L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)

Журнал Flight

Flight, November 2, 1912.

THE PARIS AERO SALON.

Borel.

   BOREL'S exhibit of three monoplanes, one of them fitted for water flying, is one of the most interesting in the Show. He has a 50-h.p. Gnome single-seater, a racing monocoque with an 80-h.p. Gnome and the hydro monoplane equipped with a similar motor. We may put aside the single-seater machine for, except for detail improvements here and there, it is no different from the one that Vedrines brought so much into the limelight by his magnificent flying during the earlier part of 1911.
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   The third machine of Borel's is the monocoque, inspired probably by Deperdussin's. Its fuselage is built up in a similar manner to that of the latter machine - in three-ply wood. But whereas the Dep. has no framework inside, the shell of the Borel is supported by six longerons, united by circular formers. In front, the 80-h.p. Gnome revolves under a dome, of which a quarter segment is cut away to allow for the sufficient cooling of the motor. Its wings, in which little curvature and little angle of incidence are noticeable, are of the papillon type - they are smaller in chord at the root than at the tip. For the chassis, it consists of two V's of streamlined steel tubing, to the base of which the axle uniting the two disc wheels is strapped by elastic bands. The tail, like the two-seater Morane-Saulnier machine, has no fixed stabilizing surface; it merely has elevators rocking about their approximate centres of pressure. A small vertical fin precedes the rudder. Each wing is stayed on the underside by only two cables, a double one running from one side of the chassis to the opposite wing, and one staying the rear-spar and actuating the warping.
   The monocoque has not yet flown, and when it does - which will be as soon as the machine can be got away from the Salon - speeds of over 90 miles an hour are expected.