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

Журнал Flight

Flight, November 9, 1912.

THE PARIS AERO SALON.

d'Artois.

   THE name is a new one, and so are the machines, but the firm that is producing them was one of the earliest to enter the arena of aeroplane construction in France - the Tellier firm to wit. During 1910 the Tellier monoplane came into considerable prominence in the hands of Emile Dubonnet, but since he discontinued flying the firm seems to have altogether dropped constructing, until now that they are re-opening operations with the assistance of MM. Louis Gaudartland Schreck. They are showing two machines, one a rather novel biplane and the other a hydro-biplane, which follows to a certain extent the lines of the Donnet-Leveque. The first of these machines is of the "torpille" type, that is, it is driven by a propeller arranged at the tail end of the machine. M. Louis Gaudart is responsible for its design, and he will be remembered as the pilot that carried out the initial tests of the Paulhan-Tatin aero-torpille, one of the most notable exhibits at last year's show. Differing from this machine, the d'Artois torpille biplane has a simple fuselage of rectangular section constructed for the best part of wood. Only in the neighbourhood of the engine, a 50-h.p. rotary Gnome, is steel used. Excepting in that part, too, the body is covered in with fabric. The landing gear is an extremely simple construction of steel tubing and is of a type that seems to be finding many adherents among French constructors. The main planes are built about a single tubular spar arranged at the approximate centre of pressure. They are united to the fuselage in so simple a manner that it needs but the removal of a bolt or two to dismantle them. Apart from the presence of the propeller, which is driven by a hollow steel shaft of 40 mm. external and 34 mm. internal diameter, the tail is of purely conventional design, consisting of a flat stabilising surface with elevators hinged to its rear edge. As in the Tatin torpille, whipping of the shaft is prevented by a number of ball bearings arranged at equal distances between the motor and the propeller.
   For the hydro biplane, its central unit of construction is a coque, which serves the double function of fuselage and float. Near the front it is of rectangular section, but aft of the main planes the two top longitudinals merge into one, giving the after portion a triangular section. The pilot sits low down in the body in advance of the planes. Behind him is the motor, a 50-h.p. Gnome, driving, by chain transmission, a four-bladed propeller mounted high up between the planes. Like other hydro-aeroplanes, a starting-handle is fitted. The supporting surfaces are in every respect identical with those of their torpille biplane.


Flight, May 3, 1913.

REFLECTIONS ON THE MONACO MEETING.

Artois.

   The Artois aeroplane, which was so ill-fated as to cause the death of Gaudart, also possessed one of these dolphin-like boat bodies. According to eye-witnesses who observed the accident, it demonstrated unmistakable signs of longitudinal instability after rising with considerable facility from the surface of the water. Being an experiment, the accident may in some measure be classed with that resulting in the death of Fenwick on the Mersey monoplane during the military trials on Salisbury Plain last year. And it is because of these things that designers are, as we have mentioned elsewhere, very diffident about departing from methods of construction in which they feel the confidence of long experience. In the Artois biplane, an 80-h.p. Gnome engine drove a four-bladed propeller by means of a chain. The wings were built upon single spars, separated, of course, by a single row of struts in the gap.