FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1601.PDF
FLIGHT, 11 December 1953 755 1910 That the edifice shown in Fig. 14 (the Henri Fabre seaplane) could possibly fly, or even float, is difficult to believe; but on March 28th, 1910, it succeeded in rising from, and returning to, the water, so becoming the first powered seaplane to accomplish these feats. In France, too, the Farman "box-kites," exemplified by the specimen at 13, were flying from strength to strength, establishing a classic type which was to give years of splendid service in, and be imitated in, many countries. Less conventional was the tailless biplane of the Englishman, J. W. Dunne (15), one of a series of such machines designed for, and achieving in a large measure, "automatic" stability. The type was subsequently built in America as die Burgess-Dunne. Another precocious concept was the Coanda biplane (17), with its ducted-fan type of turbine power plant and in which Mr. Coanda (who later designed for the Bristol company) believes that he "took off for a few feet, men came down hurriedly and broke two teem." The bluff, picturesque, American-born "Colonel" Cody, who had made the first official powered flight in England on October 5th, 1908, built appropriately bluff and picturesque aeroplanes. This is borne out by the picture (18) of his 1910 Cathedral. A later development won the Military Trials of 1912. Exemplifying the efficiency of the French Breguet biplanes of this period, represented in Fig. 16, was the Coffee Pot, which carried six people in August 1910. During the following months Breguet was to introduce a biplane which was not only of metal construction, as were earlier models, but had an oleo under carriage and a geared radial engine. 1911 The choice selection of types which illustrates this year does not include the classic Avro tractor biplane, for this will be represented later by the illustrious, and incomparably successful, "504." Not wholly successful, but interesting in being a true web- footed duck, was the Voisin canard (19) which, according to a contemporary account, could be "used on the water, on the road or in the air." Here, then, we have not only the first amphibian but the first "readable" aircraft also, and, moreover, the first to have a retractable undercarriage. A significant pointer to a formula which was to succeed only after many years (though not successful in itself) was the astonishingly clean Antoinette military monoplane (20). The cantilever wing and "trousered" tandem-wheel undercarriage may be seen; but invisible is the steam-cooled direct-injection engine. An astonishingly portentous effort, and one which was to be echoed by American Northrops of the 1930s. ^^B n^*— • ««L^B^ piF * 13 The "Type Michelin" Farman biplane of 1910. The incredible Fabre seaplane which flew in 1910. A 1910-model tailless Dunne, with twin propellers 16 Progenitor - HhT mi 'TIII- .— - of o ii V- famous line-—the 1909-1910 Breguet. w*m *% *-v ••% Sfi'niHHf] 17 Powered with a ducted-fan—the 1910 Coanda. 18 "Co/one/" Cody's massive Cathedral. 1910. 19 This Voisin amphibian was flying in 1911. 20 An altogether amazing machine—the 1911 military Antoinette.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
