CHAPTER 6

ASPECTS OF AVIATION UP TO 1908 INCLUSIVE

Imprisoned by king Minos in a labyrinth on the island of Crete mythological figure Daidalos, father of Ikaros, shouts firmly: “Let Minos bar me the way by land and by sea, the free air is still open”.

He continues:

or “I’ll find a path there”.

For himself and his son he makes wings from bird-feathers, thread and wax. In this way they both escape but, becoming reckless, Ikaros rises too high and too close to the sun. The wax melts and he crashes into the sea.

Fig. 6-1
‘Landscape with the fall of Ikaros’
Attributed to Pieter Brueghel The Elder in 1555 or 1558

In the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci, artist and inventor, is considered the greatest genius of his era. Today, who isn’t familiar with his world-famous painting ‘La Gioconda’, better known as the portrait of Mona Lisa?

From his thirtieth until the end of his life he occupies himself, accurately studying the way birds move on in the air, with the question whether a human being will be able to fly. He designs a machine with wings which are moved by hands and feet.

Fig. 6-2
Sketch of ornithopter of Leonardo da Vinci

It is not exaggerated to state that his work has considerably influenced the development of science and engineering.

In 1889 German Otto Lilienthal (*1848) published his famous book ‘Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst’ (‘Bird flight as the Basis for Aviation’). From 1891 on he achieves about 2500 glides from a small hill at Lichterfelde, near Berlin, hanging under a large wing made by himself. His experiments will finally cause his death on Monday August 10 1896.

Fig. 6-3
Glide from a hill at Lichterfelde, photographer unknown
Saturday June 29 1895

The American brothers Wilbur (16/4/1867-30/5/1912) and Orville (19/8/1871-30/1/1948) Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, bicycle repairers by profession, are inspired by a photo of Otto Lilienthal with his glider. They benefit and profit by his scientific research of the gliding technics. They carry out a large number of tests with gliders and invent a solution for the problem of the propulsion, a motor.

Also their countryman professor Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of the semi-public  Smithsonian Institution in Washington, experiments with flying. He is subsidised by the American government to build a manned airplane. On December 8 1903 his ‘Aerodrome’ is catapulted for the second time from a houseboat on the Potomac River near Washington and again dives into the river, immediately after take-off. The trials with the totally destroyed airplane of Langley, on which $ 70.000 have been spent, have failed miserably.

Only nine days later, on December 17 1903 10:35, the great adventure of aviation actually begins when Orville Wright, younger brother of Wilbur, covers 36,50 metres in a 12 seconds’ flight in the dunes of Kill Devil Hills at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S.A., with a biplane Flyer I equipped with a 12 HP-motor designed by their only employee Charles E. Taylor. This historical ‘leap’ is officially the first controlled flight by a ‘heavier-than-air’ machine.

Fig. 6-4
Spectacular photo of the first motorized flight on December 17 1903

The simple bicycle repairers from Dayton, Ohio have not only beaten the respected Smithsonian Institution and its most learned professor Langley, but have also pinched honour from Washington DC to become the cradle of aviation which is very sensitive also politically.

Fig. 6-5
Number plate from the birthplace of aviation North Carolina

They are as good as ignored by the American public as well and even called ‘Lying brothers’ instead of ‘Flying brothers’: “If Langley couldn’t do it, nobody could” was a popular song.

Glenn H. Curtis, having lost a lawsuit from the Wright brothers on patents, proposes to take revenge. The machine ‘Aerodrome’ is heavily modified and with Curtis as pilot is put to extensive trials up till  June 5 1915 to prove that professor Samuel Pierpont Langley, and not some simple bicycle repairers, had the power to solve the problem of flying. History repeats itself: after a running start of less than a hundred metres the wings collapse. Nevertheless the  world press carries the sensational news one had succeeded to make a flight with the original airplane of Langley who is called “the first birdman”.

After further sad complications the conflict escalates to such a level that the Wright Kitty-Hawk-machine was shipped to England in 1928 and placed in the Science Museum at Kensington, London. In the end the Smithsonian Institution capitulates and on December 27 1948, on the forty fifth day of commemoration of the first flights at the foot of Kill Devil Hill, the Kitty-Hawk machine was handed over to the institute and provided with a historically correct inscription.

Amid all these insinuations Wilbur and Orville Wright offer their invention to the War Department in their country but they are not interested. Fearing to loose their invention they maintain complete silence for years.

Approaching the War Ministry of the United Kingdom produces no result either. It is then that the Wright brothers turn to the French Ministry of War. These new negotiations fail as well, among other things due to the refusal of the Wrights to show their airplane beforehand as they are asked. Besides Wilbur and Orville Wright are pushed and stimulated by the progress of their competitors, the French aviators (since 1783 France has had experience with hot air balloons with the brothers Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier and François Pilâtre de Rozier).

Particularly the successes of Henri Farman (1874-1958) with a biplane of the brothers (again!)  Gabriel and Charles Voisin equipped with a 38 HP Antoinette motor causes concern. On January 13 1908 he covers the first kilometre on a closed circuit and won the Deutsch Archdeacon-prize.

Fig. 6-6
Picture postcard with Henri Farman at the control-column on January 13 1908
published by Association des Amis du Musée de l’Air in Paris

After he open challenges the Wright brothers to a public duel in the end of March 1908 a contract for the total amount of 500.000 French francs is signed with a syndicate of French investors (of which owner of taxicab company/banker Lazare Weiller and petroleum tycoon Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe are the most important members). The syndicate is formed  specifically to induce the Wrights to come to France for trials with their flying machine.

Involved are the Compagnie Générale de Navigation Aérienne C.G.N.A., 27 Rue de Londres, Paris founded by Lazare Weiller. In 1908 this company bought the exclusive licence of the production-patents of Wright machines for France and its colonies. Production takes place at the Société de Construction Aéronautique ASTRA, 123 Rue de Bellevue, Billancourt (Seine) founded and financed by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe also in 1908, directeur-gérant of which is G. (Georges) Besançon. Besides Besançon is director-founder of the authoritative magazine ‘l’Aérophile’. At the same time it is endeavoured to produce Wright machines with Société Ateliers et Chantiers de France Tristam at Dunkirk (North) which is not a success. In this all Société ARIEL, 152 Avenue des Champs-Elysées, Paris, founded in February 1909 by Michel Clémenceau, moreover director, is the exclusive sales- and operating company of Wright-machines.   

One clause of the contract – also called the Weiller-conditions – stipulates the training in France, of three aviators. For this purpose Wilbur Wright embarks early in June 1908 on the ‘Touraine’ for the second time to the Old World (from May till November 1907 the Wright brothers travelled in vain all over Europe to promote their invention). Brother Orville stays in the U.S.A. where he continues the trials – only after a training at Kitty Hawk in May 1908(!) shows the American government any interest – for the army. On September 17 1908 he met with a serious accident in which his passenger, lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge dies while he himself suffers severe injuries.

After having visited several locations, such as Blain (north of Nantes, Loire-Atlantique), Wilbur Wright found on Monday June 8 1908 in Le Mans (not too far from Paris) a field where he can hold his flying demonstrations. This initiative is taken by the president of the Aéro-Club de la Sarthe (formerly the Commission aéronautique de l’Automobile Club de la Sarthe), inventor and car designer Léon Bollée, who also puts part of his workshop with machines and people at Wright’s disposal.

On Saturday August 8 1908, so 08/08/08, 18:25 is the hour of truth. In presence of members of the Aéroclub de France Wilbur performs on the hippodrome of Les Hunaudières – where he usually stays overnight in the ‘shed hangar’ – with a Barriquand-Marse motor equipped Flyer III the first public flight in the world and at the same time the first flight of the Wright brothers in Europe. To the spectators especially the course changes are a revelation!

Fig. 6-7
“Birdman” Wilbur Wright flies over the Hippodrome des Hunaudières
with public stands and his hangar in the background
J. Hauser, photographer-publisher, Paris

Fig. 6-8
Enthusiasm in Le Mans
“Ce ne fut pas un success, ce fut un triomphe”
“It wasn’t a success, it was a triumph”
daily paper La Sarthe
August 9 1908

Fig. 6-9
Horse racetrack Les Hunaudières at Le Mans
Wednesday July 9 2008

Fig. 6-10
Memorial tablet of the flights of Wilbur Wright on Les Hunaudières
in an odd corner with hard to decipher text in French and English
with an arrow pointing to Wilbur’s take-off direction
Wednesday July 9 2008

It is important to underline that at this time  the ‘umbilical cord’ is not yet broken, because all flights are made within the boundaries of the airfield. Wilbur does not venture outside airfield,   so that on ‘Hippodrome des Hunaudières’ every 12 seconds a turn is made, which makes it very difficult to make flights of 50 kilometres as stipulated in  the contract.

Fig. 6-11
The Wright 1907 Flyer as a kite
Criticized and ridiculed ever since his arrival in Le Mans, Wilbur Wright
with usual cap and leather jacket becomes the favourite of French
caricaturists
drawing signed Léo Maix, photography and publisher J. Bouveret, Le Mans

During the period between August 21 1908 and January 2 1909 9 flights are made on ‘Hippodrome des Hunaudières’. On December 31 1908 with snow and three degrees of frost Wilbur Wright covered 123 kilometres in 2 hours, 20 minutes and 23 seconds, thus winning the Michelin prize of 20.000 French francs for new records of distance and endurance. The demonstrations are continued on the military artillery ‘Camp d’Auvours’ 6 kilometres in length and 500 to 900 metres in width without trees in Champagné, 11 kilometres to the east of Le Mans. After earlier refusal towards the ‘foreigner’ the site is put at his disposal by the military hierarchy in Paris, thanks to the favourable reports circulating in France about the flights of Wilbur Wright. On ‘Camp d’Auvours’ a total of 120 flights are made and álso the records relating to height and flights with passengers (among whom politician/mathematician Paul Painlevé on October 10 1908) are broken. Finally the airplane is accepted by the military and the governments of the world powers. Present were Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. It is the answer to the Zeppelin and the looming world war.

Fig. 6-12
Big crowds necessitated a ticket system
Bearers only of a ticket signed by the local military
commander and Hart O. Berg, the Wrights’ business agent, got entrance

In the beginning of  previous chapter has been described how Charles de Lambert fully devoted himself to ‘hydroplanes’. He is also interested in air navigation and motorised flight. Becoming enthusiastic by the promising results of the Wright brothers his belief in the future of aviation was confirmed by his first flying lesson of 12 minutes by Wilbur Wright in Le Mans on October 28 1908 after having had an introduction flight of 6 minutes and 15 seconds on September 28 1908. Charles de Lambert is one of the total of 43 passengers – amongst whom the 109 kilos heavy Léon Bollée – who experience a flight as part of  ‘commercial strategy’ in Camp d’Auvours.         

Two days later Henri Farman makes the first nonstop flight from Bouy ‘Champ de Châlons’ to Reims, landing near the cellars of Champagne Pommery after 27 kilometres in 20 minutes. In an advertisement of Les Frères VOISIN you can read Henri Farman “sur son vieil aéroplane VOISIN s’est envolé par-dessus les bois,  les routes,  les villages,  les cours d’eaux,   les voies ferrées à 100 mètres de hauteur” (“with his old airplane VOISIN has flown over the forests,  the roads,  the villages,  the streams,  the railroads at a height of 100 metres”).

Fig. 6-13
Fig. 6-14
Homage to Henri Farman at a roundabout in Reims by means of a
panel and an aircraft wing on which a flying man of rusted copper
creation of William Noblet inaugurated June 14 1997
Friday March 31 2006

Fig. 6-15
Homage to Wilbur Wright at the beginning of a street (the tunnel) in Le Mans
Tuesday July 8 2008

Fig. 6-16
Ikaros monument to Wilbur Wright, to all pioneers and to all victims
of aviation
creation of sculptor Paul Landowski on Place des Jacobins in Le Mans
unveiled July 17 1920
Tuesday July 8 2008

On November 17 1908 Charles de Lambert holds the control-column for the first time. Winter weather conditions prevent at the end of 1908 the training of the pilots in Le Mans. Moreover military matters sometime forbid Wilbur Wright to fly on account of artillery practice. Cannes, Hyères and Bordeaux spontaneously propose to receive him. The commitment of local ‘lobbyist’ Paul Tissandier turns the scale in favour of Pau, situated in a milder climate, at the foot of the Pyrenees. After all preparation and hard work at Le Mans, Wilbur Wright is offered ‘the works’ and he will have more comfortable stay in Pau in the Grand Hotel Gassion.

Fig. 6-17

Further on to chapter 7

Back to introduction