The pioneer era of aviation was the period of aviation history between the first successful powered flight, generally accepted to have been made by the Wright Brothers on 17 December 1903, and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.
115-502: The Blériot XI is a French aircraft from the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most famous accomplishments of the pioneer era of aviation, and not only won Blériot a lasting place in history but also assured the future of his aircraft manufacturing business. The event caused
230-405: A cantilever wing without any external bracing wires. Early aircraft were covered in a variety of fabrics including rubberised cotton and varnished silk. The development of aircraft dope in 1911 was a major technical development, and its use was quickly adopted by all manufacturers. This performed a number of functions, proofing the fabric against oil and petrol contamination, and also tightening
345-439: A tongue in groove joint to strengthen the joint. Wing spars were also often composite members, and the wing ribs were complex structures. When flying replicas of the 1910 Bristol Boxkite were made for the 1966 film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines , a modern stress analysis was performed, and concluded that the airframe was close to conforming to modern requirements. The use of metal for airframe construction
460-586: A wingspan of 7 m (23 ft) and a small teardrop-shaped fin mounted on the cabane, which was later removed. Like its predecessor, it had the engine mounted directly in front of the leading edge of the wing and the main undercarriage was also like that of the Type VIII, with the wheels mounted in castering trailing arms which could slide up and down steel tubes, the movement being sprung by bungee cords . This simple and ingenious design allowed crosswind landings with less risk of damage. A sprung tailwheel
575-475: A 22 kW (30 hp) Darracq -built engine of the same layout. The four-cylinder water-cooled de Havilland Iris achieved 45 hp but was little used, while the successful two-cylinder Nieuport design achieved 28 hp (21 kW) in 1910. 1909 saw radial engine forms rise to significance. The air-cooled Anzani 3-cylinder semi-radial or fan engine of 1909 (also built in a true, 120° cylinder angle radial form) developed only 25 hp (19 kW) but
690-735: A branch of the Army. In February 1912 the French military estimates set aside twelve million francs (equal to nearly half a million pounds) for aviation, and claimed to have 208 aeroplanes, with the intention of increasing that number to 334 by the end of the year, At this time the British government planned to spend £133,000 on aviation, of which £83,000 was for heavier-than-air machines. In England experiments with heavier-than-air flight had been made at Army Balloon Factory at Farnborough under Colonel John Capper . In October 1908 Samuel Cody had flown
805-575: A business opportunity. In January 1910 Sir George White , the chairman of Bristol Tramways, established the Bristol and Colonial Aeroplane Company , investing £25,000 in the business. The same year the silk broker Armand Deperdussin established the Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin , bearing the soon-to-be-famous SPAD acronym. In 1911 the armaments giant Vickers established an aircraft department. However, most aircraft manufacturing during
920-569: A celebrity, instantly resulting in many orders for copies of his aircraft. The aircraft, which never flew again, was hurriedly repaired and put on display at Selfridges department store in London. It was later displayed outside the offices of the French newspaper Le Matin and eventually bought by the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris. After the successful crossing of the English Channel , there
1035-707: A flight lasting 36 minutes 55 seconds, and on 13 July, Blériot won the Aero Club de France 's first Prix du Voyage with a 42 km (26 mi) flight between Etampes and Orléans . The Blériot XI gained lasting fame on 25 July 1909, when Blériot crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover , winning a £1,000 (equivalent to £115,000 in 2018) prize awarded by the Daily Mail . For several days, high winds had grounded Blériot and his rivals: Hubert Latham , who flew an Antoinette monoplane, and Count de Lambert , who brought two Wright biplanes . On 25 July, when
1150-537: A large rigid airship, HMA No. 1 , broke its back before making a single flight and was abandoned, and the single French-built rigid was not much more successful. Pre-1910, most aircraft builders were aviation enthusiasts, many from wealthy families. Blériot had financed his experiments out of the profits of his successful business manufacturing car headlights. In Great Britain Frederick Handley Page established an aircraft business in 1909 but
1265-476: A major reappraisal of the importance of aviation; the English newspaper The Daily Express led its story of the flight with the headline "Britain is no longer an Island." The aircraft was produced in both single- and two-seat versions, powered by several different engines, and was widely used for competition and training purposes. Military versions were bought by many countries, continuing in service until after
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#17327725567441380-499: A motor-racing circuit, was made at the end of October 1909 by Louis Paulhan: around 2,000 spectators watched him fly to a height of 720 feet. Brooklands soon became one of Britain's major centres of aviation activity, with several flying schools. In 1910 Louis Paulhan and Claude Grahame-White competed to win the Daily Mail prize for a flight between London and Manchester, attracting Major long-distance aeroplane races, such as
1495-482: A pair of mid-gap control surfaces in front of the wings, intended to be used in a differential manner in place of wing-warping and in conjunction to act as elevators (as what are known today as elevons ): this is the first recorded use of ailerons , the concept for which had been patented over a generation earlier by M. P. W. Boulton of the United Kingdom in 1868. This was not successful and Esnault-Pelterie
1610-412: A partially covered box-girder fuselage built from ash with wire cross bracing. The principal difference was the use of wing warping for lateral control. The tail surfaces consisted of a small balanced all-moving rudder mounted on the rearmost vertical member of the fuselage and a horizontal tailplane mounted under the lower longerons . This had elevator surfaces making up the outermost part of
1725-493: A report for the French government which came to the conclusion that the problem was not the strength of the wing spars but a failure to take into account the amount of downward force to which aircraft wings could be subjected, and that the problem could be solved by increasing the strength of the upper bracing wires. This analysis was accepted, and Blériot's prompt and thorough response to the problem enhanced rather than damaged his reputation. The Type XI remained in production until
1840-516: A scheduled transport service: by the outbreak of war in 1914 1588 flights had been made carrying 10,197 fare-paying passengers. The military threat posed by these large airships, greatly superior in carrying power and endurance to heavier-than air machines of the time, caused considerable concern in other countries, especially Britain. Germany was alone in constructing rigid airships, and airship development elsewhere concentrated on non-rigid and semi-rigid designs. The only British attempt to construct
1955-498: A scheme for classifying the products of the Royal Aircraft Factory according to their configuration such aircraft were classified as "F.E" for "Farman Experimental. All tractor aircraft were designated "B.E" for "Blériot Experimental", although all the B.E. designs produced were biplanes, unlike the designs for which Blériot was known. The tractor biplane, which would become the dominant aircraft configuration until
2070-524: A select few pioneer aviators including the Wright Brothers. The first British magazine to be devoted to the subject, Flight published its first issue in January. (Aviation matters had previously been covered by The Automotor Journal . ) The British Daily Mail newspaper had offered a number of prizes with the intention of encouraging aviation: in 1906 it had offered a prize of £10,000 for
2185-469: A series of monoplane designs. On 16 November 1907 he successfully flew his Blériot VII , a monoplane with tail surfaces moved differentially for roll control and in unison for pitch control. This aircraft, which is recognised as the first successful monoplane, was soon wrecked in a crash, but was quickly followed by his eighth design , the first aircraft ever to essentially have the original form of flight control setup used to this day. In North America,
2300-449: A single engine. The first large multi-engined aircraft was Igor Sikorsky 's Bolshoi Baltisky , first flown in May 1913 with two engines and later equipped with four. Early aircraft development was heavily reliant on the development of the internal combustion engine , and the problem of staying in the air was largely a matter of having an engine which was not only sufficiently powerful but
2415-528: A small number of water-cooled inline four-cylinder engines, then a series of water-cooled six-cylinder models. In 1913 they introduced the highly successful range of 75 to 120 kW (101 to 161 hp), SOHC -valvetrain design engines: the D.I to D.III series. Another area of advance was the development of specialist manufacturers of propellers . Although the Wright Brothers had developed their own highly efficient propellers and Hiram Maxim had also carried out research on propeller design, much of this work
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#17327725567442530-529: A stationary crankshaft, itself fastened securely through the engine's rear attachment to the airframe, ensuring an adequate flow of cooling air over the cylinders even when the aircraft was not moving. Although this type had been introduced as long ago as 1887 by Lawrence Hargrave and built two years later by Hargrave for compressed-air power—with an experimental five-cylinder internal combustion rotary engine used by French inventor Félix Millet that same year to power an early motorcycle design — improvements made to
2645-460: A two-bladed propeller mounted at the same level as the wing via a chain with a reduction ratio of about 2:1. When first flown the empennage consisted of an elevator at the extreme rear of the fuselage, with a separate fixed horizontal surface mounted above and in front of it, and three small rectangular rudders above the elevator. After initial flight trials during May 1909 the rudders were removed. Various configurations were experimented with,
2760-540: A war) and in Mexico. The British Royal Flying Corps received its first Blériots in 1912. During the early stages of World War I eight French, six British and six Italian squadrons operated various military versions of the aircraft, mainly for observation duties but also as trainers, and in the case of single-seaters as light bombers with a bomb load of up to 25 kg. In addition to the aircraft used by Louis Blériot to make his cross-channel flight in 1909, on display in
2875-714: The June Bug piloted by Glenn Curtiss , won the Scientific American trophy for the first officially observed one kilometer flight in North America. After the AEA's disbandment at the end of March 1909, one of its American members went on to start a growing US-based aviation firm . In 1908 Wilbur Wright finally visited Europe and in August made a series of flight demonstrations which convincingly demonstrated
2990-659: The Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and appointed Mervyn O'Gorman , an electrical engineer of great managerial skill, as director of the balloon factory: In 1911 the War Office established the Air Battalion, formed of the No. 1 (Airship) Company at Farnborough and the No 2 (Aeroplane) Company at Lark Hill on Salisbury Plain . The first military pilots had to learn to fly at their own expense, many doing so at
3105-575: The American Civil War – where Ferdinand von Zeppelin had his first exposure to lighter-than-air flight – and the Boer War . Many military traditionalists refused to regard aeroplanes as more than toys, but these were counterbalanced by advocates of the new technology, and both the US and the major European nations had established heavier-than-air aviation arms by the end of 1911. France had
3220-472: The Blériot Pinguin . Most flight training was done early in the morning or in the evening when winds tend to be low, and the time taken to qualify for a licence was greatly dependent on the weather. Santos-Dumont's airship flights had already made him a celebrity, and while ballooning remained a popular activity for the wealthy, heavier-than-air aviation quickly became a popular spectator sport, and
3335-712: The British Army Aeroplane No.1 for a distance of 424 m (1,391 ft) and J. W. Dunne had made a number of successful gliding experiments, performed in great secrecy at Blair Atholl in Scotland, but in 1909 the British War office had stopped all official funding of heavier-than-air aviation, preferring to spend its money on airships. In an effort to rationalise aeronautical research the Secretary of State for War , Richard Haldane established
3450-638: The Circuit of Europe and the Aerial Derby began in 1911 - and also attracted enormous crowds; while in the same year in the United States, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois had an important aerodrome-format aviation site dedicated in Cicero, IL that operated for several years before its closure and relocation in 1916. The military use of balloons was already widespread: balloons had been employed in
3565-565: The Modellversuchsanstalt für Aerodynamik der Motorluftschiff-Studiengesellschaft [society for testing aerodynamic models of powered airships ]. The University of Göttingen would become a world leader in aerodynamic research. In 1909 Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe endowed a department devoted to aeronautics at the University of Paris In France the famous engineer Gustave Eiffel performed a series of experiments to investigate
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3680-455: The Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, a number of examples have been preserved. Both the British and American restored-to-airworthiness examples, each now over a century old and believed to be the two oldest flyable aircraft anywhere on Earth, are usually only "hopped" for short distances due to their uniqueness. Data from General characteristics Performance Aviation in
3795-401: The S.E.1 , but the configuration was generally discarded. Examples of other configurations such as the annular wing and the tandem wing were also constructed, but with little success. Early aircraft had a variety of control arrangements. The use of a joystick to control roll and pitch had been patented by Robert Esnault-Pelterie in 1907 and a similar arrangement was used by Blériot, but
3910-673: The White Eagle. However, Grahame White found the aircraft unsatisfactory, and it was later sold to Colonel Joseph Laycock and the Duke of Westminster , who presented it to the British War Office, making it the first heavier-than-air craft possessed by the Balloon School . Lieutenant Reginald Cammell was sent to France to collect the aircraft. Cammell described the aircraft as dangerously unstable and having too steep
4025-573: The Wright Model A used by the Wright Brothers for training in Europe had been fitted with dual control, dual-control aircraft were not generally used, and aspiring pilots would often simply be put in charge of a machine and encouraged to progress from taxying the aircraft then short straight line flights to flights involving turns. Sometimes ground handling experience was built up using special short-span machines that were incapable of flight, such as
4140-600: The 1930s, was a later development. The first aircraft of this type was the De Pischoff biplane which was built in 1907 but was not successful. The first aircraft of this type to fly was the Goupy No.2 , flown in March 1909: the design was described by flight as "somewhat unusual", and Breguet described his Type III tractor biplane as a "double-surface monoplane". The configuration did not become widespread until 1911, with
4255-472: The 805 km (500 mi) Circuit de l'Est race, and another Blériot flown by Émile Aubrun was the only other aircraft to finish the course. In October 1910, Claude Grahame-White won the second competition for the Gordon Bennett Trophy flying a Type XI fitted with a 75 kW (100 hp) Gnome, beating a similar aircraft flown by Leblanc, which force-landed on the last lap. During
4370-584: The Antoinette monoplanes were controlled by a pair of wheels, one on either side of the cockpit, one operating the wing-warping (or ailerons, as with the Antoinette IV ) and the other the elevator and the Wright Model A had one lever to control wing-warping and rudder and a second to control the elevator. The first design to have the roll and pitch controls connected to a single joystick, with
4485-534: The Blériot schools, around half the total number of licences issued. Flight training was offered free to those who had bought a Blériot aircraft: for others, it initially cost 2,000 francs, this being reduced to 800 francs in 1912. A gifted pupil favoured by good weather could gain his license in as little as eight days, although for some it took as long as six weeks. There were no dual-control aircraft in these early days, training simply consisting of basic instruction on
4600-662: The Bristol school, established in 1910 at Lark Hill. Two Bristol Boxkites from the school participated in the 1910 army manoeuvres of Salisbury Plain, one of them equipped with a radio transmitter. In late 1910 Francis McClean offered to loan two aircraft to the Admiralty to be used to train naval officers to fly and George Cockburn offered to act as a flight instructor. Four officers were selected for flight training at Eastchurch , reporting for training on 1 March 1911 and gaining their licences (wings) in six weeks. In October 1911,
4715-509: The Canadian-American Aerial Experiment Association was founded by Alexander Graham Bell , who had made a number of earlier experiments with tetrahedral kites , and John McCurdy and his friend Frederick Walker Baldwin , two recent engineering graduates of the University of Toronto, on 30 September 1907. The AEA produced a number of fundamentally similar biplane designs, greatly influenced by
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4830-574: The Grand Palais in Paris attracted 100,000 visitors. In America, Wilbur Wright made two spectacular flights over New York Harbor , flying from Governor's Island . On 29 September he made a short flight circling the Statue of Liberty , and on 4 October he made a 34 km (21 miles) 33-minute flight over the Hudson witnessed by around a million New Yorkers. The lightweight power source provided by
4945-608: The Maecenases; and you too, the Government; put your hands in your pockets–;or else we are beaten! In October 1904 the Aéro-Club de France announced a series of prizes for achievements in powered flight, but little practical work was done: Ferdinand Ferber , an army officer who in 1898 had experimented with a hang-glider based on that of Otto Lilienthal continued his work without any notable success, Archdeacon commissioned
5060-586: The November flight, octagonal-planform interplane ailerons - as a possible "first-use" (if not the first) of Boulton's 1868 patent on an engine-powered airframe - somewhat like Esnault-Pelterie's design for his own glider; had been fitted to Santos-Dumont's aircraft for its own concluding flights, before its own imminent retirement. Earlier that year Gabriel Voisin had established an aircraft construction company at Boulogne-Billancourt : his first successful aircraft, which lacked any provision for roll control,
5175-679: The Royal Navy purchased the two aircraft and established the Naval Flying School at Eastchurch. In 1912 a contract was given to Vickers to produce the first aircraft specifically designed for aerial combat, the Experimental Fighting Biplane No.1 . Previously, Voisin had exhibited an aircraft impractically fitted with a heavy mitrailleuse at the 1911 Paris Aero Salon, and the French had also experimented with fitting machine-guns to existing types. In
5290-482: The Seguin brothers' Gnome series of engine designs created a robust, relatively reliable and lightweight design which revolutionised aviation and would see continuous development over the next ten years. Fuel was introduced into each cylinder direct from the crankcase meaning that only an exhaust valve was required. Producing 37 kW (50 hp) for a dry weight of 75 kg (165 lb), this engine soon became one of
5405-543: The Short Brothers, who constructed a number of variants of their Farman-type Improved S.27 design. However, the intention of using a pair of engines in these aircraft was to safeguard against engine failure rather than to permit a larger machine, and even a large aircraft such as the Voisin Aero-Yacht , intended to carry six people and with a wingspan of 22.5 m (73 ft 10 in), was powered by
5520-478: The United States the Wright Brothers had, after many attempts, managed to attract the serious attention of the Army, and in December 1907 the U.S. Army Signal Corps issued a specification for a military aircraft. Orville Wright made a successful demonstration to the Army on 3 September 1908. On 17 September 1908 a flight was made with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge on board as an official observer. A few minutes into
5635-458: The Wright Brothers adopted this configuration for their Model B of 1910. The tractor monoplane and the pusher biplane were the dominant configurations for the next couple of years, although designers experimented with various other configurations. One of the most successful pusher biplanes was the Farman III , developed by Henri Farman following a falling-out with Gabriel Voisin: he retained
5750-656: The Wright brothers and also notably employed by Santos Dumont in the 14-bis was used by Henri Fabre for his Hydravion canard monoplane, the first successful seaplane in 1910. Other canard designs of the period include the Voisin Canard and the ASL Valkyrie monoplanes, and the configuration was thought promising enough to be used for the first aircraft designed by the Royal Aircraft Factory,
5865-455: The Wright brothers made their first successful powered flights in December 1903 and by 1905 were making flights of significant duration, their achievement was largely unknown to the world in general and was widely disbelieved. After their flights in 1905 the Wrights stopped work on developing their aircraft and concentrated on trying to commercially exploit their invention, attempting to interest
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#17327725567445980-417: The Wright's pattern of a four-cylinder inline water-cooled design but produced 52 hp (39 kW). It powered many successful pioneer aircraft including those of A.V. Roe . Horizontally opposed designs were also used with some success. Santos-Dumont's Santos-Dumont Demoiselle No. 20 monoplane used first the 18 kW (24-hp output Dutheil et Chalmers liquid-cooled opposed twin engine, later replaced by
6095-413: The Wright's work, and these were flown with increasing success during 1908. Baldwin flew their first design, Red Wing on 12 March 1908, flying 97 m (318 ft) before crashing and being damaged beyond repair: its successor, White Wing , equipped with ailerons, made three flights in May, the best of 310 m (1,020 ft), before being destroyed in a crash. On 4 July 1908 their next aircraft,
6210-473: The Wrights glider flying in 1901 and 1902. All these talks were reproduced in club journals. The lecture to members of the Aéro-Club de France in April 1903 is the best known, and the August 1903 issue of l'Aérophile carried an article by Chanute that included drawings of his gliders as well as the Wright glider and a description of their approach to the problem, saying "the time is evidently approaching when,
6325-461: The basic layout of the Voisin, but incorporated ailerons (as added to his Voisin), modified the undercarriage by adding skids to prevent the aircraft nosing-over on landing and modified the structure, eliminating the nacelle in which the pilot sat and mounting the forward elevator on outrigger booms. This design was copied by many constructors, and was so influential that when Mervyn O'Gorman created
6440-399: The competing aircraft with the exception of the Voisin biplanes had roll control, using either ailerons or wing-warping The Wright design differed from the others in having no rear-mounted horizontal stabilising surface. Constructors of pusher biplanes almost universally adopted the use of a rear-mounted horizontal stabiliser and designs began to appear in which the front elevator was removed:
6555-486: The construction of a glider based on the Wright design but smaller and lacking the provision for roll control which made a number of brief flights at Berck-sur-Mer in April 1904, piloted by Ferber and Gabriel Voisin (the longest of around 29 m (95 ft), compared to the 190 m (620 ft) achieved by the Wrights in 1902): another glider based on the Wright design was constructed by Robert Esnault-Pelterie , who rejected wing-warping as unsafe and instead fitted
6670-463: The creation of major industrial aircraft manufacturing businesses, and aviation became a subject of enormous popular interest. Flying displays such as the Grande Semaine d'Aviation of 1909 and air races such as the Gordon Bennett Trophy and the Circuit of Europe attracted huge audiences and successful pilots such as Jules Védrines and Claude Grahame-White became celebrities. Although
6785-587: The earliest known case of air-delivered harassing fire —but marked the first known use of an aircraft for military combat purposes. The first actual use of aircraft in a war was carried out by Italy during the Italo-Turkish War of 1912, where aircraft were used for reconnaissance (including taking aerial photographs of enemy positions) and bombing. Aircraft were also used in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. Bl%C3%A9riot XII The Blériot XII
6900-619: The early Voisin aircraft and Samuel Cody. American aviation engine designers quickly picked up on the V-8 engine concept from 1906 onwards as the era progressed, with both Glenn Curtiss ' firm designing a series of liquid-cooled V-8 aviation engines culminating in the Curtiss OX-5 by the early years of World War I—another major American engine manufacturer, Hall-Scott , had their A-2 and A-3 overhead valve, liquid-cooled V-8s in production as early as 1908. The British Green C.4 of 1908 followed
7015-514: The effects of wind resistance on moving bodies by dropping test apparatus down a wire suspended from the Eiffel Tower : he later built a wind tunnel at the base of the Tower, in which models of many pioneer French aircraft were tested and carried out pioneering work on aerofoil sections. Many of the pioneer constructors started their own flying schools. Pilot training was rudimentary: although
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#17327725567447130-528: The era are often described as constructed of sticks and canvas their construction was of considerable sophistication. Wooden construction typically involved several different types of timber, with careful use of different woods according to their mechanical properties; ash and spruce were the most commonly used, although hickory , mahogany and poplar were among the other timbers employed. Struts were frequently hollow members formed by spindling out two pieces of wood and then glueing them together, usually using
7245-540: The fabric. At the 1909 Grand Semaine d'Aviation the competing aircraft were of two different basic configurations: tractor configuration monoplanes such as the two types flown by Blériot and the Antoinette; and pusher configuration biplanes with a forward-mounted elevator, represented by the Voisin, licence-built copies of the Wright Brother's aircraft, Glenn Curtiss' No. 2 biplane and the Farman III. All
7360-476: The final arrangement being an elongated triangular fin with a rectangular unbalanced rudder hinged to the trailing edge. The aircraft was first flown by Blériot on 21 May. Over the following weeks he made a number of long flights, and on 12 June it became the first aircraft to fly with three people aboard. One of the passengers was Alberto Santos-Dumont . At the Grande Semaine d'Aviation held at Reims between August 22 and August 29 Blériot flew two Type XIIs,
7475-400: The first flight between London and Manchester . This was met by widespread derision; the satirical magazine Punch responded by offering a similar prize for a flight to Mars. On July 25, 1909 Louis Blériot won their £1000 prize for the first flight across the English Channel . One contemporary newspaper led its account of the event with the headline "Britain is no longer an island", and
7590-437: The first instance of this feature in a full-size aircraft. Archdeacon abandoned the 1904 glider after the first attempts and commissioned a second glider, which was constructed by Gabriel Voisin in 1905; this broke up in mid air when towed into the air behind a car, fortunately carrying sandbags in place of a pilot. Voisin then constructed another glider, mounted on floats and introducing the box kite -like stabilising tail which
7705-501: The first production Type XI, going on to become one of the chief instructors at the flying schools established by Blériot. In February 1912 the future of the Type XI was threatened by the French army placing a ban on the use of all monoplanes. This was the result of a series of accidents in which Blériot aircraft had suffered wing failure in flight. The first of these incidents had occurred on 4 January 1910, killing Léon Delagrange , and
7820-662: The first take-off from a ship being made on 14 November 1910 by Eugene Ely using a Curtiss biplane flown from a temporary platform erected over the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham . Two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed on a platform on the armoured cruiser USS Pennsylvania . The earliest recorded use of explosive ordnance of any type from an aircraft occurred on November 1, 1911, when Italian pilot Giulio Gavotti dropped several, grapefruit-sized cipelli grenades on Ottoman positions in Libya – Gavotti's raid caused no casualties, functionally only resulting in
7935-420: The fixed horizontal surface; these "tip elevators" were linked by a torque tube running through the inner section. The bracing and warping wires were attached to a dorsal, five-component "house-roof" shaped cabane consisting of a pair of inverted V struts with their apices connected by a longitudinal tube, and an inverted four-sided pyramidal ventral cabane, also of steel tubing, below. When first built it had
8050-464: The flight at an altitude of about 100 feet (30 m), a propeller split and shattered, sending the Flyer out of control. Selfridge suffered a fractured skull in the crash and died that evening in the nearby Army hospital, becoming the first person to die in an aeroplane crash. Orville was also seriously injured. Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps The American military pioneered naval aviation, with
8165-907: The flight caused a reassessment of Britain's strategic reliance on the Navy for defence. Blériot became world-famous, and the publicity resulted in over a hundred orders for copies of his design within a few weeks. The year also saw the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne at Rheims , attended by half a million people, including Armand Fallières , the President of France; the King of Belgium and senior British political figures including David Lloyd George , who afterwards commented "Flying machines are no longer toys and dreams; they are an established fact" A second aircraft exhibition held in October at
8280-602: The last pre-war contest, the race was over a distance of 200 km (120 mi) and the winner's speed was 200.8 km/h (124.8 mph). At the end of 1909 the record for distance flown was 234.30 km (145.59 mi) and for altitude 453 m (1,486 ft): by the end of 1913 the record for distance was 1,021.19 km (634.54 mi) and the altitude record was 6,120 m (20,079 ft) Most pioneer era aircraft were constructed from wood, using metal sockets to joint members and making use of piano wire or stranded steel cable for bracing. Although aircraft of
8395-473: The late summer and autumn of 1906 Alberto Santos Dumont made the first successful powered heavier-than-air flights in Europe in his 14- bis , culminating in a flight of 220 m (720 ft) on the grounds of the Parisian Chateau de Bagatelle on 12 November, winning an Aéro-Club de France prize for a flight of over 100 m. Initially relying on pronounced dihedral to provide stability, by
8510-743: The major centres of aviation such as Issy-les-Moulineaux , Brooklands and Hendon Aerodrome attracted crowds of curious onlookers. The first aviation meet was held in Juivisy in May 1909 and was followed by the Grand Semaine d'aviation in August: later in the year aviation meetings were held in England at Doncaster and Blackpool , and exhibition flights were made in many European cities, including Berlin , Vienna and Bucharest . The first public flying display at Brooklands, already established as
8625-556: The military authorities of the United States and then, after being rebuffed, France and Great Britain. Consequently, attempts to achieve powered flight continued, principally in France. To publicize the aeronautical concourse at the upcoming World's Fair in St. Louis, Octave Chanute gave a number of lectures at aero-clubs in Europe, sharing his excitement about flying gliders. He showed slides of his own glider flying experiments as well as some of
8740-545: The most air-minded army. The balloon school at Chalais-Meudon had long been a centre of innovation, and in December 1909, the French Department of War began to send army officers and NCOs for pilot training at civilian schools. In March 1910, the Établissement Militaire d'Aviation was created to conduct experiments with aircraft, and on 22 October 1910 the Aéronautique Militaire was created as
8855-491: The most widely used powerplants; the company went on to produce a number of similar engines producing more power, first by increasing the engine capacity and also by producing two-row variants. The larger and more powerful nine-cylinder. French-made Le Rhone 9C 80 hp rotary was introduced in 1913 and was widely adopted for military use. Inline and vee types remained popular, with the German company Mercedes producing first
8970-494: The outbreak of World War I in 1914. Two restored examples – one in the United Kingdom and one in the United States – of original Blériot XI aircraft are thought to be the two oldest flyable aircraft in the world. The Blériot XI , largely designed by Raymond Saulnier , was a development of the Blériot VIII , which Blériot had flown successfully in 1908. Like its predecessor, it was a tractor-configuration monoplane with
9085-551: The outbreak of the First World War, and a number of variations were produced. Various types of engine were fitted, including the 120° Y-configuration, "full radial" three-cylinder Anzani (the restored example at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome still flies with this) and the 37 kW (50 hp) and 52 kW (70 hp), seven-cylinder Gnome rotary engines . Both single and two-seat versions were built, and there were variations in wingspan and fuselage length. In later aircraft
9200-468: The period was on a small scale, and very few designs were produced in any quantity. A good indication of the progress during the era is provided by the annual Gordon Bennett races . The first competition, held in 1909 during the Grande Semaine d'Aviation at Reims, was over a distance of 20 km (12 mi) and was won by Glenn Curtiss at a speed of 75.27 km/h (46.77 mph). By 1913,
9315-419: The petrol engine also revolutionised the prospects for airship development. Alberto Santos Dumont achieved celebrity status on 19 October 1901 by winning a prize for making a flight from Parc Saint Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back. In Germany Graf (Count) Ferdinand von Zeppelin pioneered the construction of large rigid airships : his first design of 1900–01 had only limited success and his second
9430-437: The pioneer era Once the principles of powered controlled flight had been established there was a period in which many different aircraft configurations were experimented with. By 1914 the tractor configuration biplane had become the most popular form of aircraft design, and would remain so until the end of the 1920s. The development of the internal combustion engine —primarily from their use in early automobiles even before
9545-501: The problem of equilibrium and control having been solved, it will be safe to apply a motor and a propeller". Chanute's lecture moved Ernest Archdeacon one of the founder members of the Aéro-Club, to conclude his account of the lectures: Will the homeland of Montgolfier have the shame of allowing this ultimate discovery of aerial science–;which is certainly imminent... to be realised abroad? Gentleman scholars, to your compasses! You,
9660-662: The production of the Avro 500 and the Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 . The Avro 500 was developed into the Avro 504 , which continued in use until the 1930s. Avro also produced the first aircraft with fully enclosed crew accommodation, the Avro Type G of 1912. (The Blériot Aero-Taxi of 1911 had enclosed accommodation for the four passengers but an exposed pilot's position) Other configurations were experimented with. The tail-first canard configuration used by
9775-550: The prototype (now powered by a 60 hp (45 kW) E.N.V. Type F and another powered by a 40 hp (30 kW) Anzani. Flying the E.N.V. powered aircraft he came second in the Gordon Bennett Cup race on 28 August, being beaten by Glenn Curtiss by a margin of 6 seconds. Later that day he succeeded in winning the prize for the fastest lap of the 10 km (6.2 mi) circuit, with a time of 7 minutes 47.8 seconds. His speed of 77 kilometres per hour (48 mph)
9890-682: The race Leblanc had established a new world speed record. In 1911, Andre Beaumont won the Circuit of Europe in a Type XI and another, flown by Roland Garros , came second. Louis Blériot established his first flying school at Etampes near Rouen in 1909. Another was started at Pau , where the climate made year-round flying more practical, in early 1910 and in September 1910 a third was established at Hendon Aerodrome near London. A considerable number of pilots were trained: by 1914 nearly 1,000 pilots had gained their Aero Club de France license at
10005-701: The second half of 1915 . The era also saw the first use of monocoque construction, first seen in Eugene Ruchonnet 's Aero-Cigare and notably used in the Deperdussin Monocoque of 1912, which won the Gordon Bennett race in both 1912 and 1913. Another structurally advanced and influential (although unsuccessful) concept aircraft designs was the Antoinette Monobloc , which was the first monoplane design concept to have
10120-612: The start of the 20th century—which enabled successful heavier-than-air flight also produced rapid advances in lighter-than-air flight, particularly in Germany where the Zeppelin company rapidly became the world leader in the field of airship construction. During this period aviation passed from being seen as the preserve of eccentric enthusiasts to being an established technology, with the establishment of specialist aeronautical engineering research organizations and university courses and
10235-509: The suggestion of his mechanic Ferdinand Collin, Blériot made contact with Alessandro Anzani , a famous motorcycle racer whose successes were due to the engines that he made, and who had recently entered the field of aero-engine manufacture. On 27 May 1909, a 19 kW (25 hp) Anzani 3-cylinder fan-configuration (semi-radial) engine was fitted. The propeller was also replaced with a Chauvière Intégrale two-bladed scimitar propeller made from laminated walnut wood . This propeller design
10350-523: The superiority of their aircraft, particularly its ability to make controlled banked turns, to the European aviation community. The first flight only lasted 1 minute 45 seconds, in which two circles were flown, but the effect was profound, Louis Blériot saying "I consider that for us in France, and everywhere, a new era in mechanical flight has commenced. I am not sufficiently calm after the event to thoroughly express my opinion. My view can be best conveyed in
10465-529: The tip elevators were replaced by a more conventional trailing edge elevator, the tailwheel was replaced by a skid, and the former "house-roof" five-member dorsal cabane was replaced by a simpler, four-sided pyramidally framed unit similar to the ventral arrangement for the later rotary-powered versions. Blériot marketed the aircraft in four categories: trainers, sport or touring models, military aircraft, and racing or exhibition aircraft. The Type XI took part in many competitions and races. In August 1910 Leblanc won
10580-400: The upper longerons and the pilot and passenger seated between upper and lower longerons below the trailing edge of the wing. Lateral control was effected by a pair of ailerons mounted independently of the wings on the lower longerons behind the pilot. The prototype was initially powered by an 40 hp (30 kW) E.N.V. Type D water-cooled engine mounted on the lower longerons, driving
10695-581: The use of the controls followed by solo taxying exercises, progressing to short straight-line flights and then to circuits. To gain a license, a pilot had to make three circular flights of more than 5 km (3 mi), landing within 150 m (490 ft) of a designated point. The first Blériot XIs entered military service in Italy and France in 1910, and a year later some were used by Italy in North Africa (the first use of heavier-than-air aircraft in
10810-458: The wind had dropped in the morning and the skies had cleared, Blériot took off at sunrise. Flying without the aid of a compass, he deviated to the east of his intended course, but, nonetheless, spotted the English coast to his left. Battling turbulent wind conditions, Blériot made a heavy "pancake" landing, nearly collapsing the undercarriage and shattering one blade of the propeller, but he was unhurt. The flight had taken 36.5 minutes and made Blériot
10925-490: The words, 'It is marvellous!' " Leon Delagrange simply said "We are beaten". Following these demonstrations, Henri Farman fitted his Voisin biplane with ailerons in order to achieve the full controllability demonstrated by Wilbur Wright: following a falling-out with Gabriel Voisin he then started his own aircraft manufacturing business. His first design, the Farman III (the Farman I and II were Voisin designs that he owned)
11040-400: The yaw control operated with one's feet, was Blériot's Type VIII design of 1908–09, pioneering the basis for the modern aircraft flight control system still in use in the 21st century. With very few exceptions aircraft of the pioneer era were relatively small designs powered by a single engine and designed to carry at most two or three people. Early multiple-engine designs were produced by
11155-454: Was a great demand for Blériot XIs. By the end of September 1909, orders had been received for 103 aircraft. After an accident at an aviation meeting in Istanbul in December 1909, Blériot gave up competition flying, and the company's entries for competitions were flown by other pilots, including Alfred Leblanc , who had managed the logistics of the cross-channel flight, and subsequently bought
11270-498: Was a major advance in French aircraft technology and was the first European propeller to rival the efficiency of the propellers used by the Wright Brothers . During early July, Blériot was occupied with flight trials of a new aircraft, the two-seater Type XII , but resumed flying the Type XI on 18 July. By then, the small cabane fin had been removed and the wingspan increased by 79 cm (31 in). On 26 June, he managed
11385-450: Was a new world speed record for the distance. The next day Blériot was flying the aircraft at a low altitude when it stalled, crashed and burst into flames. Blériot managed to land the aircraft and get clear, rolling on the ground to put out his overalls, which had caught fire, but the aircraft was destroyed. An example powered by a 60 horsepower (45 kW) E.N.V. Type F was bought in December 1909 by Claude Grahame-White , who named it
11500-577: Was also lightweight and reliable. Most early engines were neither powerful nor reliable enough for practical use, and the development of improved engines went hand-in-hand with improvements in the airframes themselves. The Wright Brothers had been unable to find a satisfactory engine and, with the help of their mechanic, had manufactured their own. They used a single flight engine, a 12 hp water-cooled four-cylinder inline type with five main bearings and fuel injection. The first internal combustion piston engine design to be widely used for powering aircraft
11615-400: Was an early French aeroplane built by Louis Blériot . It was first flown in May 1909 and was the first aircraft to be flown with two passengers on board, and was used by Blériot to gain second place in the 1909 Gordon Bennett Cup and to set a new world speed record. The Blériot XII was a high wing tractor configuration monoplane with a deep uncovered fuselage , with the wings mounted on
11730-406: Was by no means uncommon: Robert Esnault-Pelterie used steel tubing to construct the fuselage of his aircraft as early as 1907, and Louis Breguet was another notable pioneer of metal construction, using steel channel sections for fuselage construction, steel tube for wing spars, pressed aluminium for wing ribs and aluminium sheeting for fuselage covering – this would not be improved upon until
11845-501: Was fitted to the rear fuselage in front of the tailplane, with a similar castering arrangement. When shown at the Paris Aero Salon in December 1908, the aircraft was powered by a 26 kW (35 hp) 7-cylinder R.E.P. engine driving a four-bladed paddle-type propeller. The aircraft was first flown at Issy-les-Moulineaux on 23 January 1909. Although the aircraft handled well, the engine proved extremely unreliable and, at
11960-451: Was generally attributed to the fact that Delagrange had fitted an over-powerful engine, so overstressing the airframe. A similar accident had killed Peruvian pilot Jorge Chavez at the end of 1910 at the end of the first flight over the Alps, and in response to this the wing spars of the Blériot had been strengthened. A later accident prompted further strengthening of the spars. Blériot produced
12075-468: Was largely reliant on selling components such as connecting sockets and wire-strainers to other enthusiasts, while the Short Brothers , who had started in business manufacturing balloons, had transferred their interests to heavier-than air aviation and started licence production of the Wright design as well as working on their own designs. 1910 saw the involvement of people who saw aviation purely as
12190-425: Was later to use its failure to support the position that the Wright Brothers claims were unfounded. However, his design was not an exact copy of the Wrights' glider, particularly in having a greatly increased wing camber . Ferber's copy was likewise unsuccessful: it was crudely constructed, without ribs to maintain the wing camber, but is notable for his later addition of a fixed rear-mounted stabilising tail surface,
12305-449: Was much lighter than the liquid-cooled Antoinette, and was chosen by Louis Blériot for his cross-Channel flight. A major advance came with the introduction of the Seguin brothers' Gnome Omega seven-cylinder, air-cooled rotary engine , exhibited at the Paris Aero Salon 1n 1908 and first fitted to an aircraft in 1909. This radial- configuration engine was constructed in such a way that the entire crankcase and cylinder assembly rotated around
12420-410: Was not constructed until 1906 , but his efforts became an enormous source of patriotic pride for the German people: so much so that when his fourth airship LZ 4 was wrecked in a storm a public collection raised more than six million marks to enable him to carry on his work. Using Zeppelins, the world's first airline, DELAG , was established in Germany in 1910, operating pleasure cruises rather than
12535-565: Was one of the most successful aircraft designs of the pioneer era, and was widely copied by other manufacturers, including one soon-to-be-prominent British firm . 1909 can be regarded as the year in which aviation came of age. At the end of 1908 the first exhibition devoted to aircraft was held in the Grand Palais in Paris, and this was followed by the first London Aero Exhibition at Olympia in May 1909. The Aéro-Club de France issued its first pilot's licences in January, awarding them to
12650-440: Was subjected to a number of modifications without any success. Full details of the Wright Brothers' flight control system was published in l'Aérophile in the January 1906 issue, making clear both the mechanism and its aerodynamic reason. Nevertheless, the crucial importance of lateral control in making controlled turns was not appreciated, and the French experimenters instead aimed to construct inherently stable aircraft. In
12765-597: Was the Antoinette water-cooled V8 engine , believed to be the very first V-form eight-cylinder internal combustion engine ever placed in production, designed by the Frenchman Léon Levavasseur . The Antoinette 8V incorporated manifold fuel injection, evaporative water cooling and other advanced features, weighed 95 kg (209 lb) and produced 37 kW (50 hp). Introduced in 1906, these engines were used by, among others, Santos Dumont,
12880-750: Was the Delagrange No.1 biplane , named after its owner Leon Delagrange . This was first flown by Voisin on 30 March 1907. and in February 1908 a second example flown by Henri Farman won the Archdeacon-de la Meurthe Grand Prix d'Aviation for the first officially observed closed-circuit flight of over a kilometer. Among the most persistent French experimenters was Louis Blériot, who after a brief partnership with Gabriel Voisin, had established Recherches Aéronautiques Louis Blériot and produced
12995-401: Was to be a characteristic of his later aircraft: this was successfully towed into the air behind a motor-boat on 8 June 1905, and Voisin's glider and a second similar aircraft built for Louis Blériot were tested on 18 July, the flight of Blériots aircraft ending in a crash in which Voisin, the pilot, was nearly drowned. Voisin and Blériot then constructed a powered tandem wing biplane, which
13110-515: Was unknown, and the early pioneers such as Voisin and Santos Dumont had used inefficient propellers with flat aluminium blades mounted on a steel tube. The first truly efficient European propeller design was produced by Lucien Chauvière , who had studied the theory of propeller design while a student at the École des Arts et Métiers in Angers . Chauvière pioneered a sophisticated construction technique using laminations of walnut . A Chauvière propeller
13225-585: Was used by Blériot in his flight across the English Channel, and the importance of Chauvière's contribution was recognised by his being awarded a silver medal by the Aero-Club de France. The achievement of powered flight led to the establishment of centres for aeronautical research in many countries. In 1907 Ludwig Prandtl , who had joined the University of Göttingen university in 1904, founded
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