L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
No 2: Garsonin likely test-flew this monoplane at Issy in 1912 only once, after which it was damaged. A tractor engine was fitted at the front of a short rectangular box fuselage which sat in the middle of a broad plank-like wing with full-span controllers with stops to prevent excess downward movement, preventing the reflex airfoil from becoming in effect a simple-cambered section with unstable center of pressure. A simple 2-wheel undercarriage with a pair of skids uptuyrned at each end provided stability on the ground. Other controls are not known, but Arnoux retained the floor accelerator of the automobile.
(Span: 10.05 m; weight: 400 kg)
No 3: Also a monoplane, this one was probably also built by Astra shortly after No 2 and shown at the 1912 Salon before its unsuccessful tests in 1913. The squared-off box fuselage of No 2 was now streamlined, and the low wing was wire-braced to the fuselage with no pylon support. The undercarriage was built with 2 pairs of wheels and short skids forward; the rear rested on a single braced extension. A 55 hp water-cooled Chenu drove a 2-bladed Regy propeller behind a high square radiator. Arnoux had expected to control the machine with throttle and foot-pedal only: it was to fly level with a constant angle of attack controlled through the coupling of the throttle and elevator.
But what Arnoux did not understand was that with the elevator up, the angle of attack decreased. He had throttle problems as well, since because of his poor carburetor he could not accurately manage the rpm: the engine turned at full rpm or stopped entirely. At the end of 1912 he suggested using "a modified automotive carburetor."
No 4: A much heavier tractor design appeared in December 1912 or January 1913, with an upright 4-cylinder water-cooled motor, a Bleriot-style double pylon, end-plates on the wingtips, and a 2-wheel undercarriage mounted on semicircular supports; a cleaver-shaped rudder was fitted under the rear fuselage. It is not clear which was No 3 and which was No 4, since they may have been built at nearly the same time.