Dorand

   Captain-Engineer (later Major) Jean Dorand was assigned in 1894 to the Etablissement Aerostatique at Chalais-Meudon, where he began the study of heavier-than-air machines: the Army was not satisfied with the achievements of civilian constructors, so Chalais-Meudon took the opportunity of having Dorand on the staff to study its own designs. In 1904 he wrote a report on manned kites, and so he began the construction of a steerable kite in 1908; he hoped to develop an automatically stable aeroplane.
   When the powered machine was built, it was a huge quadruplane nearly 40' high, made from a giant triplane kite set over a fourth lower wing and a rudder. The pilot sat above and behind the 45 hp 3-cylinder Anzani all installed in a triangular frame hinged below the kite; by pushing or pulling on a control bar, the pilot could alter the kite's angle of attack. The big wood-framed 2-bladed Dorand propeller was fabric-covered and the pitch could be controlled by the pilot. Tested late in 1908, the machine was modified into triplane and then biplane configuration, but it was no more successful than before.
   These experiments were kept quiet, but early in 1909 rumors began to spread about the "secret military aeroplane designed in Chalais and tested in Satory"; this led some historians to claim that the first Dorand was the first military aeroplane: it was built by a military officer and tested in a military establishment.

   (Span: 11.5 m; wing area (as triplane): 90 sqm; gross weight: 500 kg; 45 hp 3-cylinder Anzani driving a 2.7-meter diameter Dorand-Renard propeller)