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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0939.PDF
470 FLIGHT, 3 April 1959 t HOPS AND FLIGHTS ... 1907 (July-December). L. Bleriot (French). After "hopping"for a maximum of 20ft on his canard No. V monoplane, he built and tested his No. VI Libellule tandem-wing monoplane, covering98ft (30 m) on July 11, and making his best distance of 469ft (143 m) on August 6. With his prophetic No. VII, with its"modern" monoplane look, he made short flights of up to 1,640ft (500 m) in November and December, Thereafter Bleriotflourished. 1907 (September-November). Henri Farman (British). On a Voisin biplane at Issy, Farman was airborne for 98ft (30 m) on September 30, 1907; and 262ft (80 m) on October 1. Then every few days he covered longer distances, until on October 26 he achieved 2,529ft (771 m), thus beating Santos' best; and on November 10 he flew 3,379ft (1,030 m) in 1 min 14 sec, thus be- coming the first European to be airborne for longer than Wilbur Wright's 59 sec on December 17, 1903. Farman had often modified this Voisin, with growing success. His subsequent career was spectacular. He remained a British citizen until 1937. 1907 (October-November). R. Esnault-Pelterie (French). His unconventional No. 1 R.E.P. monoplane, with its short fuselage (30 h.p. R.E.P radial), first rose at Buc on October 22 for 492ft (150 m); its best performance was 1,968ft (600 m) on November 16. Esnault-Pelterie persevered successfully with this type of machine, but it was away from the main stream of monoplane development. 1907 (November 13). P. Coma (French). The first free vertical man-carrying helicopter ascent in history, near Lisieux. The Breguet helicopter had left the ground on September 29, but it was steadied with poles, so the event does not rank as a free ascent. 1907 (November 17). A. Santos-Dumont. In his small mono- plane No. 19 (later to develop into the Demoiselle) Santos- Dumont was airborne for 623ft (190 m). 1908 (May 14). Wilbur Wright. On this day Wilbur conductedthe first passenger flight in history when he took up C. Pumas for 1,968ft (28 £ sec) near the Kill Devil Hills. Furnas was thentaken up by Orville. The machine was the No. 3 Flyer of 1905, modified to become a two-seater. It was previously believed thatthe first passenger flight was by the Delagrange-Farman ensemble on March 28; but it is now known that they never left the ground.1908 (June). A. V. Roe (British). It is sad that so much con- troversy should surround one of the greatest men in British avia-tion, but it is surely important to be objective about him. It has been claimed that Roe made a number of "flights" of up to 150ft(later raised to 180ft) between June 8 and 28, 1908, in his biplane (re-powered by a 18-24 h.p. Antoinette engine) on the finishingstraight at Brooklands race track. From the winning-post end of this straight, where Roe had his shed, rose the 1 in 12 "pull-up"slope. No clainw were made either by Roe or by his friends beforeMarch-April 1910. It is generally agreed today that the machine did leave the ground, and in two ways; as a glider towed by a motorcar (as Roe himself stated in 1908), and as an independent powered aeroplane, which he did not mention until long afterwards. It is,of course, the latter that concerns us. Apart from the shortness of the hops claimed, the important point is whether Roe took offdown the pull-up (i.e., with an accelerated take-off), or made his "flights" from the level With his shed near the bottom of thepull-up, and the obvious help it would give him, it would seem extraordinary—even incredible—if any young inventor, with anuntried aircraft, had not used it: yet Roe himself caused a state- ment to be published (February 1956) that "all his towed andflight trials were made on the level part of the finishing straight and not down the slope as stated, and it was at the other end ofthe finishing straight away from the slope that these flight trials were conducted." Fig. 5. A. V. Roe in his machine at the top of the "pull-up" dope at Brooklands: a picture published on June 6, J908, and now reproduced for the first time since that date But there have now come to light in the French journal LaNature (June 6, 1908) two photographs of Roe and his machine— minus engine—one of them (Fig. 5) taken at the top of the pull-upslope in question, with the flat and upswept portion of the track at the Members' Banking behind, and the Members' Hill on theright. This, of course, does not prove that Roe later took off down the slope, but it shows it was very much in his mind. To instance the fallibility of human memory, after a longinterval, one of Roe's chief witnesses (even when re-examined) contradicted Roe and said that "on each occasion he started infront of the Paddock" (which was at the pull-up end of the finish- ing straight). So the verdict on the question of the accelerateddown-hill take-offs must for ever remain in doubt. In his second machine (his first triplane) Roe was airborne for 900ft in July1909; and in his third (the No. 2 triplane) he flew for half-a-mile in December 1909. Thereafter his career was brilliant.1908 (July). J. W. Dunne (British). Information about this great man and his first machines is badly needed in view of theextreme paucity of surviving documents. His swept-wing stable biplane D.4, powered by a 20-25 R.E.P. engine, was tested at BlairAtholl, Scotland, in July 1908 (and later), a previous powered machine having made only glides in 1907. Dunne himself said thatthe D.4 "got off the level under its own power . . . but it was more of a hopper than a flyer." In view of his modesty, these "hops"might well have measured some hundreds of feet. 1908 (September-October). S. F. Cody (American, later British).After an engine test at Farnborough on September 19, and taxying tests on September 21, 24 and 28, Cody made what he called "onlyjumps" on September 29 and October 14, and his first flight (1,390ft) on October 16, 1908, this being the first powered andsustained flight in Britain. It has been claimed—many years after the event—that his first flight was the longest (150ft) of four take-offs on May 16, 1908. There is now proof that the claimants did not even know what this date was until after 1948. The two principal witnesses of these alleged flights have alsonow given detailed descriptions of the tests, in which they flatly contradict one another about the time of day, the location, andthe circumstances, one witness even denying the presence of the other. Finally, one of these two witnesses broadcast (on October16, 1958) an account of the October 16 flight tacitly accepting it as the first flight. Full documentation exists for the tests from Sep-tember 19 to October 16; none exists for May 16. The machine (Fig. 6) was named British Army Aeroplane No. 1. 1909 (April-May). J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon (British). Was thefirst Briton to make powered flights in Britain, when he flew up to 1,500ft at Leysdown during the week-end of April 30-May 2,1909, on his second Voisin biplane (Bird of Passage), originally built for Farman as the Henri Farman II. It is not generally real-ised that Lord Brabazon—as he is today—had already made a flight of over three miles at Issy in February, 1909. On October 30,1909, he won the Daily Mail prize for the first circular mile on an all-British machine (the "Short-Wright" No. 2; not one of theShort-built standard Wrights). Fig. 6. The first published photo- graph of Cody's British Army Aero- plane No. 1, taken at Farnborough October 13, 1908, and published in the "Daily Mirror" the following day if-.-.
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