on the tailplane.
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No 3: In 1909 in St Die Emile Bonnet founded with Dutheil, Chalmers, and others the Societe Aeronautique de l'Est, and the Avia Company, which built machines for SEA. Avia's chief engineer was Charles Roux, who is likely to have worked on the Bonnet-Labranche No 2, since No 3 featured many similar details. With the No 3 appeared the designation ABL (for Albert Bonnet-Labranche): it was a small biplane called vedette militaire in the Avia catalogue (see Avia No 1); and another similar machine was built for the Russian Teretchenko. It had a biplane tail unit with central rudder, rectangular wings with interplane ailerons, as on No 2; a flat front elevator was rigged forward, also like No 2. The undercarriage was typically Voisin, as on both earlier Bonnet-Labranche designs; a 24 hp Dutheil et Chalmers drove a pusher propeller.
(Span: 7 m; length: 8 m; chord: 1.5 m; wing area: c 22 sqm; weight: 250 kg)
No 5: This unsuccessful biplane was tested in 1910; it may have been also the Avia No 3, first flown at Issy in August 1910, in the presence of Charles Roux.
(Span: 10 m; length: 10.75 m; wing area: 40 sqm; 40 hp Darracq)
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No 4: This monoplane built in the Avia workshops at St Die in 1909 flew at Juvisy. It had a simple half-covered rectangular fuselage with an Antoinette-style wing mounted on top, and inset rectangular ailerons at the tips. The tail was comprised of a long triangular fin and stabilizer, each fitted with a rectangular control surface. The undercarriage was similar to that of the Bleriot XI, with the addition of long forward upward-curved skids. The uncovered forward fuselage carried the long coppertube radiators for the flat-4 engine mounted high on the nose, probably a 40 hp Dutheil et Chalmers.
(Span: 11 m; length: 10 m; 2.2 m diameter Avia propeller; 50 hp Dutheil et Chalmers)
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For the Concours Militaire, Borel entered the Type Militaire, a large 4-seater bearing the number 27, with tapered wings and a 140 hp Gnome. The undercarriage featured 3 struts on each side and 2 pairs of wheels, and skids. The pylon comprised 2 triangular frames; the fuselage was half covered, and the tip elevators gave the appearance of an enormous Bleriot XI.
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1912: In the Exposition, the experimental Obus (see below), and a 12-panel 2-seater with cut-out wing-roots, probably the model taken up by the military for school purposes.
L'Obus (artillery shell): This handsome streamlined monocoque racing monoplane was shown at the 1912 Salon, and held the world's distance record from Vincennes to Biarritz. The fuselage was a wooden structure overlaid with very thin sheet-wood meant only for covering and not for strength. A distinctive feature was the bulbous cowling which surrounded the rotary engine completely down to the propeller hub, leaving only the bottom quadrant open; the formed sections were held together with 4 large flanges. A solid pyramidal structure in front of the pilot carried the top wing bracing; the wings were swept back, as were the fin and rudder. A smaller rudder was set underneath.
(Span: 9.5 m; length: 6 m; wing area: 14 sqm; empty weight: 245 kg; loaded weight: 430 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
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Hydroaeroplanes: In 1912 and 1913 the firm built a variety of 3-float seaplanes, some of which did well in the international meets of the period. They varied in engine installation, size of crew, and details of float attachment. Some samples:
1912: a 2-place machine with an 80 hp Gnome, simple 4-strut float supports, and half-covered fuselage. A similar machine with double diagonal bracing at the feet of the float struts. Another 2-seater with cut-out sections in the leading edge wing-roots, and a low coaming aft of the rear seat; this may be the same as the winner at the Belgian meet at Tamise, painted with the race number 6. A 2-seater fitted with floats in addition to its regular wheels and skids, oyster-shell elevator surfaces, and a remarkably warped aft fuselage.
1913: A 2-seater for the Navy, with N-strut float supports, and a cut-out in the wing leading edge root. Chemet's 2-seater painted No 7 at the Paris-Deauville meet in August, with N-struts for float supports, and the top and bottom cowlings meeting in front in a horizontal line; and Chemet in No 10 (Type Tamise), perhaps the same machine as at Deauville, at Monaco; but he withdrew before the race began.
(Chemet's machine: span: 11.7 m; length: 8.5 m; empty weight: 540 kg; loaded weight: 920 kg; 100 hp Gnome)
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Monoplan Type Militaire: In 1913, another early effort to mount a forward-firing machine-gun, using a 2-seat box nacelle and a pusher propeller. The gunner and pilot sat side by side forward of the monoplane wing leading edge, sharing the cockpit space with a large cylindrical fuel tank and a smaller oil tank. A 4-legged pyramid above, and a tripod below, served to stay the wing bracing. The aft fuselage outrigger structure was of triangular section, with the single upper longeron attached through a bearing to the propeller hub. The undercarriage comprised 2 wheels and forward skids, and a pair of small skids set underneath the propeller.
(Span: 11.8 m; length: 7 m; 80 hp Gnome)
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1913: A small fully-covered single-seater with twin skids, nearly vertical and braced from behind: Daucourt used one on 16 April to fly from Buc to Berlin. A 17-rib 2-seater with no cross-axle: Daucourt flew a passenger in one on 30 October from Paris to Cairo.
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Borel-Ruby: Before the development of machine-gun synchronizers, designers had experimented with several generally unsatisfactory solutions; one was the pusher biplane with forward-mounted gun; another, less common and less satisfactory, was the so-called "torpedo" aeroplane with the propeller mounted behind the tail, like the Tatin monoplane. In 1913 Borel built such a monoplane, sometimes known as Ruby-Borel, sometimes simply as Ruby.
It had Borel warping wings, but the rectangular-sectioned fuselage was partly of metal, with a pointed nose and the aft fuselage sharply tapering to the propeller hub. The pilot sat ahead of the wing, with the 70 hp Gnome inside the fuselage at his back, driving the pusher propeller mounted at the very tip of the rear fuselage through a shaft more than 5 m long, which may have caused problems. The gunner/observer sat in front with the machine-gun mounted on the cowl in front of him - sometimes replaced with a high windshield. Ports for cooling were let into the side of the fuselage aft of the motor. Vertical fins were set above and below the rear fuselage; the elevators trailed back in an arc behind the propeller, and together with the trailing wingtips, gave the machine a faintly bat-like appearance.
The Torpedo met with no success with the Army, nor did other efforts by Borel and Bleriot to build monoplanes with forward-firing guns.
(Span: 9 m; length: 7 m; 70 hp Gnome)
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Aeroyacht Type Denhaut I: This handsome biplane flyingboat was entered at Monaco in 1913, painted with the number 9. The upper wing had substantial overhang; outside the center-section, it was separated from the small triangular sesquiplane lower wing by struts at the leading edge only, the rest by wires for flexibility in wing-warping. The horizontal tail was fixed on top of the cut-off fin and rudder.
Aeroyacht Type Denhaut II: The wing arrangement was similar to that of Type I (perhaps the same machine, modified?), but with cut-outs in the small lower wings. The tail was new, with a distinctive long trailing point to the rudder, and the tip floats were of a different shape.
Aeroyacht Type Denhaut III: Clearly a development of Types I and II, this machine featured an even longer trailing rudder tip, longer lower wings, and conventional double-strut bracing - though still with wing-warping. It was powered with a 10-cylinder Anzani and competed in the Paris-Deauville meet in 1913, carrying the number 10.
Type Monaco: This interesting flyingboat also entered the meet at Monaco in 1913. It featured a short hull with the 160 hp Gnome buried inside the hull, driving the 4-bladed pusher propeller through chains; 2 big cylindrical tanks were mounted above the hull under the wing; a streamlined cowl with an oval window on each side was set ahead of the 2 pilots. The aft fuselage, like the military pusher monoplane of the same year, comprised a triangular girder whose top longeron was fitted to the propeller hub and a bearing.
(Span: 15.4 m; length: 7.4 m; hull nacelle length: 4.5 m; empty weight: 750 kg; loaded weight: 1,320 kg; 160 hp Gnome)
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Borgnis et Desbordes de Savignon
After Achille and Paul Borgnis had left Firmin Bousson, they found another partner in Desbordes de Savignon, and built another triplane which may be considered a development of the second Bousson-Borgnis. It was of all-metal construction, built at Gennevilliers, with wings like those on the big Vaniman - they might have been built by Vaniman. There were no rear tail surfaces: steering was done with ailerons set on forward outriggers, and a forward elevator was set low ahead of the 4-wheel undercarriage.
(Span: 14.5 m; wing area: 80 sqm; gross weight: 570 kg; 28 hp 6-cylinder engine)
Modified, with new undercarriage and elevator moved to the rear, it was driven to Yffiniac on the northern coast of Brittany, where it flew and made a "memorable crash." Repaired, at the end of 1910 it was destroyed in a collision.
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Bothy
Leopold Bothy had worked in bicycles, and came to be interested in heavier-than-air machines. He got the Paris firm of Regy Freres to build his little monoplane patterned on the Demoiselle. The tail worked on a universal joint, but with an extra tailplane fitted on top of the outrigger, which unlike the Demoiselle's was made of 2 parallel booms strengthened with wires and a small mast. Bothy attempted flights at Issy on 9 January 1910, and managed a hop. On 22 September he got off briefly, and then crashed, wrecking his aeroplane.
(Span: 7.9 m; length: 7.8 m; wing area: 20 sqm; gross weight less pilot: 260 kg; 30-35 hp V2 Anzani)
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Boucheron
In 1910 L'Aeronaute printed a drawing and accompanying description of a 2-seat biplane with variable-size wings and a waterproof diamond-section fuselage for possible accidental water landings. 2 pusher propellers were mounted on outriggers aft of the wings, which were curved like a gull's. A small biplane elevator cell was set, as on the Voisin, on a curved extension of the fuselage. It is not clear exactly how the variable sized wing arrangement worked - or if in fact the machine was ever built.
(Span: 10.3 m; length: 14.6 m; 44 hp engine)
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Bourgoin et Kessels
Bourgoin and Kessels' big machine, Aerobus, had been registered for the Concours Militaire in 1911, but it did not appear until July 1912, when it was introduced at the Vel d'Hiv, the famous Velodrome d'Hiver, the winter cycling stadium in Paris. It was a huge uncompleted monoplane designed to carry 12 passengers in a boat-shaped hull slung between the great wing and the 4-wheel undercarriage. 2 engines sat on the rear axle driving 2-3.5-meter diameter tractor propellers through long diagonal shafts; a large fin and rudder hung at the rear between 2 shaft-controlled elevators.
(Span: 14 m; length: between 12 and 16 m; length of hull: 5.3 m; wing area: between 60 and 100 sqm; empty weight: 900 kg; gross weight: 2200-2600 kg; 2-125 hp (perhaps 200 hp) Dansette-Gillets)
In 1913 Bourgoin designed what he called a "parachute monoplane." The description, however, fitted the strange Lataste: horizontal and vertical propellers, a circular wing with variable angle of attack, 4 wheels and rudder. It is known the Lataste was built, but no other connection has been found so far between it and the Bourgoin.
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Bousson-Borgnis
In 1901 Firmin Bousson built his first machine, described as a dirigible equipped with flapping wings. He was assisted - presumably unsuccessfully - by Achille and Paul Borgnis, and the 3 stayed together building kites and models; on 19 August 1908 they put out another complicated machine, the Auto-Aviateur. A tail structure of 4 uprights supported a high short upper wing with a longer lower wing close beneath it and shorter third wing below that; the floor of the tower held the pilot and the 34 hp Buchet driving a large 4-blade pusher propeller. A pair of long curved outriggers supported a pair of forward horizontal surfaces in tandem, the front single one a canard, the rear divided pair acting as a control surface; a large vertical surface between the outriggers served as fin. The machine was modified at least once; it may have been the second canard built after Santos-Dumont's.
In 1909 Bousson alone built a large triplane glider which succeeded in remaining for "one hour in the air, 200 meters high." The pilot sat low in an uncovered box frame fuselage fitted with a biplane tailplane with 2 rudders set between; control was through a large rectangular forward elevator.
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Boutaric
From an earlier model, Boutaric commissioned the firm of Labaudie et Puthet to build a tandem biplane with 2 propellers 2.5 meters in diameter driven with a double chain-drive at 600 rpm. The rear quarter of each wing was flexible, and ailerons were set ahead of the leading edge. It was reported in 1909 variously to have flown on its first attempt, and never to have flown at all.
(Span: 6 m; length: 10 m; wing area: 36 sqm; 25 hp Anzani)
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Brazier
A photograph shows a tandem-high-wing seaplane glider set on 2 wide pontoons fore and aft; the pilot sat low under the single - (or twin?) boom fuselage, with flat vertical surfaces in front of him and behind.
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Breguet
In 1906 Louis Breguet, his brother Jacques, and Professor Charles Richet designed and built a test model of a gyroplane, a sort of helicopter with wings. It was tested on an aerodynamic balance of their own design; the model was given by Louis Breguet in 1922 to the Conservatoire des Arts et des Metiers. It was followed by 2 full-scale machines.
Gyroplane Breguet-Richet No 1: The full-scale version was built and tested in 1907. It consisted of a 4-legged structure with a 4-bladed biplane set of rotors at the end of each arm. Wings were to be fitted, but did not in fact appear. Louis Breguet claimed that it lifted briefly, carrying its pilot. But Jean Boulet, helicopter historian, notes in his book L'Histoire de I'Helicoptere Racontee par ses Pionniers 1907-1956 that Breguet's assistants in these experiments later claimed that during the supposed flight they were in fact pushing upward on the helicopter framework to hold it up, rather than pulling it to hold it back, and concludes it probably did not take off at all.
(Rotor diameter: 8 m; total weight: 580 kg; 42 hp Antoinette)
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Gyroplane Breguet-Richet No 2: In 1908 the firm built No 2, a monoplane with a pair of 4-bladed biplane rotors (the same rotors as in No 1?) below each wingtip. A long outrigger strut on each side below the lower wings had a wheel at each outer end, and carried the lower ends of the long rotor axles; another supported the drive wheels at the center of each rotor. The wing had a single spar only, and was apparently arranged to have variable incidence. An awkward angular fuselage rested awkwardly on 4 wheels with a 5th to the rear, and a tall awkward rudder rose at the tail end with a long awkward tailplane beneath it. The pilot sat out in the open in front. A modification had a long covered nose extension to the fuselage resting on a tricycle undercarriage, and a second wing set between the 2 outriggers on each side. In this one both wings could pivot on their single spars. The machine never got off the ground and was abandoned.
(Rotor diameter: 8 m)
Gyroplane Breguet-Richet No 2bis: This version was built in 1908/1909, and was destroyed in its hangar during a storm before it could be tested. It was a handsome big biplane canard, with the front pair of wings of shorter span than the rear; both pairs featured the single spars and single wide struts of the No 2. On each side, between the inboard wing struts of both the front pair and the rear pair of wings, was fitted a pair of long crossed struts. At the center of each long X was the hub of a 4-paddle-bladed rotor, arranged to tilt back and forth, evidently for control and propulsion. The engine was set on the top of the fuselage amidships. The machine had the same tricycle undercarriage of the No 2, with the addition of wingtip wheels on the aft pair of wings.
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Breguet-Richet No 3: Built in 1909, this was the firm's first aeroplane, and it was soon renamed Breguet No 1. It flew, and had an accident at Douai. It was a biplane with a big biplane tail cell, all surfaces with the same single spar and wide struts of the later Gyroplanes. The fuselage consisted only of a big open rectangular box like a box-kite with a small covered shoe-box for the pilot. The undercarriage consisted of a skid structure on each side, like the Wrights', with a single wheel underneath in the middle. Small wheels protected the lower wingtips; 2 rudders were set between the tailplanes. The big tractor propeller had 3 paddle blades.
(Span: 13 m; length: 10 m; empty weight: 500 kg; 50 hp Renault)
Modified with a lengthened top tailplane, twin wheels underneath, and a different wingtip wheel arrangement and shortened skids, the machine was painted with the race number 19 and flew and crashed at Reims.
Breguet No 2 (sometimes named No 4): This was rebuilt from No 1, above; it flew well. Simplified, it had a single rudder between the 2 tailplanes, and a simple 2-wheel undercarriage with a raised skid arrangement. The fuselage was slender and tapered back to the lower tailplane, while a V-outrigger supported the upper, with a distinctive pair of vertical surfaces in the middle of each. The pilot sat aft, on top of the fuselage, behind 2 wide center-section struts. An enormous distinctive covered tail-wheel brought up the tail. Rebuilt for the May 1910 meeting at Rouen, it now had a very slender "one-boom" fuselage with a cruciform tail attached with a universal joint. Most of the smaller vertical surfaces were removed.
(Span: 12.5 m; length: 8.5 m; wing area: 36 sqm; weight: 500 kg; 50 hp Renault)
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Type A.U.2 (number unknown): The A here stood for Aerohydroplane, and was abandoned after this remarkable and unsuccessful flyingboat named La Marseillaise. A French Navy officer had promoted the design for the use of the Navy in 1912-1913; a single machine was built and never flew. It was a tandem monoplane with the Canton-Unne amidships, driving a tractor propeller out on struts through a long drive-shaft. A typical Breguet cruciform tail brought up the rear of the hull, on which was built an almost automobile-style body with a rectangular radiator in front. The aeroplane had big sponsons amidships, and additional tip floats under the rearmost wing.
(Span: 30 m; length: 7.5 m; weight: 1050 kg; 9-cylinder 100-120 hp Canton-Unne)
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Type G.4 No 147: This handsome 2-bay 2-spar seaplane - it also flew as a landplane - competed in the 1914 meet at Monaco, its rudder painted with the number 21. It had a central float, 2 side floats and a tail float. Ailerons were fitted in all 4 wing panels. In 1912 the Breguet Aeroplane Limited firm was established in England and built some 7 different designs, more or less similar to the 1912-1913 French Breguets, but differing slightly in such items as engine mounts and fuselage coverings.
Just before the outbreak of the War, Breguet had started 2 new aircraft and projected a third. The A-G.4 was a 160 Gnome tractor; the A-U.3 was a 200 hp Canton-Unne tractor, and B-U.3 was a 200 hp Canton-Unne pusher (the A and B now used to distinguish similarly-powered machines only.)
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Bronislawski
The so-called Bronislawski biplanes were in fact Henry Farmans modified with Boleslav Bronislawski's control mechanism. This consisted of small planes fitted between biplane wings and pivoting outwards; different shapes were tested, and the device was also advertised for monoplanes. The aim was to replace ailerons or wing-warping with the same efficiency but without the yaw, common to most early machines.
Farman
Bronislawski: The engineer Bronislawski used his Type III (or IV?) in 1912 to experiment with his special stability system, a stack of 5 ailerons mounted between the wingtips. Later he used his Type VII to try out a similar arrangement, but with only a single pair of ailerons at the wingtips.
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BRT
We do not know the names of the builders whose initials mark this odd biplane built and tested at Betheny before 1909. The uncovered rectangular-section fuselage carried a tractor engine and propeller at the front with the pilot seated aft of the lower wing trailing edge. The lower wing was mounted forward under the nose, and the upper wing very close above and behind it. A large cruciform tail unit was mounted on outriggers to the rear, supported on a pair of large semicircular hoops. Ailerons were fitted to the upper wing. The 2-wheeled undercarriage was high and fitted with 2 high skids curved forward.
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Brule-Girardot
In 1904 Girardot ordered a Wright-type glider built by d' Argent; perhaps he flew it, but he began to build automobiles in 1906 under the name first of GEM (Societe Generate d'Automobiles Electro-Mecaniques); then, until 1910, under the name of CGV (Charron, Girardot, et Voigt).
A Brule-Girardot biplane crashed during November 1911 at Issy; the pilot was named Roberts. The aircraft may have been a separate design, or a Voisin or other production machine given the names of its owners. A Brule, perhaps the same one, was later an associate of Souchet.
A Brule biplane appeared in L'Aeronautique for 1 March 1912, perhaps the same as the one described above. It had equal-span rectangular wings, an awkward uncovered rectangular-section fuselage, a large rectangular tailplane, and a rectangular rudder; a high undercarriage sported 2 pairs of wheels and skids. Large rectangular elevators hung from the top wing. It was reported to have flown well.
(Span: and length: 8 m; wing area: 25 sqm; empty weight: 250 kg; 30 hp Anzani)
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Brunet
There is a photograph of a tractor machine of this name, dated 1910. The fuselage is a long uncovered box girder set between 2 pairs of rectangular wings, one at the very front and one at the very tail. A small oval rudder brings up the rear, with the pilot sitting just in front of it. A very long control rod connects him with the engine and its tractor propeller.
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Bulot
Walther Bulot was born in Tournai, in Belgium, on 6 January 1874; he built at least 2 different designs.
1908-1909: His first aeroplane, which never flew, was shown at the air meet at Tournai in September 1909, a heavily staggered triplane with wings arched like a bird's, and a horizontal surface at the rear. A tall vertical surface stood in front of the tractor propeller; the fuselage was a high uncovered boxy structure set on 4 wheels. The pilot sat under the middle wing. In November 1909 it was entered in the Antwerp air meet, this time with only the first 2 of its triplane set of wings, a more conventional box fuselage which carried at least at one time the number 9 on the forward covered section. The rudder was moved to the rear, and the landing gear simplified to 2 wheels. In 1911 he had a biplane named La Mouette (the seagull), which he converted to a monoplane in the same year. Perhaps La Mouette was the same aircraft as the biplane previous.
1911: Another Bulot flown at Tournai, this was a small monoplane similar to the Demoiselle, with rectangular openwork fuselage, oyster-shell tip ailerons, and a conventional set of tail surfaces. 2 wheels were set on each side of the lower longeron at the pilot's seat.
(Wing area: 20 sqm; loaded weight, less pilot: 203 kg; 35 hp motor; it could reportedly take a 50 hp motor and carry 3 people)
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Canton et Unne
Before they joined Emile Salmson, Canton and Unne designed and built their famous water-cooled radial engine, and 3 aeroplanes as well, all of the push-pull design. Their first machine was a triplane in tandem; to solve the problem of the gyroscopic effects of a single propeller, they used 2 counter-rotating propellers; but in order to avoid the dramatic possibilities of failure when the 2 propellers turned in the same plane, they mounted theirs at either end of the long rectangular fuselage. Their new 5-cylinder water-cooled radial was mounted flat inside the fuselage to drive 2 long shafts through a counter-gear. The machine was tested in 1909.
A third push-pull was similar to the second, but with a streamlined fuselage, and the propeller aft of the tail unit.
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In 1910 Canton and Unne succeeded in actually flying a second machine, this one a monoplane with a cut-off fuselage, tail booms, and tricycle gear. The central section of the wing was built integral with the wooden fuselage, the 2 outer panels warping for control. Their engine (some accounts report the same one used previously) was mounted as before, the pilot seated behind it. Pedals operated the rudder, a lever at the left for wing-warping, and another at the right for the elevator. This extraordinary machine was tested as early as mid-January 1910; Canton flew it on 14 March, and other pilots took turns afterwards. On 8 June after a hard landing by Lhomme, the aeroplane caught fire.
(Span: 10.5 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 28 sqm; empty weight: 420 kg; 7-cylinder 90 hp Canton-Unne)
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In 1911 Caudron became independent again, and the subsequent catalog describes Type A and also another Type B, a 2-3 seater touring biplane which appeared in January 1911; it was No 9. By the end of 1911 21 Caudrons had been built, including some new types, all with equal-span wings; No 21 was a monoplane:
Type N: Caudron's first monoplane, designed for speed, flew first in December 1911. It featured steel-tube wing spars, wing-warping, a V-leg undercarriage, and a small rectangular rudder set on top of the tailpost.
(Span: 8.7 m; length: 6 m; wing area: 11 sqm; empty weight: 225 kg; speed: 120 kmh; 50 hp Gnome; No 21 used a Y Anzani)
Type M: A single-seater monoplane, fitted with a Gnome - it appeared after Type N.
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In the 1912 Salon catalog some other names appear:
Type C and Type D: 2 of each were built for the French army in 1911.
(45 hp Anzani or 50 hp Gnome; Type D used the 35/45 hp Anzani and was slightly smaller)
Type E: A 2-seater for the Army - again, 2 built - perhaps more, for export.
(Wing area: 28 sqm; 70 hp Gnome)
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Type Monaco: This pusher seaplane with the race number 7 featured 3 big flat-bottomed Fabre floats fitted in front of the wheels, an Anzani engine; the pilot on a forward outrigger.
Type H: This was a 2-seater pusher seaplane and landplane - not the Monaco pusher.
(Wing area: 35 sqm; weight: 380 kg; 60 hp Anzani)
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Special Type: A big 5-place design: unlike most of the other Caudron designs it featured a full-length covered fuselage, with a single rudder and Caudron-style wings and tailplane. It could be easily taken apart for transport. It crashed.
(Span: (upper) 15 m; (lower) 11.8 m; length: 7.5 m; wing area: 42 sqm; empty weight: 320 kg; speed, with Gnome: 90 kmh; 70 hp Anzani or 80 hp Gnome)
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1913 brought a Type D with a larger Anzani, and some new designs:
Type F: A single-seater looper, flown by Chanteloup. The original pair of rectangular rudders was replaced by the raked triangular shapes which characterized the G-3.
Type G: A 2-seater, also with the new triangular rudder shape.
(Wing area: 30 sqm; weight: 350 kg; 80 hp Gnome, 60 hp Anzani)
Type G 2: This pretty 2-seater appeared in Jan 1914.
(Wing area: 27 sqm; weight: 350 kg; 80 hp Le Rhone)
Type G 3: This most famous of all the early Wartime Caudron types first flew in May 1914.
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Type J: This was a 2-seater tractor, land - and seaplane, able to be carried on shipboard. Some J Types were sold to the RNAS in 1913, but the French Navy J Type was not built till later. 2 were flown from the cruiser La Foudre in 1914. Another, marked 6, flew at Deauville.
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Type K: This was the big 2-seat pusher seaplane at Deauville in August 1913, powered by a 200 hp Anzani.
Type L: This was a side-by-side 2-seater seaplane pusher.
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Cesar
Cesar, a Belgian, came to France like many other aviation enthusiasts of different nationalities to work with French designers, builders, and other workers. In 1910 he built what was probably his only machine, a tandem biplane with a pair of short rectangular wings at each end of a long rectangular uncovered box frame, the whole resting on a 4-wheel undercarriage. A pair of rudders was fitted between the aft pair of wings, and a pair of ailerons was set out in front on outriggers. A 50 hp 4-cylinder Prini-Berthaud sat on the trailing edge of the lower wing of the forward pair, driving a pusher propeller. Some photographs show the machine hung on 4 struts underneath a stubby cigar-shaped balloon; the combination was described as a "biplan mixte."
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Champel
The wealthy amateur pilot Florentin Champel started flying in 1909, when he began flying his Voisin at Sartrouville, a north-western suburb of Paris. He subsequently flew Henry Farmans; one of his machines was equipped with the automatic stabilizer of Bronislawski's, without ailerons. These aircraft were most of the time reported as "Champel biplanes," not "Champels."
But early in 1912 a Champel appeared which did not resemble a genuine Henry Farman. The vertical legs of the undercarriage sloped forward, and there were nose and tail elevators and 2 rudders with rounded leading edges. The engine was an air-cooled V Renault; the passenger sat on the lower wing leading edge with the pilot sitting on a seat overhung in front of him. Behind the passenger the Renault fuel tank was square and flat like a radiator; the upper wing was fitted with ailerons.
In the summer of 1912 appeared a new biplane, perhaps Champel No 4, featuring a shorter 4-blade pusher propeller, longer tail booms, a single large trapezoidal tailplane with 2 rudders below it, and both seats enclosed in a streamlined fabric-covered fairing. The wings may have been the same ones used on No 1. The landing gear was no longer based on the Farman. This machine is reported to have carried 852 passengers in 1912.
(Span: (upper) 16.6 m; (lower) 11.6 m; chord: 1.65 to 1.75 m; wing area: 42 sqm; empty weight: 500 kg; gross weight: 700 kg)
Champel's No 5 - perhaps a modification of No 4 with a shorter, fuller nacelle - appeared at the end of 1912 and was tested in mid-January at the Camps de Cercottes, near Orleans, and achieved a world record on 15 April, carrying 5 people including pilot Champel a distance of 250 m in 3 hr 1 min.
(Span: 12 m; 100 hp 12-cylinder Anzani)
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Chapiro
The first Chapiro was a biplane copied from the Wright design and was tested by Guardt in 1909. It had castering front wheels and 2 pairs of wheels amidships, and ailerons linked together by thin spars. Unlike the Flyer there was only a single control stick fitted with a wheel. With a chain and long shafts the water-cooled inline Anzani drove 2 pusher propellers.
(Span: 12 m; length: 9 m)
The second, flown on one occasion by Hornstein, resembled a Farman more than a Wright. A single pusher propeller was set between the 4-boom tail structure, at the end of which was a single big tailplane with 2 rudders mounted below it. The pilot sat on the lower wing leading edge with the same wheel control as on No 1: pulling it back and forth moved 2 control rods to the forward elevator cell.
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Chassagny et Constantin
At least 3 aircraft bore Chassagny's name. The first was a copy of the Demoiselle, and the second was a small monoplane advertised in 1910 as "the lightest and cheapest." The latter was designed by Constantin, who also invented devices to improve the performance of all kinds of flying machines, like his cone added to the front of the Bleriot XXIV; and his "deflecting surfaces," a kind of slots, on wing leading edges. The aeroplane was built at the Labaudie et Puthet workshops; it featured an all-covered fuselage, an air-cooled 3-cylinder Viale, a kite-shaped rudder, 2 long triangular tailplanes and a trapezoidal elevator brought up the rear. The wings warped. At the 1910 Paris Salon, the clear-doped Chassagny was sold without its engine for only 7,000F; it may have been the only one built. The pilot De Baleira crash-landed it in a yard on 12 November 1910.
Another Chassagny resembled the Nieuport monoplanes, but with a radial engine, V-leg undercarriage with a single long central skid with wheels set at the ends of a long cross-axle. The tail unit had a comma-shaped rudder, 2 long triangular tailplanes and 2 curved elevators at the rear; the wings warped. It was powered by an Anzani radial.
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In the same year 2 powered aeroplanes appeared under Chauviere's name, a monoplane, probably designed by one of the Saulniers, and a biplane designed by the Spaniard Sylvio de Penteado. The first had a long uncovered box fuselage with a single motor far forward driving through a long shaft and chains 2 4-blade pusher propellers turning at only 800 rpm; they were mounted on outriggers at either side of the rear fuselage. 4 struts forward supported the broad parasol wing which had pointed wingtips.
(Span: 9 m; length: 8.5 m; wing area: c 20 m; empty weight: 430 kg)
De Penteado patented an aeroplane with "variable lift-power" in 1909, and had Chauviere build it. It resembled a biplane Demoiselle, with the wings sharply staggered: the forward tip of the lower wing met the trailing edge tip of the upper wing at joints made like propeller hubs, Chauviere's specialty! The lower wing warped for control. The pilot sat low in the openwork triangular fuselage frame, and the tractor engine was mounted just under the top wing.
It was claimed to have flown first on 16 December 1909, "flopping about" on each take-off attempt. Some references describe de Penteado as having had a second machine built at the same time.
(Span: 6.5 m; length: 8 m; wing area: c 22 sqm; empty weight: 320 kg; 24 hp 7-cylinder REP)
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Chauviere
Lucien Chauviere made his fortune when he began building the first wooden Integrale propellers for flying machines; he soon branched out into the aircraft subcontracting business; he also built a machine forLescars in 1909. At least 3 machines carried his name; he was the builder of one and sponsor of the other 2. The first was a monoplane glider of the simplest design, built in 1909: the wing was made in 3 panels, the pilot hanging by his elbows from the center-section. 2 parallel tailbooms supported the fixed tailplane.
(Span: 9.5 m; length: 6 m: wing area: 17 sqm; weight: c 35 kg)
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Chazal
Henry Chazal was involved in the construction of at least 4 aircraft and probably more, such as the Pacchiotti, a Gabardini, and the Marcay-Moonen; but it is difficult to say what exactly he contributed to the designs of such different machines.
Only a single monoplane carried Chazal's name, in large letters on the fuselage, Chazal-Gourgas; it was called L'Aiglon. The wings were thin and curved, with inset ailerons; a large trapezoidal rudder was set between 2 elevators, and triangular tailplanes on each side were set at a high angle of attack. The undercarriage consisted of 2 wheels at the tip of a lozenge-shaped frame welded to a central horned skid and attached to the fuselage by numerous struts. A wheel on a column operated all the controls; a substantial pylon supported the wing cables. The engine was a 4-cylinder inline; the machine was tested at Issy in August 1911.
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Chedeville
Georges Chedeville's first flight aboard a machine of his own design was recorded in 1909 at Flers, in Normandy. The monoplane is said to have flown 350 m at a very low level. It had built-in ailerons, a front elevator, and a fixed triangular tailplane. 2 long skids were part of the fuselage, the whole structure of hollow wooden struts.
(Span and length: 12 m; 35 hp Benegent)
On 29 March 1911 Chedeville started testing a new monoplane similar to the Demoiselle, with wing-warping but with a rectangular fuselage and a smoothly faired bathtub nacelle mounted between the wheels; the 60 hp water-cooled V8 was mounted at the level of the leading edge, along with its radiator.
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Chesnay
The Chesnay monoplane was flown in 1910 by Million or Blanchard near Dijon. It showed Bleriot-like wings, which may have been built at the Bleriot factory, and a complicated undercarriage with 2 wheels and 2 central horned skids attached at the rear to work like a spring or shock-absorber. The engine may have been a radial, with one tank inside the fuselage and a second mounted below, just above the wheels; a third was hung from the top of the pylon, which was of the Bleriot type, and the fuselage covered on the sides only. The tail was composed of a triangular fin and tailplane with triangular rudder and elevators; the skid was made of 2 long bows.
(Span: c 8 m; 50 hp Clerget)
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Chevallier et de Cleves
A Bleriot-type monoplane appears in at least one photograph labeled Lechevallier; it may be another design by Yves Chevallier of CPC. Unlike the Bleriot XI, the machine had long skids forward of the main wheels, and a rectangular rudder with the 2 aft corners clipped. Chevallier and de Cleves were the French representatives for the Labor firm.
Chevallier, Yves
Perhaps the same designer as the Chevallier above, this one designed and entered a remarkable pusher monoplane in the Concours de Securite in 1914. It had elliptical wings, a long flat triangular tailplane with no vertical surface; the engine was set amidships in the streamlined fuselage behind the trailing edge, the pusher propeller turning in front of the tailplane. 2 wheels and a short skid supported the aft end.
(Span: 8.25 m; length: 5.2 m; wing area: 10 sqm; weight: 110 kg; useful load: 90 kg; 12-15 hp engine)
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Clement (Maurice)
Maurice Clement designed at least 2 aircraft. One was a curious tractor monoplane with low-set broad wing; the pilot sat underneath it between 2 large wide-set wheels and immediately behind a large fuel tank. The tail was supported on outriggers and a large tailwheel; the front end terminated in twin skids each with a small nose-wheel. A 2-cylinder opposed engine was mounted on the leading edge. The other was an attractive Maurice Farman-type pusher biplane built by Letord and Niepce; it appeared at Issy in 1910, flown by Francois Parent, who passed his brevet test on 29 August 1910 on it. The machine, occasionally reported as a Poulain-Orange, seems to have been sold at the end of the year to the Morlat School at Pont Levoy. It had a single forward elevator, biplane tail cell with a single oval rudder set in the middle, trailing wheels. Ailerons were fitted behind the outermost wing struts; side-curtains were sometimes fitted here. One version had ailerons on the lower wings, an elaborate 4-wheel undercarriage, twin tailwheels, and a small uncovered box frame for the pilot and his passenger seated in tandem. It was first flown with a Clement-Bayard engine, and then with a 70 hp water-cooled inline Labor-Aviation.
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Clement-Bayard
Gustave-Adolphe Clement had made a fortune in bicycles, tires, and automobiles and their engines. In 1908 he had the Astra firm build him a dirigible, named for himself, and went on to build his own factory and 6 more dirigibles. He took the emblem of Bayard as his logo, and eventually added it to his own name. Victor Tatin, together with Professor Richet, did the first independent design for the firm Clement-Bayard: the handsome modern twin-boom monoplane bought by the Comte de la Vaulx.
1909: Demoiselle project - cf Santos-Dumont
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1910: An ungainly big back-staggered triplane built in August-September, with high-set biplane surfaces both in front and behind. The engine was set on the rear of the lower wing between a pair of big side-curtains; it drove 2 pusher propellers through chains and sprockets like the Wright machines. The whole rig rested on 3 close-set wheels in front and a pair under the tail.
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Also, at the 1911 Salon: what may be the same machine fitted with a high upper wing, the lower one dropped to mid-wing position.
1912: Another biplane (maybe the same one?) with unequal-span wings, uncovered rear fuselage, and a half-cowled (Anzani radial) instead of the internally-mounted one
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1911: A handsome shoulder-wing tractor monoplane with a long covered triangular-section fuselage, scalloped fin and rudder and tailplane, 2-wheel undercarriage and skids, rectangular wing with trailing edge and triangular-section fuselage - Clement-Bayard trademarks. Distinctive feature: automobile-type cowl and radiator, with propeller shaft at the very top - 55 hp Clement-Bayard motor and shaft, with side-louvers aft.
Also, at the 1911 Salon: what may be the same machine fitted with a high upper wing, the lower one dropped to midwing position.
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Military Biplane: also a 2-seater:
(Span (upper): 11 m; (lower): 7.8 m; length: 9.8 m; wing area: 28 sqm; weight: 400 kg; speed: 80 kmh; 40/50 hp))
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1912: Another monoplane typically Clement-Bayard, with skids ahead of the 2 wheels, and the fuselage triangular up to the very nose, where the bottom longeron cut upwards to the rotary engine, giving a resemblance to the REP monoplane. And yet another, like this one except with a simple V-leg undercarriage - exhibited at the 1912 Salon. And a military model with the skids and windows cut out under the wing, 1913; another monoplane with the REP-style nose, but a fully cowled Gnome, heavier fuselage and rectangular tailplane in December 1913.
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1913: A curious flyingboat: unequal-span wings, pusher propeller set between parallel tail booms and a typical Clement-Bayard tail; the fuselage nacelle built onto a wide flat pontoon-float, with large tip-floats under each wingtip. The 115 hp 4-cylinder Clement-Bayard in the hull drove the Chauviere propeller through shafts and gearing.
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Military monoplane: a 2-seater.
(Span: 12.7 m; length: 9.8 m; wing area: 24 sqm; weight: 380 kg; speed: 90 kmh; 60/70 hp)
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Clerget
Pierre Clerget is primarily associated with engines; he had been designing them since 1895, first alone, then with Clement-Bayard, then with Blin. He also built at least 2 monoplanes.
The first was also known as the Marquezy or CAM (Clerget-Archdeacon-Marquezy): Archdeacon provided the money for Clerget's design for Marquezy, and helped Clerget design a 4-cylinder inline aero engine. The machine had a long uncovered airfoil-shaped fuselage which was rectangular forward and trapezoidal aft, with a large rounded rudder. The water-cooled Clerget drove a tractor propeller through a long shaft. Marquezy stalled the machine in from 50' on 4 November 1909.
(Span: 9 m; length: 10 m; 50 hp inline Clerget)
From this engine Clerget developed first a 4-cylinder inline of 100 hp, and then a 200 hp V8. At the 1910 Salon a larger monoplane, similar to the earlier one, was shown with 3 dummies in French Army uniforms: the mechanic sat between the rectangular wings, the observer amidships, and the pilot at the rear in front of the large tail unit. The undercarriage was like the Hanriot's; a fuel tank hung below the fuselage amidships.
(Span: 11 m; length: 14 m)
Clerget never went back to aircraft, and is now more famous for his rotaries built as late as the end of the 20s, and for his heavy-oil aircraft engines.
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Cluzan
In 1909 Cluzan designed and flew this large biplane at Tours, on the banks of the Loire; it seemed like a hybrid Wright/Curtiss, with a monoplane forward elevator and tailplane, and 2 small triangular rudders underneath the latter. The pilot sat forward of the radiator of the 4-cylinder inline Rolan Pilain engine. Completed on 27 November, the Cluzan had broken one of its wings by 17 December.
(Span: 10.3 m)
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Coanda
Although Henri Coanda contributed largely to the various aircraft built under the name Bristol-Coanda in England, and went on to design a series of interesting machines afterwards in France, his name is best known for his discovery of the so-called Coanda Effect in fluid dynamics. But his most advanced and the most interesting aircraft designs were his 2 first, both unsuccessful. His so-called "jet engine" was installed in his sled, which appeared in the 1910 Paris automobile show, and in his first aeroplane, which appeared in the Paris Salon of the following year. In fact, similar powerplants were in both, neither of them jet engines. He had a 30 hp 4-cylinder inline Gregoire in the sled, and a 50 hp Clerget in the aeroplane: each was fitted with a 1-stage compressor set in front, ahead of the motor; the turbine pulled in air past the motor, mixed it with hot exhaust gases, forced the mixture through the long hollow fuselage, and expelled it from the tail. No additional fuel was injected and burned. There is no record of the turbo-sled, built for the Grand Duke Cyril of Russia, ever having run. It was about 4.2 m long, cigar-shaped, with the driver at the wheel sitting in the tail end, and the same bucket-shaped front as on the aeroplane, housing the motor and the turbine blades.
Coanda claimed that with the "200 kg traction" he claimed for his power system, the aeroplane had actually taken off, but in actuality flames coming out the rear had ignited the fuselage, causing the machine to stall and crash, throwing Coanda out onto the ground with slight bruises. The incident was claimed as taking place in December, but no accident report appears in any of the European aviation journals for the entire month. Alfred Bodemer at the Musee de l'Air studied his design and concluded that compression ratio of the turbine could hardly have been more than 1:1, thus providing inadequate power for any kind of take-off.
But the structure of the aeroplane was fascinating: almost no struts or wires were used, the long upper wing and the short lower one, both plywood-covered, were supported by only 4 center-section struts that held the fuselage midway between them; the wings warped, but were otherwise unbraced. The fuselage was a ply shell with light formers and stringers to support its shape, flat on top and rounded on the sides and bottom. The pilot, sitting on top with side-mounted control wheels like the Antoinette, could draw down the trailing edge on one side to control roll, or on both sides at once, to reduce speed. The top wing had small fences below the leading edge to "canalize the air flow."
A small rectangular tailplane at a high angle of attack was set under the rear fuselage ahead of the cruciform tail, and the 4 triangular surfaces hinged to the 4 fins worked both as rudders and elevators.
(Span: 10.3 m; length: 12.7 m; wing area: 32.7 sqm; gross weight: 420 kg)
While Coanda seems to have been the first to build (but not fly!) the first reaction-propulsion full-sized aeroplane, he was not the first to propose the form of power. Rene Lorin described his aerial torpedo project of 1909-1912 in L'Aerophile in 1907-8, and again in 1909-10; Rankine Kennedy had written of it in 1909, A Budau in the same year; and as early as 1863-65 Charles de Louvrie described his Aeronave propelled by the burning of a hydrocarbon, "or, better, vaporized petroleum oil" ejected through twin tail-pipes.
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Collomb
An ungainly 4-wheeled ornithopter was photographed at a transportation exhibit in March 1904, featuring a long triangular pigeon-tail and what appear to be trapezoidal outer wing panels. Perhaps these flapped.
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The more familiar Collomb ornithopter was completed at Lyon in August 1909. A 40 hp motor in a 4-wheel frame was to pump vertically 200 times per minute a shaft on which a pair of hinged lattices pivoted. A rudder was at the rear. It did not fly.
(Span: 12 m; weight: c 250 kg)
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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.
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In September 1910, still at Mourmelon and in front of the same green fabric hangar, Contal tested a more traditional design which might have had components of his earlier monoplane built into it. A narrow triangular fuselage was covered with sheets of mahogany; the 50 hp Gnome overhung at the nose, the round top of which could be covered by a long semi-cylindrical windshield. The rudder was nearly round and fitted with a small fin; the rectangular wings could be warped, with the front spars fixed through steel fittings to the top 2 ash longerons, and the rear spars hinged. The undercarriage was composed of 2 horned skids supporting the 2 wheels, attached to the upper longerons with 4 struts, and 2 diagonal struts attached to the lower longeron and joining the tips of the skids. The pilot sat with his legs extended so that he could set his back easily against the seat without having to be strapped in. In the review Omnia Henri Mignet wrote that this unusual position was "particularly appreciated by Americans."
Another Contal machine had an uncovered rectangular box fuselage, angular tail surfaces, and perhaps the same horned skids on the undercarriage. It had a water-cooled inline engine.
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Contal
During 1909 and 1910 Contal, the inventor of a motorcycle called the Mototri, tried to build a successful flying machine; "many previous attempts" are mentioned in the literature without further details. On 2 April 1910 he rolled out a monoplane he had built with Protin, but abandoned it shortly as being too complicated. The Protin-Contal had adjustable swept-back wings, a rear elevator, a 40 hp 4-cylinder inline Dansette-Gillet engine driving 2 Liore tractor propellers at 800 rpm. The controls worked by 2 levers, on the left for direction and on the right for warping. When both moved forward they controlled the elevator and the sweeping back of the wings; Contal could not make this system work properly.
(Span: 12 m; length: 9 m; wing area: 24 sqm; gross weight: c 400 kg; 40 hp 4-cylinder inline Dansette-Gillet)
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Copin
In 1909 Georges Copin designed and built at Juvisy a "big and heavy" biplane with curved rear and forward outriggers, large rectangular forward elevator and large split rectangular aft elevator and small rectangular rudder; he got his brevet in 1909 on this machine also flown by Leon Morane and also known as the Popp-Copin. Richard Popp was a pioneer in the French automobile industry, and later claimed to have flown 300 m in the Popp-Copin on 21 November 1909.
Control was through a front elevator linked by a rectangular frame to 2 vertical bars on the lower wing leading edge; there was a rudder pedal, but it is likely there was no warping system nor ailerons unless they were joined to the rudder controls. The machine also appeared without the forward tail surface.
(Span: 10 m; length: 8 m; weight: 200 kg; 24 hp 3-cylinder Anzani)
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In 1910 Copin was the assistant manager of the Borel flying school at Mourmelon, and in 1911 he built 2 monoplanes differing only in their engines. One is sometimes called the Copin-Revillard, but is likely properly to be Requillard. Both aircraft were small, with triangular-section covered fuselages, in general arrangement similar to the Hanriot. A large curved triangle above the trapezoidal elevator served as the vertical surface. One machine had an 80 hp Gnome with a 4-blade tractor propeller; the combination proved unsatisfactory and probably could not lift the machine. The other had a 50 hp water-cooled Chenu and an Integrate propeller, with a triangular metal cowl like some of the Antoinette models, and with side radiators. Damaged in October 1911, it flew again in December when it achieved a speed of 110 kmh. Emile Vedrines, brother of Jules, flew it in 1911 and 1912.
(Span: 9 m; length: 7.5 m; 50 hp Chenu)
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Corbadec
This was an ornithopter, with 3 wheels, bird-shaped flapping surfaces, and a front elevator.
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Courrejou
This tractor monoplane is reported near Tours or at Pont-Levoy (Le Mans) in 1910. It had a triangular-section uncovered fuselage The pilot sat below the wing, the engine mounted on the center-section. A small rectangular rudder was set above a traditional tailplane and rectangular elevator.
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CPC
A man named Chevalier flew this Etrich copy at St Cyr in July 1912. Perhaps the first C stood for Chevalier - perhaps the Yves Chevalier who registered a monoplane with an elliptical parasol wing and sweptback tailplane at the 1914 Concours de Securite, and later completed it (cf Yves Chevalier); the second C may stand for (Louis) Clement.
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Da Sylva
Gomez da Sylva was a Portuguese who in late 1909 built a curious pusher biplane whose most distinctive feature was the curved downturned center-sections of both wings, coming to horizontal knife-edges. The fuselage was an uncovered rectangular box, with a pair of elevators forward which moved up and down independently; controls were 2 sticks on each side - there were no rudder pedals. Outriggers supported a pair of rudders and a rear tailplane. The whole thing sat on 4 wheels, the pilot far forward.
(Length: 6.5 m; wing area: 25 sqm; weight: 250 g: 60 hp Anzani)
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Danard et Nayot
This little biplane was completed and ready to fly in April 1912 at Juvisy; the pilot Trotton flew it in May and June. Its water-cooled motor drove a pusher propeller behind a fabric-covered nacelle mounted on the lower wing. Outriggers supported twin rudders and a single tailplane, and the 2 main wheels were set between twin skids.
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D'Artois (Chantiers de l'Artois)
By mid-1912 Louis Schreck was forced to abandon the Anciens Chantiers Tellier he had created at St Omer after he had purchased Alphonse Tellier's monoplane patents. He then formed the Chantiers de l'Artois (workshops of Artois), generally referred to as d'Artois, after the name of the region in northwestern France in which it was located. This short-lived firm produced 3 types of biplanes designed by Louis Gaudard, famous in French aviation since 1909. The first 2 machines were shown at the 1912 Paris Exposition, one a landplane, the other a flyingboat. To save drag, each aeroplane had a 50 hp Gnome mounted inside the plywood-covered fuselage; each was painted white.
Aerotorpille: This was the landplane. The Gnome drove a pusher propeller behind the tail, and the rectangular-section fuselage was left uncovered around the engine. The upper wings were of longer span than the lower; both sets pivoted around a single spar, similar to the Breguet design, with a single interplane strut on each side. A simple 2-wheel undercarriage was fitted under the engine, and a long skid kept the propeller off the ground. It was exhibited at the 1912 Paris Salon and probably flew in 1913.
(Span: 10 m, 6 m; length: 7 m wing area: 26 sqm; top speed estimated: 135 kmh; empty weight: 250 kg; 50 hp Gnome, or a 50/75 hp Chenu)
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De Beer
The third and fourth designs by the Belgian designer de Beer were built in France by Ratmanoff, a design firm in its own right and builder of the Normale propellers. The de Beer monoplanes were among the most complicated of the pre-War period. He wanted to vary the incidence of the mainplanes to control the speed, but he realized that the stability of his machine varied more or less with the angle of attack of the wings, and so he built different sets of wings with different airfoils, searching for the unique section which would have its lift in the center regardless of angle of attack.
Type 3: In his effort to provide a fully stable aeroplane, de Beer settled on a rather conventional-appearing monoplane, with rectangular wings and rectangular fabric-covered fuselage, small rudder and triangular tailplane with rectangular elevator set forward of the rudder on the sides of the fuselage. Through a complex control system the pilot could vary the angle of attack from +3° to +18°; by pushing the stick sideways he could vary the incidence differentially to serve instead of ailerons; the same stick controlled the elevators. The wings were not locked and could turn freely on their axes in gusts of wind.
Type 4: This 2-seater was similar to Type 3 with simpler undercarriage, slightly enlarged tail surfaces, and better finish. Current reports mentioned a weakness of the airframe.
(Span: 9.8 m; length; 7.35 m; low speed: 40 kmh; high speed: 115 kmh; optimum speed: 70 kmh; 80 hp Anzani)
At the same time that Type 4 was built, Ratmanoff produced a 2-seat trainer, quite similar, which may also have been a de Beer design.
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De Brageas
Very little is known about de Brageas' first aircraft: it was developed by de Brageas, Bastier, and Sotinel in 1911 at Juvisy, and flown by Merle in October 1911. In March 1912 a second de Brageas monoplane, with a Darracq engine, appeared, and later in the year 8 monoplanes were reported sold to the Russian Army. By the end of the year 3 types were being described. The first 2 were a school machine and a touring machine; the third was larger, perhaps a 2-seater and probably of the same general appearance: rectangular wing with thick reflex airfoil, rectangular tailplane and 2 large elevators. The Nieuport-style undercarriage had the central spring leaf replaced by a flexible axle linked by streamlined struts to 2 spiral springs inside the fuselage. Below the pyramidal mast was a large windscreen which would seem to have largely obscured the pilot's view forward.
8 de Brageas monoplanes served in the Russian air service, fitted with 24 hp Darracq, 35 or 45 hp Anzani engines, and "Farman-like" undercarriages and clipped wings for use as penguin groundtrainers.
(School and touring machines: span: 8.88 m; wing area: 14 sqm; empty weight (with 30 hp Anzani): 220 kg; (with 40 hp Anzani): 245 kg)
(Third type: span: 11 m; length: 6 m; wing area: 18 sqm; empty weight: 320 kg; speed: c 80 kmh; 40 hp 6-cylinder Anzani, or 30 hp Anzani)
In 1913 de Brageas built another machine at Juvisy. It was a 2-seat pusher monoplane with a Canton-Unne engine, 2 tall radiators standing up on each side aft of the pilots, who sat side by side in a flattened streamlined nacelle. The tail was supported on an awkwardly shaped triangular-section framework.
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De Caze
Viscount de Caze undertook the design of his Helicoplane - what we would now call a convertaplane - early in the century. In 1902 he was working on a large 6-meter diameter turbine rotor, the blades alone having an area of 29 sqm. He subsequently joined his efforts at the Surcouf workshops with those of Dumoulin and Besancon, the famous editor of L'Aerophile. The rotor was later abandoned.
Construction started in 1912 at Liore et Olivier, to be continued at the shops of Louis Clement. A narrow open fuselage of classic construction was set on 4 wheels; cruciform controls were at the front, and a biplane cell with 2 vertical surfaces at the tail. High above were fixed 2 wings in tandem, with double-curved surfaces, the tips linked with horizontal struts carrying ailerons. The total wing area was c 24 sqm. A 50 hp Gnome was mounted flat below the center of the fuselage driving 2 horizontally-mounted 4-bladed propellers, and a similar engine set ahead of the biplane tail drove a pusher propeller.
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De Coster
Charles de Coster's monoplane Flugi was shown at the 1910 Salon before it had been tested, and little was said about it afterward. It was a rough copy of the Bleriot XI, differing mostly in the arrangement of the outer undercarriage struts; and in the fuselage, which was triangular and uncovered, forward, and triangular and uncovered aft. The engine was a small 3-cylinder half-radial with a 2-blade Flugi-de Coster propeller.
The Spanish Villa-Nueva of the Quatro Vientos Museum is very similar to this machine.
(Span: 8 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 16 sqm; empty weight: 290 kg)
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The second de Dion-Bouton design was a biplane with a single front elevator, built at the Espinosa Avionnerie (SACAA). The fuselage consisted of twin booms each with 2 kingposts, the pilot sitting between them amidships; the wings were rectangular and of equal span, with ailerons mounted on square panels set between them; the tail was fixed at the ends of the outriggers. The 100 hp DDB V8 motor with a large radiator set on the leading edge of the lower wing drove, Wright-style, 2 4-blade pusher propellers. The machine was tested in 1911 at Chares by a pilot named Coursier. Photographs appearing in 1912 showed several modifications: the ailerons were now made part of the longer upper wings and the single tailplane was replaced with a biplane cell. Some said the machine was designed to test a new DDB 100 hp engine, and others said it could carry up to 10 people; on 2 August 1911 piloted by Champel, it leaped over a depression in the center of the field. De Dion compared his giant to the huge steamship Great Eastern, and admitted it changed form continuously as he worked on it.
(Span (upper): 18.5 m; (lower): 16 mi length: 15 m; wing area; 80 sqm: propeller diameter: 3.2 m; empty weight: 450 kg)
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De Lailhacar
This high-wing monoplane is said to have been designed by the Spaniard Jacques de Lailhacar, but was built in France by Berthaud. The deep rectangular uncovered fuselage rested on the axle of the 2-wheel undercarriage; long skids stood out in front, and 2 shorter skids at the rear. The 50 hp 4-cylinder inline water-cooled Prini-Berthaud was set on the top of the nose, with the wing aft of the radiator at a high angle of attack and slight anhedral. The large rectangular elevator was hinged above the stern, behind a large rudder pivoted the flat deck. A control wheel was mounted on an inclined column; photos dated 5 March 1910 show the column tilted back but the elevator down. The monoplane was said to have flown first on 6 March 1910.
(Span: 10 m; length: 11 m; weight: 300 kg; 50 hp Prini-Berthaud)
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De Langhe
The name of Charles de Langhe appears in several places, sometimes in connection with a Tambarly (who may have drawn the plans), sometimes with a Corville - the latter a monoplane built by L Patte. It had the inverted U undercarriage shared by several contemporary builders, like Venddme; a long triangular covered fuselage, Bleriot-style wings (perhaps purchased from the Bleriot firm), and a trapezoidal pylon for the wing-bracing.
(De Langhe-Corville - span: 8.5 m; length: c 10 m; wing area: 16 sqm; speed: 70 kmh; 3-cylinder Anzani)
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In 1913 Bielovucic flew a de Marcay-Moonen seaplane under the race-number 18 at Monaco. Another single-seater, it had trapezoidal wings with squared-off tips, an uncowled 100 hp radial Anzani, and rectangular elevators. The twin front floats curved up in front; the rear one resembled that on a Tellier.
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In 1914 the firm designed and built their only biplane, probably to enter the Concours de Securite. It was a double biplane canard, the fuselage uncovered, supported by a high tricycle landing-gear; the top rear main wings were longer than the lower and carried ailerons. The engine mounted at the rear end of the fuselage drove a tractor propeller at the front end through a long drive-shaft.
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De Monge
Although Vicomte Louis de Monge de Franeau was Belgian, his name is included in this book because he was often associated with French design projects: he entered a modified Deperdussin - a parasol - in the 1914 Concours de Securite; it was built by Debrouckere. He financed French designs during and after WWI. He built, and probably designed as well, a series of racers after the War. His 1914 entry in the Concours had been rebuilt the previous year; it appeared with a standard Deperdussin fin and rudder, as well as a tall rectangular affair with a balanced rudder. The undercarriage was fitted with 2 pairs of wheels and a single skid.
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Poix et Deroig
Poix et Deroig showed their big monoplane at the 1911 Salon; they had built it in Reuil, west of Paris, clearly with the Hanriot in mind, but with some original structural innovations. From the wings aft the fuselage was wood and covered with veneer, but the forward part with the engine was built around a metal girder. The rectangular wings could warp. The undercarriage resembled that of the Hanriot, with 6 struts, 2 skids and 2 wheels.
(Span: 11 m; length: 10 m; wing area: 25 sqm; gross weight: 580 kg; 110 hp 4-cylinder inline Clement-Bayard)
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De Puiseux
In 1909 the Comte Gustave de Puiseux struggled to fly his Cycloplane, built by Vinet, at Ouistreham, on the Channel coast. It resembled a 2-cell box-kite with short wing extensions, all mounted high above a bicycle, whose rear wheel served as a giant pulley for a belt (or bicycle chain) driving a tiny tractor propeller out ahead of the front cell. It may have been tried later with a 1.5 hp motor, and may also have been the mock-up for a bigger machine called La Mouche (fly), with 2 counter-rotating propellers. The wing panels, broad and short, were to fold down on each side so La Mouche could be driven on the highway; it seems also to have been designed to be converted from a glider to a powered aeroplane. It had a box-girder fuselage, slightly tapering aft, which rested high above a 4-wheeled rectangular frame on which sat the motor, forward radiator, and the pilot. It was tested, unsuccessfully, in 1910.
(Span: 7 m; length: 6.4 m; wing area: 10.9 sqm; weight (probably the kite cells only): 44 kg)
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One of the tractor biplanes had an airfoil of flat section, a stabilizer and no rudder, 2 wheels and a single skid, and an Anzani motor - perhaps the same one as in the helicopters. The other had wide fixed flat spars in each wing, with wide trailing sections like sails attached for the full length of the wings. The tractor propeller was mounted far forward with the engine amidships; the fuselage was a long box uncovered except for the top surface. A curved rudder and broad tailplane brought up the rear; the whole machine ran on 2 wheels and a double tailwheel.
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De Rouge
The firm designed and built 2 helicopters and 2 biplanes. The first helicopter may not have been finished. It had a small ragged-looking 4-blade rotor and a 3-outrigger tail. The second, marked II on the tail, had a single rotor of some 8 sqm in area and 5 m in diameter, whose torque was to be balanced by a single huge square fin at the tail: it was to be powered with an Anzani and was supposed to carry 60 kg over its weight of only 130 kg. Perhaps it flew.
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Debort
In Limoges, in 1908 - perhaps even earlier - Serge and Jack Debort built at least 2 unmanned gliders, a monoplane and a biplane, both covered with paper. Their third glider, built in 1908/1909, was bigger and covered with fabric; towed by a car, it was probably manned.
The Debort No 3 was a wide-winged monoplane with an uncovered rectangular fuselage, high forward-tilting triangular fin and rudder, triangular stabilizer and one-piece trapezoidal elevator. The trapezoidal wings were braced from a high V-pylon, and the tail supported by a pair of trailing skids.
No 4 was a copy of the Demoiselle, with a large triangular fin and rounded rudder. The steerable tail wheel was connected to the rudder, and the 2 main wheels were fixed to an articulated axle, which was eventually broken. As on the Demoiselle, the wing-warping control was linked directly to the pilot's back. The machine was powered by a 20 hp Zedel water-cooled motorbike engine; it was tested on the Champ de Juillet on 10 July 1910, but was unable to fly until launched down a 15% ramp in September.
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D'Equevilly-Monjustin
The strange machine designed by the Marquis d'Equevilly, a navy engineer, is one of the most famous of the early oddities of aviation. Whatever the Marquis' source of inspiration and regardless of whether his machine flew, it was, as he said himself, simple and cheap. Designed in 1907 at Equevilly north of Paris, it consisted of a 4-wheel frame on which sat 2 vertical oval hoops into which were set 5 pairs of half-wings and one full wing, all of flat airfoil section. A 10 hp Buchet drove through a chain at 500 rpm a 2-blade tractor propeller. Various modifications were made to it in the course of its short life, including the addition of a sixth wing across the top of the hoops.
In June 1908 it was damaged in a fire at Carreau's garage where it was stored; it appeared again in November 1908 with narrower circular hoops and some 50 small wings arranged more or less horizontally inside. In this form it was tested at Issy at the end of November, when the wing frames were tilted back to give them all some positive angle of attack.
(Width: 5m; wing area: (1st version): 25 sqm; length: 2 m, with the propeller removed; gross weight: 140 kg; 10 hp Buchet)
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Delabrosse et Christollet
Tested in September 1910, this big and unsuccessful tractor was probably the first with variable-geometry wing. Each wing panel was a large semicircle of fabric stretched between the fuselage and curved leading edge spars which pivoted on vertical struts to vary the wing area: the span could thus be modified from 11 to 7 m. The long partly-covered triangular-section fuselage had triangular control surfaces at the rear.
Contemporary records show that Christollet was planning a machine called Abeille (bee), in 1909; this may have been the Delabrosse et Christollet - if, indeed, it was built.
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Demazel
Lucien Demazel and his son Paul were in charge of the Demazel flying school at Issy in 1911, operating blue Caudron biplanes. The school became the Demazel and Sagitta Flying School, and in August 1912 were using Demazel biplanes equipped with 80 hp 6-cylinder radial Anzanis; a year later a civil machine with an uncovered fuselage, and a military 2-seater, Type M2, appeared as well; these latter 2 were Caudron biplane copies, also with radial Anzanis.
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Demouveaux
In 1901 Demouveaux brought a giant glider to a great kite meet at the Pare des Princes in Paris. The pilot stood in the middle of the long front wing; a second long wing was set in tandem. The glider was wrecked on its first attempt, without damaging its pilot.
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Denhaut
A long-time and very successful bicyclist, Francois-Victor Denhaut began in 1907 to build a series of gliders and test them. Interested in adding an engine, with the help of Bouyer, a local mechanic, he built a tailless canard biplane, the Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercier, in 1908. It featured ailerons between the 2 wings. The 20 horsepower his little engine could barely produce was not enough.
Denhaut then turned to designing a little racing biplane, with financial aid from a local enthusiast named Danton; it was built in 1910 by Espinosa, an early collaborator of Clement Ader's. It had a long thin triangular-sectioned fuselage, considerable back-stagger, and a Bleriot-style landing gear; the top wing was more or less rectangular in shape. The engine was a 50 hp 6-cylinder fan Lemasson. This first Danton was bought by Victor Fumat; Denhaut contracted for 2 more, slightly different, with elliptical wings, one with a 25 hp Anzani and the other a 3 hp Viale, both 3-cylinder engines; but he sold his interest in them before they were complete.
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Meanwhile Deperdussin was working on a series of small fast monoplanes, and also a series of fast monoplane seaplanes which would make him famous:
Type A. 1910: A long thin monoplane with a variety of complex undercarriages, a pair of tall vertical kingposts, and long triangular fin and stabilizer; 50 hp Clerget and a 3-cylinder Anzani. Some with uncovered fuselages were used for training by the Central Flying School at Point Cook, in Australia. Another, with a 4-cylinder Austro-Daimler, was shown at the Paris Salon in 1910. Others were used at the Deperdussin school at Reims.
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Deperdussin
The first aeroplane to carry the name of Armand Deperdussin carried the name of the painter-decorator Georges de Feure as well: it was built in 1910, and managed to fly only briefly, at Chambry. It was a canard because both Deperdussin and de Feure as well as their engineer Bechereau were interested in canard designs. The monoplane wing was braced with a forest of heavy struts. 2 propellers mounted coaxially were driven through a long shaft from a centrally-mounted water-cooled 4-cylinder inline engine, the forward end of which was covered with a curved screened hood - perhaps the radiator tubes? A small forward all-flying tail surface and forward rudder brought up the front end; the pilot sat in the extreme rear with a large control wheel. The machine was set on an awkward-looking 4-wheeled undercarriage.
Another de Feure-Deperdussin was hung from the ceiling of a Paris department store, and may have been only a big model. The pilot in this one sat on top, a la Antoinette, with control wheels on either side; the propeller was immediately behind him, with a high streamlined cowl in front. The wing was of broad chord cut out for the coaxial propeller. Both the forward vertical and horizontal surfaces were fitted with Bleriot-like oyster-shell tip control surfaces.
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Type Concours Militaire. 1911: A larger and heavier 3-place military machine with a 100 hp inline Clerget. The leading edge extensions were omitted, the pylon consisted of 2 parallel verticals only, and a fuel tank with rounded ends hung under the fuselage.
Type Mitrailleur. 1914: This was a handsome 2 seater with separated oval cockpits set into the curved turtleback. The 100 hp Anzani was half cowled, and the undercarriage seemed heavier than other Deperdussins of the period. The tail surfaces were simplified and resembled those of the big seaplanes; the wing-root trailing edges were cut out. The Type Mitrailleur, 1914, was an experiment to test the usefulness of a machine-gun position where the gunner stood up right behind the propeller in an elaborate cage. At least 2 were built; Prevost tested one in February 1914.
On 11 February Lemoine tested a similar 2-seater, with the fin and rudder mounted underneath the rear fuselage. His passenger, Le Bourhis, tested a Bonnet parachute strapped to his back. And on 29 March, Lemoine, flying solo from the rear seat, tested another parachute carried in a package resembling a life raft strapped under the fuselage. The propeller he used showed an oddly-sculpted hub.
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The seaplanes were equally famous;
1. No 11 at Deauville - a double 3-strut pylon, each float strut with 2 single diagonal braces attached at both inside and outside edges of the floats, big (1 or 2?) seat cockpit, monocoque fuselage, fully-cowled engine and big spinner. The triangular fin and rectangular rudder did not extend below the aft fuselage. (Type H?)
2. Tandem 2-seater with long double cockpit, long flat-sided fuselage, wing-root cut-outs, float attachments, complex 2-tiered assembly of struts with 2 horizontal bars above each float, 2-triangle pylon, small triangular fin and angular rudder with vertical trailing edge. One flew at Geneva in August 1912; another - perhaps the same aircraft, flew in the same month at St Malo.
(Span: 12.5 m; length: 8.5 m; loaded weight: 640 kg; speed: 100 kmh; 80 hp Gnome)
3. No 19 at Monaco, 1913 - tandem 2-seater with a single long cockpit, wing cut-outs, double 3-strut pylon, each strut float with 2 pairs of diagonal supporting struts, fin and rudder symmetrically above and below aft fuselage, full cowl and large spinner. A similar - the same? - machine flew in the Paris-Deauville race, carrying the number 4.
4. Shown at the 1913 Paris Salon, the seaplane featured a monocoque fuselage with nearly flat sides, a bathtub 2-seat cockpit, a 2-triangle pylon, fully-cowled engine and spinner, each float strut with a pair of diagonal supports. The fin and rudder were set symmetrically above and below the fuselage.
5. At Monaco, 1914 - flown by Prevost, this one featured simple N-strut attachments to the float centerlines, a 2-triangle pylon, and a single-seat oval cockpit in the monocoque fuselage. It carried the number 4.
6. Also at Monaco in 1914, a similar machine with a 4-strut pylon and rectangular rudder.
7. Type Tamise, in 1912, an odd 2-seater with flat sides but a fuller, more streamlined fuselage than the pre-monocoque fuselages, 2 separate cockpits in tandem, angular rudder equally above and below fuselage - with no fin! The float attachments were similar to No 2, above. In fact, this machine was built by De Brouckere, in Belgium, under license.
8. Again, with float attachments like No 2; fuselage shape also like #2; fin and rudder like #3; 2-triangle pylon. One photo shows it in front of yachts.
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L'Epervier. 1912: A military single-seater, with a 2-triangles pylon, a Gnome in a horseshoe cowling, and what became a familiar Deperdussin trademark, 1-piece sculpted undercarriage legs. No 42, a Deperdussin number, was painted on the tail.
Type Record de Vitesse. 1912: Vedrines flew this one for the speed record in January 1912. It had a monocoque fuselage, wingroot cut-outs and leading edge root extensions.
Monocoque Reims. 1913: Prevost flew in R 2 in the Gordon-Bennett race, powered with a 160 hp twin-row Gnome; the machine was built with both double and a triple kingposts. It had leading edge root extensions. The wings had slightly curved trailing edges and were narrower at the root than at the tip; there were substantial wing-root cut-outs.
(The single-seater marked with a German cross and the numbers 2-XIX was built, not by Deperdussin, but by Lebedev in Russia, under license. It was captured by the Germans.)
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Twin-boom pusher, Jan 1913 (model only): This was to have been a 2-seater, with pilot and passenger seated diagonally in the front of a blunt nacelle, with a pusher propeller at its rear. The twin booms were flattened versions of one of the monocoque Deperdussins, and the wing panels seemed like standard panels. Parts of it were later built in the Bleriot works.
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Desusclade
In 1910 a Desusclade built a monoplane a little like a Nieuport with a Hanriot undercarriage.
(Span: 9.5 m; 30 hp 3-cylinder Anzani)
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Detable et Tabary
Pierre Detable and his son worked with Tabary on the design and construction of several gliders, beginning in 1892. Most of them were models, but at least one them spanned 6.5 m with a wing area of 36 sqm, and was fitted with a 2 hp Herdtle-Bruneau engine in 1908; it was said to lack both tail and controls.
In 1912 the Detables planned an automatically stable aircraft, but lack of funds apparently prevented its completion. But a Detable was entered in the 1914 Concours de Securite as an "apparatus with stability-correcting planes." Available photos show a short-span tractor biplane with top-wing overhangs, side-curtains, a long uncovered fuselage. The "tailplane" was the full span of the lower wing and ran along the underside of the fuselage to the tail, where small elevators were mounted one on each side: a small rudder was fitted on top. But the odd feature of the Detable was the 2 fuselage-length half-conical surfaces set on each side of the long tailplane, with the points forward and the rear semicircular ends open. The pilot sat underneath the fuselage behind the axle.
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Dinoird
Dinoird was one of the amateurs inspired by the success of Louis Breguet on the airfield of La Brayelle near Douai in northern France. He first built an unsuccessful biplane in 1910, and by the end of the following year had nearly completed an Antoinette copy with a fully-covered fuselage. The pilot sat aft of the wings behind a large fairing with 2 small mica windows.
(Span: 9 m; chord: 2.1 m; wing area: 18.9 sqm; length: 7.8 m; 50 hp Antoinette)
Another monoplane with Dinoird No 2 on the rudder, featured a sort of biplane tailplane, 2 small triangular fins above and below the uncovered aft fuselage, a high pylon, and a tail wheel.
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Domingo
The Aeraptere was one of the oddities of the 1914 Concours de Securite. Like several others in the competition it did not fly. Pivoted at the top of a pyramidal pylon set on a 4-wheeled frame was a large half-cylindrical tunnel, fabric-covered on the top, which could be adjusted for incidence. 2 semicircular flaps at each end allowed the pilot to regulate the amount of air circulating through the vault. A rectangular rudder was set at the opening and a hinged flap for elevator control was set below the center of the "wing." Huge unsupported coil springs ran between the wheels on each side, evidently to help in steering on the ground. The pilot faced 7 control levers mounted on the same axis in front of him; these worked the flaps, rudder, and the overhead vault. A marvellous exercise in coordination, and safe, as well.
(Length: c 10 m; height; c 8 m; 100 hp Anzani radial)
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Denhaut got his license in 1911 in a Fernandez biplane; and while chief pilot at Pierre Levasseur's flying school in 1911 he conceived of a new form of seaplane, this with a hull instead of floats. The hull was triangular in section, with the point at the top; a small forward planing surface was placed close to the water under the bow. The lower wing was set above the hull, overhung by the upper wing. The 50 hp Gnome, donated by Swiss engineer Jacques Donnet from his unused Bleriot XI, was set between the wings with a pusher propeller. A temporary 2-wheel landing gear allowed the machine to take off from the ground; all of which worked well. On his first attempt to land on the water, Denhaut turned the machine over. The second machine had a pronounced step in the bottom of the revised hull, and no forward surfaces.
(First version: span: 9 m; length: 8 m; weight: 300 kg; Levasseur propeller; 50 hp Gnome)
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These trials interested the automobile manufacturer Henri Leveque, who put in some capital, and the famous pilot known as Beaumont - a navy officer whose real name was Conneau. Donnet and Leveque formed a new company with their name, Beaumont being the director, and took out a patent on the new flyingboat hull. Donnet-Leveque built several new flyingboats based on Denhaut's first 2, with 50, 70, and 80 hp Gnome engines, and 2, 2, and 3 seats, respectively. All 3 showed their ancestry, with overhung top wings with cut-outs for the pusher propellers, high-set engines, and small triangular fins. The Type A was developed directly from the modified first flyingboat, with a more substantial hull, larger fin and rectangular rudder. The Type B had a still heavier hull and a rectangular rudder higher than the fin. The Type C rudder had a curved top, and was attached to a larger fin; the top wing was fitted with ailerons. One original Donnet-Leveque has been restored and is exhibited as a Type A at the Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace, but for some reason, with elements from several of these types. All 3 featured the characteristic upturned tail end to the hull, and wing-warping.
(Span: (50 hp) 9.5 m; (80 hp) 10.4 m; length: (50 hp) 8.8 m; (80 hp) 8.5 m; wing area: (50 hp) 17 sqm; (80 hp) 21 sqm; speed: (50 hp)110kmh;(80hp) 115-120 kmh)
Shortly after, early in 1913, Denhaut left the firm and joined Borel, where he built Aeroyachts under the name Borel-Denhaut. Leveque continued to produce flyingboats under his name until Louis Schreck bought up the company, with Beaumont the director of the new firm, Franco-British-Aviation (FBA).
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Dorand
Captain-Engineer (later Major) Jean Dorand was assigned in 1894 to the Etablissement Aerostatique at Chalais-Meudon, where he began the study of heavier-than-air machines: the Army was not satisfied with the achievements of civilian constructors, so Chalais-Meudon took the opportunity of having Dorand on the staff to study its own designs. In 1904 he wrote a report on manned kites, and so he began the construction of a steerable kite in 1908; he hoped to develop an automatically stable aeroplane.
When the powered machine was built, it was a huge quadruplane nearly 40' high, made from a giant triplane kite set over a fourth lower wing and a rudder. The pilot sat above and behind the 45 hp 3-cylinder Anzani all installed in a triangular frame hinged below the kite; by pushing or pulling on a control bar, the pilot could alter the kite's angle of attack. The big wood-framed 2-bladed Dorand propeller was fabric-covered and the pitch could be controlled by the pilot. Tested late in 1908, the machine was modified into triplane and then biplane configuration, but it was no more successful than before.
These experiments were kept quiet, but early in 1909 rumors began to spread about the "secret military aeroplane designed in Chalais and tested in Satory"; this led some historians to claim that the first Dorand was the first military aeroplane: it was built by a military officer and tested in a military establishment.
(Span: 11.5 m; wing area (as triplane): 90 sqm; gross weight: 500 kg; 45 hp 3-cylinder Anzani driving a 2.7-meter diameter Dorand-Renard propeller)
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But Dorand was working along other lines as well, and more efficient ones. Though studying propellers, he was likely to have been involved in Gaudard's and Legrand's experiments on a Voisin. In 1910 at the military aviation laboratory at Chalais-Meudon he built his biplan-laboratoire. This, his most famous design, could be considered one of the most outstanding achievements of pre-WWI aviation. A classic biplane with staggered wings, forward elevators supported by skids as on the Maurice Farman, a tractor propeller and biplane tail unit, it was powered by a 60 hp air-cooled Renault. Dorand used it as a flying test-bed for wings and propellers, so it was constantly being modified. Basic equipment included a venturi to measure airspeed, a flexible engine mounting to study dynamometric balance, an electric tachometer, an hydraulic measuring-box, and various glass levels filled with tinted water to check speed, pitch, and roll - and a camera to take pictures of them all!
In 1912 Dorand designed his biplan de place forte (fortress biplane) similar to the laboratory biplane. The crew of 2 sat in a short covered nacelle behind a flat-mounted water-cooled Salmson driving a tractor propeller though a shaft. This aircraft was later equipped with a wireless set.
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Dorand's most successful pre-War design was the 1913 armored biplane: at least 6 were built with the designation Do 1 on the rudder. The lower wing was slightly shorter and set forward of the upper wing, "to improve the lowering of pressure on its upper surface." The long covered fuselage had 2 cockpits forward, pilot in the rear. The biplane tail unit had 2 elevators and was fitted ahead of a large rudder. On one of the Do Is, Labouchere flew 18,000 km in 1913; early in 1914, a group of 6 led by Captain Leclerc flew 1,400 km in 6 stages: Villacoublay to Reims to Verdun to Chalons to Villacoublay to Dijon, and back to Villacoublay again, suffering only 2 "incidents."
The Do 1 was the forerunner of the 1916 Renault AR Is and AR2s; very precise data were made available by Dorand.
(Span: (upper) 12 m; length: 12 m; wing area: 50 sqm; empty weight without armor: 625 kg; weight of armor plates: 90 kg; gross weight: 1000 kg;; endurance: 4 hr; max speed: 108 kmh at sea-level, 100 kmh at 3000'; slowest speed: 55 kmh; ceiling: 8,400 m; climb to 4,500 m: 16 min; take-off: 90 m; land: 95 m; 10-cylinder 86.5 hp radial Anzani)
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1874 Du Temple
After studying the flight of birds, Felix and his brother Louis du Temple, naval officers, built first a small model flying machine that actually hopped, powered by watch-springs; then he and his brother undertook a huge 17-meter span steam-powered machine set high on 3 small wheels. The pilot sat behind the 6 hp steam engine in a neat basket-like frame, with a single long triangular tail behind him and a small rudder underneath, both arranged to move for control. 2 long angular wings built on 2 intersecting curved spars swept forward from the pilot's position, and the 8-bladed tractor propeller spun between them. It weighed about a ton. By 1874 they were ready to test it: a sailor piloted it as it ran down a ramp, hopped off the end and landed.
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Dubois-Rioux
In 1912 Dubois and Rioux designed a machine meant to fly at 140 kmh and also to hover: they described it as an "invulnerable war machine." A very handsome as well as ambitious ornithopter, it was unsuccessful like all its predecessors - and its successors so far. The frame was all-metal, fabric-covered. A long narrow tailplane and elevator were mounted on the top of the rear fuselage, whic had a long nearly cylindrical shape; the rudder was set below the elevator. The wings had flexible tips and trailing edges, and were actuated by a 35 hp Viale mounted backwards at the nose. A large inertial wheel was to regulate the flapping movements.
(Span: 10.5 m; wing area: 15 sqm; empty weight: 360 kg; 35 hp Viale)
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Dufour
Jean Dufour built at least one small biplane glider in 1908. It was very flimsy and loose, with a swallowtail tailplane and some sort of forward elevator. The airfoil section was flat.
His first powered design was based on the Bleriot XI and built by Labaudie et Puthet. Sometimes described as an "ordinary monoplane," it had a classic fuselage of square section, and a long-legged undercarriage with skids ahead of the castered wheels. The long wings had rounded up-curved tips, and seemed in the photographs never to be quite squarely rigged. A fixed tailplane was mounted on top of the fuselage ahead of the curved rudder, and an elevator was hinged at the stern. Dufour No 1 flew first on 27 March 1910, having been begun late in 1909.
(Span: 10.8 m; length: 10 m; wing area: 25 sqm; gross weight: 310 kg; a 45/50 hp Labor-Picker engine replaced the original 35 hp 4-cylinder Guerin)
Dufour No 2, completed by September 1910, was a biplane with a front elevator, monoplane tailplane and single rudder, and a 35 hp Gnome. The top wing was of greater span than the lower, with ailerons set into it. The undercarriage was fitted with 2 pairs of wheels. This was probably the Dufour mentioned as being at the Garbero school in Antibes. It was reported that both Dufour aircraft had ribs made of freno-liege (ash and oak).
A 2-seater is also mentioned in November 1911; it was either a new design or the old one modified. One journalist reported its rollout in November 1911.
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Dumoulin
Dumoulin was a pastry-cook with little knowledge of either physical or aeronautical science: he devoted much of his small income to the development of ill-fated designs based on the flat cardboard roundels used under cakes - he threw them to make them fly.
In 1902 he worked with the Viscount de Cazes on a large helicopter rotor made of many thin blades; in 1904, in Agen, in southern France, in the hangar of the Comte de la Rochefoucault, he built a strange "tracteur pour la navigation aerienne." Above a high wooden frame was mounted a circular wing on a vertical axis; just below turned 2 Archimedean screws mounted side-by-side along horizontal semicylindrical cowlings. The wing turned on its axis, and the pilot sitting under a second fixed circular wing worked the screws himself. Subsequently - perhaps it should have been done earlier - he built models to study the gyroscopic effect of propellers, and built a propeller-driven bicycle. In 1911 he patented an "aeroplane gyropendulaire," and built a model of it - he called it Saturnian - in 1912, but did not complete it until 1921. It was based on a turning circular wing and 2 tractor propellers. Dumoulin died in 1923 age 57, always hopeful, always unsuccessful.
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Dussot
Auguste Dussot's flyingboat had been entered in various competitions since 1910, but made its first and last official appearance in August 1913 at Deauville, flown under the number 13 by the young de Bosano. The aircraft was sometimes referred to by the latter name.
It was a 2-seater parasol monoplane with a long rectangular-section hull and slender tip floats. The Taube-shaped wing was braced from a pyramidal structure on top and was fitted with short deep ailerons. The Anzani, mounted behind and below the trailing edge, drove a 2-blade pusher propeller, and was equipped with a compressed-airpowered Gendron starter. On its first flight at Deauville, it "cavorted dangerously" and crashed, injuring de Bosano. Dussot later invented a parachute, but gave it up for lack of funds and went on to become a cycle mechanic.
(Span: 13.5 m; 100 hp radial Anzani)
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Dutheil et Chalmers
These famous motor builders made a brief entry into aeroplane building. In 1909 they built a biplane similar to the Farman, but with triplane elevators and a single rudder between the tailplanes; ailerons were set between the wings.
The firm, wishing to produce copies of the Demoiselle, received a single example from Santos-Dumont, but did not carry through the project. This is the Demoiselle preserved and is now exhibited at the Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget.
(Span: 10 m; length: 10m; 42 hp flat 4-cylinder water-cooled Dutheil et Chalmers)
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Eparvier
H Eparvier was a manufacturer in Manthes, in southwestern France, who built 2 and perhaps 3 aircraft in 1909 and 1910.
The first was a large monoplane, designed probably in late 1908, with a long clear-doped fuselage uncovered in the middle, and a triangular fin and tailplanes. The undercarriage had castered wheels; the high-set tailwheel also trailed. A long streamlined tank sat on top of the fuselage just behind the pilot. The water-cooled 2-stroke 4-inline 40 hp Cote - sometimes a Prini-Berthaud - weighed 110 kg, the whole aircraft 350 kg.
A second Eparvier may have been a triplane that appeared in September 1909, powered with a Gnome, but this may have been a wholly different aircraft.
The second monoplane - and perhaps the third Eparvier - was similar to the Hanriot, appeared at Amberieu, near Lyon, in April 1910, and was still flying at the school 18 months later. The triangular fuselage was shorter than on the first design, completely covered; the undercarriage was made with 3 pairs of struts, 2 wheels and 2 long horned skids. The 50 hp engine was said to be Eparvier s own design, probably the earlier Cote modified. The tank was hung under the Bleriot-style pylon which braced the large rectangular deeply-curved wings. One 3-piece lifting elevator was mounted on the top of the rear fuselage just ahead of the trapezoidal rudder; there was no fin. The pilot sat well aft of the wings to balance the engine. Marius Lacrouze flew it in 1911.
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Fabre
Henri Fabre was born in 1882 to a family of wealthy ship-owners, and through his observation of birds and a small helicopter toy was early attracted to the idea of mechanical flight. His father had objected to his studies, which seemed at the time a waste of effort and money, but after the boy had graduated from school he was free to do as he liked. He modified a small steamboat; and then, thinking a crash would be safer on water than land, planned and built a seaplane which he tested on the calm waters of the Etang de Berre, near Marseille, to measure wind speeds and the behavior of towed Hargrave-type kites. His boat was named L'Essor (soaring).
While in Paris Fabre had met Archdeacon, who in turn introduced him to other pioneers, including Gabriel Voisin. Fabre became the first customer of the new Bleriot-Voisin firm, ordering further kites and a 15 sqm glider. Some of these he tested, mounting them on the mast of L'Essor, measuring lift and drag. He designed at this time his famous wooden truss girders, light and strong with very little drag, but complicated to build. In 1907 he tested a biplane-bladed propeller fitted at the top of a tall truss girder attached to his 14 hp Renault; the propeller had variable pitch and was driven by the car motor; it drove the car at 50 kmh. The top speed of the car with its standard drive was only 60 kmh.
Subsequent testing was done on floats, 2 long thin forms with foils, as on Forlanini's high-speed boats. Fabre planned a monoplane with these floats with a center nacelle for the pilot and engine. The drawings show that he planned to use the wing structure he was to use later, a single truss girder with trailing flat ribs and fabric attached with lacing.
The light Buchet V2 was not powerful enough, and Fabre designed a second machine and built it. This one had 3 flat floats, one at the tail and 2 in front. The fuselage was a rectangular frame with a triangular elevator and rudder at the rear and a pair of wings with marked dihedral in front. Above the front girder the pilot sat inside a tall triangular frame in a pin-jointed faired section; 3-12 hp Anzanis were mounted side-by-side driving through belts a single large tractor propeller. (The first trimotor?) Tested behind L'Essor, the machine was underpowered at 600 kg; it was abandoned after about 5 months' testing in the summer of 1909. The later Paulhan-Fabre used the frame from the second Fabre seaplane: a restored model of the trimotor, originally built by Fabre himself, is now owned by the Musee de l'Hydroaviation in Biscosse, north of Bordeaux on the coast.
Augustin and Laurent Seguin, inventors of the Gnome engines, were distant relatives of the Fabre family, and Henri was eventually offered the use of the 50 hp Gnome Omega No 2. In his memoirs, J'Ai Vu Naitre l'Aviation, Fabre wrote that Augustin had once given him a small toy aeroplane, a little 40 cm monoplane designed by Lacoin, which flew and was perfectly stable; he was much inspired by it.
Fabre's third aeroplane was a small canard glider built for the Seguins and copied from this toy, with a covered fuselage, laced-up wing and elevator, and no rudder.
His fourth was a model for his next design; it was powered by one of the 12 hp Anzanis and a Chauviere propeller, built "to learn light construction." Evidently the lesson was not learned, for it was underpowered and failed even to skim, and it sank on 24 December 1909.
Fabre's 5th aeroplane was the famous canard seaplane, which he named Goeland (gull); the truss girders and ribs of taped hollow wood were fabricated by Espinosa, and the rectangular fuselage frame was built of ash by a mechanic named Burdin and 4 workmen at an autobody shop in Marseille owned by a man named Montel. The new floats weighed 30 kg each, with curved fabric-covered tops and flat plywood-covered bottoms. The wing fabric was coated with glue for waterproofing; the warping was controlled with pedals. Forward on the top of the top fuselage longeron, were mounted in a wooden frame a pair of rudders and a pair of horizontal surfaces; the whole frame together with the front float pivoted on the vertical support member. Only the top horizontal surface worked as an elevator. The Gnome was mounted above the trailing edge of the wing, driving the pusher propeller aft of a large rectangular fin.
After careful taxiing on the lake at Berre, Fabre managed to lift from the water on 28 March 1910 at the harbor of La Mede, near Martigues. This was the first powered water take-off: the first by Glenn Curtiss took place on 26 January 1911. The Fabre machine was described variously as "aerhydroplane," "hydroaeroplane," or "hydroplane" - the final French term "hydravion" coming later after the term "avion" was commonly accepted. The original No 5 was destroyed, but 2 more were shown at the 1910 Exposition.
(Span: 14 m; length: 8.5 m; wing area: 17 sqm; gross weight: 200 kg; 50 hp Gnome Omega - the 2d engine built)
The design was improved at the suggestion of Maurice Becue, Fabre's pilot, in particular the control system. But in Fabre's 1911 model other changes appeared: the rudders were moved back under the wing, probably coordinated with the wing-warping, and were controlled by the pedals. The wings could fold. A single control lever now controlled the top forward surface. 2 small water rudders appeared at the back of the main float; the front float was fixed, with a smaller angle of attack. The machine was destroyed at Monaco on 11 April 1911.
Six Goeland types were begun, though only the first 3 were finished, and only one was sold. Fabre went on to build his floats at 100 francs each for Gabriel Voisin's canard seaplane; he also built Paulhan's "machines a voler." In 1914 he demonstrated his hydro-glisseur, a 3-float seaplane without wings.
In the course of the War he built 24 Tellier flyingboats. Shortly after the Armistice, Fabre went blind, but partially regained his sight when he was quite old: he died at 102.
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HF II (Farman): In 1909 at Chalons, Farman built his second design: the II was a single-bay Gnome-powered tractor biplane with heavy vertical struts through both leading edges down to the front of the double skid arrangement. The rear ends of the skids were attached to the lower outriggers with big flexible hoops, with a small pair of wheels behind them to keep the ends of the skids from digging in. A big biplane tail cell with huge rudders brought up the rear; there was no forward elevator. The completed aeroplane showed a simple triangular brace in place of the distinctive hoops. A handsome pair of photographs in La Revue del'Aviation captions it Le Jabiru de Farman. He built No II and No III at the same time.
HF II (Voisin): See the description under Voisin.
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HF Type Coupe Michelin: This was a big 2-seat pusher with a long covered nacelle and a long top wing overhang with a single aileron set into the ends; the outer wing panels could fold down. The tailplane cell had 3 inset rudders, the third slightly forward of the other 2. On 18 December 1910 Farman flew it for a record time of 8 hrs 23 min.
(Span: 16.5 m; length: 11.67 m; 50 hp Gnome)
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Farman, Henry et Maurice
Before the war, at least one aeroplane was designed by the brothers together, known as the biplan Farman Freres. It showed a single rectangular forward elevator mounted on straight Henry-style outriggers. An elevator was fitted to the upper of the 2 tailplanes, one oval and the other rectangular with rounded tips, and 2 rudders set between them. The wingtips were rounded. Fischer flew it, marked 12, at Reims in July 1910.
The brothers Farman later joined forces again in their design and production of the Farman F40 for use during WWI, a handsome machine resembling both its parents, in some versions with a polished eggshell nacelle.
Henry Farman died in 1958; Maurice died in 1964.
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HF 2/2: Henry Farman produced a pretty little parasol tractor monoplane at Mourmelon on 5 June 1910; parts of the HF II (Farman) may have been used in its construction. The high rectangular wing had ailerons and was braced to the V-leg undercarriage below and 2 inverted V posts above. The tail was of classical fin-rudder-stabilizer-elevator form - a very modern-looking machine.
(Span: 8 m; length: 7.1 m; wing area: 17 sqm; loaded weight: 300 kg; speed: 104 kmh: 50 hp Gnome)
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HF 10: A big 3-seat pusher without forward elevator built for the 1911 Concours Militaire, it appeared with and without wing stagger. It featured long wing overhang and 2 rudders. The pilot and passenger perched on a long forward rail.
HF 10bis: The big 3-seat pusher also built for the 1911 Concours Militaire had extreme wing stagger - the upper trailing edge was ahead of the lower leading edge. The parallel outriggers were very long, supporting a single high tailplane and 3 suspended rudders. Sometimes a third wheel was set with a third skid ahead of the main set. The pilot sat way forward in the uncovered nacelle, the 2 passengers behind him side by side.
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HF 6 Type Militaire: In June 1911 Farman showed a pretty pusher 2-seat biplane with long upper wing overhangs with long hanging ailerons, an undercarriage with 2 pairs of twin wheels. The tail outriggers were not parallel, but came together at the single rectangular rudder and tailplane. The stubby nacelle was fully covered; it appeared with and without an awkward forward elevator outrigger structure.
(Span: 11 m; length: 9 m: wing area: 21 sqm; loaded weight: 550 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
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HF ? Another monoplane appeared in 1911, a 2-seater with rectangular wings set against the top longerons. One version had the long covered fuselage ending in a high rudder surface extending above and below the small tailplane; another had a conventional tailplane and finless rudder. The 4-leg 2-wheel undercarriage had short skids forward, sometimes with a pair of small wheels at each tip.
(Span: 10 m; length: 7.5 m; loaded weight: 285 kg; speed: c 100-110 kmh; Gnomes of 50-140 hp)
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HF No ? This pretty modern-looking 1912 design was an amphibian with a short sesquiplane wing set above the speedboat-like hull, and permanently-fixed wheels set at the tips; the long main wing high above. It could seat the pilot and 3 passengers behind him. The engine was half-sunk into the hull, driving the high-set pusher propeller through chains. A single high tailplane and 2 tall rudders below it brought up the rear, supported by a tall skid.
(Span: 13 m; length: 7 m; wing area: 37 sqm; weight: 350 kg; 80 hp Gnome)
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HF 11: Fischer flew this big 2-seat seaplane at Monaco in 1912. He sat out on an uncovered structure; the wings were overhung, and the outriggers came together at the high rectangular single rudder and tailplane.
(Span: 13.15; length: 8.3 m; 70 hp Gnome)
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HF 14?: Similar in design to the Type 6, it had the high rounded tailplane and single oval rudder which were to appear on many subsequent Farman aircraft. One was photographed with 4 passengers squashed in behind the pilot. This 2-seater saw military use, and was privately raced as well. One of these 1912 machines fitted with twin floats and a tail float flew at Deauville on 28 August 1913. In another in November 1913 Chevillard was the first to loop a biplane.
(Span: 13.75 m; length: 8.36 m; 80 hp Gnome)
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HF 15: Another 1912 design, this big 2-seater featured a long overhung top wing braced only with wires, and tail outriggers coming together at the single oval rudder and high tailplane.
(Span: 17.75 m; length: 9.81 m; 100 hp Gnome)
HF 20: similar to the HF 16, with differences in internal structure.
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HF 16: This single-bay sesquiplane was finished in 1912.
(Span: 13.75 m; length: 8.1 m; wing area: 35 sqm; empty weight: 250 kg; loaded weight: 660 kg; speed: 105 kmh; 100 hp Gnome)
HF Type Repliable: a folding-wing biplane for the military, similar to Type 16.
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Le Babillard (chatterbox): This pretty machine was flown by Chevillard. It had the high rectangular tailplane and suspended oval rudder of the HF 14, a very short lower wing with unbraced overhang of the top wing. The undercarriage consisted of 2 wheels wide-set with a single high curved forward skid between them, and the pilot - perhaps with passenger behind him? - seated out in front on an extended seat frame.
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HF 19: The 19 flew as a hydro at Monaco under the number 2. The big Gnome drove the high-mounted pusher prop through chains; the parallel tail outriggers supported a single high tailplane and 2 suspended diamond-shaped rudders. The hydro had 2 shovel-bowed floats and 2 bubble floats under the rudders.
(Span: 19.7 m; length: 9.87 m; wing area: 66 sqm; empty weight: 650 kg; loaded weight: 1250 kg; speed: 105 kmh; 160 hp Gnome Double Lambda)
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HF24: This curious biplane was shown at the 1913 Salon beside a Maurice Farman. The top wing was much longer than the lower, and the nacelle was attached to its underside, the rotary engine and pusher propeller at its aft end between the outriggers. The single rudder was oval, behind the single tailplane. The wheels were attached at the ends of the short lower wing.
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HF22: At first a landplane, similar to the HF 16 and HF 20, it appeared at Deauville, but was not entered, and carried no race number. The 22 had a single high tailplane and 2 suspended rudders; 2 big shovel-nosed floats and a small one to hold up the tail.
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Farman
Flying Fish: In the meantime Voisin was building another machine initially designated HFII, although the Voisins took out a patent on it; it was never finished. It had 3 widely staggered rectangular wings with considerable dihedral, and 2 more in the rear. The long fuselage was rectangular in section and arched like an airfoil section. The nose was pointed: the engine would have been set back inside the fuselage. The purpose was to increase speed with more wings and less resistance from brace wires. Later in its unsuccessful life it was rebuilt with 2 sets of wings and a new tail. It may have been sold to a German Lieutenant Fritsche.
(Span: 6.25 m; length: 14 m; wing area: 25 sqm; empty weight: 600 kg; 47 hp Renault)
Voisin
The Flying Fish: In February 1908 Henry Farman ordered a monoplane originally designated Henry Farman No 2; it is described under Farman, but was patented by Voisin.
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Faure
There were 3 Faure monoplanes. One of them - the first? - was perhaps not finished: it seems to have been a graceful tandem built on a long flimsy-looking triangular frame; the broad wings reached barely beyond the edges of the frame. The next 2 were similar - perhaps they used the same broad monoplane wing braced with a structure of struts underneath like the Etrich Taubes, and odd twin-wheel tailwheel-cumskid arrangement. One had an uncovered triangular fuselage and a "helical-pitch tailplane" which seems to have operated from a wheel mounted on the right side of the fuselage to warp and twist as for a regular rear elevator, and from a wheel on the left side to warp and twist as for a rudder. It was tested on 22 September, managed "a few straight lines" (but not necessarily in the air); it crashed 6 days later.
(Span: 14.5 m; length: 9 m; 70 hp Labor engine)
The other had a rectangular-section fuselage, covered in front, and looked remarkably modern.
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No 9: With Levasseur at Antoinette, Ferber worked on the great Levavasseur Monoplan de Villotrans powered with a 100 hp Antoinette. Photographs show both men working next on models of the Antoinette IV, but it is clear that things did not go well between Ferber and Levavasseur or the other partners in the firm who were more interested in building automobiles. Ferber and Levavasseur rarely agreed on what was to be done, and Ferber worked more as an accountant than as an engineer in the company. Eventually the firm built Ferber's No 9, also known as the Antoinette III, a slightly altered version of his No 8; in it he made several take-offs and short straight-line flights at Issy in July 1908.
(Span: 10.5 m; length: 9.5 m)
In August Ferber was by error posted for punishment in Brest; the day he had to leave, his mechanic Legagneux won fourth prize for the 200-meter flight at Issy. The aeroplane was then moved to Normandy with the rest of the Antoinette company, and on 19 September Legagneux wrecked it in a crash. From Brest, Ferber was awarded Brevet No 5bis, and he ordered his No 10 from Burdin in Marseille. In the meantime he bought a Voisin with a 50 hp Antoinette and began a new career as a pilot under the name of F de Rue, from the name of the village where he had made his first experiments. In the morning of 22 September 1909 he made a rough landing in his Voisin at Boulogne; he was taxiing fast when the wheels went into a ditch, and the left wing hit the ground and the aircraft turned over and broke up. Ferber was thrown out, but the engine fell onto his stomach. At 10:30 Ferdinand Ferber was dead. He had often said he wished to be Minister of War.
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Fernandez
Antonio Fernandez was born in Aranjuez, in Spain, in 1876; 33 years later he moved to Nice and set up as a ladies' tailor. An automobile enthusiast, he soon developed an interest in aviation. He designed 3 aeroplanes:
No 1 resembled a Wright, but with short flat planes set between the wings, a 24 hp Antoinette with 2 propellers made of steel tubes and oval aluminum paddles; it was launched by catapult but achieved only a few brief glides over the grass. It had been built at Verany's in Nice, and was tested first on 10 April 1909 on the estate of La Grimaude, at Antibes.
No 2 was a biplane designed around the frame of No 1 with 4 wheels. The Antoinette this time drove a single large pusher propeller through a chain and shaft. The twin rudders differed from the Wright design, and the Wright aft fuselage outriggers were replaced by single spars, one bent up over and the other down around the propeller disc. It flew first on 10 June 1909; it was reported that Delagrange had flown it on straight-line flights at Issy, but a few days afterwards it was entered at the competition at Betheny; on that occasion it was unable to fly twice over the starting line. Its most interesting feature was the handlebar used for control: the handles of it could be pushed together or pulled apart. One of the 10 men who worked on it was Louis Lefebvre. It crashed shortly after the meeting at Reims.
(Span: 8 m; length: 10 m; wing area: 28 sqm; empty weight: c 300 kg. These same figures also appear for the Fernandez No 4.)
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No 3. named Aeral, was a good copy of the Curtiss pusher of the period. The monoplane front elevator was set as high as the top wing; both wings had trailing triangular ailerons covered with the same flap of fabric that covered the wings themselves. Pierre Levasseur, much later the builder of the Nungesser and Coli Oiseau Blanc, saw the Fernandez at the 1909 Paris Exposition and bought the manufacturing rights; Francois Denhaut got his license in one of these in 1911.
(Span: 9.55 m; length: 9.2 m; wing area: 24 sqm; top speed (reported but highly unlikely): 100 kmh; 42 hp water-cooled ENV)
On 6 December 1909, Fernandez took off in No 3 even though an elevator cable was damaged. The mechanic, Fighiera, wanted to take time to repair it, but Fernandez, in a hurry, repaired it with his handkerchief. After some satisfactory flying, the aircraft dived into the ground, and Fernandez became the third aircraft casualty in France, after Lefebvre and Ferber.
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Florencie
Florencie was the first to order an aeroplane from the Voisin firm after they had set up alone in 1906. He had invented an ornithopter, but had little idea of how to build it; it was a monoplane with roughly bird-shaped wings containing slatted shutters. A small forward elevator surface was matched with small horizontal and vertical tail surfaces in the rear. It was unsuccessfully tested hanging from a cable at Massy-Palaiseau, south of Paris.
(Span: 15 m; wing area: 35 sqm)
The second Florencie, probably designed by Gabriel Voisin and sometimes incorrectly reported as Florenty, was a tractor biplane with a 24 hp Antoinette motor. It was tested for the first time at Juvisy on 16 September 1909.
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Franchault
At least 3 aeroplanes were built and probably designed by Franchault. The first was an awkward open-work biplane with tailplane and front elevator mounted high at the level of the upper wing. It was said to have taken off on 17 December 1910, but it never really flew.
(Span: 10.5 m; length: 9.5 m; 60 hp Dansette-Gilet)
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The second was a monoplane with a slight resemblance to the Caudron biplanes; 2 high inverted Vs at the front formed the undercarriage and the wing pylons, and the 2 pilots sat in a short nacelle. It was flown by Loctin in May 1913, and was sometimes referred to as the Franchault-Loctin; Loctin may have been Franchault's financial partner.
(Span: 10 m; length: 7 m; wing area: 20 sqm; empty weight: 300 kg)
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Franchault built his third design, a biplane with very short lower wings, shortly before the War. The radial engine was partly covered by a streamlined cowl, and the fuselage was covered only at the front end. It had a high angular rudder and no fin; the undercarriage had 2 wheels and heavily-braced skids.
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Fumat
Victor Fumat's monoplanes were mentioned between 1910 and 1912; they were perhaps all the same machine. The front end resembled a Bleriot XI, but the fuselage was very short, with the tail wheel fitted just below the pilot's seat. The rear fuselage consisted of a single long spar carrying a long triangular fin and tailplanes, a small elevator and a Bleriot-like rudder.
(Span: 8 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 16 sqm; 25 hp Anzani))
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Gabardini
Though a Milanese, Gabardini designed and had built 2 aeroplanes in France. The first, a small often-modified tractor named Le Monaco, was a monoplane with an all-covered fuselage with triangular section aft, a triangular tailplane, and a Morane-style undercarriage. It was seen in April 1911 flying at La Brague, near Antibes, with a large numeral 10 on the rudder, piloted by Gibert or Desbroueres - the latter sometimes referred to as the builder as well as the designer. It is likely that the machine was built in Marseille by Deschamps et Blondeau. It was later reported flown by Chavagnac at Milan in January 1912. Still later, developed into a Nieuport-style design, it was flying in 1914-15.
A later Gabardini design was the curious monoplane flyingboat built by Sevon et Lavignon (other sources describe Henri Chazal as pilot and builder) in 1912. It was tested, unsuccessfully, in the harbor at Monaco. The hull was short and streamlined, cut off abruptly at an angle aft of the wings. An uncovered framework to the rear supported a small elevator and a large rudder forward of the tailplane. The motor was buried in the hull and drove a tractor propeller mounted high above the nose, through a pair of shafts at right angles: at rest the tips of the propeller were in the water.
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Galvin
Little is known of the aeronautical work of Clement Galvin of Lyon, who nevertheless designed one of the most advanced, if not successful, seaplanes of his time. His first design was a small biplane with a 12 hp Anzani: tested in 1909, it did not fly. His second was a monoplane mentioned briefly in the late fall of 1911.
The third was the seaplane tested and probably not flown on the Saone River in October-November 1913. It had a highly-streamlined fuselage of circular section with a blunt round nose: the engine was mounted as on the Gallaudet seaplanes in the fuselage behind the wings, with the propeller turning amidships on a ring. The lower wing was set below the fuselage, the upper at shoulder height; the machine rested on a wide central float and 2 small tip floats, and the bottom of the fin was attached to the tail of the main float. The pilot sat on top, level with the leading edge of the top wings. A blurry photo shows it taxiing at high speed, the ring removed from the propeller, leaving a gap more than 2' long; it has French colors on the rudder.
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Gangler
Eugene Gangler's monoplane is visible in the background of a photo of the first Avia at the 1909 Paris Exposition, and it was shown at the Paris Salon of 1910. It had a streamlined covered fuselage with a centrally-mounted engine driving 2 pusher propellers on outriggers aft on each side. The wing, in 2 separate elliptical panels, was set slightly above the fuselage, with warping tips which could be pulled down together "to form a parachute" and thus make the machine "absolutely safe." A cruciform tail brought up the rear. Though an obliging journalist wrote that "this interesting machine reserves surprises," the Gangler was unsuccessful. It greatly resembles one of the experimental - and unsuccessful - variants on the first Koechlin monoplane.
(Span: 11.3 m; wing area: 27 sqm; 40 hp engine)
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Garaix, L
At the end of the summer of 1910 in Montelimard in southeastern France, an L Garaix was reported to have built a monoplane, first towed by a car and later fitted with an engine driving a tractor L Garaix propeller. The control device for lateral stability was fastened to the pilot's back; the wings had a slight dihedral. L Garaix may have been some relation to Victor Garaix.
(Span: 8 m; length: 5.6 m; propeller diameter: 1.2 m; 8-10 hp motor weighing 70 kg)
A 1911 postcard photo shows a biplane under construction; the text on the back describes a visit to L Garaix' workshops with the biplane under construction!
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Gassier
The Gassier monoplane commonly referred to as the Sylphe was actually designed and built by 4 men, Messrs Hamelis, Delamare, Mathieu, and Gassier. A high rectangular wing fitted with large drooping ailerons sat on top of an uncovered triangular fuselage with 2 large semicircular frames surrounding the pilot and the engine; the pusher had a forward elevator coordinated with the aft one, and an oval rudder. The Sylphe made its first taxi runs on 16 February 1911, and its first flight on 11 April at Juvisy. Although designed to carry 2, it could barely lift the pilot alone, with its over-heavy fuselage. Only the propeller survives today, in the possession of the Gassier family.
(Span: 12 m; length: 11 m; wing area: 30 sqm; empty weight: c 450 kg; speed: c 80 kmh; 50 hp 4-cylinder inline inverted Gregoire-Gyp)
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Gaudard
Louis Gaudard was an electrical engineer who began his aeronautical career as an instructor with Ferdinand Ferber at the flying school of the Ligue Nationale Aerienne, flying a Voisin; Igor Sikorsky was one of their students. In 1909 he worked with Jean Legrand to work on Legrand's modified Voisin; it was tail-heavy and crashed in 1910.
In 1911 he rebuilt it as an observation pusher; Legrand may have helped with the redesign and with the subsequent monoplane. Its unequal-span wings had large cutouts for the pusher propeller; mounted below the lower wing was an enclosed nacelle with rectangular windows. A Bleriot-style undercarriage supported the front end, and the rear ends of the lower outriggers supported the tail, featuring a single large rectangular tailplane.
Some months later at Alaise, in eastern France, Gaudard built a "rigid trussed-beam monoplane." The tail, and the high wing fitted with big rectangular trailing ailerons, resembled those of the biplane. The pilot sat in a light structure set below the wing, slightly ahead of and below the passenger, who could rest his head on the leading edge. A 50 hp Gnome was mounted aft of the pusher propeller; the aircraft sat on 2 wide-set pairs of wheels. It was flying at Juvisy in October 1911; shortly afterwards Gaudard went to work for Jean Legrand, whom he eventually left for Louis Schreck to design the d'Artois pusher biplanes.
(Span: 9 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 18 sqm; gross weight: c 300 kg; speed: c 95 kmh; 50 hp Gnome)
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Gavault
The Gavault monoplane appeared at Issy in February 1912. The wings were deeply arched with no dihedral, set on the top of a large rectangular-section uncovered box. The water-cooled engine sat on the floor at the nose, driving through chains (one crossed, similar to the Wright), 2 tractor propellers mounted on outriggers on each side; the pilot was seated immediately behind it. Out in front was a curious triangular cell with curved sides, serving apparently as a forward stabilizer. Another just like it was fitted aft of the wing inside the fuselage, just ahead of a conventional set of tail surfaces.
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Germe
The first of the 2 Germe pusher biplanes was clearly inspired by the Wright Flyer and was reported first flown at Issy on 11 August 1909. It had a 4-wheel undercarriage and 3 triangular fins mounted between the forward biplane elevators; 2 separate high rectangular rudders were set on parallel outriggers. The Anzani motor was set on the lower wing leading edge. It drove a single 4-bladed pusher propeller of 3-meter diameter, formed of 2 2-bladed propellers set back to back, through 2 shafts and a diagonally-mounted belt. Ailerons were fitted to all 4 wings.
(Span: 12 m; weight: 400 kg; 50 hp 3-cylinder Anzani; propellers by Petit-Conchia)
The second Germe was tested at La Brayelle, near Douai, in September 1910. The forward elevators were gone, and there was a tiny tailplane and rudder; ailerons appeared only on the top wings. The same engine in the same place now drove a single pusher propeller with a shaft and chain. It was reported crashed on its first flight in February 1911; the engine used may have been a Gregoire-Gyp, replacing the Anzani.
In 1912 Germe was still offering to build fuselages, monoplanes, or biplanes on request.
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Gilbert, O
In 1909 Octave Gilbert built a biplane glider based on the Wright design, with a single large rudder and large forward monoplane elevator. All surfaces consisted merely of fabric stretched over a frame outline. The pilot lay prone in netting slung between the wings, which had only 4 flat crosspieces for ribs in each panel - no camber at all. The undercarriage was made from 2 bicycle wheels and forks.
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Givaudan
Claude Givaudan was born in 1872 and received his balloon brevet in 1911. He became a builder of small 3-wheeled vehicles and went to work for the Vermorel automobile and engine company at Villefranche. There he designed and built his first aeroplane, sometimes referred to as the Vermorel monoplane. The pilot sat in the middle of a long uncovered triangular girder set on 4 wheels. At each end was a large cylindrical drum, each with a smaller concentric drum inside connected to the outer drum with 8 vanes for lift and stability. Each double drum could pivot: the front for altitude - and the rear for directional control. The arrangement was meant to be proof against side gusts in the air: it was certainly safe in this respect, since it never got off the ground. The engine was mounted just forward of the pilot, and drove a tractor propeller through a long shaft.
(Wing area: 15 sqm; 40 hp Vermorel engine)
A subsequent version was sometimes known as the Vermorel triplane, having 3 small extensions fitted to each side of the forward drum, and single ones at each side of the rear drum.
(Span (drum diameters): (front) 2.8 m, 1.5m; (rear) 2.4 m, 1.3 m; length of drums: (front) 1 m; (rear) .8 m; length of fuselage: 7 m; wing area within drums: (front) 19 sqm; (rear) 14.8 sqm: wing area of winglets: (front) 11 sqm; (rear) 8.7 sqm; weight: 360 kg; 50 hp Vermorel V8, modified by Givaudan)
Givaudan was vice-president of the Aero Club de France when he died in 1945.
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Goldschmidt
This was a handsome monoplane resembling the Hanriot, with deeply arched airfoil, 4-legged undercarriage unlike the Hanriot's 6-legged gear, and a Gnome mounted precariously high on the nose. One photograph is dated April 1911.
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Goliesco
Though built and patented in France, this large and unsuccessful bird-like monoplane was designed by a Rumanian ordnance officer Goliescu (spelled Goliesco in France). It featured a large central uncovered box on which were mounted inverted spoon-shaped wings and a large tail unit. The airframe was made of hollow wooden spars and struts, and the machine was built at Espinosa's Avionnerie, the Societe de Construction d'Appareils Aeriens (SCAA). The upper surfaces of the wings were smooth, but the undersurfaces were covered with a scaly membrane; each wing had spoilers and was pivoted for automatic stability. Elevators and rudder were set on the nose, and another set on 2 single booms at the rear. The whole machine rode on 3 wheels.
(Span: 10 m; length: 6.8 m; gross weight: 425 kg; 25 hp 4-cylinder inline Buchet, driving a propeller designed by Goliesco and built by Georges et Gendre)
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Gonnel
This strange design by Arthur and Georges Gonnel was completed and tested by Pappaert at Juvisy in March 1911; it is unlikely to have flown. A square-sectioned uncovered fuselage sat on 2 wheels; the engine was set inside just over the wheels and drove a tractor propeller through a shaft. Above the fuselage, extending its whole length and about as wide, was a long covered boxlike frame, with fabric-covered extensions down each side, making rudimentary wings or fins. The underside of the box was left open, in which the air stream was to "induce a lifting reaction which ought to make it fly."
The machine was to be operated from roads: it was named Uniplan.
(Span: 3.2 m; length: 7 m; height: 3.33 m; wing area: 34 sqm; gross weight: c 300 kg; 30 hp Velox Suer)
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1883 Goupil
In 1883 Alexandre Goupil built a birdlike monoplane glider, which seemed stable under a restraining rope. He intended to power it with his new steam engine which weighed about 1000 lbs and produced 15 horsepower. The aircraft featured a streamlined bird-shaped hull, tractor propeller, and rudder and horizontal tail aft; it rested on skids. 2 stubby horizontal surfaces forward were controlled by the pilot's moving around on a pivoted seat: they could work together as elevators or in opposite directions as ailerons, though their purpose was rather to restore lateral balance than to facilitate banking and turning. He called his machine an "aeroplane," apparently one of the first to use the name.
(Span: 6 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 27 sqm; weight: 50 kg)
In a 1916 attempt to avoid the Wright patent on wing-warping and its equivalents, Glenn Curtiss had his Buffalo, NY, factory built the Duck from Goupil's original patent drawings and a description in La Locomotion Aerienne. Curtiss put it first on wheels instead of skids like the original, and then on the original Langley floats, and then again on wheels. Powered by a Curtiss OXX-6, it flew on 19 January 1917, succeeding first in a straight and level flight, and then in a circle. As with his rebuilt Langley Aerodrome, Curtiss made some significant changes in the original design - control linkages, engine - and longer wings than what Goupil seems to have intended. But Curtiss never made use of his "evidence" that the Wrights were not the first to invent lateral control: the famous Curtiss-Wright patent fight was settled by arbitration as World War I approached.
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Goupy
Goupy started with 2 triplanes, and then moved on to a very successful series of biplanes. The system of lettering/numbering may have been clear and complete at the time, but much of it has since become mysterious or downright missing.
Type 1: Goupy's 2 triplanes were built by Voisin, perhaps using one of their standard fuselages, a long arched box framework. The tail was a box structure with double vertical and horizontal surfaces with a third tailplane set in between. The lower wing was set against the lower longeron, the middle wing against the upper, and the top wing supported by 4 light vertical struts. The first version showed side-curtains between the 2 middle pairs of struts, and a rectangular rudder set behind the tail. The second, Ibis, showed side-curtains a la Voisin outboard, half-curtains inboard. A third version had these taken off, and a rudder added between the aft end of the fuselage and the upper stabilizer.
(Span: 7 m; weight: 650 kg; 50 hp Antoinette)
Voisin
Goupy No 1 triplane: In May 1908, the first of the 2 1908 Voisin triplanes, described under Goupy. It was powered with a 50 hp Antoinette.
De Caters No 1 triplane: In October 1908, this was the second Voisin triplane, based on Goupy's but improved.
(Span: 7.5 m; length: 9.8 m; wing area: 44 sqm; empty weight: 475 kg; speed: 54 kmh; 50 hp Anzani, or perhaps a 60 hp Vivinus.)
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Type 2: Resembling a 2-bay heavily-staggered biplane Bleriot XI, this Goupy had been designed by Goupy and the Italian Lieutenant Calderara, and built in the Bleriot factory; it flew in March 1909. The fuselage, tail wheel assembly, rudder, undercarriage (here fitted with skids), cloche, and perhaps the seat may have been purchased from Bleriot. The lower wing was set below the fuselage; small "aileron" surfaces protruded from each side of the nose, rigged to operate differentially, and there were no aileron or elevator surfaces otherwise. On one version the struts between the 2 tailplanes were filled in. One Type 2 was painted with the numeral 14 and had undercarriage skids and a tailskid. Another was flown by Ladougne at Reims in 1910; it had short forward skids and a tailwheel, and a modem-looking fairing between the top tailplane and the aft fuselage.
(Span: 6.09 m; length: 7.01 m; wing area: 22 sqm; weight: 250-290 kg; 24 hp REP and a 4-bladed propeller)
This same machine modified, or a new one, also had a 4-bladed propeller, and the tailplane-struts were sometimes filled in like side-curtains. The ailerons and the elevators were of the oyster-shell tip design, fitted to all 4 panels and both tailplanes.
(Span: 6 m; length: 7 m; wing area: 26 sqm; loaded weight: 290 kg; 25 hp Anzani)
In 1910-1911 appeared a series of Goupy racers and at least one Type Militaire, usually with forward skids and Gnome engines. In 1911 appeared some larger versions, 2-seaters, with Gnomes, shorter lower wings, and diagonal brace-struts for the overhanging top wing.
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Type Concours Militaire: This big 3-bay sharply-staggered biplane was shown at the Concours in 1911. It featured double wheels, twin skids, and retained the Goupy biplane tail cell with oyster-shell elevators and Bleriot-shaped rudder. The aft fuselage was uncovered; elaborate shock absorbers and undercarriage supports ran up beside the nose. One version had 2 concentric propellers and doubled skids.
(Span: 14.2 m; length: 10.6 m; wing area: 56 sqm; empty weight: 500 kg; 75 hp Chenu)
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Type B: Also similar to the Type A, this version was sometimes set, wheels and all, onto 2 forward floats and a tail float to make a hydro. Both land and sea versions used either an 80 or a 100 hp Gnome.
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Type X-II: This 1912 design was a pretty 2-bay heavily staggered 2-seat biplane, but this time with ailerons set into all 4 wing panels; a simple single horizontal tailplane rested on the aft end of the covered fuselage. It appeared with a variety of simple tail surfaces - a common one consisted of a simple square rudder and triangular fin fixed on top. The simplified 4-legged undercarriage had twin skids and twin tailskids. The lower wing was set below the fuselage.
Type A: A 50 hp Gnome biplane, similar to the Type X, but with overhung top wing and diagonal struts, and ailerons on the top wing only. The tailskid was single.
Type AA: Similar to the Type A, but with an Anzani engine. This 2-seater appears often in photographs of military line-ups.
Type B: Also similar to the Type A, this version was sometimes set, wheels and all, onto 2 forward floats and a tail float to make a hydro. Both land and sea versions used either an 80 or a 100 hp Gnome.
Type B.1: Similar to the previous types, this 3-seater was shown in the December 1913 Salon, fitted with a 100 hp Gnome.
(3-seater: span: (upper): 12.4 m; (lower): 10 m; length: 9 m; 100 hp Gnome)
Type M: For some reason, this later machine reverted to the Bleriot-style undercarriage, seemingly mated to a Type AA or B. A single diamond-shaped rudder was fixed precariously on its corner above the standard tailplane. One of these was used by Madame Cayat de Castella for her parachute jump on 17 May 1914 at Nevare. The lady was strung horizontally under the fuselage aft of the undercarriage, perilously close the ground, strapped into her parachute.
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Also in the Salon: a pretty single-seater biplane of very modern appearance, with curved ailerons on the top wings only and a neat installation of the 80 hp Gnome in a horseshoe cowl.
(1-seater: span: (upper): 8.5 m; (lower): 7.2 m; length: 9.2 m; 80 hp Gnome)
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Gramaticescu
This odd monoplane was designed by George Gramaticescu, a Rumanian. Unfortunately he died of pulmonary tuberculosis before the machine could be built, and his mother Emilia undertook to have it built by a French team led by the pilot Maurice Herbster in France. The first - and only - machine was completed and flown on 30 April 1914 at La Vidamee. A second machine was planned, but the correspondence about it is incomplete, and its fate is so far unknown.
The streamlined fuselage was covered, and the undercarriage resembled that of a Morane. The wings were of surprisingly wide chord, more than 2 m, and the front half of the airfoil was twice as thick as the trailing section, resulting in a pronounced step in the lower surface. But as originally designed, there was to have been a second full-span wing of slightly shorter chord fitted just behind and below the main wing, leaving a slot between them.
(Span: 8.5 m; length: 7 m; wing area: 25 sqm; 50 hp Anzani)
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Grapperon
In 1911 the former cycle champion Grapperon was testing a monoplane reportedly of his own design at Levesville la Chenard in Normandy. It was a Bleriot copy - perhaps made from a Bleriot XI airframe - with a Labor-Aviation motor and an Hanriot-style undercarriage.
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Gregoire-Gyp
Gregoire owes more of his reputation to his fast cars built between 1900 and 1922 than to his brief efforts in aviation.
Gregoire 1909: He designed and built a monoplane powered with a motor of his own design; it was tested at St Cheron des Champs, about 15 km from Chartres, at the end of September. Gregoire himself was at the controls, seems to have been surprised at the take-off, and broke a wheel on landing. It was then shown at the 1909 Paris Exposition with a sale price of 1000F.
A rectangular uncovered fuselage carried a triangular tailplane and elevator and a long triangular rudder at the rear. The design featured a heavy tubular spar in 2 parts, connected in the middle with the equivalent of an automobile differential; through his steering wheel the pilot could twist the 2 rectangular wing panels to produce different angles of attack and so control bank. Pulling the wheel back and forth changed the angle equally for both at once; the wings were detachable and could be moved bodily back and forth (on the ground) to allow for variation in loading according to whether or not a passenger was carried. Steering was done with a rudder controlled through the pilot's back-rest. It first flew on 6 November 1909, piloted by the student pilot de Lailhacar.
(Length: 11m; wing area: 22 sqm; gross weight: 300 kg without pilot; 40 hp water-cooled Gyp)
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Gregoire-Gyp 1910: One of these monoplanes was a cross between the Hanriot (undercarriage) and the Antoinette (wing, tail, long covered fuselage, side-mounted control wheels, tail surfaces). It sat tail-high on its wheels and long forward skids, a very graceful machine. Another, perhaps a version of this one, had a slightly heavier-looking fuselage and modified rudder, and sat back on its tailskid. And still another, powered with a 40 hp Gregoire-Gyp engine, was a still closer copy of the Antoinette, with a simplified V-leg undercarriage and Bleriot-style pylon. The control wheels were set halfway down outside the fuselage sides.
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Guee
In Nice in 1908 a man named Guee tested a monoplane model under Ferber's "aerodrome" pylon; by early 1909 he had built a biplane glider which was intended to be powered. It was a simple equal-span biplane with rectangular wings and a tail on a single outrigger. Between the wingtips were ailerons, each with small triangular vertical surfaces both above and below, apparently to act as rudders, turning while the ailerons moved up and down.
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Guillaume
After working as one of Jean Legrand's pilots, Camille Guillaume de Mauriac experimented with parachute jumps. In 1913 he built a Bleriot XI copy, with an uncovered fuselage and a 3-cylinder Anzani. Some reports say the machine was built to test a new Dangy-Baillet parachute, but it is more likely that test was made by another pilot with another aircraft.
One of his more technical experiments was his modified Voisin, rebuilt with ailerons, an altered undercarriage with 2 pairs of trailing wheels, and 2-100 hp Gnomes, one driving the usual pusher prop, the other, in front, driving a tractor. 2 tiny wheels were set under the nose; perhaps de Mauriac feared a nose-over with his heavier engine installation.
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Guillebaud
It is difficult to trace the work of Charles Guillebaud, since his name was spelled in various ways from 1908 to 1912 in journals and on postcards: Guilbaud, Gillebaud, Guilbeau, or even Guisbaud. And he worked in Rouen as well as Le Havre, along the Seine; moreover, the published descriptions of his machines were generally highly whimsical! But all these names were probably the same man, and the machines the same machine.
Guillebaud's single tandem monoplane was called Armorique, after the ancient name for Brittany; it was designed in 1908 and probably tested as late as 1910. The designer meant to build an amphibian which would descend slowly and safely in case of engine failure: built of "artificial bamboo," the machine was very light. The 2 wings were separated only by their own chord's width, each with significant dihedral rising from the keel of the triangular hull and then curving gracefully downward at the ends. A long tail-boom carried the tail, a long tapered cruciform box open at the back end. The tractor propeller was set at the tip of the pointed nose; the machine stood poised on 4 small wheels.
(Length: 13 m; gross weight: 220 kg; 11 hp motor)
Guillebaud later founded a flying school in Rouen; it is reported that early in September 1910 he managed to fly 10 m before crashing in an aeroplane powered by a 25 hp Anzani - probably not the Armorique but a Caudron. In 1911 he claimed to be designing an all-metal machine "to be outstandingly quick," with a lifting surface of 30 sqm, but nothing further was heard of it, or of Guillebaud.
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Guinard
In 1909 at Limoges an accountant named Guinard built an ornithopter to be fitted the following year with a 10 hp motor. And in 1912, photos captioned with the name Guinard show a curious and very sophisticated parasol monoplane, partly built. The pilot sat towards the tail of a chubby streamlined covered fuselage supported on 4 small wheels. The engine drove 2 small 3-bladed propellers, which were preceded by a small horizontal surface. Guinard's special interest seemed to be in airfoil sections: both the wing and the propeller blades were composed of separated wide ribs, apparently uncovered: each rib resembled a small boat upside down.
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Guy et Bollon
Guy and Bollon together built a large 10-meter span monoplane glider in 1910, in the Alps. A short triangular-sectioned fuselage carried a forward monoplane elevator and a short monoplane tailplane with long fin and tiny rudder. The wings were flexible, consisting of a single central spar below to which only 5 ribs were attached; ailerons were hinged to the trailing edges. It ran on a single-track undercarriage.
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Guyard
The first Guyard, a straight Demoiselle copy, appeared in 1910 and was tested in Madagascar. The 3 tail booms were thick and awkward-looking; a tiny diamond-shaped cruciform tail pivoted at the point of the tail booms, and a supplementary triangular fin was set on top halfway back.
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The second, entirely different, was tested at Issy in April 1911 and was flown the following month. The overall appearance looks crude, although it was reported to be "very well finished." The triangular fuselage was almost completely sheathed with sheets of citron wood; the rectangular monoplane wing with noticeable dihedral was mounted slightly above the fuselage under a high Bleriot-style pylon. A small rudder was fitted at the tail, and long triangular tailplanes earned the elevators. The distinctive undercarriage was built on 2 arched wooden struts and a cross-bar; the trailing wheels were at the end of short skids. The early descriptions of the Guyard No 2 mention a 4-cylinder 40 hp inline Labor-Aviation motor with radiators alongside the fuselage like the Antoinette; but photographs show the same aircraft with a 50 hp radial Anzani, and the arched undercarriage legs of the Vendome and other contemporary designs.
(Span: 10.8 m; length: (Labor) 9 m; (Anzani) c 8 m; wing area: 15.5 sqm; empty weight: (Labor) 245 kg; (Anzani) 225 kg)
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Guyot et Verdier
Guyot and Verdier were manufacturers at la Souterraine, in midwestern France, and built at least 2 biplanes, the first finished by the end of 1908. It was a tractor with front elevator and a tailplane at the far rear, with a large rectangular fin and rudder set immediately aft of the wings between the outriggers. The center-section of the top wing was bent slightly upward above the 40 hp flat twin engine on the lower wing, which drove an Antoinette-style propeller. 2 ailerons were hinged between the 2 outer struts at the leading edges of the wings.
The second machine was finished in February 1910, and was taken to the hippodrome la Gueridiere at Dorat, near Clermont-Ferrand in mid-France. A large pusher biplane probably developed from the first and unsuccessful design, No 2 had a 60 hp ENV V8, and ailerons set into the upper wing trailing edges. The tailplane and inset elevator were fixed aft of a very large rudder. During the trials the engine was moved forward, and the metal propeller changed for a wooden one designed by Guyot, which broke soon after. The aeroplane had a wing area of 40 sqm - some said 50 - and was flying "fairly well" over Juvisy by June 1911. It was entered in the Concours Militaire of 1911.
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Hanriot
The first Hanriot was shown at the 1909 Paris Salon, underpowered with a Buchet engine. It was the clear forerunner of most of the subsequent Hanriots, with long uncovered fuselage, the monoplane wing rectangular. The stabilizer was set on the top of the aft fuselage, with a small triangular fin below and a small triangular rudder aft. The wheels, each with its long skid, were attached with the typical Hanriot 4-strut arrangement, the rear 2 coming together above the fuselage to form the pylon.
A 1910 version flew at Reims, perhaps with the same fuselage and engine. An extra pair of landing gear struts were added forward; the whole tail structure was now mounted on the top of the fuselage; and kingpost was set onto the rear fuselage with a tailskid set underneath. A similar Hanriot was photographed with a different vertical fin and rudder, with the tailplane set again under the fuselage.
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Also in 1910, on 16 January at the Brussels IXieme Salon de l'Automobile, de l'Aeronautique, du Cycle et des Sports, 2 new Hanriots were shown, each with the now-typical long covered fuselage, rectangular wings, and 6-legged undercarriage. One featured 2 kingposts and a single long fin and trapezoidal rudder; the other had the V-pylon and a forward kingpost, and a small pointed rudder fitted to a peaked fin. Both had control wheels on each side of the cockpit.
The same year, a prolific one for the firm, appeared the Grand Monoplan with 2-3 seats; perhaps it was designated Type II. Also offered for sale was the Libellule (dragonfly), a smaller single-seater with a 45-50 hp Clerget, also with the pointed fin and rudder. A similar machine with a 50 hp Clerget and rounded wingtips and a trapezoidal pylon was marked VI. One of these was reworked for Pequet with a Gnome and different undercarriage legs.
In 1911 the firm built a military version, with rounded wingtips, a single seat and a 4-legged undercarriage. A second military type was entered in the Concours Militaire; this one had a big 100 hp Clerget, 2 pairs of close-set wheels in a 6-legged structure, and could seat 3 to 5 people. The pylon was of the familiar trapezoidal form, but with an inverted arch for the rear support.
After the Concours, Ponnier, a designer for Hanriot, bought out the firm, which took the name of the new owner. The Ponniers will be described under their own name, though some of these also appeared in later Hanriot catalogs.
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The first of his machines to bear Ponnier's name alone - though it appeared in one of the Hanriot catalogs with the name Hanriot - was the D.I, the most famous of which flew at Reims in 1912 and 1913. It was a pretty little Nieuport single-seater monoplane look-alike, but with the familiar Hanriot 4-legged undercarriage and a small pyramidal pylon structure.
(Span: 8.9 m; length: 7.08 m; wing area: 18 sqm: loaded weight: 465 kg; speed: 110 kmh; 50-60 hp Gnome)
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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.
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But the name Hanriot had not disappeared: for the 1913 Concours de Securite he entered a "natural stability" aeroplane. This odd design featured several sets of adjustable surfaces mounted high on an awkward frame structure, itself running on 4 wheels. The outcome of all this is not known. And during World War I, the Hanriot firm was reformed and went on to build a long series of successful aircraft.
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Hayot
From 1909 to 1914, Captain Hayot worked at refining his basic design for an automatically stable aeroplane, and designed 5 awkward tandem machines.
The first, a multiplane built by Chauviere and tested near Beauvais during the spring of 1909, was described as being equipped with 5 groups of 3 small planes, 2 each at front and amidships, and one at the rear, all above a long fuselage. But when it appeared, it showed 2 groups of 4 planes forward, linked by a long spar to 2 other groups at the rear, with a pair of ailerons on each side of the fuselage at the middle, and a biplane rudder fitted ahead of an elevator at the rear. Each group of 4 wings was fitted so close together that the leading edges of the second set were just behind the trailing edges of the first. The pilot sat behind the rear group; a mechanic sat between the engine and the radiator, mounted above a Bleriot-style undercarriage just ahead of the first wings. The engine drove 2 tractor Chauviere propellers through a long shaft. Little more is known about this huge set-piece: Coffin's flight tests were apparently unsuccessful.
(Span: 4 m; length: 10.6 m; height: 6 m; 60 hp 6-cylinder water-cooled Dutheil-Chalmers)
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The other 4 designs were all 2-seat tandem-wing monoplanes; the high parasol rear wing was set close behind the high parasol front wing, at a lower angle of attack. All 4 had rear monoplane elevators and single rudders. The positions of the wings in these 4 designs moved further and further forward, the pilot always below the rear wing and the passenger/mechanic below and to the rear of the forward wing. Descriptions of Hayot's device remain unclear. The wings were mounted on frames which oscillated freely fore and aft on the sides of the fuselage to damp oscillations of the machine between 2 stable positions. It appears that the inventor was pleased with the lack of sensitivity of his controls, and that he continuously increased the power of his machines from 50 to 100 hp, at the same time reducing their weight.
(Data for the 1913 design under construction in 1914: span: 13 m; length: 8.65 m; wing area: 35 sqm; empty weight: 550 kg; 100 hp engine)
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Henry
A postcard shows this pretty canard monoplane with (presumably) M Henry at the controls. The wings resemble those of the Bleriot XI, with a pair of castering wheels set under the wing, and pusher engine. The fuselage was long and covered and tapered, with small rectangular rudders above and below the nose, and a forward elevator. It is not clear what supported the front of the machine while it was on the ground.
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1888 Herard
Around 1888 a man named Herard built a large rotating-wing machine set on 4 wheels. A sort of mill-wheel with 5 rotating Venetian-blind wing panels spun above the chassis on a horizontal axis. He seems to have had oars in mind as a model for his propulsion arrangement.
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Hervieux
In October 1908 at le Havre, Leon Hervieux built a big monoplane with broad rectangular wings with drooping tips and a broad flat fan tailed horizontal surface. A large rectangular vertical surface was fitted under the middle of each wing, perhaps to resist side-slipping.
(Span: 10 m; weight: 100 kg; an 18-24 hp motor)
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IAL (Imbert and Latour)
Early in 1909 Imbert and Latour publicized the beginning of their aircraft work at Le Vesinet, near Paris. They built a tractor monoplane with rectangular - slightly drooping - wings, a long uncovered box fuselage with a long rectangular rudder set on top and a rectangular elevator surface pivoted behind it. The pilot sat inside the fuselage behind the wing. A water-cooled straight 4 engine was set out ahead level with the wing.
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Jacquelin
Like many former bicycle racers, the world champion Edmond Jacquelin turned his attention to aviation: his imagination in this new field, however, brought him little success. His first heavier-than-air design was nicknamed "les cinq doigts de la main" (the 5 fingers), and "le pied de nez" (a rude gesture); it was probably the monoplane built in 1908 or 1909 at Trignac, near St Nazaire, and sponsored by the Societe Geographique de St Nazaire. In 1909 he had a man named Moles in Montieres-les-Amiens, in northern France, build an ornithopter with several pairs of wings, apparently capable of hovering; but by June 1910 it was not yet completed.
Also in 1910, Jacquelin purchased the one-off Voisin tractor biplane and modified it: he took off the wing curtains and converted the biplane tail cell to monoplane form, set directly on top of the end of the fuselage frame; 2 lozenge-shaped fins were set on the tailplane. He added 2 pairs of flaps, one on each side of the fuselage: in each pair, the upper apparently moved only down and the lower up, to work both as spoilers and as rudders. Steering was done with a massive wheel nearly 1 meter in diameter; a passenger sat behind the pilot in the uncovered fuselage, and in front a 3-cylinder air-cooled Anzani drove a 2-blade tractor propeller. The fate of this machine is not known, but in 1911 Jacquelin was appointed a mechanic at Bleriot, and shortly after, invented a tricycle street-sweeper.
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Juge et Rolland
In 1908 JJ Juge and Paul Rolland began the construction of a large ornithopter which attracted some attention; built mainly of steel tubing and covered with silk, it had a streamlined fuselage on 3 wheels with wings high enough to beat: they were bat-wing-shaped, with 6 or 7 flaps on each leading edge. The tail could be castered by "reflex movements of the pilot." The flaps were to be actuated through connecting rods and an endless screw powered by the 20-24 hp motor, which was inside the body hidden under an aluminum fairing. But Juge and Rolland never had the money to purchase the engine.
(Rotor span: 11.5 m; weight: 30 kg; 20-24 hp motor which was never installed)
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Juvigny (or Javigny?)
This shapely canard monoplane may have been built for the 1914 Concours de Securite, but was not fitted out in time to participate. The fuselage seems to have been covered with ply veneer; both wings and forward surface were rectangular and back-swept. The wings had ailerons set into the trailing edges, and the forward surface had triangular panels hinged on its trailing edge. A water-cooled inline motor was at the very rear of the fuselage driving a 2-blade pusher propeller through a chain. Behind the propeller, pivoted at the top end at the hub, was a large rectangular rudder. 2 main wheels were close together on either side under the leading edges, and 2 nosewheels were paired under the nose.
(Span: c 9 m; length: c 7 m)
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Kaufmann
Son of a wealthy Paris banker, Paul Kaufmann built 4 monoplanes between 1909 and 1911.
No 1: An odd tractor monoplane which appeared in 1910: the fuselage consisted of 2 thin parallel outriggers supporting a rectangular tailplane with 2 rectangular rudders below it. The pilot sat amidships between the booms and on top of the wing. Below him the axle was supported at the end of 2 parallel triangles. A single skid reached forward, and 2 others supported the tail. The wing was rectangular with a highly-arched airfoil. It did not fly.
(Span: 6 m; length: 6 m; wing area: 12 sqm; gross weight: 200 kg; 24 hp 3-cylinder Anzani)
No 2: It was finished early in 1911 and tested unsuccessfully at Issy. The pilot sat on the lower boom of the triangular fuselage frame behind the motor. The drooping wings were again deeply arched with thick leading edges; the panels were nearly square and set at a nearly 30° angle of attack. They were designed to warp, but only upward, to reduce lift but not increase drag at the same time. The tailplane and elevators were swallow-tailed in shape.
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Kluytmans
The big Kluytmans biplane was built by Voisin and appeared at Reims in the summer of 1909: it had features of the Wright, but bigger. A biplane front elevator was mounted with curved struts onto the leading edges of the wings; 2 wheels and a skid fitted with a front roller resembled the undercarriage of the first version of the Antoinette IV. The engine, probably an Antoinette with its copper-tube radiator, was on the lower wing to the right of the pilot, driving twin pusher propellers, and a second seat was attached on the center-line. The 2 curved rudders rested on a single castering tailwheel.
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Koechlin
Paul Koechlin designed and built his first aeroplane, a little biplane completed in May-Iune 1908; it was sometimes referred to erroneously as the first de Pischoff and Koechlin design.
Koechlin No 1: It comprised 2 biplane cells connected like those in a box kite, with struts at the corners; unlike a box kite, the horizontal surfaces were broken at the center-lines, making shallow hexagons spanning c 3 m each; the aft cell had side-curtains. The pilot lay prone between them on a sort of hammock, his face immediately behind the 17 hp Dutheil et Chalmers 2-cylinder motor in front. 2 bicycle wheels in front and 2 castering tailwheels at the very end supported the machine on the ground. There seemed no provision for cushioning the shocks of landing - but this in practice made little difference.
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Landeroin et Robert
Introduced at the 1914 Concours de Securite, this bizarre machine was meant to be automatically stable. It was built at Pierre Levasseur's factory around what looked like a Morane-Saulnier fuselage, at the rear end of which was set a trapezoidal rudder and a semicircular elevator on each side. These were the only familiar features. The rest was a tandem monoplane with one pair of straight rectangular wings mounted far back at the top of the fuselage; the front pair was swept back from a straight center-section which was mounted precariously out in front of the engine and propeller, the whole thing braced with curved struts over and around the propeller, down to the undercarriage; one ran all the way back over the top to the tailpost. Ailerons were set into the inner sections of the trailing edges of the front wings. A 3-skid addition was made to the undercarriage.
(Span: 10.5 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 23 sqm; empty weight: 500 kg; 70 hp Le Rhone)
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Lanzi et Billard
The dart-shaped La Fleche (arrow) was built by Espinosa at his Avionnerie (SAC A A). It was tested unsuccessfully in the summer of 1910, and was known only as one of many oddities of the period. It is likely, however, that the machine was built earlier in 1910 or even in 1909, and modified at Espinosa's. It resembled exactly a folded paper dart mounted on a 4-wheeled undercarriage; 2 small surfaces were set behind the tractor propeller. Semicircular ailerons were fitted on the trailing edges of the wings, a trapezoidal tailplane set on the extended upper fuselage longerons, with small elevators at the end.
It appeared later with a motor in a covered box-mounting in the nose, with a small streamlined tank above it. The front undercarriage legs are heavier and braced to the nose; the rear ones sport spring shock-absorbers. In the photo taken at Espinosa's and described in the 1910 Jane's as "completed in August 1910," no engine is visible, no tank appears, the front and rear undercarriage legs are connected, and the shock absorbers are in front.
(Span: 6 m; length: 8 m; empty weight: 290 kg)
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Lartigue
Maurice Lartigue's biplane glider was mentioned briefly in the pre-War aeronautical reviews: it was a simple design even for 1912, with rectangular wings and a biplane forward elevator cell. His younger brother Jacques-Henri became a famous photographer and painter, and took many photographs of the happy life of the somewhat eccentric Lartigue family, showing rubber-powered models and a good many elementary gliders built under Maurice's direction and tested on the sloping hillsides of their estate at Rouzas, in the Auvergne. Little success but much enjoyment! The designs were monoplanes or biplanes, made with rough wooden frames and covered with bedsheets: they seem all to have been christened with Maurice's nickname, Zyx.
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Lasternas
At Douai in 1909 a science teacher named Lasternas designed a biplane, seemingly similar to the Voisin. The wings, slightly swept back, had flexible trailing edges and showed side-curtains; the airfoil section was said to be "that of a bird." A biplane forward elevator regulated pitch, and a warping tailplane controlled roll. A 40-50 hp motor drove 2 pusher propellers through chains.
(Span: 13.75 m; chord: 2.3 m; span front elevator cell: 4.5 m; 40-50 hp motor)
The next Lasternas biplane we hear of was built in 1911, with his associate, Lepers. The wings were trapezoidal, the upper longer, braced together as "an American girder" (Warren truss?). A covered cockpit was set on the lower wing. The front monoplane elevator was braced with an assemblage of spars and was connected with the rear elevator, itself set at the ends of the tail outriggers. The top wing had ailerons, and the wing itself was reported to have had flexible trailing edges in addition. The frame was of both wood and metal.
(Span: 11m; length: 12.5 m; main wing chord: 2.37 m; wing area: 34 sqm; empty weight: 320 kg; 50 hp Gnome driving a 2.35 m diameter Integrale propeller)
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Lataste
If more than one poor and heavily retouched photograph had survived, this machine might be classed with the Domingo, the d'Equevilly-Justin, and the Givaudan as one of the most famous curiosities of the pre-War period. The so-called Aeroplane Gyroscopique, built of metal and covered with fabric, appeared in 1909-1910: it featured a long uncovered tapered frame with a propeller at each end; each propeller had 2 semicircular blades like sections of archimedean screws, and turned the same way. Above the frame was a flat rotating circular surface, probably mounted on a swivel joint. This surface and the propellers were driven through a long horizontal propeller shaft and planetary gears; the shaft ran through a cylindrical fuel tank inside the fuselage. The machine was mounted on 4 wheels with the pilot sitting among them, holding tightly to a steering wheel, which perhaps controlled the rotating surface high above him.
(Length: c 7.5 m; diameter of the disc: c 6 m)
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Lavezzari
One of the earliest pioneers in northern France, Lavezzari was the chairman of the Aero Club at Berck, a Channel coast resort town. He tested his gliders on the dunes there at the turn of the century: one was a tailless hang-glider built in 1903 with triangular bat-shaped wings; another, also a tailless hang-glider with triangular wings, was built in 1904, probably based on a Lilienthal design.
(Span (No 2): 6 m; length: c 3.6 m; wing area: 37 sqm; gross weight: 37 kg)
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Lazard et Lemoine
A photograph shows the little parasol monoplane flying near Pacy sur Eure, Normandy, in an airshow in September 1913. It was a 2-seater with a wide covered box-like fuselage with a Bleriot-type rear skid and a tail similar to that on the Nieuport monoplanes. The 4 vertical struts of the undercarriage rose above the cowl to act as cabane struts, and a 50 hp 3-cylinder Anzani was mounted up between the high rectangular wing and the fuselage.
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Leblic
E Leblic flew his small metal tractor biplane over Issy in 1912. The rectangular wings with scalloped trailing edges warped; the trapezoidal rudder hung below the rectangular horizontal tail surfaces, which were supported at the ends of a pair of V-shaped outriggers. The undercarriage used 2 wide-set wheels with skids, and a third skid at the rear.
(Span: 8.6 m; length: 6.5 m; empty weight: 300 kg: 50 hp motor)
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Leclerc (Le Clere or Leclere?)
In 1912 it was reported that a Docteur Leclere or Leclerc had "a huge bird of metal and canvas," probably built by a M Gonthier at Mareuil. near Riberac, near Dordogne, east of Bordeaux. It was a large monoplane with a streamlined clear-doped cylindrical fuselage, an air-cooled engine, and high wing pylons shaped like 2 large letter As; the cockpit was well forward underneath them. The rectangular tailplane rested on the top of the fuselage, with a rounded rudder set between 2 elevators. The machine ran on castering front wheels with a third immediately aft of them and a long tailskid behind that. It is shown also in a slightly different form, with larger nose, shorter pylons, and a second cut-out, this time for a water-cooled motor.
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Lecoq-Monteiro-Aillaud
A series of monoplanes under these names (sometimes reported as Monsevro-Allaud) were introduced from 1910 to 1913; the first one was tested by Collardeau, and had wings "which recalled Ader's Avion." A photograph in a 1910 issue of La Revue de V Aviation showed Collardeau in a clear-doped LMA monoplane, seated in a closed box to which the bat-shaped wings were attached directly; they curved downward and may have been swept forward. The tailplane was shaped like a bird's, and there may have been no rudder. A 3-cylinder engine, probably an Anzani, was fitted at the forward tip of a pin-pointed fairing.
During the 1911 Salon the firm's catalog showed 2 much more advanced machines, single - and 2-seaters at 50 hp; and 3 and 4 places at 100 hp. The photographs show a handsome long-winged monoplane with dihedral and raked wingtips. The engine was fully cowled, with 4 exhaust pipes showing under the cowl. 2 small wheels were set at the ends of a long axle, with a central single skid.
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In May 1912 Lecoq and Monteiro were flying another monoplane powered by a 3-cylinder Viale. It had marked dihedral and drooping triangular wingtips; the airfoils were developed from the first batlike machine. It sat long-legged on wide-set wheels and skids.
In 1913 they were testing a similar monoplane numbered 4bis. Lecoq also worked with Theodorescu.
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Leforestier
The photograph of G Leforestier's No 1 shows a large frail triangular box-kite arrangement set diagonally on edge above a 4-wheeled cart with a small motor and tractor propeller inside it. From the sides of the kite protruded each side a large triangular wing, seemingly formed of fabric stretched across the frame outline. A later machine by this designer was much more polished, a Bleriot XI copy, with a chopped-off rectangular rudder, a pair of long thin skids forward, and a single pylon coupled with a single inverted V.
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Leger
In 1905 Maurice Leger had Ouviere from Marseille build a huge ill-fated helicopter at Monaco; Leger means light and the machine was sometimes erroneously ascribed to a builder named Light, with contemporary English captions showing this name. A half-scale model was built first, with a 140-volt 40-ampere electric motor on the ground, and a connecting cable. At a power setting of 5.6 kw, it lifted first 85 kg as a test-load, and then later it lifted Dr Richard, manager of the oceanographic center at Monaco. The spoon-bladed aluminum propellers were 6.5 m in diameter, and the empty weight of the model was 110 kg.
The full-scale machine appeared shortly after, an enormous construction for the period. A 4-legged pyramid stood on 2 huge skis, the 2 coupled Antoinette engines mounted on the top, driving 2 contra-rotating propellers made of fabric-covered frames. The pilot and his passenger sat on the base with twin steering wheels. A biplane tail unit was fixed within the diameter of the rotors. This monument to human great expectations was destroyed on its first test.
(Length: c 12.5 m, same as rotor diameter; height: 10 m; chord of rotors at tips: 3.5 m)
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Lelievre
Lieutenant Lelievre's stubby monoplane was built by Vendome and resembled a radial-engined Aeronca C-2. The wing was mounted on the top of the short covered fuselage, with the engine set almost at ground level driving through a chain the tractor propeller mounted slightly forward of the leading edge. The pilot sat inside the fuselage under the wing, entering through one of 2 small side doors. A large triangular tailplane, large elevator and rudder surfaces brought up the rear. 2 large spoked wheels were fitted, one on each side of the cabin, and the machine rested on a long tailskid immediately behind the pilot. The monoplane flew frequently at Issy late in 1912 or early in 1913; it crashed in August.
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Lemaire
In 1907 Jules Lemaire, a wine-dealer in Bonneval, built an ornithopter. Each elliptical surface was supported by a single kingpost and many guy-wires. A central pylon braced the whole thing, and a thin outrigger carried a tall triangular rudder surface; there was no place for any engine. Lemaire was the first in his village to own an automobile, and later he bought his own Bleriot XI, which he wrecked while trying to fly solo.
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Lemaitre
This biplane appeared at Juvisy in 1910. It had a long upper wing with S-shaped dihedral at the tips ending in wingtip ailerons; and a shorter lower wing with little gap. Elevator surfaces were set out ahead of the tractor propeller; curved arches supported the undercarriage.
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Lemaitre, Maucourt, et Legrand
Associated with Maucourt, Henri Lemaitre and Gaston Legrand built a monoplane they called Hirondelle (swallow); some sources report 3 separate Hirondelles, and there do appear variations from picture to picture. But others report a Lemaitre monoplane uncompleted at Juvisy in May 1910, a Lemaitre et Legrand flying at La Vidamee (Chantilly) early in 1911, another finished in July, and still another flying at La Vidamee at the end of the year.
Whether one or 3, the basic design had a flat-decked fuselage of triangular section. The wings warped, and were set on the deck ahead of the cockpit; the trailing edges were longer than the leading edges. The machine stood on a 4-legged undercarriage with 2 wheels and skids, and a pyramidal skid in front of the rectangular tailplane and its triangular elevators. A semicircular rudder was fitted to a triangular fin. A 40 hp 4-cylinder inline Labor-Aviation motor drove a 2-bladed Normale propeller; the radiators were attached to the forward sides of the fuselage, which was covered only on the bottom from the pilot seat aft. Construction was of both wood and metal.
(Span: 9 m; length; 7 m; wing area: 16 sqm; empty weight: 240 kg)
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Leray
Georges and Rene Hugues designed and built at least 2 aeroplanes at Lamalou les Pains, near Montpellier on the Mediterranean coast: the first, in 1908, was a little 10 hp triplane with close-set wings attached to a long boom on top of which was set the pilot's chair. The tail consisted of a biplane cell with 2 small back-slanting rudder surfaces. The second, advertised in October of the same year, was a monoplane, to be tested on the Plaine de Corbillon.
(Monoplane: span: 6 m; length: 7.45 m; wing area: 32 sqm: 10 hp Hugues)
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Leroy et Marzollier
Either at a meet titled Nantes Aviation, or under the firm name of Nantes Aviation, these 2 men from Nantes showed their glider on 14-21 August 1910 - perhaps they flew it. It might have been meant to have developed into a powered aeroplane, with its long uncovered trapezoidal-sectioned fuselage, trapezoidal wings with the spars on the upper surface, ailerons attached to the trailing edges, classic tail surfaces, and a forward elevator.
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Letord and Niepce
Letord was first associated with Niepce, and the firm did wooden models, some of which were built for Chalais Meudon; by 1905, civilians interested in having their flying machines built were being referred to Letord and Niepce; probably Letord himself never designed an aeroplane. In 1909 the firm built a monoplane for Lunel, sometimes referred to as the Lunel machine. It was based on the successful Bleriot XI, and first flew at Issy on 9 November 1909. The rudder was a small rectangle mounted aft of the rear end of the fuselage, and the triangular tailplane carried small elevators. The Bleriot-style undercarriage carried 2 long horned skids out in front.
(Span: 9.6 m; length: 8.5 m; gross weight: 350 kg; 3-cylinder Anzani)
In 1910 their pusher biplane appeared at Issy, with a big biplane tail cell set on outriggers, and a third tailplane surface set on top of the outriggers ahead of the cell. The machine rested on a pair of castering wheels forward and a tailwheel aft; oval skids protected the rounded wingtips. It was seen with and without side-curtains between the outermost interplane struts; once it carried the name L Barnavon on the panels.
Letord remained a subcontractor for other firms after the start of the War, and the aircraft carrying the Letord name were designed by Jean Dorand after 1913.
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1852 Letur
Francois Letur designed and built a parachute-cum-paddles machine in 1852; he exhibited it at the Hippodrome in Paris at the end of May 1853. He went to England and tested his device on 27 June 1854 under a balloon operated by a WH Adam. Unfortunately he was not able to disengage in time, and was dragged by the balloon over the ground, suffering contusions from which he died..
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Leveque
Henri Leveque was first associated with Donnet, building flyingboats designed by Denhaut; when Denhaut left Donnet-Leveque, the firm kept building designs derived from Denhaut's, but known as Leveques. One of the Salmson-powered Leveques (the Leveque-Salmson) painted with the number 15 flew at Deauville in August 1913; a Gnome-powered machine, No 6, flew in the same meet.
(Span: 12.7 m; length: 8.3 m; empty weight: 630 kg; loaded weight: 1000 kg; 110 hp Canton-Unne)
Louis Schreck bought up the company and with his own firm, les Ateliers d'Artois, formed a new one, the Franco-British Aviation Company, known as FBA; and during the War he built flyingboats in great numbers.
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Levy-Gaillat
The strange Levy-Gaillat machine was still being worked on in 1908; no information is available as to its further history. A 20 hp de Dion-Bouton driving a tractor propeller was fitted into the front of the short fuselage, the whole engine arranged to turn right or left, presumably for directional control. The machine sat on a 4-wheel undercarriage. A monoplane wing with no dihedral and a flat airfoil sat on top of the fuselage; immediately above was pivoted a large rectangular flat surface: changing its angle of attack was meant to control pitch.
(Span: 6.5 m; wing chord: 2 m; wing area: 43 sqm; gross weight: 650 kg; 20 hp de Dion-Bouton)
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Leyat
Marcel Leyat built mainly biplane gliders, a few of which were later fitted with motors. His first was built in May 1909 and was shown in 1910 at the Grau air meet near Istres in southeastern France. In September Leyat and Lindpainter were reported testing "a new biplane racer" at Mourmelon; it featured a Wright-style undercarriage (with wheels), a long pointed uncovered nacelle, ailerons set between the wingtips, and a curved tailplane mounted on outriggers to the rear.
In 1911 Leyat came up with another biplane glider set on 2 skids, with a warping tailplane inside a box-like outrigger. Aileron surfaces were hinged to the top of the upper wing, with a secondary set of surfaces hinged in turn to the top of the first. It was reported to have taken off from a rail at 30 kmh-probably catapulted - and to have flown for 800 m at a height of 50 m. A 50 hp Gnome was fitted as an experiment at the end of July. In this configuration it was, probably the "biplane with a lifting tail" mentioned in 1912.
(Span: 16 m; length: 11 m; wing area: 49 sqm; weight: 500 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
In the same year Leyat also built a glider, of wing area 18 sqm mounted on a single 1.2 x 5.2 m float, to be towed by a speedboat.
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Liurette
Two photographs show this clumsily-built semi-biplane apparently in Africa, in front of a grass-thatched hut, several black onlookers, and a determined-looking Britisher in his pith helmet in front. For some reason he is holding up a dead buzzard. A Gnome is mounted on the leading edge of the lower wing; both wings droop badly at the tips. A large fabric-covered cone is set out in front on 4 curved outriggers. The purpose of it all is unknown.
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Loubery
This monoplane rolled out in July 1911 and was much modified in August; since it was tested at St Cyr and was powered by a 60 hp Aviatik engine, it was most likely built by Louis Clement. The long fuselage of inverted U cross-section was uncovered at the rear; ailerons were fitted at the trailing edges of the wing, and a split pair of elevator control surfaces were set on either side of the single forward landing gear wheel. The feature of the design was a pair of propellers mounted on either side of the fuselage with another engine set crossways between them; the plan was apparently to produce sideways motion.
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Lucas-Girardville
Artillery Captain Lucas-Girardville was one of the 3 pilots to be trained by Wilbur Wright at Auvours according to the agreement signed by Lazare Weiller; but he was apparently too old to learn to fly the difficult Wright biplane at the school.
In 1910 he completed a huge military aeroplane developed from models tested at the Eiffel Tower and the Renard wind-tunnel at Chalais-Meudon; it used 2 gyroscopes to control stability. Kept very secret, it was referred to as the Enigma or the Gyroscopic Spinning-Top - but more often, probably, La Baignoire (bathtub). A patent dated 1907 was finally registered in 1910.
It was a high-wing monoplane spanning about 15 m, with rectangular panels of strange airfoil section attached to each side of a large circular surface; and comprised as well 2 forward engines but only one 4-bladed propeller. Some of the controls were manual, others actuated automatically by the gyroscopes. The slatted ailerons were managed by the pilot, the biplane set by one of the gyroscopes; the other was for the elevators. Each gyroscope weighed 5.8 kg and was driven at 12,000 rpm by the engines - and in flight, by wind-driven propellers. The mechanic sat between the engines; there was accommodation for 2 others as well. Loaded, it weighed c 1200 kg with a wing area of 50 sqm.
In June 1910 it was moved from Chalais to the Vincennes parade field; on 11 June it crashed while taxiing, and poor Lucas-Girardville was injured. In 1912, unfazed, he designed an experimental helicopter: we can only hope he was more successful with this one.
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Mainguet
Henri Mainguet built this 10-passenger tractor monoplane, La Dorade (sea-bream), in 1910 at Chartres: it appeared for the first time on 21 May. Guppy-shaped, it featured the pilot's windshield set low in the nose of the all-covered fuselage, the engine set out above and above him. The passengers sat in the enclosed cabin with mica windows which made up the bulk of the streamlined guppy fuselage; aft, it tapered down to a long sweeping horizontal tail. No vertical surface appears to have been fitted. The oval somewhat drooping wings were mounted at a very high angle of attack, and had wheels set below the tips; the whole machine was resting on a long skid with 2 trailing wheels forward and one under the rear of the cabin. The engine seems to have been a 40 hp 3-cylinder Anzani. With a higher-powered engine, Mainguet at first succeeded at first only in running into the trees, and later in some prolonged hops.
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Mamet
A well-known pilot and former mechanic of Louis Bleriot's - he had worked for Bleriot since 1907 - Julien Mamet introduced a monoplane of his own design in 1911 intended to fly around the world; it was also registered at the Concours Militaire of 1911. The machine resembled the Antoinette rather than the Bleriot, though slightly smaller. The pilot sat behind and slightly higher than his passenger in a long Antoinette-style fuselage with a flat rectangular tank in front of him as a windscreen. The wing panels were rectangular at the fuselage, but the trailing edges then angled forward to elliptical wingtips. The machine sat tail high, on a third wheel trailing behind the forward pair; a semicircular elevator was hinged to a rectangular tailplane; the rudder was a large polygon. Though the aeroplane was registered for the Concours Militaire with a 100 hp Gnome, it appeared in photographs dated October 1911 with a 60 or 80 hp radial Anzani.
(Span: c 12 m; empty weight: 570 kg; apparently a variety of engines)
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Martinaisse
One photo shows this odd pusher monoplane outside a hangar marked REP. The long rectangular wings lacked dihedral, but the inner panels were hinged at the center-line, presumably for lateral control, since otherwise there was only a forward biplane elevator cell. The pilot sat in a low-slung car, and the rest of the airframe was a long uncovered overhead beam. The engine was set into the rear of the car, driving a 4-bladed propeller through chains, or perhaps a belt.
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Farman, Maurice
Henry's brother Maurice began as a balloonist, and took Henry up with him once. In 1909 he designed and built his own aeroplane:
MF 1: In December 1909 Maurice brought out his first machine, evidently having been designed with an eye on his brother's design and those of the early Voisins. It showed the split single forward elevator of the Henry Farman Ibis, the ailerons (lower wing only) of the later Ibis, the biplane tail cell with the 2 inset rudders of the same machine. The pointed nacelle was covered, like the Voisin, and on occasion featured end-plate side-curtains.
(Span: 11 m; wing area: 50 sqm; loaded weight: 580 kg; REP)
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Type Coupe Michelin: Resembling a simplified development of the MF 1, this handsome aeroplane flew in March 1910 and towards the end of the year in the Coupe Michelin, showing what became for a while the Maurice Farman trademark: a forward elevator with curved tips mounted on large gracefully curved outriggers, 2 oval tailplanes and 2 rudders. 2 wheels supported the aircraft, with 2 small tailwheels at the rear. It first had equal-span wings with curved tips and side-curtains near the ends; then the upper wing was lengthened and the side-curtains removed. Ailerons were hung from the lower wings.
(Span: 11 m; length: 12.75 m; wing area: 50 sqm; loaded weight: 500 kg; speed: 80 kmh; 50 hp Renault V8)
MF ? This handsome staggered biplane appeared at the 1911 Paris Salon. Ailerons were set at the top wing trailing edge.
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MF2: Designed for the 1911 Concours Militaire, this big strongly staggered (30°) 3-place biplane had a biplane tail cell with the lower surface an oval. The uprights in the outriggers were staggered as well. A seaplane version of the Militaire, numbered 5, and flown by Renaux, flew at Monaco in March 1912.
(Span: 20 m (lower: 15.5 m); length: 13 m; empty weight: 689 kg; loaded weight: 1000 kg; 75 hp Renault)
A later version flew in 1913, also with staggered wings, uprights in the tail outriggers, but a forward-sloping set of tail posts.
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A seaplane version of the Militaire, numbered 5, and flown by Renaux, flew at Monaco in March 1912.
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MF 10: This handsome big seaplane was shown at the 1913 Salon in Paris, the first Maurice Farman with the single low-set tailplane and 2 triangular rudders set on top. The top wings overhung substantially, and there was no forward elevator.
(Length: 9.68 m; Renault)
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MF 11: Like the Type 7, the 2-seater 11 in its produced form, the 11bis, was the ancestor of hundreds of machines used by the Armee de l'Air in WWI. It was similar to the MF 10.
(Span: 16.13 m; length: 9.48 m; wing area: 52 sqm; empty weight: 620 kg; loaded weight: 945 kg; speed: 118 kmh; Renault)
Possibly derived from the MF 11 was a hydro numbered 17, piloted by Renaux at Monaco. It used 2 big floats and 2 bubble floats aft.
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Maurin et Willaume
Associated with another builder, Willaume, Louis Maurin built 2 monoplanes at Nice, called Nicois I and II. The first was a tiny machine resembling a rowboat set on 2 wheels, with a propeller fitted to the very bow. The rudder and curved elevator were fixed at the end of a 3-spar outrigger, fabric-covered. The wings, to which the undercarriage was attached, were nearly flat, with a large angle of attack.
(Length: c 4 m)
His second machine was less simple and bulkier, with a low-set triangular covered fuselage. A heavy water-cooled inline motor set behind its radiator drove a tractor propeller; the pilot sat in a bucket seat high on the rear fuselage behind the wing. Small ailerons were set into the outer trailing edges of the thick rectangular wings. A 2-piece rectangular tailplane pivoted on top of the aft fuselage; the rectangular rudder was fitted well behind. The machine was said to have made "bright flights" at the field at La Brague.
(Span: 9 m; length: 7 m; 45 hp inline Clement-Bayard)
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Mazoyer
In St Etienne, near Lyon, Marius Mazoyer created the firm Metalloplan which offered spare parts and bearings for aeroplane builders. He specialized in metalwork, and also walnut propellers priced at only 125F. This low price angered his competitors and drew attention to his firm. He built one Metalloplan monoplane at the end of 1910; it was offered for sale at only 8000F, 1/3 the going price of the 25 hp Bleriot XI, "after a flight of 10 km in closed-circuit." It was flown early the next year by Burrel, and crashed, badly, on 10 January. The aircraft was very similar to the Bleriot XI, but with a double tailskid and 2 long trailing rectangular elevators.
(Wing area: 25 sqm; 25 hp Anzani)
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Melin
Designed by Ernoult and Coanda and assembled by Berthaud in Lyon in 1912, the Melin monoplane resembled the early Nieuports. The rare photographs are slightly different from the builder's descriptions; it is not certain that the projected variants were all built. The frame was made up of pressed steel strips; the single wing spar was a steel tube, and the ribs were pressed by the Arbel company. The rectangular fuselage was covered in front with steel sheets, and 3-millimeter armor plates were options for military variants. The wings were fabric-covered, except at the roots, which had transparent panels let in. The airfoil was the Eiffel No 8 section.
There were no bracing pylons, the landing and flying wires being attached directly to the upper and lower longerons to save weight and drag. The first descriptions did not include a vertical rudder, but only 2 shark-like fins, and ailerons which were hinged only to lift and act as spoilers for both glide and roll. Later descriptions mentioned "conjugated ailerons made with metal plates." Photographs show a more conventional tail; the ailerons do not show. The 2 wheels were set at the bottom of a single vertical leg which may have carried a shock-absorber.
(Single-seater- span: 9 m; length: c 6 m; wing area: c 14 sqm; empty weight: 260 kg; gross weight: 420 kg; 50 or 80 hp Gnome)
(2-seater, perhaps not built - span: 11m; length: 7 m; wing area: 18 sqm; empty weight: 320 kg; 80 or 100 hp Gnome)
A photograph shows what is perhaps a later version of the first design, a handsome 50 or 80 hp Gnome monoplane with an all-covered fuselage, a long-chord stabilizer and the 2 shark-teeth fin and rudder. There was a single pylon, the wings warped, and the undercarriage resembled that of the Antoinette.
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Later Melin worked out a much more advanced design, also perhaps never built: a large flyingboat with a pair of biplane wings set on top of the hull at each end; a glassed-in cockpit was in front, and a row of circular windows along each side. A pair of contra-rotating propellers was mounted on a pylon above the hull amidships; wingtips floats were attached to the tips of both lower wings, all of which were designed to fold.
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Moisant
John Moisant was American, born of French-speaking Canadians. He was about 40 when he went to France to learn how to fly, and in 1909 he designed the first of 2 curious aeroplanes. It was an all-metal sesquiplane, the upper wing of long aluminum sheets with 6 rolling chordwise corrugations, each supported by a rectangular chordwise plate underneath. The center-section ran back and became the tail with a nicely rounded elevator at the end, and an oval rudder with a large round hole in it underneath. The whole assembly was mounted on 5 struts above the streamlined boat-like fuselage, in turn made of steel sheets in case of accidental landing on water. A short stub wing helped support the upper wing and the spidery 2-wheeled undercarriage, and a tailwheel on long legs kept the end of the machine off the ground. A forward elevator was controlled with a long rod. It was not successful, having a tendency to turn over on the ground, though a note in Popular Mechanics for September 1910 reports several short flights. It was painted red and known as L'Ecrevisse (crayfish).
(Wing area: 24 sqm; empty weight: 250 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
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Using parts from this ambitious design he built a second, more conventional monoplane, apparently retaining the fuselage and tailwheel. Conventional monoplane wings were mounted at deck-level, the undercarriage was simplified and attached directly to the fuselage, and a large teardrop-shaped fin and rudder assembly was mounted at the very stern. Painted black, it was called Le Corbeau (crow), and did little better than his first effort. Both machines may have been built at Clement-Bayard. He later backed 2 of his pilots, Roland Garros and Edmond Audemars, who wanted to build a Gnome-powered copy of the Demoiselle: it was hoped it would be known as the Baby Moisant. Also in 1911 his firm built a Farman-type pusher biplane with one rudder set ahead of the 2 on the trailing edge of the tailplane.
He returned to the United States and founded the Moisant International Aviators, a traveling flying circus, and was killed on 31 December 1910 while practicing for an air meet in New Orleans.
His brother Alfred founded his own flying school, and in 1914 built at least one Morane-style monoplane of his own design for another American, Harold Kantner; powered by a 50 hp Gnome, it was called the Bluebird.
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Molon
In 1911 2 monoplanes with this name appeared; the first, a single-seater, resembled the Bleriot XI but with trapezoidal wings with wire trailing edges, a more rounded rudder, and elliptical tailplane with standard elevators. The fuselage was completely uncovered. The second monoplane may have been a 2-seater, otherwise similar to the first.
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Montgolfier
Between 1910 and 1913 Raymond de Montgolfier followed, though less successfully, in the footsteps of his aeronautical ancestors. Photographs suggest he built at least 4 different aeroplanes.
1. A Demoiselle copy, with 3 tiny trailing wheels, the wings almost flat and with a high angle of attack, and 2 small rudders above and below a rounded tailplane and elevator. It is reported to have been built at the shops of Louis and Laurent Seguin, inventors of the Gnome rotary engines, and de Montgolfiefs cousins. It had a non-Santos feature of a fabric fairing on each side from the wing trailing edge root up to the upper fuselage beam. But the machine was fitted with a 3-cylinder Anzani or Viale - why not a 50 hp Gnome instead, if the Seguins built it? The aeroplane was taken to Issy in May 1910 and damaged there on 1 June by Lt Bier; it was flown again early in September by one of the Bonnet-Labranche brothers.
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2. This was generally called the Raymond de Montgolfier No 1, a huge twin-float seaplane, the monoplane wings slightly upcurved and with a high angle of attack. The pilot sat in the short uncovered fuselage with the 45 hp water-cooled V4 Mors automobile engine which drove 2 propellers, one at each end. The tail was comprised of 2 triangular rudders and a triangular elevator, and was braced by uncovered tail booms. Since Montgolfier was too short-sighted to fly himself, the first runs were made by Almyre Janvier; on 13 July 1910 in one of the first tests, it taxied into a fisherman's pole and the starboard wing and tail unit were torn apart.
(Span: 16 m; length: 15 m)
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3. Sometimes called R de M No 2, it was tested at Bron in November 1911. Built at the shops of lacob et Cathelin, it was covered with sky-blue fabric, and with its long fuselage resembled a shorter-legged RER It was powered initially with a 24 hp air-cooled flat twin Coudert Aerien, and later re-powered with a 70 hp radial Anzani and equipped with floats to be tested on the Lake of Paladru. There, at the end of 1911 or early in 1912, Montgolfier is said to have crashed with his mechanic "in a floatplane of his own design" from a height of 6 m.
4. A "new Montgolfier monoplane" was reported at the end of July 1912, to be flown for the first time on 10 August 1912. It was similar to the previous machine, and may have been the same aeroplane with changes: the rectangular wings had more camber, and used wing-warping; a 3-legged pylon above the fuselage replaced the inverted V mast of No 2. Janvier earned his brevet No 1195 on this aeroplane. The machine was sometimes referred to as R & M No 3, but no markings showed on this or any of Montgolfier's other aircraft.
(Span: c 11 m; radial engine, probably Anzani)
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Borel
In 1909 Gabriel Borel and his brother began their interest in aviation and founded a flying school at Mourmelon. He collected a stable of young men who were to become famous on their own, including Antoine Odier, Francois Denhaut, Leon Morane, Jules Vedrines, Rene Simon, and Raymond Saulnier. At first they sold Bleriots and Bleriot copies; Morane and Saulnier developed the little monoplane known first as Morane-Borel, which in various developments became famous in meets and races all over France. But in 1911 the Borel brothers stole a L 1000 check sent to Jules Vedrines, and their whole team abandoned them. Morane and Saulnier went on to develop the monoplane series known as Morane and Morane-Saulnier; their designs flew through World War II. They appointed Antoine Odier, who designed further monoplanes known sometimes as Borel - sometimes as Borel-Odier. Denhaut, the flyingboat designer, worked for the Borels, and his work was known as Borel-Denhaut; the work of Ruby was a single machine, the odd aero-torpille Borel-Ruby.
Between 1910 and 1914 Borel designed a series of monoplanes, seaplanes, and flyingboats. In the meantime, the Borel firm also produced Morane-Saulniers; and during the course of WWI, Caudrons, Nieuports, and Spads as well. The complete series designation system for Borel is unclear.
Borel-Moranes: Based originally on the Bleriot XI, to the design of which as well as of the early Moranes Raymond Saulnier had contributed heavily, the Borel-Moranes were very similar also to each other. Mostly 2-seaters with V-leg undercarriages and twin tailskids, they varied in several features:
engines (usually Gnome or Anzani)
elevators, either oyster-shell-tip style or full-width with tip balances raked either forward or aft
pyramid-shaped pylon for wing bracing
double tailskids, either braced from the front, or long and trailing, braced from behind
wing panels usually 11, 12, or 17 ribs long
undercarriage skids longer or shorter or absent (one model had no cross-axle)
fuselage covering, fully covered or partly, in various proportions
cowling shape in front of the pilot
Some samples:
1910 (?): A light Bleriot look-alike with 12 ribs/panel, a Bleriot XI rudder, tip elevators, and a single tailskid.
1911: In the Exposition, a 12-rib single-seater and a 17-rib 2-seater, each fully covered, with trailing skids, fully covered fuselages, and balanced elevators with back-raked balances; the latter appeared with a belly-pad under the center fuselage. Also, an experimental all-metal fuselage with twin cockpit cut-outs.
Also: Vedrines' and Mestach's 12-rib single seaters with wheel-skids, trailing tailskids, and forward-raked tip elevators. An 11-rib single-seater with back-braced skids, marked VIII on the rudder. A pretty 2-seater with fully cowled Gnome and balanced elevators.
Morane-Saulnier
Raymond Saulnier's early designs are described in the section under his name. In 1911 he and his friends Leon Morane and Gabriel Borel joined to form a new firm, La Societe Anonyme des Aeroplanes Morane-Borel-Saulnier, and built the Morane-Borel monoplane flown by Jules Vedrines in the Paris-Madrid flight of 21-26 May - and in several other meets as well; and a 2-seater.
Morane-Borel: This was a single-seater similar to the Bleriot XI, but with a simple V-leg landing gear with a small skid at each wheel, a tall double tailskid aft, elliptical wingtips and a high rectangular rudder; the tailplane was fitted with tip elevators. The aft fuselage was sometimes left uncovered.
(Span: 9.3 m; length: 6.9 m; wing area: 14.5 sqm; top speed: 111 kmh; 50 hp Gnome)
A 2-seater was entered in the 1911 Concours Militaire; it was similar to the single-seater, but with a larger multi-strut 4-wheel undercarriage, and a tall angular rudder. The fuselage was short in proportion, with the rear section uncovered. At least once it was fitted with a pair of small wheels forward.
On 10 October 1911 the firm changed its name to Societe Anonyme des Aeroplanes Morane-Saulnier.
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On 10 October 1911 the firm changed its name to Societe Anonyme des Aeroplanes Morane-Saulnier, and showed 4 new monoplanes at the 1911 Exposition:
PP: a single-seater with a simple V-leg landing gear, tip elevators fitted to the tailplane, with the wing trailing edge raked forward and the wingtips raked forward as well, built for Maurice Tabuteau for his Pau-Paris flight of 1912 (hence PP).
(Span: 9.2 m; length: 6.12 m; wing area: 14.9 sqm; empty weight: 280 kg; speed: 114 kmh; 50 hp Gnome)
Type A Ecole: part Morane, part Borel, apparently a single-seater with a Borel-type undercarriage with a pair of wheels on each side, and a cowling extension over the top of the engine. 2 Morane-Saulniers, perhaps Type As, were delivered to the Army in 1912.
Type B Ecole: a tandem 2-seater similar to Type A Ecole.
(Span: 10.2 m; length: 6.12 m; wing area: 16 sqm; empty weight: 325 kg; 80 hp Gnome)
Type C: a single-seater with a 4-wheel undercarriage of steel struts.
(Wing area: 14 sqm; 35 hp engine)
Type HS Ecole: a 2-seater with a 4-wheel undercarriage with wood struts.
(Wing area: 16 and 18 sqm; 50 hp Gnome)
Hydro Canard single-seater: not finished.
(Wing area: 16 sqm; 70 hp engine)
Design built for Rebikoff: a 3-seater.
(Wing area: 21 sqm; 70 hp engine)
Type Canton: a 3-seater.
(Wing area: 21 sqm; 90 hp Canton)
Type J: a 2-seat touring monoplane.
(Wing area: 15 sqm; 80 hp Gnome)
Type E: a single-seater.
(Wing area: 14 sqm; 80 hp Gnome)
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Type TB (Torpille-Blindee): a streamlined armored military 2-seater with separated square cockpits, rounded all-steel-covered fuselage, and a 4-wheeled undercarriage. A Donnet-Leveque marked with the race-number 10, the hull resembles the The nose was faired in and there was a series of circular cooling holes cut around the propeller shaft.
(Span: 11.2 m; length: 7.5 m; wing area: 28 sqm; empty weight: 375 kg; 80 hp Gnome)
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Type Renault: a very pretty racy-looking 2-seater at the 1912 Paris Exposition, featuring a V-leg undercarriage and separated seats.
(Wing area: 20 sqm; 80 hp V8 Renault)
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Type Garros: In 1912 the firm built a small monoplane for Roland Garros, who flew it from Tunis to Sicily, and then in stages to Rome. A similar but slightly larger machine followed it, also for Garros, and fitted with floats for his Monaco attempt in 1913. Later in 1913 Morane-Saulnier built 2 more monoplanes for Garros, and in one of them he flew from St Raphael in France to Bizerte in Africa. Work on these monoplanes culminated in the Types G (2-seater), and H (single-seater).
Type G: This straightforward 2-seat monoplane set the standard for many of the following M-S designs. The wing was untapered, and the tips raked forward. The undercarriage was of simple V-design with a V-brace to the center of the axle. The engine was half-covered in a horse-shoe-shaped cowl. An Ecole version with a 3-cylinder Anzani had skids and a support structure under the propeller. Several 3-float seaplane versions were built and raced. There were 2 versions of the basic G - the GA and the GB:
(GA: span: 14 m; speed: 12-124 kmh; 60 hp Gnome, 60 hp Le Rhone)
(GB: span: 16 m; 60 hp and 80 hp Gnome, 80 hp Le Rhone; speed: 123-125 kmh)
Type H: a widely-used single-seater resembling the Type G: perhaps it preceded it. Grahame-White license-built them in England. Several 3-float versions were built as well.
Another M-S monoplane appeared in 1912, with the trapezoidal-tapered wings of the much later Moranes and Nieuports.)
Type O: Similar to the Type H, it was built for the Monaco rally; flown by Roland Garros in the London-Paris race, it featured a reflex airfoil section.
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Type Biplan: a Farman look-alike seaplane which flew at Monaco, with Morane-Saulnier painted on the nacelle.
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Demoiselle: The firm attempted in 1913 to build a commercial variant of the successful Santos-Dumont machine; it was a side-by-side 2-seater, with a Gnome engine mounted low in a ring cowling and Morane-Saulnier wings and tail surfaces.
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Type Garros: In 1912 the firm built a small monoplane for Roland Garros, who flew it from Tunis to Sicily, and then in stages to Rome. A similar but slightly larger machine followed it, also for Garros, and fitted with floats for his Monaco attempt in 1913. Later in 1913 Morane-Saulnier built 2 more monoplanes for Garros, and in one of them he flew from St Raphael in France to Bizerte in Africa. Work on these monoplanes culminated in the Types G (2-seater), and H (single-seater).
Type K: a racing hydro monoplane with a huge engine.
(Wing area: 15 sqm; 160 hp Gnome)
Type K: a hydro.
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Type G Parasol: The first Morane parasol, it was a 2-seater based on the Type G.
(Wing area: 16 sqm; 80 hp engine)
Type L: This 2-seater (sometimes a single-seater) parasol with warping wings appeared in 1913; it was similar to the earlier monoplanes. A somewhat later wartime development, the Type LA, had ailerons.
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Type M: an armored version of the G, with a flat disc covering the engine in front.
(Span: 10.4 m; length: 6.3 m; weight: 490 kg; speed: 122.3 kmh)
Type WR: a 2-seat armored version of the Type G was built for the Russian navy; it featured wing-root cutouts, an elongated nose, and odd glazed panels on each side, protruding out like radiators. The Type VR was similar.
(Wing area: 18 sqm; 80 hp Gnome)
Type M: This was a single-seater monoplane which appeared in 1913.
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Type N: This was a 1914 racing design.
(Wing area: 11 sqm; 80 hp Gnome)
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1856 Mouillard
Louis-Pierre Mouillard was born in Lyon in 1835, and early became interested in flight, especially bird-flight: he began weighing and measuring birds. His actual experiments and patents in the course of his life amounted to very little, but his big book L 'Empire de I 'Air, published in 1881 and republished in their Annual Report by the Smithsonian Institution in 1893 as The Empire of the Air, was widely read, and served to focus attention on the need to understand gliding and soaring before undertaking powered flight.
He built his first glider in 1856 in Lyon, but it was too weak, and he abandoned it. Moving later to Algeria, he built 2 more: the last one weighed 72.6 kg, and consisted of monoplane wings made of thin wood stiffened by aloe ribs, with the pilot standing in an opening cut between them. The wings were hinged upwards, and at the conclusion of his first hop (unexpected), which covered some 45 meters, he fell, breaking the glider. Rebuilt, it flew once more, but in a gust the wings folded up on him. and he sprained his shoulder. He moved to Cairo in 1865. where in 1878 he began his 4th glider, a monoplane with a fan-shaped tail, adjustable sweep-back and what looked like ailerons but were in fact differential air-brakes to slow down one wing or the other for turn control.
In 1891 Octave Chanute got in touch with Mouillard, and offered to help him finance the new glider. In the course of his work Mouillard suggested to Chanute the use of rockets for propulsion and aluminum for structure, but was dissuaded in both cases. The machine was finished in 1895 and tested unsuccessfully in 1896. His US patent was awarded in 1897.
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Mullot
The brothers Mullot built 2 early aeroplanes. The first was a handsome low-wing monoplane with considerable dihedral, the 4 wing spars on the top surface and the ribs nearly flat; large ailerons were hinged to the trailing edge. It had an uncovered box-frame fuselage, a large free-standing scalloped rudder, and a long triangular tailplane and rear elevator.
A single photograph titled "La Ferte Alais - Biplane des Fils Mulot" shows a Farman-Iike machine with a small biplane forward elevator cell mounted high on forward outriggers; free-hanging ailerons hinged to the front outermost interplane struts; twin small rudders and 2 wheels. The tips and trailing edges of all the surfaces were deeply scalloped.
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Nau
Two monoplanes are known to have been designed by Robert Nau. If the "Nault from Paris" was indeed Robert Nau, then he was also responsible for the Nault ornithopter.
The first monoplane appeared in 1909, a big one, with rectangular wings set low on the forward fuselage: their angle of attack at the roots was less than at the tips. The top longerons of the uncovered fuselage ran back and out to become the tailplane. A high bridge structure served as pylon on top; the whole machine sat on 2 castering wheels, and high on a small tailwheel. A 3-cylinder Anzani was mounted at the level of the lower longerons in front. The aeroplane was not successful.
Nault
In the summer of 1908 an unknown "Nault from Paris" tested an ornithopter monoplane at Brest. The pilot sat behind mica windows in a streamlined fuselage, clearly anticipating high speeds. This Nault may well have been Robert Nau, whose designs appeared the following year but whose name was listed among owners and builders of 1908.
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The second was probably little better than the first, though it was claimed to have flown at Juvisy in 1910. The long tapered fuselage was covered on the sides only halfway from the nose; a strange cruciform tail unit with a round rudder and triangular fin was supported at the aft end. The thick wings were much shorter than on the first design, and were set higher on the fuselage; each panel had a small kingpost at mid-span and was braced to the same bridge pylon as before. The elaborate 2-wheel undercarriage was of steel tube and fitted with long skids.
(Span: 13 m; length: 12 m; wing area: 24 sqm; 60 hp Renault)
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Nieuport
The first company founded by Edouard Nieuport, formerly de Nieport, was a small firm producing spark-plugs and magnetos for automobile engines. Early interested in heavier-than-air flying machines, he also furnished some of the electrical equipment for the Antoinette engine fitted to Henry Farman's Voisin when it flew on 13 January 1908, the year in which he founded his first - and unsuccessful - aeronautical company. From his racing cycle experience, he was interested from the beginning in streamlined shapes. At first he thought aviation could be nothing but a sport, and he sought always for speed.
At the end of 1908 he built his first aeroplane, with the help of his brother Charles, the Swiss Jacques Schneider, and his grandparents' money. His monoplane, powered with a 20 hp 2-cylinder watercooled Darracq, had an abbreviated deep fuselage which almost completely protected the pilot from the airflow. The tail was supported on outriggers. Completed and flown in 1909, it was destroyed by a Seine flood.
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IVG: This model was a similar to the Type II, but larger, a single, 2-, or 3-seater, powered by a Gnome.
IVM: A slightly-modified Type IV, with 3 seats, the military Type IVM won the first military contest ever held, in 1911. This type was later sold to the armed forces of Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, and Russia. With the Bleriot XI it was the first aircraft involved in a war, in Italy, in 1911. The armored version saw service in France as late as 1915. Though fast, these later Type IVs, in 1912-1913-1914, climbed at less than 2 m/sec at their best, and provided poor downward visibility: attempts were made in 1912 to improve the view by reducing the wing chord on each side between the fuselage and the first wing rib. One such was shown at the 1913 Paris Salon and flown by Espanet at Reims in 1913. It had a smaller wing and a fully enclosed 50 hp Gnome - a beautiful aeroplane.
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The first Nieuport seaplane was developed by the firm in 1912 from a Type IVG, to which were fitted 2 main floats said to have been designed by Gustave Delage. They were of a thick T-section with a maximum depth of 52 cm. The first variant of these floats had only one step; later and longer ones had up to 3. They all had little winglets on their noses which prevented pitching into the water. A third small float, streamlined and of circular cross-section, was attached under the tail. On later types in 1913, the rudder was raised to keep it out of the water.
The Nieuport seaplanes had one cockpit for 2 or 3 people, and longer wings than the landplane versions. They were sold to private owners and to the French Navy. They all used rotary engines of 80 to 100 hp: Le Rhones, Gnomes, or Clergets.
VI: The second seaplane design, Type VI(?), retained the shape of the IVM, but had 2 cockpits in tandem for the pilot and observer, and a small fixed vertical fin in front of the rudder. These were powered with either the 100 hp Gnome or the 80 hp Le Rhone, and could stay aloft for three hours. Produced in smaller numbers than the IV-series, they saw service mainly with the French and British navies, some as late as 1917.
(Length: 6.8 m; wing area: 12.4 sqm)
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X: The 2-seat X, and the XI, were entirely different machines, both monoplanes. The XI was designed for cavalry support and dirigible interception, but they proved unsuccessful. They had untapered wings of different spans, larger elevators and simplified undercarriages.
(2-seater, passenger in front): span: 12.3 m; length: 5.8 m; wing area: 14.1 sqm; weight: 401 kg; speed; 115 kmh; 80 hp)
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XI: This monoplane came in single - and 2-place versions, each with a choice of engines.
(Single-seater: span: 9 m; length: 6.49 m; wing area: 14.5 sqm; weight: 270 kg; speeds with 50-60-80 hp: 110-115-120 kmh)
(2-seater: span: 8.9 m; length: 5.84 m; wing area: 14.1 sqm; weight: 270 kg; speeds with 50-60-80 hp: 109-115-124 kmh)
They were fast, with the 100 hp Gnome (145 kmh with 2 men), and climbed at 2.2 m/sec. On one of these machines, equipped with long wings and without armor, Legagneux broke the world altitude record and reached 6,160 m in 1913.
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Very little is known about a third seaplane design from the Nieuport firm. Built in 1912-13, it was a large sesquiplane with a short central fuselage for a crew of 2 or 3, and a 110 hp Salmson engine installed as a pusher. The tail surfaces were mounted at the ends of 2 long booms fabricated of compressed paper. The machine was reported to have been an armored design for military use only, eventually to mount a forward-firing machine-gun. Only one was built and flown.
(Span: (upper) 15 m; (lower) 7 m; length: 7.5 m; wing area: 40 sqm; speed: 110 kmh)
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It is likely that the sole pre-War sesquiplane designed by the Nieuport firm for the 1914 Gordon-Bennett Cup, and eventually developed into the fighter series of 1915, was directly descended from the Type Leger, the light cavalry monoplane.
After the death of Edouard Nieuport in September 1911, and Charles' fatal crash in 1913, the company was eventually taken over by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, who saved it from bankruptcy in 1913, even though it was then the third largest aircraft firm in the world, by the start of the War behind only Bleriot and Farman. The company thus was able to survive the 1918 cancellation by the Army of its production contract for the Nieuport monoplanes. These machines were reliable but by that time inefficient, and the Army ordered the Voisin biplane instead.
Though there seem no accurate figures on the production of the pre-War Nieuport monoplanes, it is safe to assume that about 150 of them in one form or another were built, including those built during the war as trainers for the Nieuport Company's own flying school. Nieuports were built under license by Macchi in Italy and by the Nieuport subsidiary in England.
The first of the Nieuport sesquiplanes was the Model X, built in 1914; Patent No 477.457 was taken out on 30 Jan 1915, and called for a ball joint for the attachment of the lower wings to allow for incidence adjustment. The resulting semicircular fittings for the outboard struts remained in production even though the original design intent was never implemented!
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Noel
At least 3 Noels were involved in pre-WWI French aviation. Andre Noel was an oft-publicized Bleriot XI pilot; Jules Noel was a pilot for Roger Sommer and was killed in a Sommer on 9 February 1911; and Louis Noel was a designer and builder.
While still flying his Bleriot, Andre was reported building an "extra rapide" monoplane; and at the end of October 1910 he claimed a top speed of 100 kmh with a 5-cylinder 50 hp Anzani in his new machine, Le Moineau (sparrow). At about the same time, Alessandro Anzani is reported to have bought from a Noel - very likely Andre - a shed at Issy "with everything locked inside."
Before becoming a Sommer pilot, Jules had built at least 3 aeroplanes of his own at Carignan, in the south of France. A postcard dated 1910 shows his No 3, a monoplane with an uncovered rear fuselage, and Bleriot-style kingposts; the undercarriage consisted of 2 vertical struts side by side with a long cross-axle, the whole wire-braced.
(Empty weight: 210 kg; 25 hp Anzani)
The first aeroplane designed by Louis Noel (sometimes mistakenly called Paul Noel) appeared in 1911; completed in April, it was flying in June. An unequal-span biplane with an all-tubing airframe for disassembly, it had an uncovered box fuselage with a rudder hinged at the tail and a huge tail plane set ahead of it. After brief testing at the end of June, the Anzani was replaced with a Viale - itself an Anzani copy - and the balance was changed. Later a Gnome was installed.
(Span: (upper) 12 m; (lower) 8 m; length: 9.5 m; wing area: 32 sqm)
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Louis Noel's next design, also in 1911, was based on the Caudron, with rectangular wings and 2 small triangular rudders set below a large tailplane with an elevator hinged at the rear. There were flaps set between the wings, perhaps for roll control. The pilot sat in an uncovered nacelle behind the tractor engine.
In 1912 Louis was also reported as flying the Paumier biplane, which he may have helped design or build, since his first known biplane and the Paumier were similar. In 1914 he showed another Noel biplane, this one designed with a man called de Rue, who was in fact Captain Ferdinand Ferber. The large covered nacelle sat 2 in tandem, and was set between the large unequal-span wings. Large ailerons were fitted to the upper wings, and drooping panels were set inboard of the ailerons as air-brakes for landing. The rectangular tailplane was mounted above the rudder, the whole assembly attached to the wings with a Farman-Iike set of tractor outriggers. The machine sat high on 2 pairs of wheels, and the tractor Gnome was nicely cowled.
(Span: (upper) 15 m; length 9.5 m; empty weight: 450 kg; 80 hp Gnome)
Jules Noel's designs are likely to have been more numerous than these; he was frequently mentioned between 1908 and 1912 as an enthusiast of flying machines, but not as a pilot. In 1912 he founded a small automobile company that continued until 1925.
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Nord Aviation
Fernand Scrive and his son organized a flying club called Nord Aviation, which published aeronautical articles in 1908 and 1909. The school carried on many manned glider experiments; several of these biplane gliders were shown at the Paris Salon of 1909, both with the top wings horizontal and the lower wings angled sharply up; they flew in public at the 1909 air meet at Tournai, in Belgium. The most famous was designed by Scrive, with a short top wing and a much larger lower wing. The tail unit had a tiny tailplane and a large vertical fin with triangular trailing edge; the whole unit was set on a single thin boom braced with a kingpost. The pilot hung by his elbows beneath the wings. The glider was later modified with a different tail and 2 small wheels forward, with a skid at the trailing edge of the lower wing. The glider was sometimes referred to as the Scrive-Van Damme, for the pilot.
(Span: (lower) 8.5 m; wing area: 24 sqm; length: 7 m; weight: 25 kg)
Another was designed by Didier Scrive and Marcel Coquard, and was similar to Fernand's except with equal-span wings. The tail was cruciform and set on a shorter outrigger; the initials SG were painted on the rudder.
(Span: 6.5 m; wing area: 26 sqm)
Another machine spanned 5 m with skids underneath: the pilot was to pull up his legs above the skids for landing.
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Norrep-Lau
This firm built at least one Nieuport copy, one with an Edelweiss radial engine. "Norrep" is Perron, reversed.
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Obre
While Emile Obre was working as a mechanic in Morteau, he learned of the aeronautical experiments of the Wrights and Santos-Dumont, and he was attracted to the new sport; by 1908 he had designed his first aeroplane.
1. It was a monoplane with a fuselage of uncovered steel tubing. perhaps suggested by the REP designs. The engine was mounted behind the leading edge of the wing, and drove the tractor propeller through a long shaft; the pilot sat behind the engine. At the rear, functioning as extensions of the 2 upper longerons, were the tailplane and elevator; a long rectangular rudder was set below, hinged to the castering tail wheel. 2 short semicircular wings were fitted to either side, with a longer-than-wide rectangular panel formed with an reverse-curve airfoil section fixed high above.
(Wing area: 38 sqm; 3-cylinder 30 hp Anzani)
It was soon modified, with an extended fuselage and a triangular elevator hinged to the very stern. The rudder had a new cut-out on its leading edge, and the wings were longer with pointed tips. On 18 January 1909 it was damaged at Issy.
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2. The second aeroplane designed by Obre was designated No 3, equally unsuccessful, also tested at Issy in the summer of 1909. It was similar to the Henry Farman III, with a biplane forward elevator and biplane tailplane with a single rudder between. Ailerons were set into all 4 wing panels; the airfoil section was a gentle reverse curve similar to that on the odd upper panel of his first machine. It stood on 2 wheels under the engine, and 2 tailwheels at the tips of the tailplane. The engine was a 4-cylinder inline water-cooled model, possibly a 40 hp Chenu.
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3. The next Obre machine was a tractor monoplane ordered by the Comte de Noue and built at the shops of an automobile-builder, Bottiaux. It was sometimes described as the de Noue monoplane designed by Horber or Herber, an error for Obre. The fuselage was long, a very thin box, covered only amidships. The warping wings were rectangular with square tips and a good deal of dihedral; there were 2 rectangular tailplanes close together at the same levels with a triangular fin and small rudder on top. The undercarriage comprised 2 Bleriot-style legs, with 2 extra S-curved skids; a castering tailwheel brought up the rear. A flat-twin engine drove the tractor propeller through a long shaft. It first flew on 6 April 1910; Obre's license received on it was dated 19 July 1910; and De Noue crashed it 9 days later at an airshow at Rennes, in Brittany. A slightly different version had a tall Bleriot-style pylon instead of a single tall inverted Y; the skids had disappeared.
(Span: 11m; length: 10 m; wing area: 21 sqm; gross weight: 300 kg; 50 hp flat twin air-cooled Darracq)
4. The last Obre was based on the Bleriot XI, this time with a 50 hp Gnome. The fuselage was covered from the nose to the back of the cockpit; small triangular fins with a single tall rudder were set above and below the rear of the fuselage, with a large split elevator and rectangular tailplane carried by a long skid. The wingtips were curved at the trailing edges, clearly distinguishing this machine from de Noue's. It was flying at Issy in 1911; Obre had flown it in several shows, showing little skill as a pilot.
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Odier-Vendome biplane: Henri Rougier was born in Marseille, the location of the automobile firm Turcat-Mery: he became a race driver, using Turcat-Mery cars. He learned to fly in 1909, and in 1911 a new firm, Turcat-Mery-Rougier, was established north of Paris at Levallois-Perret to build engines and aeroplanes. He commissioned the firm of Vendome to design him a new machine, a biplane which also carried the name of Odier, Vendome's engineer. It appeared in 1910, with wings on each side arched like spoons from a straight center-section; the odd Vendome eyebrow surfaces appeared at the lower wingtips, though it was also built with ailerons. Tiny wheels were set into arched undercarriage legs. Twin boom structures supported the biplane tail with its semicircular central rudder. It was underpowered with its 18 hp Turcat-Mery engine.
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A second version (No 2?) appeared the same year, this one with less severely arched wings, the 2 booms of the first biplane combined with the single arched tailplane of the Vendomes. 2 small rectangular rudders fitted under the tailplane; the trailing wheels had high curved horns in front to carry the shock cords.
(No 2: span: 8 m; length: 8 m; 18 hp Turcat-Mery)
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Ouarnier
This was a Caudron copy with a 50 hp air-cooled Renault: a large fan was mounted in a housing immediately behind the engine. 2 small square rudders pivoted above a large cut-out in the large rectangular tail; there was a tailplane but no fins. It was tested at La Vidamee in July 1911, and was reportedly being rebuilt in October.
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Pacchiotti
During the summer of 1910 Henri Chazal built a large tractor monoplane for Pacchiotti. It resembled the Bleriot XII, but with a front elevator and a rectangular lifting tailplane set on top of the rear fuselage. The long rectangular rudder hinged on the sternpost was painted PACC 1 in bold capital letters. The wings had triangular ailerons partly set into the wingtips.; the propeller was set on the leading edge, chaindriven from the engine below. The undercarriage consisted of 2 castering main wheels and a fixed tailwheel. Pacchiotti took his monoplane to the airshow at Vichy in 1910 and flew it.
(Span: 9 m; length: 12 m; wing area: 25 sqm; empty weight: 500 kg; 40 hp water-cooled ENV V8)
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Papin et Rouilly
In 1911 A Papin and D Rouilly patented their Gyroptere and built it in 1913 and 1914. The first (if unsuccessful) air-jet helicopter, their machine was based on the sycamore seed, which falls, turning, a one-bladed rotor. Slightly to one side of the axis of rotation was mounted a rotary motor on its back, which drove a turbine to draw air in and force it out the length of the single long airfoil-shaped blade, exiting through a nozzle at the trailing edge of the tip. The blade would turn rapidly, and the gyroscopic force of the motor would lift the blade into a positive angle of attack. Centered on the axis of rotation was the drum in which the pilot sat; it was mounted on ball-bearings and was centered against 4 horizontal rollers. The pilot controlled a separate swiveling air-duct to keep his drum-shaped seat from moving with the blade, and to provide forward thrust in flight.
Beautifully built, with compound curves and a smooth sweep of its blade, the Gyroptere was not a success. It was tested in 1915 on Lake Cercey, near Pouilly-en-Auxois in eastern France. Lead was fitted to improve the balance and increase the rpm; on 31 March it achieved 47 rpm, but was wildly out of balance, and the blade smashed repeatedly into the water, damaging itself and shaking up the pilot. The last photographs show its wing still intact.
(Length: 14 m; empty weight: 380 kg)
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Parent
Of the 2 Parent brothers, one worked at Hanriot in 1909-1910; this may have been Francois, pilot of the first Poulain-Orange, and likely a relative of the car-builder DFP (Doriot, Flandrin, et Parent). In any case, one of the brothers was associated with a Hanriot copy built in 1910. Only the first half of the long square-section fuselage was covered, and the wings were braced from a Bleriot-style pylon. The pilot sat at the trailing edge in a seat high in the fuselage, using a large steering wheel and foot pedals. The 2 elevator control levers were mounted on top of the fuselage behind the pilot. Radiators were mounted vertically on each side, and a tiny tank hung from the crossbar of the pylon to feed the motor by gravity. Later a very similar machine - perhaps the same one with a more rounded nose - was flown at Issy by Ernest Lhoste.
(Span: 12.5 m; length: 10 m; gross area: 32 sqm; 70 hp Labor-Aviation)
The very similar Poulain-Orange had a different engine and tank, and was fully covered: it may have been designed or built by Parent. At the end of 1910, Francois Parent was flying his own monoplane at Issy, showing it at some small airshows.
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In 1911-12 Parent worked with Bruneau and built a very different-seeming aeroplane. Though unsuccessful, it suggested some of the streamlined designs of the 1930s and even later. The monoplane wing, unbraced, probably extended through the fuselage, the pilot's cockpit right in the middle of it; the second seat was well aft of the trailing edge. The outer panels were of greater chord and had a dihedral angle; tiny ailerons were set into the tips. The covered fuselage was deep at the stern, and flat-sided; there was no fin, and the rudder was hinged directly to the fuselage. Inadequate horizontal surfaces rested on top. The motor was fully cowled, with the rectangular radiator lying back at more than 45° from the motor. A 2-wheeled undercarriage was supported by 2 pairs of forward-inclined struts; 2 skids ran forward. The effect was of a rather angular 1930s racing plane. Parent and Bruneau were privates in the army at the time the machine was tested.
(Span; 9 m; length: 9 m; wing area: 22 sqm; 50 hp water-cooled V8 Vivinus)
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Passerat et Radiguet
Automobile-body makers and propeller-makers since 1909, Passerat and Radiguet introduced their monoplane at the 1910 Exposition in Paris. It resembled a Bleriot XI with a stalky 4 parallel-strut undercarriage supplemented with Bleriot-style looped bamboo canes for a skid. Oyster-shell wing-tip ailerons were fitted. The engine was a 4-cylinder radial Berthaud.
By 1911 Berthaud had built a copy of this machine, very likely of metal, referred to as the Moreau-Berthaud Sylphide. At the same time Passerat and Radiguet announced they had registered a design to compete in the 1911 Concours Militaire, but this machine never appeared.
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Paulat
Emile Paulat was building a high-wing monoplane at Marseille in the summer of 1910. It was reported to have automatically-controlled ailerons and a fuselage made of "hammer-wrought steel plates." It may not have been completed.
(Span: 9 m; length: 12 m; gross weight: 490 kg; 40 hp 4-cylinder Turcat-Mery)
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A second biplane followed it, this time with no Fabre girders at all: the wings had steel tube leading edges and main spars, and pairs of thin interplane struts braced both. 2 thin booms supported the front elevator, and a second pair supported the tail. Otherwise it was similar to the first biplane, though seemingly with a wire trailing edge and fixed ribs; it retained the aluminum nacelle. Paulhan flew it in March 1911 at St Cyr. It was easily disassembled for transport.
A third one followed, this time with a single boom replacing the pair of tail outriggers, and a slightly different rib arrangement. Paulhan flew this in May 1911.
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A big triplane was shown in March 1911 at the Concours Militaire, where it achieved no success at all. Although resembling the earlier biplanes, it was quite different in construction. It was a 4-seater designed with the assistance of Antoine Odier, and was built mainly of metal. The 2 spars in each wing were made of 3 tapered tubes screwed together, and the ribs were metal blades protected from corrosion. Assembly was done with collars, clamping bands, and bolted brackets: no welding was used. The machine rested on 2 double pairs of wheels, each double pair with a long skid between them, tipped by another pair of small wheels. The wingtips were fan-shaped with 8 hinged ribs which served as ailerons. 2 semicircular rudders flanked the tailplane, whose trailing edge was linked to the forward elevator. The pilot and 3 passengers sat side by side in 2 rows in the aluminum nacelle which was referred to as "the wooden shoe" because of its shape. The controls consisted of a rudder bar and a vertical lever hanging from the upper wing.
(Span: 13.8 m; length: 10.2 m; wing area: 63 sqm; empty weight: 711 kg; gross weight: 1050 kg; Gnome (at the Concours); a 60 hp air-cooled V8 was subsequently fitted)
The fate of Paulhan's machines a voler is not clear. The triplane flew first at St Cyr where Paulhan had his school and his hangar; the biplane is likely to have been used there as a trainer. But the triplane was still in use in 1912 and was reported sold to a Marchenay School at Juvisy, to be flown by Camille Guillaume de Mauriac. But photographs showing it in flight or even with the motor running are very rare. Paulhan then sponsored the construction of Victor Tatin's Aerotorpille.
During World War I Paulhan was assigned to service in the Balkans, where he was credited with 2 victories in air combat.
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In the 1908 Salon Tatin showed his next monoplane, this one sponsored by Louis Paulhan. It was a handsome development of his previous machine, and named Aero-Torpille No 1. The fuselage was now spindle-shaped ("spindle" in French is "fuseau," hence the word "fuselage"); the wings were again trapezoidal, very thin, set on the top of the fuselage, with Tatin elliptical dihedral. A device to adjust the angle of attack was patented at the end of 1911; it may have been fitted to Aero-Torpille No 1. The engine was inside the fuselage amidships, and a long drive-shaft turning on 5 bearings ran back to the tail-mounted propeller, kept off the ground by a long skid. The undercarriage had 2 wheels each attached at the bottom of inverted wooden arches, the axle running between them. It was reported to fly at about 145 kmh, but was difficult to control. (Bill Hannan, the famous Peanut-scale model-builder, reports that in a recent model meet the little Tatin model flew quicker and with more stability than any of the other models entered.) The fate of the aeroplane is not known, but features of it were copied afterwards - cf Riffard and Ruby, for instance, and Paulhan's Aero-Torpille of 1911.
(Span: 8.6 m; length: 8.6 m; wing area: 12.5 sqm; empty weight: 360 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
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Pean
In 1908 Pean de Saint Gilles tested unsuccessfully a big tailless monoplane at Bagatelle; he claimed to have based the design on Vuia's principles. The gull wing was set high on an openwork box frame wider than it was long; the airfoil section was flat. The pilot sat low in the middle of the frame behind the motor, which drove 2 small counter-rotating propellers through belts. The machine sat on a pair of bicycle wheels with a tailwheel behind the pilot's seat.
(Span: c 10 m; wing area: 28 sqm; gross weight: 250 kg; 12 hp Buchet)
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1870 Penaud
Born on 18 May 1850, Alphonse Penaud meant to be a naval officer, but was soon crippled by a hip disease, and used crutches all his life. He determined to research the work done on aerial navigation and aviation itself, and in 1870 developed a model helicopter with shaped flexible blades using a rubber band for power - the first rubber-powered model aeroplane ever. The following year he built his Planophore, a little pusher stick model, rubber-powered, with wing and stabilizer - no rudder. And on 17 February 1876 Penaud took out a patent for a fullscale powered machine. Unfortunately it was never built; he and his mechanic Paolo Gauchot had conceived a twin tractor propeller monoplane with retractable undercarriage. The 4-bladed all-metal propellers turned in opposite directions, and allowed for ground-adjustable pitch changes. The hull was to be able to float and the machine to be amphibious. The elliptical wingtips curved upward for lateral stability. Penaud realized that at the moment there was no suitable engine, but he expressed faith that science would produce one sooner or later. He gave Henri Giffard, the dirigible pioneer, all his research work, not having been successful in finding a substantial backer; and deeply depressed and ill, he shot himself in 1880, aged 30.
In 1899 Wilbur Wright wrote the Smithsonian Institution: "I have been interested in the problem of mechanical and human flight ever since as a boy I constructed a number of bats of various sizes after the styles of Cayley's and Penaud's machines. My observations since then have only convinced me more firmly that human flight is possible and practicable."
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Philippon
One of the more audacious designs of 1913, this tandem monoplane was designed "to be flown like a bird." There was no tail nor rudder of any kind; 3 steering wheels allowed the daring aeronaut to vary the incidence of the ailerons (small surfaces set between the pairs of monoplane wings) together, to control pitch; or separately, to control yaw; to increase the wings' angles of attack to slow down and nose up on landing, like a bird; to move the wings bodily fore and aft to control pitch. The wonder was it took only 3 control wheels. A long open box sat on 3 wheels, the pilot ahead of the motor, which drove a pusher propeller aft of the rearmost wings through a diagonal shaft and Cardan joints.
(Span: 5.44 m; length: c 8 m; wing area: 16.2 sqm; 100 hp ENV V8)
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Piquerez
Charles de Piquerez was an explorer who asked de Pischoff and Koechlin in December 1908 to build him a large biplane which he claimed to be his own design, though it included construction details which had appeared earlier in their work. It appeared, unsuccessfully, at Issy-les-Moulineaux in April and May 1909. The long thin streamlined box fuselage was fully covered, and carried biplane tail cells at each end; the equal-span rectangular wings were set nearly amidships, near the engine, which drove 2 pusher propellers on outriggers at each side of the rear fuselage. Small wingtip panels could be warped upward, perhaps to serve as ailerons or rudders. The aft tail cell had side-curtains, but seemingly no moving vertical surfaces. The machine sat on pairs of castering wheels both fore and aft: the pilot was above the front pair, and the passenger was well behind him, between the wings.
For all its size, the Piquerez was an oddly graceful looking machine; it was driven to Chartres for testing in June 1909, where it crashed on its first flight in July. A 50 hp Dutheil et Chalmers replaced the 40 hp one, and as a monoplane it hopped briefly on 27 August and crashed again. The single wing was braced with twin masts, the 2 biplane tail cells were replaced with single horizontal surfaces, and the aft pair of wheels became a single wheel.
(Span: 10.8 m (some sources say 14); length: 10.6 m; total area: 78-80 sqm; gross weight: 600 kg; 40 hp Dutheil-et-Chalmers)
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De Pischoff
Alfred de Pischoff was born in Austria of French parents; by 1907 he had moved back to France and had designed and had built a biplane glider like Ferber's, which he had intended to power with a 25 hp Anzani.
De Pischoff No 1: In 1907 he designed a small biplane with the same Anzani and had it built at the Chauviere works; it may indeed have been the glider re-worked. It looked surprisingly modern with its overhung top wings, tractor propeller and neat tricycle undercarriage. The wings arched gracefully upward at the tips, and the pilot sat somewhat precariously between them on a raised seat immediately aft of the motor. From his seat a long fan shaped tailplane with rectangular elevators ran back, joined at the trailing edges by a thin spar which ran through a cut-out in the fin. It was damaged in a test in November 1907, and did not actually fly.
(Span: 10 m; wing area: 25 sqm)
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In 1908 and 1909 Koechlin joined forces with de Pischoff, and built aeroplanes for other people, and their own much-modified de Pischoff et Koechlin.
De Pischoff et Koechlin monoplane: In 1908 the team designed and built a tandem monoplane with the second wing close behind the first, and a little shorter. A horizontal tail surface brought up the rear, along with fins above and below, and rectangular rudders for each one. The thin streamlined rectangular body was supported in front by a Bleriot-style undercarriage, and behind by a large tail wheel. A separated pair of forward elevator surfaces protruded from each side of the nose, and another pair of small trapezoidal surfaces aft, forward of the tail. It is reported to have hopped once, for 500 meters, on 29 October 1908, at Villacoublay.
(Spans: 6.3 m,5.3 m,3 m; wing area: 25 sqm; 20hp Dutheil et Chalmers)
Either this same machine or a development appeared the same year. One of them seemed to have the same basic structure less the middle wing and the extra forward and aft surfaces: it made a very pretty conventional-looking monoplane. Another had a water-cooled flat twin engine set amidships, driving 2 tractor propellers on outriggers aft of the wing.
Then Koechlin went off on his own and designed the monoplane which he developed steadily until 1911.
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Pivot
Before joining Koechlin to develop the Pivot-Koechlin monoplane in 1911, Pivot had designed and built a small monoplane with the assistance of Doutre. The wings were trapezoidal with heavy dihedral, wire-braced, with struts from the undercarriage underneath; the fuselage was triangular in section and uncovered; a small angular rudder stood alone above the large tailplane and elevator. A tailwheel supported the rear, and a pair of wheels and a forest of struts supported the front. A 50 hp 5-cylinder Anzani was installed behind a triangular metal plate. The machine was reported tested at Issy in August 1910, flown by Vasseur.
(Span: c 6 m)
In 1924 Pivot was building automobiles in small quantities.
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In 1911 Pivot joined Koechlin; the Pivot-Koechlin, or Pivot, resembled the Deperdussins and was built by Audineau; it was similar to the previous monoplanes but more streamlined, with a radial engine and smaller trapezoidal rudders. The thin fuselage was faired out around the engine and pilot with round metal sheets ending in a cylindrical cowl for the engine, a Gnome or Rossel-Peugeot. The undercarriage was simpler than that used on the Deperdussins, with castering wheels and diagonal skids attached under the nose. The earlier pylons had disappeared, replaced with 4 long struts to brace the wings, attached to the wings and the undercarriage. The wingtip ailerons were actuated by movement of the pilot's body.
A 3-seater version was mentioned, with 2 seats side-by-side behind the pilot: this was probably the one referred to as the Type Militaire. The Pivot was often described as the fastest machine of its time: 1911.
(Span: 10 m; length: 7.8 m; wing area: c 17 sqm; speed: c 110 kmh)
From 1911 to 1913 Koechlin built racing cars with underslung chassis, but they failed to achieve their expected performance.
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Plaisant
Completed in May 1910, Gustave Plaisant's tractor monoplane represented yet another method of control: the parasol wing was shaped like a bird's, even with rectangular plates overlapping each other at the trailing edge like feathers. The whole wing rocked from side to side for control. A long uncovered framework on 3 wheels supported the rectangular tailplane, and there was no vertical surface anywhere. The Journals report that it "stalled" at Issy in September 1910, and flipped onto its back at Betheny in December.
(Span: 8.7 m; length: 8.18 m; wing area: 22 sqm: 40 hp inverted inline Gyp)
Photographs taken in his shop (20, Boulevard Malesherbes. Paris) show the same fuselage and undercarriage, and only the tilting center-section of the wing, but with a new Plaisant invention which he called Propulseur Cycloidal. It was fitted to the airframe in 2 versions, each more remarkable then the other. One featured a rotating bar of 3-4 meters in length fitted to the propeller shaft, with chains driving 2 separate propellers of perhaps 2 meters in diameter, one at each end. The central bar turned, and each of the propellers turned as it turned. The other featured a complex 4-armed structure with a geared differential mounted in the middle, and 4 small propellers turning separately at the ends of the arms. The whole rig was wire-braced: gears everywhere. It is possible that Plaisant tried the Propulseur Cycloidal before the feathered wing design.
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Platel
J Platel was a toy manufacturer who had a flimsy-looking copy of the Demoiselle built in 1909; the fabric was laced to the spars. It sat on 3 wheels, and apparently could be driven on the ground with wings folded; it arrived in this way at Bagatelle. The first flights were 2000 m in length at a 2-meter altitude.
(Span: 6 m; length: 7 m; wing area: 12 sqm; weight: 149 kg; 24-28 hp Anzani)
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Pompeien Piraud
A scene-painter turned dentist, Jean-Claude Pompeien Piraud began patenting ornithopters in 1870; he tried models, unsuccessfully. During this period he passed on to Gabriel Voisin what little was known at the time of aviation science. Gabriel Voisin reported in his autobiography:
M Pompeien Piraud had contrived an ornithopter-like flying machine; and overcoming incredible difficulties, he was building himself, near the Pare de la Tete d'Or, a cock-and-bull apparatus powered by a steam-engine... The previous models he had built could not fly... He then had the idea of tying his machine to pulleys under a cable and to stretch that between 2 poplars...
The model had bat-like wings actuated through balancing poles by the motor, which was mounted inside a roughly streamlined hull.
(Span: 6.25 m; hull length: 2 m; hull width: .6 m)
In 1898 he began a full-sized machine which was frequently publicized in 1907, shortly before he died.
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Even more famous than the D.I, the D.III was flown in the Gordon-Bennett race at Reims, also in 1913, by Vedrines; his machine was marked F5.
(Span: 7 m; length; 5.5 m; wing area: 8 sqm; loaded weight: 500 kg; speed: 200 kmh; 160 hp Gnome)
In the same year a variant was designated Type Cavalrie, with divided elevators as opposed to the one-piece set of the DIII.
(Span: 9.2 m; length: 5.26 m; wing area: 13 sqm; weight empty: 215 kg; weight loaded: 375 kg; speed: from 60 to 135 kmh)
Ponnier also built a small 2-seater trainer, Type Ecole, in 1914. It had a 3-cylinder engine and an uncovered fuselage supported by a 4-legged undercarriage. In July 1914 the firm offered the LI, also a Type Cavalrie, a small single-seater biplane with a 50 hp Gnome.
(Span: 8 m, 7.2 m; length: 5.5 m; wing area: 20 sqm; weight empty: 260 kg)
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Ponnier also built a small 2-seater trainer, Type Ecole, in 1914. It had a 3-cylinder engine and an uncovered fuselage supported by a 4-legged undercarriage. In July 1914 the firm offered the LI, also a Type Cavalrie, a small single-seater biplane with a 50 hp Gnome.
(Span: 8 m, 7.2 m; length: 5.5 m; wing area: 20 sqm; weight empty: 260 kg)
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Pons
Between 1910 and 1912 Pierre Pons probably formed the SAFA (Societe Anonyme Franjais d'Aviation). This firm may have built or rebuilt and sold Caudrons and the curious machine described below.
The all-metal pusher canard biplane built by Pons in 1911 for Captain Morel was already being referred to by the end of the year and early into 1912 as the Morel; it made its few short flights at Issy in April 1912. Pons and Morel may have been partners, or Morel the sponsor and Pons the designer; more likely, Pons was the constructor and Morel the designer.
The rudder and elevators were mounted on top of the long pointed nose, and the pilot sat high on the fuselage amidships. The most distinctive feature of the Pons was the arrangement of its wings, very close together; the top one was fixed on the upper longerons at the rear end of the fuselage, and the lower one pivoted on its main spar, each side differentially, for aileron control. It was braced to the fixed upper wing with 2 V-shaped panels on each side, pivoted on the main spar of the lower wing; the outer V on each side was covered to serve as a fin. The top wing was of airfoil section, the lower was flat.
The structure was of steel tubing covered by sheet aluminum, and sat on a tricycle undercarriage, 2 close-set wheels forming the forward point of the triangle. Only 9 bolts were needed to disassemble the entire machine.
(Span: 9 m; length: 6.5 m; wing area (top): 11 sqm; total: 22 sqm (Pons claimed the wing area when the lower wing was pivoted fully was only 15.2 sqm); weight: 400 kg; 60 hp Anzani)
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Poulain-Orange
Gabriel Poulain was a famous bicycle-racer who held at least one speed record on the track. In 1910 his first aeroplane appeared, a handsome design similar to the Hanriot, with a long rectangular-section covered fuselage, Bleriot-style pylon, triangular fin and tailplane, and trapezoidal rudder and elevators; the motor was probably a Labor-Aviation. The machine was damaged in a crash in 1911; and to escape the draft, Poulain fled to Germany and opened a flying school at Johannisthal.
In 1911 he showed another monoplane, this one with tail surfaces like the Antoinette's, a Bleriot undercarriage, and Poulain in big letters on the big fin.
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In 1912 his third design appeared, this time with along triangular-section fuselage, sometimes fully covered, sometimes covered only in front. The wings were rectangular with nearly square tips; the undercarriage repeated the Bleriot style, but the pylon was now a 4-strut pyramid. The Antoinette triangular rudders were replaced by 2 curved sections. The engine was an Argus, and a streamlined fuel tank was fitted under the fuselage between the undercarriage legs. An Anzani was later substituted, with a rectangular fuel tank in front of the pilot to serve as a windscreen.
He also exhibited a "giant monoplane" of 18-meter span, built by Mallet, powered by a 24 hp Labor-Picker.
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Ramel
Inspired by Santos-Dumont and Albert Moreau, G Ramel designed in 1911-1912 an automatically stable biplane, controlled by the pilot's movable seat. Fitted with both front and rear elevators, each with a central fin, and a rudder at the rear, the machine had a box-like nacelle with the motor forward and the seat aft. The seat, with the controls attached, was mounted on 2 perpendicular supports, each rolling on an arched rail, so the seat was horizontal at all times. Ailerons pivoted sideways between the outer wing struts. The machine sat on 2 wheels under the lower wing, with a stabilizing wheel at each end of the fuselage frame. It was built near Fismes, between Reims and Soisson, and tested by Trotton for the first time at Juvisy on 3 October 1911; it was never heard from again.
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Ratmanoff
The designer and builder of the Normale propeller, Ratmanoff may have begun his aeronautical career with Avia at St Die, where he was reported testing a glider in May 1909. He built at least 2 of the de Beer monoplanes, and at least 2 2-seater monoplanes of his own design, one of which was exhibited beside one of the de Beers at the 1913 Paris Salon.
It was a neat side-by-side trainer, with rectangular wings of fixed incidence, unlike the de Beer. It had a covered fuselage tapering to a horizontal knife-edge at the tail, long triangular fixed tail surfaces, a 4-strut pylon and a half-cowled 10-cylinder radial Anzani. The wings warped through a sprocket and chain, operated by foot-pedals: the pilot could choose between large and small sprockets to adjust the sensitivity of the warp control. The arrangement for tightening the bracing wires in the fuselage was unusual: instead of turnbuckles, a small rod was passed through the base of each cross member parallel to the longeron, and the wires at each side were attached to the ends of the rod. 2 bolts ran through the longeron parallel to the cross-member; tightening them at the same time drew the rod closer to the longeron, tightening the wires. Meant to make rigging easier, this device only weakened the structure at every joint.
The other 2-seater sat the pilots in tandem.
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Ravaud
Sometimes the distinction between aeroplane, hydroplane, and motorboat become blurred: the term "aeroscaphe" describes some sort of combination. Roger Ravaud built 2 different aeroscaphes, the first of which was built in 1908 and entered in both the aeroplane and motorboat races at Monaco in 1909. It had twin floats, with vertical frames to support 3 pairs of equal-span biplane wing cells; the pilot sat amidships at a tilted steering wheel. The rotary motor mounted on its back drove 2 contra-rotating pusher propellers through a vertical shaft and a gearbox. It was tested with and without the middle pair of wings, and on a 4-wheeled land-chassis. It was wrecked at the Monaco meeting.
(Span: 3.25 m; length: 8.5 m; 50 hp Gnome)
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Ravaud had a second aeroscaphe built by Saunders in England in 1913; it was clearly a hydroplane only, with inadequate wing area to do more than skim the surface. It too was intended for Monaco, but proved too slow, and never left England. It featured broad-chord delta wings with a smaller surface at a high angle of attack under the nose; 2 wide floats in tandem had their thin edges forward. A small rectangular rudder was pivoted above the nose; the pilot sat amidships in a long ply-covered fuselage, with the 50 hp Gnome again mounted on its back to drive a pusher propeller through shafting and a gearbox. Ravaud had intended to substitute a 100 hp Gnome and try for 96 kmh.
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Renard
Lieutenant Charles Renard never succeeded in building a full-scale flying machine, but his experiments were noteworthy. In 1872 he showed a 10-winged model glider with a streamlined fuselage, aileron stubs on each side of the fuselage, and a cruciform tail. Renard tested his model from the tower at St Eloi in 1873, but the pendulum effect from hanging the fuselage from the tower of wings was opposite to his expectation, and the model first glided and then spiraled in.
In 1903 he was a colonel, and published the results of his studies on what he called sustaining screws - that is, propellers designed to lift weight directly. He also proposed an arrangement whereby a machine could lift itself off as a helicopter, and then proceed to fly as an aeroplane; unfortunately it was never built. In 1904, however, he did build at least one nearly full-sized model of his helicopter, with 2 rotors of 2.5-meter diameter, driven by twisted belts running bicycle rims, in turn driven by a vertical shaft from a small motor set into the apex of the inverted V that formed the frame.
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Type B: This new single-seater flew in 1910, the last REP to have the elaborate 3-part vertical surfaces of the 2bis. There was a long swallowtailed tailplane and semicircular elevators, tailskid, and a straightforward 2-wheel undercarriage with forward skid. The fuselage was triangular in section.
(Span: 12.8 m; length: 9.5 m; wing area: 25 sqm; empty weight: 480 kg; loaded weight: 600 kg; 50/60 hp REP)
A slightly larger version had 2 seats.
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Monoplan de Cours (Type Circuit Europeen): This stubby machine was flown by several race pilots in 1911; some versions had a standard triangular fin and vertical rudder, while others had the earlier comma-shaped rudder only. All had the earlier triangular-sectioned fuselage. Most or all had the 60 hp REP engine. It was similar to the Type F of 1911.
Type F 1911: A 2-seater with the diamond section.
(Span: 11.7 m; length: 7.75 m; 60 hp REP)
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Hydro: A 2-seater Series K monoplane mounted on a large rectangular single float and small tail float. One of these, REP 1, flew at St Malo; another. REP 2, flew at Tamise.
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Vision Totale: A parasol monoplane was entered in the 1914 Concours de Securite, similar to the K-80 but with a high parasol wing with considerable dihedral, and a taller comma rudder; the 80 hp Le Rhone was half-cowled.
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Requillard
Requillard's monoplane made its official appearance at Juvisy in June 1910, flown by Marc Pourpe, who went on to fame as a pilot. The machine was very slender and streamlined, with the pilot sitting on top in front of the control wheel, as in the Hanriot; the wings were large and ply-covered on the lower surfaces with curved tips like the Hanriot's. The fixed tail surfaces were long and triangular, the rudder in 2 parts connected at the trailing edges to allow the elevator to move up and down between them. A metal ring around the front of the fuselage, much smaller than the 50 hp Gnome, carried the supporting steel tubes of the undercarriage, a very neat arrangement with trailing wheels and a short skid. The tailwheel was mounted on long legs so the machine stood horizontal on the ground. It was reported to have flipped onto its back on its first tests.
(Span: 10 m; length: 7 m; wing area: 20 sqm; gross weight: c 400 kg)
Marc Pourpe was reported flying another small monoplane in 1911-1912; it had a covered fuselage and a tailplane with a sweptback leading edge. It may have been designed in association with Requillard; it was reported to have crashed, and Pourpe to have given up designing and home-building.
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Restan
A tractor monoplane of this name was photographed in 1911 at Pointa-Pitre, French Antilles. A single photograph shows heavily-cambered wings which were "flexible at the tips but not warping," and a heavy Bleriot-style pylon structure.
(Span: 9 m; length: 7 m; 25 hp 4-cylinder Pascal Mercedes)
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Rimailho
The big awkward-looking Rimailho biplane appeared in 1912; the firm had designed and built the Rimailho 155 mm field gun, which had been in use since 1904, so their biplane may have been designed as a 2- or 3-seater for the artillery. The long square-sectioned covered fuselage tapered sharply down to the tail starting just aft of the cockpits, giving the machine a broken-back appearance. The wings were of equal span, rectangular in shape, with a wide gap between the rectangular upper 2 wing panels. The rectangular tail surfaces were pivoted aft of their leading edges so they were balanced, but there were no fixed surfaces; small castering tailwheels were fixed at the ends of the elevator spars. The landing gear was similar to that of the Antoinette, but without a skid. The engine was fully cowled in a severe rectangular box, and the radiators were flat along each side of the nose.
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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, Le Papillon (butterfly). It was patterned on the Wright, with 2 pusher propellers driven through chains, one crossed, the Antoinette motor on the lower wing. Forward outriggers carried a single forward elevator with 2 triangular fins, again like arrowheads. A single pair of rear outriggers carried a single tailplane and long rudder underneath it. 2 main wheels with a third under the trailing edge carried the aeroplane; but in May 1909, when it was finished, it did not fly.
(Span: 12.75 m; length: c 12 m; wing area: 50 sqm: weight: 400 kg; 50 hp Antoinette, with the same propellers as on No 1)
Lacking more money, Robart had to abandon his work, but remained a locally famous balloonist for years, even many years after WWII, making a flight on every national holiday at Amiens, where he became eventually a popular drivers license examiner.
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Roche et Laborde
E Roche and F Laborde designed and built what may be the only true tandem delta monoplane in the history of aviation: it was tested unsuccessfully on the parade ground at Cercottes, near Orleans, c 1910. A large open box-like frame sat on 4 wheels, 2 at each end: in the middle of the box near the front was a Gnome driving 2 counterrotating tractor propellers on outriggers on each side through chains. Fore and aft of the box were the 2 V-shaped horizontal surfaces, each with a triangular fin underneath. The front surfaces were set at c 10° incidence, possibly hinged at the trailing edge to allow variations down to 0°.
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Rossel-Peugeot
The former co-worker of Clement Ader, FC Rossel, obtained the necessary financial backing from the 3 Peugeot brothers, whose automobile company, founded in 1900, was proving extremely successful. With their help he patented in 1908 a gearing system to drive 2 contra-rotating propellers with a single motor; and a little later, a spring device to tilt wings during take-off to increase lift through a steeper angle of attack. Rossel built a biplane, sometimes referred to as a Peugeot, in 1909, based on this patent.
Inspired by both the Wright and the Voisin, it featured round-tipped wings, 2 shaft-and-gear driven pusher propellers. Tail-booms carried the biplane tail cell with an hexagonal rudder set between the surfaces. The 2-wheel undercarriage was fitted to a long axle supported by 3 triangular covered frames, and the rear was carried on a pair of small tailwheels. The motor may have been one of Peugeot's.
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The second Rossel-Peugeot appeared in 1910, at the same time as the Regy brothers were reported building 2 monoplanes for Boillot and Goux, famous drivers for the Peugeot racing team; only one machine appears in the photographs. Designed by Rossel and developed by Taris, the aircraft was patterned on the Antoinette, with a long narrow triangular fuselage, an Antoinette-like undercarriage with extra struts and a wheel set forward under the skid, an Antoinette-like tail and large tailwheel, and trapezoidal wings not so wide nor so deep as the Antoinette's. A 7-cylinder rotary Rossel-Peugeot provided the power.
(Span: 10.2 m; length: 9.3 m; wing area: c 20 sqm; gross weight: c 350 kg)
In 1910 Rossel and the Peugeot brothers formed the Societe Anonyme des Constructeurs Aeriennes Rossel-Peugeot in Valentigney, in eastern France; the firm seems to have given up the construction of aircraft to focus on a series of small rotary engines. About 100 examples of the 30 hp Type A Rossel-Peugeot and the 50 hp Type B were built. Subsequently the firm built under license the 50 hp 4-cylinder inline Aviatik motor designed in then-occupied Alsace.
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Roze, Perret, et Chaffal
This large overhung biplane designed by Francois Denhaut was made partly of steel tubing. It had a single trapezoidal tailplane aft only, and no apparent vertical surfaces. The arrangement of the 2 pusher propellers was similar to that on the Wright. It was damaged in 1909 at Poitiers.
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Sallard
Henri Sallard demonstrated his first aeroplane at the 1914 Concours de Securite; L'Aerophile described it as automatically stable in pitch and roll, thanks to its shape and CG position, with a great excess of power which allowed throttle maneuvering - that is, taking off, climbing, or descending by using only the throttle without touching the controls:
The aeroplane being nose up will not slide on its tail if throttles are cut, but pitch down by itself and recover its gliding attitude by itself... If in a bent turn (inclined), pressure on the rudder is released, the apparatus will recover its horizontal position, sliding slightly on (low) wings to follow the new direction straight forward.
It was a big handsome biplane of metal construction, with a long fuselage tapering to a horizontal tail-post, and cut off square in front behind the engine; the pilot sat immediately behind the engine, ahead of the wings, and the passenger was behind and slightly above him. The upper wing was much longer than the lower, both with gracefully rounded tips, with ailerons on the top wing only. The tail was long and tapered, small in comparison with the rest of the machine. It rested on 2 pairs of wheels with short skids in between.
(Span: (upper) 15 m; (lower) 11 m; length: 9 m; wing area: 37 sqm: gross weight: 600 kg; top speed: c 100 kmh; 100 hp 10-cylinder Anzani)
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Aime-Salmson
Emmanuel Aime was a mathematics teacher who began working early in the century with Santos-Dumont; later in the 1909 Paris Salon he and Salmson showed their Autoplane, a curious direct-lift biplane consisting of a long slightly up-curved rectangular panel tangent at its center to the top of the arch formed by a similar long panel bowed down at each end. A centrally-mounted engine sat on a skid-equipped frame of steel tubing and drove 2 pusher propellers; and at right angles to them on each side another propeller drove air against the underside of the curved lower wing for lift.
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Sanchez-Besa
The Chilean aviator Sanchez-Besa was well known in French aeronautical circles for his Spanish accent and his flights in balloons; he went on to design 7 or 8 different heavier-than-air machines from 1909 to 1913, all more or less copies, all more or less unsuccessful. He had been following the careers of Santos-Dumont, Henry Farman, and Leon Delagrange, when at the end of 1908 he went to Mourmelon to fly Voisins.
His first aeroplane was little reported on: 2 or 3 may have been built. A Farman copy, it was introduced in May 1910 at Mourmelon, and later 3 were registered for the 1910 meet at Reims, though they may not actually have been built. One, possibly the first one, possibly the only one, was sold to South Africa in September.
(Span: 11 m; length: 12.5 m; wing area: c 50 sqm; gross weight: 500 kg; 60 hp ENV V8)
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Subsequent Sanchez-Besa machines were patterned on the Voisins of the period; Voisin had worked for Sanchez-Besa until at least 1913. His influence even on the Sanchez-Besa Type E monoplane, actually the Sommer Type F, was reported after the 1913 Salon.
Three Sanchez-Besas were shown in 1912, all biplanes. The first is likely to have been built in 1911 as a military type, very similar to 2 earlier Voisin-designed military biplanes: unequal-span wings had hanging ailerons on the top only, the 2 pilots sat in tandem in a streamlined covered nacelle made partly of steel tubing; the single rudder was set under a monoplane tailplane. The machine rested on 4 wheels. The machine was better known as a seaplane, mounted on 2 floats, the nacelle now uncovered: it flew at many contests, notably Monaco and St Malo. 2 were reported delivered to Chile in March, but it was also reported that 2 biplanes delivered to Chile were Voisins.
(Span: 15 m; length: 9 m; useful load: 110 kg; 80 hp water-cooled Canton-Unne)
The third Sanchez-Besa design was also a Voisin-type pusher seaplane, similar to but larger than the previous one; the tail-booms came together at the tail in plan view, instead of being parallel like the Monaco machine. Benoit flew it at the Tamise meet in Belgium at the end of the summer of 1912. It carried 3.
(Span: 16.4 m; length: 10.11 m; wing area: 60 sqm; empty weight: 900 kg; 100 hp Renault)
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The fourth design was unlike all the others; it was built in 1912, likely by Voisin, and shown at the Salon of that year. The wing and tail were those of the previous seaplane - or very like them; the engine was buried between the lower wings in the low-set fuselage behind the 2-man crew and was connected through a chain to the pusher propeller. 2 main wheels supported it amidships, with 2 more in the front as in many of the Voisins; a skid held up the tail.
It is quite possible that Sanchez-Besa's early Voisin-Iike designs were in fact actual Voisins, more or less. At this time Gabriel Voisin, he of the terrible temper, had few customers, and Sanchez-Besa may have been a kind of sponsor to his work, as Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe was to be a few months later.
Voisin
Sanchez-Besa: Built in 1912, this was the last of the Voisins built to the designs of others; it is described under Sanchez-Besa.
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Sanchis
Leon Delagrange tested this Wright copy at Issy in June 1909, crashed it due to wind on 11 August, and flew it on 17 August; it was wrecked in November in Germany.
The engine was set in the leading edge of the lower wing with the pilot sitting behind it above the drive-shaft. The forward elevator cell was upheld by 2 pairs of curved crossed outriggers; the rear tailplane cell had a fixed fin and (first) rounded and then rectangular rudder between the surfaces. 2 castering wheels set in what looked like bicycle forks supported the front, and 2 small tailwheels the rear.
(Span: 12 m; length: 11.5 m; wing area: 49 sqm; gross weight: 450 kg; 3-cylinder 45 hp Anzani)
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No 12: In 1905 appeared his drawings of a helicopter with 2 large rotors turning in opposite directions, and a single tractor propeller, all driven through a shaft, spoked wheels and belts. The propellers were designed with the help of Victor Tatin and were formed of steel tubes, ribs, and fabric, weighing less than 9 kg each. The engine was tried with the 3 propellers and found inadequate and the helicopter was not completed.
(Rotor diameter: 6 m; length: 12.5m: 24 hp .Antoinette V8)
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Santos-Dumont
The extremely rich grandson of a French immigrant and son of a Brazilian coffee-plantation owner, Alberto Santos-Dumont set himself up in France in 1891. There he became fascinated with automobiles and motors, and later with flying machines. He hired teachers to help him learn what he thought he needed, and thus met Emmanuel Aime, a math teacher, a founder of the French Aero Club, and its first general secretary; Aime helped Santos-Dumont till 1906 with his most difficult calculations. Later Aime went on to work with Salmson on another heavier-than-air machine.
Santos-Dumont's first flying machine was a little round balloon named Brazil: at the time, in 1898, it was the smallest man-carrying balloon in the world. His last dirigible was his No 14, built and flown in 1905; it was famous as the lifter of his first heavier-than-air design, No 14bis, which made its first hop the following year. But he had been making model aeroplanes and model gliders for some time. A photograph shows him and his mechanic Chapin at Neuilly in the winter of 1905, holding a large model. It features a semicircular wing with a long flexible boom at the tip of which is fixed a triangular tailplane. A string is stretched from the nose: apparently it is being tested as a kite. The design was developed into a glider with a wing area of 22 sqm which was apparently built and tested behind a motorboat. A 1906 drawing shows the same design but larger, with a push-pull propeller combination in which the rear one turned on the boom itself. To have been known as No 11, this one was not built.
No 14bis: His dirigible No 14, built and flown in 1905. was a long drooping cigar with a small car suspended far below. Planning to use it the following year to carry a heavier-than-air machine, he rebuilt it with more volume, and worked at the same time to design and build the aeroplane, to be known after the dirigible as No 14bis. It was an awkward canard biplane pusher with a 3-bay wing cell and 6 side-curtains. The pilot stood up in his cockpit, the narrow car from an earlier balloon, and controlled the aircraft through hand-wheels. At the front of the long covered fuselage hung a biplane cell, pivoted to work as both elevator and rudder. The whole machine rested precariously on 2 wheels. A 24 hp Antoinette was mounted between the wings, driving the large Tatin propeller taken from the dirigible No 14.
It was tested under the belly of No 14 on 22 July 1906 at Bagatelle; soon afterwards he slung it from 2 pulleys on a cable at Neuilly St James, as Ferber had done for his own aircraft at Meudon. The Tatin was replaced by an aluminum paddle-bladed propeller built by Levavasseur, and further tests were run to check the working of the controls, the aeroplane being towed back to the starting point each time by a donkey named Quino. Santos-Dumont had a 20-meter ramp built for eventual take-off trials, but did not use it. On the first test the propeller was broken, and the 24 hp Antoinette was replaced on 21 August with a 50 hp version.
On 4 September he tried again on the parade ground at Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, and damaged the forward elevator, which had been reworked to control pitch only; 2 polygonal flaps had been installed between the outer wing-curtains to act as air-brakes and to control yaw. These were operated with wires attached to the pilot's back. On 7 September it taxied for 17 seconds, pitching up but not flying; on 12 September the propeller was changed for a larger one. On 13 September it hopped for a distance of at least 7 m, and France went wild; but it was damaged in the effort. On 23 October it flew 60 m at a height of some 3 m; on the 26th it flew even further, and Santos-Dumont was awarded the Archdeacon cup for the 25-meter prize.
Further efforts damaged the machine; then on 12 November at Bagatelle, at near-zero temperatures, Santos-Dumont made 3 unsuccessful tries; the fourth was against the wind, and he flew 82 m; a fifth managed 220 m, slightly higher than 7 m, and turning to port. The machine was damaged upon landing. No 14bis flew only once more, on 4 April 1907, at St Cyr, when it covered another 50 m.
Though a modest achievement, even for the time, this performance can be considered a decisive impulse towards heavier-than-air flight in France and Europe.
Santos-Dumont's further efforts to fly his No 14bis resulted only in the destruction of the entire fuselage. Today, models have been wind-tunnel-tested; a full-scale reproduction was recently tested at Le Bourget. The results were very clear indeed: the aeroplane should not have flown!
(Span: 11.5 m wing area: 52 sqm; weight: 300 kg; 24 hp (50 hp) Antoinette)
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No 19: By the end of 1907 Santos-Dumont had completed his first real monoplane, a tiny tractor monoplane which he named Libellule (dragonfly); later he renamed it Demoiselle (another more common name for dragonfly, as well as for a young girl). It was built of bamboo and silk, weighing less than 60 kg: the rear fuselage was a single bamboo spar, with the small cruciform tail set on a universal joint at the end. The wings were nearly square in plan, with 2 spars and only 7 ribs on each side. The motor was perched at the center of the leading edge, and the pilot sat on a strap below, aft of the wings, between the wheels: a third wheel right behind him kept up the rear. Wing-warping was controlled by wires attached to the pilot's back. On each side of the machine, immediately outboard of the wheels, was a hexagonal surface coordinated with the swiveling tail: a small hexagonal forward elevator was set just ahead of the pilot's feet. After one crash, Santos-Dumont replaced the single propeller with 2 small ones, one on each side of the motor, driven on big sprockets by belts, one crossed; a 3-bladed fan cooled the motor. Santos-Dumont weighed only 49 kg ("without shoes and with gloves'"), and could easily take off in the little plane at Issy.
(Span: 5 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 9 sqm: gross weight: 110 kg including pilot and gasoline; 17-20 hp flat twin aircooled Dutheil et Chalmers driving a single Antoinette-style aluminum paddle-bladed propeller, or 2 Tatin built-up propellers)
No 19bis: But No 19 proved unsatisfactory, and was modified with the substitution of a 24 hp Antoinette mounted this time between the pilot's legs and driving a larger-diameter Tatin propeller through a wide belt and 2 pulley wheels, one large and the other enormous. The wings were enlarged to 13 ribs on each side, and the 3 hexagonal surfaces were removed; these changes did not improve the little machine.
No 20: Early in 1909 he introduced his next and most famous aeroplane, also called Demoiselle, and sometimes known also as Bebe or Joujou. The single tail-boom of No 19 proved too flexible and was replaced with a triangular frame made of bamboo poles fitted together through metal casings and braced with short metal struts. A third wheel at mid-length supported the tail. For this new machine Santos-Dumont designed and had Darracq build a 30 hp water-cooled flat twin; it was mounted above the pilot on the top wing, and the radiator tubes were wrapped around the upper boom. The Chauviere propeller was of constant chord.
In March 1909 No 20 was damaged at Issy; it was repaired and taken to St Cyr - still today a small airfield west of Paris. It reappeared with a new Chauviere and new radiators, this time the tubing laid chordwise under each wing. The tailwheel was gone, replaced by a tall skid under the rear fuselage. A large cone-shaped tank appeared immediately behind the pilot. This version was sometimes referred to as Demoiselle II; in it Santos-Dumont flew the 8 km from St Cyr to Buc in 5 minutes to win a bet with Guffroy.
The Demoiselle was sometimes described as "flying like a butterfly;" it was sometimes also called the Infuriated Grasshopper. Very unstable and quick for its time, it allowed only the lightest pilots to fly it, and few did it well. Several were built at Santos-Dumont's factory, and he generously allowed the public access to his patents, so many more were built in garages and back yards. Some larger firms wanted to take advantage of his offer; he delivered an uncompleted No 20 to Dutheil et Chalmers as a model to build from. This may be the machine, seen in some photographs, fitted with a Dutheil et Chalmers flat twin early in 1910.
Though advertised at only 5,000 Francs, the Dutheil et Chalmers machine was never produced, and the machine delivered by Santos-Dumont was abandoned until it was recovered by Charles Dollfus and taken to the Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace, where it was restored and is now displayed. It features a horizontally-mounted steering wheel.
(Musee de 1' Air et de l'Espace aircraft - span: 6.4 m: length: 6.75 m; wing area: 10 sqm; take-off weight: 118 kg: top speed: 90 kmh; 25 hp Dutheil et Chalmers)
Earlier in 1909 the firm of Clement-Bayard became interested in the Demoiselle project, and the modified original Demoiselle was thus fitted with the 4-cylinder inline Clement-Bayard from the former Maurice Clement biplane, and tested unsuccessfully in September 1909. Since the engine was too heavy, Clement-Bayard made plans for mass production of the Demoiselle at 7500F each, 2,500 more than the projected Dutheil et Chalmers, though nearly 20.000F less than any other production aeroplane. The Clement-Bayard machines had all-metal tail girders and wooden wings, and were powered with 30 hp flat twins: still the aeroplanes were tricky and could only be flown by the lightest-weight pilots. It was unstable on all axes, with inadequate power and lifting surface. Sometimes the Clement-Bayard version was referred to as Santos-Dumont No 21.
Roland Garros, who became known as a Demoiselle pilot, and his friend Edmond Audemars, undertook unsuccessfully to build a Demoiselle copy. And Morane-Saulnier did the same in 1913, a 2-seater with a low-set Gnome and Morane wings.
A Demoiselle ground trainer, in which the rear fuselage of a Demoiselle, complete with pilot's seat and overhead engine and propeller, was mounted inside a large semicircular track in which the whole device could rotate 90° in each direction, at the same time moving forward on a large 3-wheeled chassis.
But by this time the ingenious little Brazilian was beginning to suffer from the disease, probably sclerosis, that caused his early retirement and withdrawal from aviation. In 1914, already bitterly depressed and horrified by the War, through a misunderstanding he was accused of being a German spy. Enraged, he destroyed all his papers and returned to Brazil. In and out of sanitariums, he returned to Rio in 1928: a surprise welcome demonstration turned to disaster in front of him when the committee's big seaplane crashed in the harbor; in 1930 the British airship R101 was destroyed; his own country burst into revolution. Sick, and feeling guilty about his part in the development of aviation, on 23 July 1932 he hanged himself.
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Savary
Robert Savary was born 13 June 1888, and quickly became interested in heavier-than-air flight. He built 2 gliders, RS1 and RS2, apparently unsuccessful. In March 1909 he had the firm of Leon Bollee at Mans build him a tractor biplane, and flew it successfully several times at Chartres in May. It had an aileron fitted at the middle of each forward outer wing-strut between the wingtips, a 40 hp Dutheil et Chalmers, trailing wheels with long forward skids, and a biplane tail. 2 vertical surfaces were set immediately aft of the ailerons.
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Two more Savary designs were shown at the end of 1912. The first was a big military tractor biplane with overhung wings similar to his previous designs but with a 50 hp Gnome set in a circular cowl at the front of a rectangular-section nacelle whose rear end was a handsomely streamlined cone; the pilots sat side by side.
(Span: (upper) c 12 m; (lower) c 8 m)
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The last design of 1912 was very different; it was shown on the last day of the Paris Exposition. It was a very modern-looking sesquiplane with a thick-sectioned mid-wing set into a completely covered cylindrical fuselage. The 80 hp Gnome cowled inside the nose drove through chains the 2 tractor propellers which were set into the leading edge. The high undercarriage had a shorter wing of c 4-meter span between the wheels, all made of steel tubing and wire-braced. The wheels were unusual: the rim and tire rotated around the wheel disc which itself was set on the end of the axle off-center so the whole wheel could pivot backwards on landing, to cushion the shock. An internal spring attached at one end to the lower wing limited travel of this unlikely - and evidently unsuccessful - arrangement.
Savary stopped building aeroplanes in 1913, as did many other constructors, for want of business, since the military was cutting back its aircraft orders.
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Schmitt
Paul Schmitt tried for years to develop a device to make aeroplanes automatically stable: he was finally one of the winners of the 1914 Concours de Securite with his 7th design, Type 7. Records are incomplete concerning the previous 6; some of the earlier kites and gliders built between 1904 and 1909 may have been included in the numbering system.
The first known Schmitt aeroplane was built by Lucien Chauviere and brought to Chartres for assembly in March 1910; it was tested in April. It was a biplane resembling a headless and tailless Wright. A heavy chassis rested on 4 wheels and 2 skids, with the pilot at the front and a large 4- or 6-cylinder inline engine on the center of the lower wing, driving a single pusher propeller at the rear through shafts and chains. Diamond-shaped rudder surfaces were attached to the rear outermost wing struts. The second Schmitt - or perhaps it was the first modified - had enlarged rudder surfaces, and a pair of long outriggers on each side carried small horizontal surfaces far out in front and to the rear. The forward undercarriage skids curved up much higher - perhaps to ensure safety in landing.
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The second major Schmitt design formed the basis for most of his later aeroplanes: a trapezoid-section box frame to carry wings and engine, with some sort of tapered fuselage covered only at the rear to carry the pilot and a single elevator at the tail. This was the first Schmitt to employ his distinctive stabilizing method: by pivoting the wingcell on a pin mounted high in the cabane structure he could vary the incidence to keep the center of lift in the same plane as the center of gravity, allowing the fuselage to remain horizontal during climb and descent. The pilot turned a crank with an attached worm gear to achieve this result: it worked.
This machine was developed up to Type 7. The first development was probably another similar machine with unequal-span wings, a 3-place design with a 70 hp engine built in 1911. There was no rudder: small vertical rudder surfaces were still fitted to the rear outboard wing struts. The single large rear elevator pivoted on the very tip of the long rear fuselage. This may have flown, but was reportedly less successful than its predecessor.
The next Schmitt variant appeared in 1912, a big 3-bay biplane still with the distinctive trapezoid-section fuselage, but with a rudder; the wing-tip rudders were gone. The unequal-span wings had long inset ailerons; there seems to have been no elevator.
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Schmitt's classic Type 7 appeared in 1913, was shown at the 1913 Salon, and was advertised to fly between 30 and 120 kmh. In February, April, June, and July 1914, Victor Garaix, Schmitt's appointed test pilot, broke 43 world records: altitude with 4 to 9 passengers, speed with 4 to 6, distance with 6 and endurance with 3 and 6 passengers. It had an all-metal frame without brace-wires. The fuselage section began as a flattened rectangle forward, became nearly square amidships, then triangular, and finally tapered to a horizontal tailpost. The wings still pivoted at the cabane pivot; the undercarriage was heavy, with skids and 2 pairs of wheels. Type 7 was sometimes fitted with an extra pair of wheels at the skid-ends, 6 wheels in all.
(Span: (upper) 17.5 m; (lower) 13.5 m; wing area: 49 sqm; empty weight: 650 kg; gross weight: 1500 kg: incidence variation: between 0° and 12°; speed variation from 40 to 116 kmh)
After he achieved second place at the 1914 Concours de Securite, he sold Type 7 to the Army, and Schmitt was encouraged to develop a smaller 2-seat Type 8 which was not finished before the outbreak of the war. Type 9, a still further development, was eventually ordered in quantity in 1916. These later Schmitts were fitted with 2 or 4 wheels.
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Sclaves
This tractor biplane powered by an acetylene motor was tested at Amberieu in 1910 by a man from Lyon named Sclaves. At least one photo shows a 50 hp Prini-Berthaud engine. The rectangular wings were braced entirely by one pair of outboard struts on each side and wires from double kingposts on top. The heavy forward box structure seemed made of pipes; the rear fuselage was uncovered. The 2 wheels were castering.
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Societe d'Etude pour la Locomotion Aerienne
In 1909 the pilot Gaudard founded the Societe d'Etude pour la Locomotion Aerienne (SELA), for which he was unable to collect the adequate operating capital of 300,000F. G Badini, their designer, built 2 similar aircraft, one which appeared in 1910 at St Cyr, powered by a 55 hp Aviatik engine; the other, a variant, in 1911. They were monoplanes with rectangular wings without dihedral and Bleriot-built undercarriages. The first had a triangular tailplane (later removed) with a large rectangular elevator hinged to it with the rudder posts above and below fixed to the moving surface; the fuselage was uncovered.
The second had its fuselage fully covered, the corners of the wingtips clipped; the tailplane was now triangular and the rudder mounted firmly on the fuselage. Power was a 55 hp Aviatik. This machine was sponsored by La Dentelle au Foyer, a lace-workers' magazine which later bought a Farman for the Army, christened La Dentelle de Puy: the city of Puy was famous for its lace industry.
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Serraillet
Serraillet, the Marseille representative of the Fiat company, built a Voisin copy in 1909 or 1910. A fixed biplane tailplane cell was set at the end of the 4 outriggers of the aft structure with a rectangular rudder set between them; the nacelle was uncovered, with the typical Voisin front elevator perched on the nose. The wings were short and rectangular and non-warping; odd movable surfaces were hinged to the ends of all 4 wing panels. The forward elevator was operated from a steering wheel; other controls worked through a wheel on the starboard side of the nacelle.
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Seux
The details of the career of Edmond Seux are not clear, and it is difficult to sort out his designs. Born in Annonay, the home city of the Montgolfier brothers, he is said to have begun early with models. In June 1904 he had the Surcouf firm build him a triplane "parachute a reaction," fitted with "lateral planes." It was tested unsuccessfully in February 1905.
In 1907 he had the firm of Ronnet at Lyon build him a monoplane; it had a "waving wing" with flexible tips "for stability" mounted on a complex uncovered frame set on 4 wheels, 2 large ones in front, 2 smaller behind. 2 pusher propellers were mounted on shafts driven by twin belts and large pulleys. A forward elevator was on triangular outriggers and a cruciform tail was mounted on a pair of horizontal booms. The wing leading edge was thick, and the wing plan was that of a large bird. The aeroplane was tested on 15 May at Grandchamps, a nearby parade ground; it is reported that the front wheels lifted off and the tiny rear wheels collapsed. Seux planned to refit tandem wheels, but did not get to do this.
(Span: 10 m; wing area: 24 sqm; weight: 450 kg; 35 hp Anzani or Buchet V2)
In 1908 he had the workshops of Pierre and Louis Reusch build him a biplane, known as the Reusch et Seux. In the same year the 3 men also patented a pusher biplane patterned on the Wright, possibly not built, his first biplane not having been completed either. The Reusch et Seux had a forward elevator and a transverse engine driving 2 pusher propellers.
(Span: 10 m; length: 9 m; wing area reported as 50 sqm; 50 hp engine)
On 6 Nov 1909, Edmond Seux's body was found in the Rhone river: it was said he had killed himself because he could not repay his loans. He was 42 years old.
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Sotinel, Guerin, Corneloup, et Karganiantz
A monoplane built by Sotinel, Guerin and Corneloup-Karganianz appeared in 1909. It may not have been finished - or perhaps it was in fact the subsequent monoplane built with Janoir. Sotinel also worked with Bastier and de Brageas, but he seems soon to have left these associations. The Guerin-Corneloup machine was under construction in a hangar guarded by a goat said to be fond of castor oil. One account described the machine as a "differential balance... to be automatically stable in bank and climb." The fuselage worked as a pendulum and was connected to the wingtips. When one wing was raised by a gust, the tips automatically moved with the fuselage to level the aircraft. Change in speed or altitude could be made by varying the angle of attack of the wings. The description ended by saying that "the bird has not yet finally borne out all that is claimed for it, although the design is certainly very ingenious."
(Span: 11m; length: 9 m; wing area: 21 sqm; gross weight: 400 kg)
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Sommer
Born on 4 August 1877, the son of a felt manufacturer at Mouzon, Roger Sommer became interested in machinery, won fame at age 18 as a bicycle-racer, and built a one-cylinder 4-wheeled car. By the end of 1908 he had built his first aeroplane, a large biplane which foreshadowed Henry Farman's Type III of 1909. It had a monoplane forward elevator, the pilot seated on the leading edge of the lower wing. Sommer's design included a pair of small wings at the middle of the 4 tail-booms, with the rectangular rudder placed just forward of the biplane tail surfaces. The engine, reportedly an Anzani, was mounted below the lower wing, driving a pusher propeller mounted in the middle of the airframe; but photographs show a 50 hp water-cooled Vivinus, which Sommer knew well, since he owned a 60 hp Vivinus automobile. The machine rolled on 3 wheels.
As the third aviator at Chalons, Sommer had his hangar between Farman's and Voisin's, and his machine was tested there in the spring of 1909, achieving only occasional hops. There in May Sommer met Farman and bought one of his Type IIIs, which was delivered at the end of June; Sommer installed the 50 hp Vivinus.
On 7 August 1909 he became famous by bringing back to France the endurance record previously held by Wilbur Wright: Sommer had flown for 2 hr 27 min 15 sec. In December he sold the Farman to Daniel Kinet, since he had finished his own completely successful design: this 1910 Sommer was to undergo many alterations, and several were built in different forms; by the spring of 1910 he had 58 aeroplanes on order and 60 men working for him.
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Sommer also built monoplanes of many kinds, although they are designated only as Type E (and probably Type F); they appeared in 3 major series sometimes described as Bleriot types, Deperdussin types, and Morane types.
Type Bleriot: The first was a rough copy of the XI, with a Hanriot-type undercarriage and a Bleriot-style center-section support overhead. It appeared both as a single-seater and a 2-seater, unstable and very fragile with bolted spars. Leon Bathiat, the Sommer chief pilot, moved the wing a foot further to the rear, making the machine much more stable. The engine was covered with a flat ring to prevent showers of castor oil, the front of the fuselage was covered with steel plates, and the underside with fabric.
(2-seater - span: 11.5 m; length: 9 m; empty weight: c 270 kg; gross weight: c 410 kg; wing area: 17 sqm; 70 hp Gnome)
(Single-seater - span: 10.5 m; 50 or 70 hp Gnome)
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The 1910 Biplane: Powered with a 50 hp Gnome, the aircraft featured rounded ailerons extending well behind the trailing edge - the shape was modified at least once - and a monoplane forward elevator with 2 long flat curved skids at the tips, attached to the landing gear. But the most remarkable feature was the variable incidence tailplane. The control wheel for this device was set horizontally at the pilot's left, and was characteristic of all Sommer designs till 1911; the arrangement was used to control stability and the speed of the aircraft. For instance: the center of gravity on these aircraft changed when the wings were wet. A large rudder appeared initially ahead of this tailplane, but was soon replaced with 2 pairs of small closely-spaced surfaces both above and below. The pilot sat on the leading edge of the lower wing with the stick at his right, controlling only the front elevator; aileron control cables were first attached to the pilot's jacket, then to the top of the stick, when it was located between the pilot's legs. The fuselage and elevator could be unhooked to fold back against the wings.
Many Sommers of this type were exported, particularly to Great Britain (represented in 1910 by Charles Rolls), Belgium, and the Netherlands. One was sold to Russia and copied; another to Germany, in 1910; the Albatros firm applied for license to build these machines. Many variants appeared, with slight improvements to structure and airfoil.
(Span: 10.36 m; length: 12.5 m; total area: 36 sqm; empty weight: 330 kg; wing incidence: 9°; 50 hp Gnome, Vivinus, Aster, ENV, among others)
As soon as he could, Sommer began to fly with from one to 3 passengers on what were then fairly long flights. The machine was slow, and heavy on the controls. In May he flattened the airfoil and reduced the number of vertical surfaces from 4 to 2; the stick was placed between the pilot's legs.
In June 1910 he produced a new variant, a 2-seater with Farman-type front elevator mounting, different rear skids, 2 rudders, and simplified undercarriage. The airfoils were changed again, the results being known as "a flat wing." 2 or 3 were sold to the Army, but they were all heavy on the controls and too fragile; one of them was never correctly rigged. The Army preferred the Farmans, to which they had grown accustomed through the Farman school.
In July or August, Sommer sent to the Reims meeting a new racer, similar to the original biplane but with a reduced lower span; and a larger machine with 2 more ailerons on the top wing, which increased the span to about 12 m. From this design came the later Aerobus.
At about the same time Sommer tested a twin-engined machine which flew at least once, on 27 September 1910. No record exists, not even in the Sommer family archives, of this machine, save that it existed. It probably had 2 engines hooked together to one propeller.
Grand Biplan (Aerobus): This was the first major replacement of the 1910 design; it appeared early in 1911, and retained the tail and airfoil of the earlier machines, but had a lengthened upper wing with high aspect-ratio ailerons mounted in pairs. Powered with a 70 hp Gnome, it had seats in 2 banks: on 24 March 1911 it carried 7 children and then 9 adults, 2 of them standing up outside on the front skids. Later that day it carried 12. On 9 January Molla carried 5 passengers for 66 m - a world record; but had to land because of the cold and snow. 2 Aerobuses flew at the Concours Militaire, one with a skid, the other without.
(Span: 12 m; length: 12.5 m)
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Type de Course: This was a 1911 tractor biplane, built with the nose of one of his monoplanes (cf below), and shortened biplane wings with 2 ailerons; it was designed for racing.
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Type Leger: The pilot sat out in front of the narrow-chord wing cell; the tail consisted of a horizontal tailplane with 2 rudders below it, the whole supported on 2 booms.
Type L (Type Rapide): This design, also unsuccessful, had an all-steel frame. The wings were of unequal span with gap smaller than previous types, and the upper wing was made in 3 panels, the outer 2 of which pivoted on the single steel tube spar to act as ailerons; a single row of steel struts was set between the wings. There was a small forward elevator whose stated purpose was to provide an orientation point for the pilot against the horizon, and an elevator fitted to the rear of the Sommer tailplane. Covered in green, it was shown at the 1911 Paris Salon, and immediately was called La Grenouille (the frog); and also Le Populaire, because of its low price, 8500F. Sommer fitted a new carburetor of his own invention, designed to prevent popping back.
(Span: (upper) 12 m; (lower) 7.8 m; length: 9 m; wing area: 26 sqm; empty weight: 290 kg; gross weight: 515 kg; speed: 90 kmh (no faster than the other Sommer biplanes); 50 hp Gnome)
Type de Campagne: This was developed for the Army from the Type L, but it proved to be too light. It lacked any forward elevator, and showed a double row of interplane struts.
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During the summer of 1912, Sommer flew a seaplane on Lake Geneva; it was fitted with an 80 hp Salmson Canton-Unne engine, and was similar to the Type R without the faired fuselage. Tellier provided the 3 floats. Sommer and Burri operated a scheduled service between Evian in France and Lausanne in Switzerland. In August it was entered in the Lausanne competition: there seems to have been only the one. A simpler 50 hp Gnome seaplane had been flown previously.
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Souchet
The Brule et Souchet flying school at Issy-les-Moulineaux operated at least 2 little-documented Souchet monoplanes resembling the Bleriot XI, powered by 3-cylinder 30 hp Anzani engines. One of them had an undercarriage like that on the early Sommers - 2 skids and 2 wheels - and the other a Morane-like gear. They were likely both modified Bleriots, or built from BIeriot spares. Variants, like the Grazzioli, might have been made by at the school. This Brule may have been the same Brule who worked with Girardot in 1911.
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Stoeckel
A strange little tailless monoplane appeared at Issy in 1908-09. A tiny engine drove 2 little tractor propellers through belts. The frame resembled a wheelchair, with a skid (sometimes a wheel instead) immediately behind the seat. Above the pilot was the single wing wildly curved in every direction, with a third panel, also curved, above the center-section. Stoeckel designed the wing to resemble a bird's half-folded wing; his aeroplane might have fared better with the wings unfolded. Stoeckel was also a Bleriot XI pilot.
(Span: 6 m; length: 5 m; wing area: 28 sqm; gross weight: 300 kg; 4-cylinder 12 or 25 hp Revel)
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Tellier
Alphonse Tellier was the son of the founder of the Chantiers Tellier, which built fast motorboats on the Quai de la Rapee on the Seine in Paris, and he eventually took over his father's firm. At the Quai de la Rapee he met both Victor Tatin and Leon Levavasseur before 1900. In 1905 he drove one of his own speedboats, La Rapiere, to tow Voisin's glider on the Seine; in the same year Hubert Latham drove another of Tellier's boats, Antoinette, named for Leon Levavasseur's daughter. (The name Antoinette referred first to Levavasseur's daughter, then to his motor-boats, then to his V8 engines, and last to his aeroplanes.) Growing more interested in flying machines, Tellier began designing propellers and testing them on a hydroplane; by 1908 he had built a catapult to test lifting surfaces.
In 1909 following the Reims meeting, he was asked by Emil Dubonnet to design and build him an aeroplane. Construction began at la Rapee and was completed in Tellier's new facilities at Juvisy, also on the Seine. Painted brilliant yellow, the aeroplane resembled a much-elongated Bleriot XI, with tapered wings braced from a single tall inverted V tower extending above and below the 2-seat fuselage; the wings were constructed with riveting and brackets. He later patented brackets of celluloid to facilitate wing-warping-perhaps these were used on his first machine. A triangular fin carried a small semicircular rudder set high above the one-piece tailplane and elevator, the whole carried by an early-style tail wheel. The radiator was set into the fuselage below and behind the engine. Testing took some time: at first, Dubonnet, who did not know how to fly, learned to taxi with a 20 hp motor, the planned 35 hp Panhard-Levassor not being ready. Finally, with the larger engine, Dubonnet first flew it on 8 March 1910 and was breveted on it on 17 April. While still unlicensed, on 3 April, he was awarded a prize from the magazine La Nature for a 100 km flight taking nearly 2 hours from Draveil to La Ferte sous Jouare, during which flight he landed near Orleans to ask his way. 20 days later he took off from his private field at Draveil and landed at Bagatelle, having achieved the first flight over Paris (at an altitude of 30 to 100 m). On 28 May a landing accident destroyed the aircraft.
(Span: c 11.7 m; length: c 11.9 m; wing area: 24 sqm; empty weight: c 310 kg; gross weight: c 475 kg; 35 hp Panhard-Levassor)
It is said that 5 of these fuselages were built in 1910 at the Tellier School at Etampes; a second variant was built before the end of the year. One of these was equipped with the 60 hp Panhard-Levassor and sold to Russia in October, and which fitted with the 60 hp REP sold late in 1910 to the Comte de Nissole. The second variant was better streamlined then Tellier's first desien: the engine was faired underneath like the LVG of 1915. The undercarriage was simplified, smaller, and lighter; the tailwheel was replaced by a skid, the pylon tower by a single post, the tapered wings by Bleriot look-alikes. This may have been the Type de Course sometimes referred to in the contemporary press.
In 1910 Tellier's whole business went bankrupt, some of the workers went to work for Levavasseur to build Antoinettes; and in January 1911 Armand Deperdussin bought up his works and then sold the aviation division to Louis Schreck. Deperdussin then helped Alphonse Tellier start a new company on the island of La Grande Jatte, on the Seine - today more famous for Seurat's great painting than for anything done there by Tellier. The new firm continued to build boats, flpats, and hulls for flyingboats; there in 1912 he built the hull for the big Breguet flyingboat, La Marseillaise; and during the War he built seaplanes. The Tellier construction method was successful and later much imitated: 2 layers of slatted mahogany, covered with fabric and varnished, riveted perpendicular to each other, were screwed on frames or strakes.
In unpublished short memoirs, Tellier wrote that he had no money to patent this technique, but that Bleriot, Bechereau, and some of the managers at Nieuport recognized later, in 1916, that the construction of most monocoque fuselages depended on Tellier's system.
In the meantime Louis Schreck had reorganized the aviation section into a company called ACT (Anciens Chantiers Tellier) in the former Tellier works, and was continuing to sell Tellier monoplanes. In April 1912 he moved all the facilities including the school to Longuenesse, near St Omer, in northern France.
By the end of 1911, ACT was offering 3 variants on the Tellier theme: a single-seater, a 2-seater, and a racer. The latter was tested by Marc Pourpe in mid-1911, and it was sometimes referred to as the Pourpe monoplane: it was probably unrelated to the earlier Tellier Type de Course racer. It had straight rectangular wings and a short all-covered fuselage; the undercarriage was further simplified from the second design, and standard V-legs supported a long cross-axle that extended far beyond the apices of the Vs. The machine was sometimes referred to as Type 1912, and was shown in advertisements by ACT.
(Span: 9 m; length: 7.8 m; empty weight: 350 kg; 45 hp Panhard-Levassor)
Early in 1912 a Tellier monoplane was reported with a 50 hp Chenu engine, and up to 7 were reported built by May 1912. The question remains as to how many were built after Schreck took over the firm, and who exactly was responsible for the later machines. It is possible that the Chenu-powered machines may have been earlier Telliers retrofitted. Anciens Chantiers Tellier was not successful, and was soon disbanded to reappear as Chantiers Artois or simply d'Artois, with Gaudard as Chief Designer. A year later this new firm merged with the Societe des Hydroaeroplanes Leveque to form Franco-British Aviation (FBA), also under Schreck.
In 1913 Tellier was building floats for seaplanes in his new firm Alphonse Tellier etCompagnie; in August 1914 Tellier worked briefly with Voisin and then reopened his factory on La Grande Jatte, building floats and motor-boats. In 1916 he worked on a big new flyingboat using the 200 hp Hispano-Suiza, and went on to build great numbers of flyingboats during and after the War.
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Theodoresco, Lecoq, Rossi
One of several young Rumanians who went to France to study engineering early in the century, Teodorescu's name (Theodoresco in French) appears first early in 1911 when it was reported that he was having a monoplane built at Raymond's, the builder of the nacelle of the dirigible Pax. In April it was being assembled by Lecoq and Rossi's shops at Issy les Moulineaux. First trials were expected in mid-June, but the aeroplane was not tested before 20 July. Theodoresco's first attempt was into the wind; he pulled back on the stick, "took off, flew backwards, and fell down." Alexandre Anzani may also have flown the monoplane - or perhaps he was there only to install the engine. In September the wings were modified and it flew short distances.
The rectangular monoplane wing had rectangular wings and inset ailerons. The fuselage frame resembled a pair of wide-open shears with an elevator at each end, interconnected: the actual surfaces may have been Bleriot spares without the Bleriot movable tips. A long small rudder was mounted under each elevator. The engine and tanks were set above the wing, with a pusher propeller. The whole device rested on 4 castering wheels, each with its own highly curved small skid. Altogether a remarkably pretty aeroplane.
(Span: 11.8 m; length: 11.5 n; wing area: 26.8 sqm; 60 hp Anzani)
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Thuau
Victor Thuau was a former bicycle racer who turned to aeroplane design with little talent and little luck. He had built models before his only full-scale machine, a Demoiselle-based monoplane he called the Heroclite Phenomenon. The short rectangular wings were basically loose sails, each with 8 ribs and a leading edge; the tip of the leading edge was braced with a long spar running diagonally back to the aft fuselage, and the outer triangles of the sails worked as ailerons. The tailplane was deeply arched, apparently to increase lift at the tail. The fuselage frame was wide and squat, with the 10 hp V2 Anzani level with the top longerons; power was increased with the substitution of a 28 hp 3-cyIinder Anzani. A different propeller of Thuau's own design was fitted to each engine, one of them with adjustable pitch. The whole ugly little machine weighed 120 kg; it was tested unsuccessfully at Issy in July 1910.
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Train
Emile Train was the son of a manufacturer at St Etienne, near Lyon, and today is more famous for his motors and motorcycles built after World War I than for his early aeroplanes. These were of excellent design, but Train lacked the funds to compete with better-established builders, and his steel tube construction required skills that were not always available. Expert in mechanics and oxyacetylene welding, Train built his fortune by designing and building automatic vending machines. By the end of 1909 he had set up a hangar southwest of the camp-site at Mourmelon and began work on his first monoplane. After 3 months he was able to fly it, and he was breveted on 9 April 1910.
His monoplane was an all-metal copy of the Demoiselle, using wood only for the ribs. There were no turnbuckles, for ease of disassembly, and many parts were interchangeable, using bolted collars. The fuselage was deeper than the Demoiselle's, and the elevator was fitted under the rudder. The rectangular wings were double-cambered, thickening slightly behind the leading edge, and the tail surfaces consisted of a standard set, unlike the Demoiselle and its universal joint. The Anzani was mounted on the leading edge above the pilot.
In December 1910 Train had modified his monoplane and was building a 2-seater which flew early in January; it was developed from the single-seater by simply bolting on outer wing panels and fitting side-by-side seating in the front fuselage which had fabric-covered streamlined panels on either side, giving the appearance of a teardrop-shaped nacelle. The undercarriage was strengthened, and the engine was now set slightly ahead of the wing. Some machines had a streamlined fairing behind the engine; some had a gutter to keep oil from the crew. The 1911 catalogue emphasized the Train's stability and ease of handling in gusts or strong winds, which Train himself often demonstrated.
(Single-seater: span: 9.3 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 16 sqm (20 sqm): empty weight: 260 kg; 30 or 60 hp Anzani or 50 hp Gnome)
(2 seater: span: 10.6 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 20 sqm; empty weight: 280 kg; 30 or 60 hp Anzani or 50 hp Gnome - 70 hp Gnome recommended for 2-seater)
The Train monoplanes remained generally unnoticed until Train's accident at the Paris-Madrid race in May 1911, when his engine cut out just after take-off; he tried to get back to the field at Issy to avoid horsemen ahead of him. He pulled back on the stick just before flareout, stalled, and crashed onto a group of VIPs wandering out on the field, killing the Minister of War. The crash put Train and his aeroplane on the front page. It was clear, and quickly admitted, that the pilot was not to blame; Train was allowed to begin the race again the next day in another machine (some reported it was the same one, repaired), and the aviation press printed frequent laudatory articles about the designer and his aeroplane. The Train proved very reliable in this and future competitions.
The biggest operating advantage of the Trains was that the steeltube structure did not deform in wet weather; primarily for this reason 5 (some reports say 7) single-seaters were bought by the Army for tests in the Colonies in Algeria, and they were sent to the school at Biskra, in the Sahara. These particular aircraft had 3-cylinder Anzanis instead of Gnomes to save weight. In 1911 Train offered a seaplane, either similar to the 1910 Anzani-powered model or the same machine, with 2 short floats replacing the wheels and a third fitted to the tailskid.
Although his aeroplanes were good ones, Train could not manage without financial assistance, and this was provided in 1911 by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe. Train sold his hangar facilities to Sanchez-Besa, and his designs became part of Astra, as Astra-Train. In 1912 a new Train seaplane appeared, this time with a large rectangular pontoon with extensions on each side forward, apparently to protect the pilot. This huge float, 3 m long and 2 m wide, proved unsatisfactory and was abandoned.
(Span: 12.94 m; length (with float): 8.44 m; wing area: 21 sqm; 50 hp Gnome, fully cowled)
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In 1912 Train was building metal monoplanes similar to Nieuports and Borels. They had all-covered fuselages and simple rectangular rudder and elevators; the 2-wheeI undercarriage had 6 legs like the Hanriot.
(Single-seater: span: 8.5 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 16 sqm; weight: 240 kg; speed: 78 kmh; 20 hp Darracq, 40 hp Anzani, or 50 hp Gnome)
(2-seater: span: 9.9 m; length: 8 m; wing area: 20 sqm; weight: 270 kg; 40 hp Anzani or 50 hp Gnome)
A drawing appeared of a different monoplane, with gracefully curved underbelly, split vertical surfaces above and below the rear fuselage, trapezoidal wings with wing-tip ailerons, an undercarriage similar to the Bleriot XI but with 2 long curved skids beginning under the fuselage.
By the end of 1912 the heavier-than-air designs of Astra were merged with those of Nieuport, and an entirely new Train design appeared, a 3-4-seater monoplane with an all-covered fuselage, apparently inspired by the Nieuport. E Train, Constructeur was painted on the fuselage. The engine was fully cowled; the undercarriage resembled that of the Hanriot, a rectangular box-frame with trailing skids fore and aft. The upper pylon was an odd 3-Iegged tower from which the guy-wires braced the long wings - probably the same wings used on the Astra-Train. The triangular fin was later removed in favor of a balanced rudder; the large rectangular elevator had a box cut-out for the rudder.
(Span: c 13 m; length: c 8 m; wing area: 24 sqm; 70 hp Gnome)
In 1913 Train was reported flying Nieuports at Mourmelon.
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Vedovelli
The 1910 Vedovelli Fantome resembled a huge alligator tangled in a forest of bent struts. Start with an alligator-shaped hull of square section, the jaw parts lined with transparent windows, and the pilot's bridge, also glazed, where the animal's eyes would be. A large rectangular rudder with rear-facing balances was hinged to the vertical bow. A wing with attractive elliptical dihedral was mounted on bent struts above the hull; a similar one, higher still, behind it, on more bent struts; another, similar, set well forward and low ahead of the nose; and yet another, set well aft and low. A tall rectangular fin rose up at the real-. These latter 2 were mounted on a pair of arches half-covered, as if to provide some rear fin area; gracefully bent skids were fixed at each end of each arch. Another much smaller rectangular wing, like an afterthought, lay on top of the hull amidships. 2 wide-set wheels forward and a nose-wheel allowed movement on the ground; 2 propellers were set into the middle of the side arches. The front rudder was painted SDA 4 SDA, but the meaning is unknown. Watching the Fantome taxiing 200 or 300 m at 3 kmh was described as "dumb-founding": trails of dust were scraped from the field at Issy by the rear skids. It crashed once, and was rebuilt with a simple 2-wheel undercarriage, wire bracing instead of steel tubing for the wings, and a reduced forward rudder. It was rebuilt again, now with the sides fully covered and a single propeller between the side-curtains; the rear rudder was gone.
The same year, taking time off from his electric-equipment factory, Vedovelli patented a motor and propellers, and a paddle-powered hovering machine.
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Vendome
No 1: Raoul Vendome's first aeroplane appeared in 1908, a flimsy-looking monoplane with broad arched wings with the ribs on the top surface. A broad flat basketwork paddle ran back to support 2 large rectangular horizontal tail surfaces, one on each side. A single high pylon post braced the wings from above; wheels are visible in the single extant photo, splayed out, one on each side and far apart. It may not have been finished.
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No 2: The new design was shown at the 1908 Paris Salon, quite different from its predecessor. The fuselage was long and covered, curving up at the tail, and supporting a single huge arched horizontal tail surface. The monoplane wings were also deeply arched, supported by a 4-strut pylon above; small movable surfaces above the leading edge of the wingtips were to provide control. 2 undercarriage wheels were set forward, and a third halfway back.
No 3: This pretty little monoplane of December 1909 set the pattern for several to follow. The fuselage consisted of a single boom with the familiar arched horizontal surface set above the tail end; a small trapezoidal fin was below it, and a small square rudder behind that. The wings were rectangular, with odd movable eyebrow surfaces on top at the tips; an inverted V pylon supported the wings. The undercarriage was formed of a heavy arch and 2 trailing wheels.
(Span: 11.5 m; length; 9.5 m; weight: 210 kg; 30 hp Anzani)
A smaller version of No 3 had a slender covered fuselage, a Bleriot-style trapezoidal pylon, rectangular wings, an arched undercarriage frame, and a rectangular rudder mounted aft and underneath an arched stabilizer surface. The eyebrow ailerons had disappeared; the names Odier-Vendome appeared on the fuselage sides.
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La Moustique (mosquito), was photographed on 13 November 1909, a tiny monoplane with a scalloped wire trailing edge, and typical Vendome structure otherwise. An additional small horizontal triangular surface was sometimes fitted on the top of the fuselage between the wing and the stabilizer. A 12 hp engine was mounted below the nose, driving the propeller through a wide belt.
Demoiselle copy: In 1910 Vendome also built a Demoiselle look-alike, with a single boom, high arched tailplane set ahead of the Demoiselle-style rudder, and a tailwheel fitted to a leggy strut.
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In September 1910 appeared at Issy a tiny Vendome monoplane with arched wings and flexible deckled trailing edge extensions (or ailerons?); long triangular horizontal and vertical fixed surfaces comprised a large rudder and separate elevators joined with a single rod to provide control. The familiar Vendome arched undercarriage was used here, too.
In February 1911 another Vendome monoplane flew at Issy. It showed off gulled wings at shoulder height, the familiar arched undercarriage beam with trailing wheels, and a covered fuselage of diamond-shaped section. The large tailplane had the separated elevators joined with a strut at their trailing edges. 2 different rudders were fitted, one tall and rounded, the other tall and angular; the latter version had a Viale engine.
Also in 1911: a pretty design with elliptical wings, the Vendome arched landing gear, rounded tailplane and elevators, and a new rounded comma-shaped rudder. The cockpit was set up in a raised cowling behind the 5-cylinder Anzani.
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Type Militaire: In 1912, a clean little shoulder-wing monoplane with trapezoidal wings and inset elevators, a rectangular tailplane in at least 2 forms, each with long trailing elevators. The new comma rudder was retained. The machine could be disassembled in 5 minutes. The wheels were huge, 1.8 m in diameter.
(Span: 8 m; length: 6.8 m; wing area: 16.9 m; Anzani engine)
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In 1914, a new monoplane featured a V-leg undercarriage, and curved trailing edges to the wings with cut-outs on each side next to the fuselage. A small rectangular rudder stood up by itself, over the large rectangular horizontal tail.
Also in 1913 Gibert flew his new machine at Issy and soon crashed it on the roofs of Paris, a stubby little monoplane similar to the one of the previous year, but with a triangular fin and D-shaped rudder.
Monoplace Repliable: This design of 1914 featured a slender covered fuselage, and the arched undercarriage of the earlier Vendomes, but it gave way to the next 2-seat design, lighter, with the same engine.
(Span: 9.15 m; length: 7 m; 50 hp Gnome)
Type Militaire: In 1914 Bossano flew this Le Rhone-powered 2-seater at Issy, a handsome machine with triangular undercarriage legs, a raised cowling in front of the pilot, and an uncovered aft fuselage. It may have flown with a 4-bladed propeller. It could be disassembled in 70 seconds.
(Span: 8.2 m; length: 5.8 m; wing area: 14 sqm; empty weight: 197 kg; speed: 130 kmh; 50 hp Gnome)
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Villard
Henri Villard was a French national who moved to Belgium from 1898 to 1914 to work out a series of helicopters, 6 in all, among his other studies of aviation subjects.
1. In 1901 he built a propeller - or perhaps a rotor. No further aircraft for it has been discovered.
2. A machine was being completed at Tarbes in 1909. It or another was later being completed at La Seyne-sur-Mer, near Toulon. In August 1909 he was sent a 50 hp Gnome and completed his rig, which he thought would lift 3 people.
Aviator: an early, perhaps the first, Villard effort at vertical flight, consisted of a large umbrella-like rotor of 9.1-meter diameter on a shaft, off which the pilot sat with a horizontal propeller in front of him and a steerable circular rudder behind him. The rotor was a disc of silk stretched over a wheel of double wire spokes, and was to serve as a gyroscope for stability as it turned, and as a parachute in case of trouble. A photograph shows a similar helicopter with 2 overhead rotating discs - either a modification of the first Aviator, or a new machine. The first one was finished in 1902.
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Ornis-1 was a heavy wooden-framed helicopter machine built in 1906 which never flew. The pilot sat forward in a half-covered nacelle with an up-curved skid in front.
Ornis-2 was Villard's second version in 1913 at Schaerbeek, and it was shown in 1914 at the third and last Salon de l'Automobile, du Cycle, et de l'Aeronautique in the great hall which is now occupied by the Belgian Air and Space Museum. A small 4-bladed rotor turned immediately above a long drooping wing of deeply arched airfoil section built on 2 spars. The small openwork fuselage, similar to that of Ornis-1, was covered in front, and sat on 2 wheels. A contemporary account of the flight trials follows:
The Burgermaster of Schaerbeek, M Kennis, allowed M Villard to install his machine in the courtyard of the town hall, where he made a hellish noise, without succeeding in rising due to the weight of his motor. Learning of this, Albert I summoned M Villard and offered him an 80 hp Anzani and the use of a shed at the Pare du Cinquantenaire so that he could pursue his experiments.
They proceeded successfully, since the helicopter, piloted by Tony Orta and Henry Gerard, began by lifting itself a meter off the ground. On 28 June 1914 the machine was taken to Berchem-Ste-Agathe, and Albert I went himself went to watch the trials each time more convincing; but not attentive to the presence of his sovereign, M Villard, quite distracted, greeted him with "Good day, Mr Lord!" Baptized l'Ornis, the helicopter was taken and destroyed when the Germans took Berchem-Ste-Agathe, several months later.
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Albert had paid for a 120 hp Anzani; but for some reason an 80 hp engine had been delivered, and Albert asked Villard to build a third machine.
Ornis-3 was the third Villard design to be royally funded, and consisted only of bare steel tube struts mounted on 4 tubular floats; it used a larger engine, possibly the 120 hp Anzani meant for Ornis-2. It was tested by Henri Gerard at Ostend shortly before the War broke out. What may have been its immediate predecessor or perhaps a subsequent modification was similar, but was set on 3 big square-cornered floats.
(Rotor span: 2.7 m; rotor speed: 1100 rpm; weight: 410 kg; 120 hp Anzani (?))
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Vinet
Another well-known automobile - and automobile-body builder, G Vinet became interested in aeronautics in 1904, when he built Archdeacon's first glider. In 1907, much more ambitious, he was planning an aeroplane in the shape of a bird, with 2 propellers, a 10-meter span, and a 12-15 hp engine; it was probably not completed. In 1909 his firm, Vinet Boulogne, had settled in Courbevoie, a northwestern suburb of Paris, and was building spares for aircraft. By 1910 it was selling Bleriot wings and fuselages, and built aircraft by other designers such as Farmer, Milord, and de Puiseux.
From 1910 to 1913 the firm built a series of monoplanes of its own design; these took basically one of 3 forms. Letters were assigned to various types; B, D and F were mentioned the most frequently, but the variations were much more numerous than this suggests.
The first Vinet was a Demoiselle derivative in 1910, testflown at Issy. The uncovered fuselage was of triangular section, the upper 2 longerons being light girders. The wings were trapezoidal, with odd upturned tips; the tail surfaces were of conventional form, unlike the Demoiselle's.
(Span: 10.5 m; length: 7.4 m; 40 hp water-cooled inline Labor, and other similar engines)
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Type B: In 1911 Vinet advertised his Type B, claiming that his former aeroplanes (Type A?) had been "test machines without direct commercial consequences." Similar to the Bleriot XI, the uncovered fuselage was slender; the undercarriage was a lighter version of the Hanriot's, where a 4-legged frame supported 2 long skids, across which was bound the axle. A long triangular tailplane supported tiny triangular elevators; the triangular rudder had no fin.
(Span: 9 m; length: 7.8 m; wing area: 16 sqm; empty weight: 210 kg; speed: c 90 ktnh; 40 hp Gyp)
Vinet produced a racing variant for the Circuit Europeen in June 1911, but it is not clear whether in fact it was entered. It had slightly less wingspan and weighed fractionally less than the Type B. Another similar machine was photographed in March 1912 at Issy - perhaps the same one modified, with Bleriot-style pylon instead of a 3-legged tower.
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Type D: The Vinet Type D was completed before the end of June 1911; it was the first of a series of similar machines designed by P James, all with a low-set covered fuselage below a parasol wing with the engine mounted above the leading edge. It was tested in August 1911 at Chateaufort but was found unsatisfactory.
(Span: 8.64 m; length: 6.58 m; wing area: 15.32 sqm; empty weight: 250 kg: 50 hp Anzani)
Type F: At the 1911 Paris Exposition, Vinet showed his Type F, similar to the D but better finished, with larger wing, smaller tailplane, and narrow tread, with a 35 hp Dansette-Gillet. Reports of the period describe it with a 50 hp Gnome as either a single - or 2-seater.
(Span: 8.7 m; length: 6.5 m; empty weight: 180 kg; 35 hp water-cooled Dansette-Gillet)
On 28 February 1912 a Vinet crashed, this one with much wider tread and a large rectangular rudder; at the 1912 Salon a further development was shown with a huge tank set into the center-section of the wing, and a rotary engine. At least 2 versions appeared, with differences, before Vinet stopped building them.
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In late 1906 the Voisin brothers hired a draftsman, Maurice Colliex, and formed a new firm, Les Freres Voisin, thus becoming the first manufacturers of aeroplanes - the first real aircraft factory. They had 2 plans: first to build the often bizarre and complicated and generally unsuccessful projects of rich amateurs who wished to make something original, and thus to collect enough capital to carry out their second plan: to develop their own early designs tested on the Seine into a successful flying machine. To attract customers to both plans, Voisin decided to name the machine after the purchaser rather than himself; the firm's name appeared in small print under the buyer's. In January 1906 they designed a remarkable streamlined twin-propeller hydroplane (but Voisin's own drawing is titled Aeroplane...) for a M Filiasi.
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Voisin
In late 1906 the Voisin brothers hired a draftsman, Maurice Colliex, and formed a new firm, Les Freres Voisin, thus becoming the first manufacturers of aeroplanes - the first real aircraft factory. They had 2 plans: first to build the often bizarre and complicated and generally unsuccessful projects of rich amateurs who wished to make something original, and thus to collect enough capital to carry out their second plan: to develop their own early designs tested on the Seine into a successful flying machine. To attract customers to both plans, Voisin decided to name the machine after the purchaser rather than himself; the firm's name appeared in small print under the buyer's. In January 1906 they designed a remarkable streamlined twin-propeller hydroplane (but Voisin's own drawing is titled Aeroplane...) for a M Filiasi.
Their first customer, Florencie, had an ornithopter designed and built; then he ordered the nacelles for first one and then another unsuccessful machine - these are all described under his name. Their second customer for whom they designed an aeroplane was Henri Kapferer, whose little Buchet-powered biplane appears under his name.
Then came the sculptor Leon Delagrange, who is better known today for having been one of the first customers of Charles and Gabriel Voisin than for his fine flying and contemporary fame as a pilot. Though he never took part in the design of any of the aeroplanes he bought - Voisins and later a Bleriot XI - he usually eventually modified them.
Delagrange (No 1): Henri Kapferer recommended the firm to his friend Delagrange who in December 1906 ordered his own machine designed and built by the Voisins; 3/4 of the purchase price would be paid only upon proof of a successful flight. Voisin attempted the first flight on 20 February 1907; it lifted briefly, but the fuselage failed. He tried again on 16 March at Bagatelle, but the torque of the motor drove it into the ground on its left wing. Adjusted, as Penaud had done to his design of 1872, with 2 kg of dead weight added to the right wing, the machine flew successfully for 60 m on 30 March.
With the announcement of the Archdeacon Deutsch de la Meurthe prize, the Voisins wanted to buy the aeroplane back, but Delagrange wanted to enter it himself; and Voisin recommended testing it with floats. Taking off the wheels, Voisin assisted with the tests of and alterations to the seaplane glider in 1907 on Lake Enghien, near Paris, and then again with wheels, finally wrecking it irreparably in a crash. The aircraft showed what was to become typical Voisin design: big biplane cells for the wings and tail, big side-curtains as vertical tail surfaces and later between the wing struts, forward elevator, big rectangular open-box structure for the tail outriggers supported at the end by 2 tailwheels, and a castering 2-wheel undercarriage.
(Span: 11 m; length: 11 m; wing area: 60 sqm; dry weight: 450 kg; 50 hp Antoinette)
The following year he replaced the Antoinette motor in one of his Voisins with a 50 hp Chenu. In the same year he bought a Channel-type Bleriot XI with a 3-cylinder Anzani and substituted a 50 hp Gnome, renaming his machine Monoplan Eclair (lightning). With a strengthened undercarriage it was the first 50 hp XI, and also the fastest: on 30 December 1909 he achieved an average speed of 78.3 kmh with a top speed recorded of 86 kmh. A few days later, on 4 January 1910, he died when his Bleriot crashed in a turn.
In March 1907 the firm also built the nacelle, propeller, and control surfaces for the dirigible Ville de Paris. They continued to build and test Chanute-type gliders mostly for the Aero Club de France in May. Then they built in 5 weeks a little 50 hp Antoinette-powered biplane with a movable nacelle for the German Hans Reissner, who went on to work with Hugo Junkers on all-metal aircraft structures. The firm also built an unsuccessful large 100 hp helicopter for the Russian, Prince Chelmiky.
Henry Farman (HF 1): Ordered on 1 June as being "the same as Delagrange's one," on the basis of payment after a one-kilometer flight, and finished at the Voisin works in August 1907, the first Henry Farman was a big boxkite arrangement covered in silk with a big biplane tail cell with a central flap for a rudder; there were no side-curtains in the wing cell. The long pointed fuselage nacelle was uncovered, with a small biplane forward elevator pivoted at the front. The wheels castered, as on the Bleriot. It hopped on 30 September 1907, but managed a 30-meter flight on 7 October.
(Span: 10.8 m; length: 13.45 m; wing area: 42 sqm: empty weight: 320 kg; loaded weight: 550 kg; speed: 60 kmh; 50 hp Antoinette)
It was modified over time: a monoplane forward elevator replaced the biplane cell; the nacelle was covered; the rudder was moved aft inside the tail cell. Then the tail side-curtains were reduced and the rudder brought forward again. Then the tail cell was shortened; a gas tank was set on the top wing and a water tank above the engine. On 13 January 1908 it made a world record flight, one kilometer, closed-circuit. It then returned to the factory and reappeared as the Ibis.
HF Ibis: The machine was restored and now covered with Continental cloth, and re-engined with a 50 hp Renault until May 1908, when the Antoinette was restored. In Belgium it received side-curtains on either side of the nacelle; in this form it flew from Chalons to Reims on 30 October, 27 km in 20 minutes. Farman's first design contribution was to modify the Ibis to triplane configuration (described under Farman).
HF II (Voisin): Henry Farman ordered this machine with a 2-meter gap instead of 1.5, but did not accept it. It may have been used as an "appareil d'essais," for testing engines.
Delagrange No 2: Seeing the success of the Farman machine, Delagrange ordered an exact copy of it from the Voisins in the fall of 1907 and flew it successfully in January 1908.
(Span: 10.2 m; length: 10.5 m; 50 hp Antoinette)
Delagrange No 3: Delagrange added side-curtains to his No 2 in September 1908, one on each side close to the fuselage, and renamed it No 3, with an Antoinette engine.
Moore-Brabazon No III: Built for the Englishman in November 1908 with a 60 hp Vivinus engine. (See below, under Standard Voisin)
Zipfel: Armand Zipfel had earlier built a glider to Voisin's instructions; he later ordered an aeroplane from the Voisin firm, patterned almost exactly on the Delagrange No III. It was built at the Ateliers d'Aviation du Sud-Estde Villeurbane, near Lyons, and Zipfel flew it first in November 1908. Later he took it to Germany, making the first significant powered flights in that country. He went on to build Voisins under license. (See also Zipfel.)
Standard Voisin: The firm put their best model into production, the first one being completed in December 1908. The ribs in both wings and tail were identical; 19 types of aluminum castings were used, and a variety of sheet-steel engine mounts allowed variation in selection of powerplants. The first aircraft was sold to JTC Moore-Brabazon, who called it Voisin No III, since he had attempted to fly in 2 earlier aeroplanes, one of which may have been Goupy's abandoned triplane. Initially fitted with a 50 hp Vivinus automobile engine, it was later re-fitted with a 50 hp Antoinette with the nacelle covered. Moore-Brabazon then ordered a second Voisin, this one called No IV, fitted with an ENV and wider gap. 60 or so were built, exhibited, sold, and raced, in the course of 1908 and early 1909.
(Span: 10 m; length: 10.5 m; wing area: 49.75 sqm; empty weight: 445 kg; 50 hp Antoinette)
Among the purchasers were the Aeroclub of Odessa; de Baeder; Bregi (this machine was offered by L'Aviation); Bunau-Varilla; de Caters; Dufour; Ferber; Fournier (No 1); Gaudart (Daumont I); Gobron; Hansen; Jacquelin, Kluytmans, Koch; Legagneux; Lesire; Ligue Nationale Aerienne (2 a/c called Alsace and He de France); Metrot; Morveaux; Paulhan (who won it in a contest - see Paulhan); Poillot; Richer; Rigal; de la Roche; Rougier (No 1); de Salvert; Sanchez-Besa; des Vallieres; Vivinus. Similar Voisins were license-built in Italy for Anzani, Cagno, and Florio.
Farman, Henry
It is curious that among the most famous of the French pioneer aviators, Henry Farman and his brother Maurice, were the children of English parents; they grew up in Paris speaking little English, and Henry (who later sometimes spelled his name Henri), became a French citizen. His grave is in the cemetery of Passy, in Paris, and his stone is inscribed Henry Farman.
Both Henry and Maurice soon became interested in bicycling and both became skilled bicycle-racers. Henry and a third brother, Dick, opened an automobile dealership in Paris, but Henry was badly hurt in an car accident and shifted his attention to other things. He watched Voisin fly his gliders, and on 1 June 1907 ordered his first aeroplane from the Voisin firm after seeing the Voisin-built Delagrange No 1 in flight in March 1907.
HF I: His aeroplane was designed and built by the Voisins, and is described under their name.
HF Ibis: Voisin's modifications to the HF 1 are described under Voisin. But in November Farman himself modified it further: this was Henry Farman's first real design contribution. He rebuilt it as a triplane with the addition of a short high-set wing, 4 ailerons, the outer pairs of side-curtains with cut-outs to allow movement of the ailerons. It reverted to biplane configuration on 28 November with an enlarged tail cell; and then in December back to triplane, when it was sold to an Austrian syndicate where it was rebuilt once again as a biplane and Legagneux crashed it.
Kapferer
Graduate of the Ecole des Mines, collaborator and nephew of Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, Henri Kapferer was well known as a balloonist; but it was he who in 1904 suggested to his uncle that he should sponsor research into heavier-than-air machines, and his suggestion was followed by the creation of the Prix du Kilometre, which was won by Henry Farman on 13 January 1908. Through the support of men like de la Meurthe and the banker Lazare Weiller, the powers of money stood guarantee for the new industry.
Henri Kapferer is not included in this section as a constructor but as a buyer and enthusiast: he had 4 aircraft built, but none of them were of his design. With Leon Delagrange, the first client of the Voisin brothers' aircraft manufacturing firm, he ordered a Voisin biplane late in 1906. Though warned to use a light motor of at least 40 hp, he fitted to his new machine a heavy and useless 20/25 hp V8 Buchet. Tested unsuccessfully on the Sartrouville grounds on 1 March 1907, the machine was abandoned.
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Voisin tractor, 1909: The replacement for the popular but now outdated 1908 model featured a 4-cylinder Voisin-built engine; it was now a tractor biplane with an uncovered arched fuselage similar to that used in the Flying Fish. There were 2 sets of side-curtains and no forward surfaces, and the tail cell could move in 2 directions. It showed no improvement over the earlier models. In 1910 Edmond Jacquelin bought it and modified it further.
(Span: 10 m; length: 9 m; wing area: 49.75 sqm; 40 hp Voisin)
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Voisin Type de Course. 1910: This entirely new design - and the smallest so far - was another effort to replace the standard model still in use throughout the world. It featured steel tube wing and outrigger beams. The design was gradually improved, appearing in races and airshows; one was flown by Bielovucic in his flight from Paris to Bordeaux. The new ones replaced the biplane tail cell with a single upper surface and a single rudder below it, which survived throughout WWI; and the drooping ailerons set peller speeds. Unlike the one-off Racing Biplane, the Type Bordeaux was in production.
(Span: 11 m; length: 10.5 m; wing area: 46 sqm; empty weight: 480 kg; 55 hp ENV)
Type Tourisme: Developed from the Type Bordeaux, this version was a little smaller than its parent and lacked the nosewheel. It featured a full dual control system.
(Span: 11 m; length: 9.5 m; wing area: 32 sqm; empty weight: 400 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
Type Militaire, 1910: Also developed from the Type Bordeaux, this one had folding outer wing panels and kept the nosewheel; it also had dual controls.
(Span: 11 to 16 m (unfolded); length;9.5 m; wing area: 42 sqm; speed: 87 kmh; 50 hp Gnome)
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Canard prototype, 1911: This new design used one of the old rib-shaped triplane fuselages, probably from the third of the earlier triplanes, or perhaps from the abandoned Flying Fish. The fuselage frame was hung between the wings of the biplane cells - taken from a standard Voisin - with wires, to avoid the stresses of struts on a fuselage not designed for it. Ailerons were fitted to both upper and lower wings. In the course of testing, winglets were added behind the forward elevators, the fuselage was covered, and the front fin was enlarged. It carried up to 3 people, and was later mounted on floats.
(Span: 10 m; speed: 76 kmh; 50 hp Gnome)
The second canard design, larger than the first, was meant as an amphibian, with 4 floats and attached wheels. Voisin demonstrated this 17-meter span machine by taking off the wings and driving it through the streets of Paris.
Production canards, 1911: Larger than the prototype, 3 of them were sold to Russia. They each spanned some 11m. One 3-float amphibian, different from the others, was built in 1912 specially for the French Navy.
Canard 1912: Further 3-seater canard developments of the 1911 design were built, experimenting with various combinations of rudder and front elevator controls.
(Span: c 17 m)
Type Monaco (canard): The final Voisin canard was similar to the 3 previous, but smaller, with 4 floats, built specially for the meet at Monaco. Voisin built 2 for the Monaco meet.
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Seventeen-Meter: With increased wingspan the Type Militaire became known as the Seventeen-Meter. Some 47 were built.
(Span: 17 m; length: 11.5 m; empty weight: 970 kg; 70 hp Renault)
A revised version with shorter fuselage with a mica window in the nacelle floor, and a 4-wheel undercarriage, was tested in 191