L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
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.
Журнал Flight
Flight, March 26, 1910
Boat Builders and Aeroplanes.
IN view of the recent tendency in motor boat design towards the hydroplane it is hardly surprising that some builders are turning their thoughts to flying machines. The Tellier works in France, which have turned out some of the speediest motor boats, are responsible for the monoplane seen in the accompanying photographs, and it is being tested by M. Dubonnet, who is famous as a helmsman of racing motor boats. The Tellier monoplane has a span of 11 metres, and the length is the same dimension, while the lifting surface is 24 sq. metres. The Panhard motor drives a Tellier two-bladed propeller and gives the machine a speed of 70 kiloms. an hour.
Dubonnet a Pilote-Aviateur.
AT its first trial the Tellier monoplane has proved itself an entire success. On the 16th inst. Dubonnet flew for 40 minutes at Draveil and on the following day for a quarter of an hour, while on Saturday last he succeeded in making the necessary qualifying flights for his Ae.C.F. certificate as pilote-aviateur.
Flight, April 9, 1910
Sixty-eight Miles Across Country.
IT is not often that a new machine has so propitious a start to its career as that secured by the Tellier monoplane. It is less than a month ago since M. Dubonnet commenced experimenting with the machine, and yet on Sunday last he succeeded in carrying off the prize of 10,000 francs (L400) offered by La Nature for the first cross-country flight of 100 kiloms. in a straight line. M. Dubonnet started from a field at Draveil, near Juvisy, where he has been trying the machine, and rising to a height of between 300 and 400 ft. he headed for Orleans, following the railway line. Passing over Arpajon he kept to the left of Etampes and Toury, went over Artenay, and passed Orleans to the right, eventually landing at La Ferte-St. Aubin, 110 kiloms. away from the starting point, after a flight lasting 1 hr. 50 mins. About 200 people, including the officials of the French Aero Club, assembled at the landing place to welcome the aviator, who, although only a tyro, had won a prize which many prominent aviators have unsuccessfully tried for. It will be remembered that two photographs of this machine, which is fitted with a Panhard motor, appeared in our issue of the 26th ult.
Flight, April 23, 1910
Flyers at Brooklands.
IT was reported some days ago that M. Dubonnet, on his Tellier monoplane, would be flying at the Brooklands meeting on the 27th inst., but although he hopes to be at Brooklands before long, M. Dubonnet will not be there next Wednesday. Several of the British aviators who are training there have, however, made good progress lately, and it is anticipated that there will be some good flying.
Flight, June 4, 1910
Dubonnet Has a Fall.
WHILE practising on his Tellier monoplane, on the 28th ult., at Draveil, M. Dubonnet met with a nasty mishap, through the sudden stopping of his engine. He was flying at a height of ten metres at the time, and as a result of the sudden drop the machine was seriously damaged, but the aviator escaped unhurt.
Flight, June 11, 1910
Tellier Monoplanes in the U.K.
THE exclusive rights for the Tellier monoplane have been secured by Mr. D. Lawrence Santoni, and anyone who is thinking of purchasing one of these machines can obtain from him at 10, Coburg Place, Hyde Park, W., a little brochure giving particulars of the machine and its performances, as well as the terms of sale, &c
Flight, July 23, 1910
Chateau now Using a Tellier.
HAVING mastered both the Voisin and Zodiac types of biplane, Chateau has now turned his attention to the Tellier monoplane. At his first attempt he made one circuit of the Draveil Aerodrome; the next day he covered two circuits, while on Saturday last he was flying several times at a good height.
Flight, July 30, 1910
Chateau on the Tellier.
AT the Tellier flying ground at Draveil, Chateau has been making several good flights on his Tellier monoplane and has obtained his pilote-aviateur's certificate. He was up for half-an-hour on the 19th inst.
Flight, October 29, 1910
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PARIS SHOW - (continued).
By OISEAU.
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The Tellier Co. show a two-seater monoplane fitted with a 6-cyl. Panhard engine. It does not differ as to design from the smaller better known model. The fusellage, owing to its being of box-girder type uncovered by canvas, a method of construction not very usual in such large machines, gives the entire appareil an abnormally long, and, I think, unbalanced appearance. In truth, however, the length and width are the same, 11I metres. One expects from a boat builder of the celebrity of Tellier a perfect finish, and one certainly finds it here, combined with great strength. The control, while of the Bleriot cloche type, has a further rotary movement actuating the vertical rudders.
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Flight, December 3, 1910
AEROPLANE SILHOUETTES FROM THE PARIS SHOW.
THE TELLIER MONOPLANE.
BUILT by the famous French boat-building firm. Planes double-surfaced throughout. Of excellent finish. M. Emile Dubonnet, whose name will always be associated with the early successes of the Tellier, won on his first cross-country flight a prize offered by Nature for a 100-kilom. flight from town to town. The day following he flew from the aerodrome of Juvisy across Paris to Bagatelle.
General dimensions. - Bearing surface, 24 square metres; length overall, 11.85 metres; width, 11.85 metres.
Seating capacity. - One or two-seater. The machine described is a single-seater.
Engine. - 35-h.p. Panhard, water-cooled, 4-cyl. vertical. Steel cylinders, copper water-jackets. Bore, 110 mm.; stroke, 140 mm. Weight, 100 kilogs. Revolutions, 1,000. Petrol consumption at normal revolutions, 14 litres an hour. Silencer is fitted if required.
Propeller. - Tellier, 1,000 revs.
Landing chassis. - Two wheels, mounted with springs in front, with a small wheel placed in front of the tail. The two front wheels are so arranged that they adapt themselves to any unevenness in the ground on which the machine lands.
Tail. - Fixed non-lifting tail-plane with fixed vertical fin over it. Elevating-plane fixed to the trailing edge of tail-plane. Single rudder fixed centrally above.
Lateral stability. - By flexing the trailing edges of the main planes.
Weight. - Complete with motor, 400 kilogs.
Speed. - About 85 kiloms. an hour.
System of control. - By steering-wheel mounted on a column in front of the pilot. A rotary movement of the wheel controls the rudder. A sideway movement of the entire column to the right or left flexes the left or right wing. A forward movement depresses the machine, and a backward movement elevates.
Price. - With 35-h.p. 4-cyl. Panhard engine, 25,000 francs. A large two-seated model, known as the "Type Militaire," and fitted with a 50-h.p. 6-cyl. vertical Panhard engine is also built.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
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| View from the rear of a monoplane which has been built by the Tellier Co., the famous builders of French racing boats. The arrangement of the tail and rudder presents some novel features. It is being tested by M. Dubonnet, another well-known name in motor boating circles.
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L.Opdyke - French Aeroplanes Before the Great War /Schiffer/
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| The first Tellier, of 1909.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
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| LATEST TELLIER MONOPLANE, SEEN FROM IN FRONT AND FROM BEHIND. - Mr. D. L. Santoni is in the pilot's seat.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
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| AT THE TELLIER SCHOOL AT ETAMPES - SOME OF THE PUPILS. - (1) Prince de Nissole; (2) Le Maire; (3) Hammersley; (4) Becue; (5) D. L. Santoni.
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Журнал - Flight за 1911 г.
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| "CHASSE-CROlSE" IN THE AIR. - Reminiscence of an incident - one of many similar daily - at Rouen Aviation Meeting last year. Dubonnet, on his Tellier monoplane, crossing under Capt. Dickson on his Henry Farman biplane.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
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| The Panhard motor fitted to the Tellier monoplane. It will be noticed that the engine is carried on a wooden framework, which has all its edges carefully rounded off.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
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| The front chassis section of the Tellier monoplane, showing the very strong construction of the fusellage and simple fitting of the 6-cyl. Panhard aviation motor.
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L.Opdyke - French Aeroplanes Before the Great War /Schiffer/
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| One of the second versions of the Tellier, still with wings shaped like those of the Bleriot XI.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
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| The latest Tellier racing monoplane, fitted with a 45-h.p. Panhard engine, which will be used at the big International-meeting at Lanark by Audemars. The weight is 350 kilogs., span, 9 metres; length, 9 metres and surface, 20.2 square metres.
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L.Opdyke - French Aeroplanes Before the Great War /Schiffer/
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| A late 1911 Tellier, probably built under the name ACT, or perhaps under later firm name d'Artois.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
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