J.Davilla, A.Soltan French Aircraft of the First World War (Flying Machines)

Ateliers d'Aviation L. Janoir

  L. Janoir was a French aviation pioneer who built his first plane in 1912. At the beginning of the First World War Janoir was in Russia working with Vladimir Lebedev, whose firm was building Deperdussins under license for the Imperial Russian Air Service. Janoir helped to organize the first Russian aviation squadrons. He returned to France in February 1916 and established a factory at Saint-Ouen near the Seine. The Janoir firm concentrated primarily on the repair and manufacture of SPAD fighters.


Janoir Flying Boats

  In 1918 Janoir designed at least three different seaplanes. The first was a flying boat with an extremely odd configuration. The slab-sided fuselage, which held the crew of two, was surmounted by two-bay biplane wings. An abbreviated fuselage was supported above the rear hull by several struts. The fuselage had triangular tail surfaces. The engine was located in the nose of the fuselage and a cut-out was provided in the upper wing to enable the propeller to turn. This unusual arrangement had the advantage of keeping the tail surfaces, engine, and propeller clear of water spray. One aircraft was built but details of its flying characteristics and ultimate fate are not known.
  Janoir's patent (No. 493.502) showed a second design very similar to the J-3 except a second engine was fitted in front of the propeller; the single propeller was powered by both engines. It does not appear that this second design was ever built.
  A third Janoir flying boat was a twin-boom plane with a single in-line engine at the front of each boom. The wings had two bays of struts and appear to have been of equal span. A combination central float and main fuselage was suspended beneath the bottom wing. There was a biplane horizontal stabilizer and four rudders. A wind tunnel model underwent testing at the Laboratory Eiffel, but it appears that this design also remained an unfinished project.