J.Davilla, A.Soltan French Aircraft of the First World War (Flying Machines)
Societe des Avions Louis Breguet
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The first Breguet fixed-wing plane was built in 1908. The Breguet 1 flew in June of that year, it was a biplane which employed wing-warping for control and had a biplane tail with twin rudders. Power was initially supplied by a 50-hp Renault engine, and in August 1910 the Breguet 1 set a record by carrying six persons. The Societe des Avions Louis Breguet was formed the next year.
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Other prewar Breguet aircraft include:
1. Number 1 (1909) with 50-hp Levavasseur engine. Many modifications to basic airframe; later a Gobron-Brillie engine was fitted.
2. Type L1 (1909) with Renault 50-hp engine
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L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
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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Журнал Flight
Flight, March 27, 1909
FLYERS AT OLYMPIA.
Breguet (J.STENBURY).
The Breguet biplane, exhibited by the concessionaire, Mr. J. Stenbury, is a very different machine to the combined helicopter-biplane which the same designer exhibited in Paris, but it nevertheless embodies equally uncommon ideas. As a system it is peculiar, not to say unique, amongst biplanes, in having absolutely no sort of supplementary surface in front of the main planes, which are themselves so mounted that they can tilt for elevating and righting purposes. The details of the control levers and wires are not fitted, and, indeed, the machine is far from complete. A compiratively short distance behind the main planes are a set of large tail planes, these being arranged in biplane form, but with the upper deck three times the spread of the lower deck. Between the two decks are a pair of vertical rudders. The whole structure has a most massive appearance, owing to the fact that it is built up entirely of steel tubes, some of which are no less than 2 1/2 ins. in diameter. The tubular spars, which support the main surfaces, are jointed to the main framework, so that the planes can be folded back out of the way for transport; when extended the joint is locked solid by using the spar itself as an internal bolt. In consequence of the large diameter of these tubular spars which pass through between the double surfaces of the planes, the planes themselves are of unusual thickness. A feature of the Breguet construction which is well worthy of attention is the method of obtaining a smooth round cutting edge by the use of thin sheet aluminium tacked on over the Continental fabric. Aluminium ribs of shallow channel section are also used for stiffening the decks, and the same metal is employed in the construction of the flexible propeller blades, which are, however, not shown at Olympia. For the support of the main planes only four tubular steel struts are used, one pair at the extremities, and the other pair in the middle, where they form part of the central framework. The engine with which the machine will be equipped is a 75-h.p. Gobron aero-motor; it will drive a tractor screw in front, which is another peculiarity of the Breguet biplane, since most machines of this type have propellers behind the main planes.
Flight, April 23, 1910
BREGUET FLIES ACROSS COUNTRY.
USING his No. 3 biplane, Breguet on the 11th inst. succeeded in making a splendid cross-country flight. Rising from the Brayelle aerodrome he twice flew round the ground and then steered a course for Arras, about 20 kiloms. away, over which he turned for the homeward journey. The complete journey of 40 kiloms. occupied 28 mins., and, although it was not officially certified, the speed attained was in the neighbourhood of 80 kiloms. an hour. On Tuesday Breguet met with a nasty accident. He was flying at a height of about 20 metres when the machine suddenly capsized # owing, it is said, to a propeller-blade breaking # and fell to the ground. The aviator was rendered unconscious by the fall, but according to the latest reports is not seriously injured.
Flight, October 22, 1910
THREE-BLADED PROPELLERS.
Concerning Mr. Bowles' letter about three-bladed propellers, the earlier Breguet biplane was fitted with one, coupled to a 50-h.p. Renault. The propeller appears, from the post-card which I enclose, to have been built of metal blades riveted to three arms of tubular steel. As to whether any flights were made with this or not, I can't say, but M. Breguet appears to have given it up in his newer machines for the ordinary two-bladed.
Chelsea. J. R. BLUNT.
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