Breguet

   In 1906 Louis Breguet, his brother Jacques, and Professor Charles Richet designed and built a test model of a gyroplane, a sort of helicopter with wings. It was tested on an aerodynamic balance of their own design; the model was given by Louis Breguet in 1922 to the Conservatoire des Arts et des Metiers. It was followed by 2 full-scale machines.

   Gyroplane Breguet-Richet No 1: The full-scale version was built and tested in 1907. It consisted of a 4-legged structure with a 4-bladed biplane set of rotors at the end of each arm. Wings were to be fitted, but did not in fact appear. Louis Breguet claimed that it lifted briefly, carrying its pilot. But Jean Boulet, helicopter historian, notes in his book L'Histoire de I'Helicoptere Racontee par ses Pionniers 1907-1956 that Breguet's assistants in these experiments later claimed that during the supposed flight they were in fact pushing upward on the helicopter framework to hold it up, rather than pulling it to hold it back, and concludes it probably did not take off at all.

   (Rotor diameter: 8 m; total weight: 580 kg; 42 hp Antoinette)