Журнал Flight

Flight, December 11, 1909

Flight in Austria.

   HERR ETRICH, who has been experimenting in Austria for some years with flying machines of his own design, at last seems to have met with some success. According to the Neue Freie Press Herr Etrich, at the aviation ground at Weiner-Neustadt, recently made a flight of 4 1/2 kiloms., attaining a speed of 70 kiloms. an hour at a height of 2.5 metres.


Flight, February 12, 1915.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE ETRICH "TAUBE."

<...>
   In the meanwhile, Etrich was engaged in the construction of an improved type of machine on the Zanonia principle, for although he had made the old machine fly there was a marked lack of the stability experienced with the glider. He was, however, convinced he was working in the right direction, and his new machine, completed in the summer of 1909, bore out his convictions during its ultimate trials. Etrich 1,"Sperling" or "Sparrow," (a) Fig. 3, embodied in a crude way the main characteristics of the present-day Taube - tractor screw, engine mounted right in front, modified Zanonia-form wings, and elevator-rudder-tail-planes mounted on a fuselage extending rearwards from the wings. The latter were not so crescent-shaped as those on the previous types, the leading edge being straight for more than one-third the span, the wing tips swept back and only slightly upturned. They were built up in three sections, and had a total area of 30 sq. m., the angle of incidence being 8°.
   The tail consisted of a long narrow surface extending from the wings and branching into a fork at the rear, forming two rectangular surfaces. These acted as elevators, and were peculiar in that they were up-turned. In between the elevators was a vertical fan-shaped warping rudder. The whole of the tail was carried by a girder structure consisting of two longitudinals, one above the other. In its original form the undercarriage was a clumsy affair, as shown, but later a more efficient type was fitted, somewhat similar to that of the Bleriot. The engine, a 53 h.p. water-cooled Clerget, was mounted in the front of the rather wide body frame, with the radiators on either side. Behind the engine sat the pilot. On this machine Etrich put up several successful flights - real flights this time - ranging from 300 m. to 45 km. in length at a speed of about 70 kms. per hour. He found it very stable, and on several occasions flew without operating the control.
   From the experience obtained with this machine Etrich, during the latter part of 1909, got out the design of a second machine, Etrich II, the "Taube" or "Dove," (b), Fig. 3, which was the first of numerous subsequent "Tauben " that differed but little from the Etrich II.
<...>