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1 Santos-Dumont, Alberto
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 20 July 1873 Cabangu, Rocha Dias, Brazild. 23 July 1932 d. Santos, Sâo Paulo, Brazil[br]Brazilian pioneer in airship and aeroplane flights.[br]Alberto Santos-Dumont, the son of a wealthy Brazilian coffee planter, was sent to Paris to study engineering but developed a passion for flying. After several balloon flights he turned his attention to powered airships. His first small airship, powered by a motorcycle engine, flew in 1898. A series of airships followed and his flights over Paris—and his narrow escapes—generated much public interest. A large cash prize had been offered for the first person to fly from Saint-Cloud around the Eiffel Tower and back inside thirty minutes. Santos-Dumont made two attempts in his airship No. 5, but engine failures caused him to crash, once in a tree and once on a hotel roof. Undismayed, he prepared airship No. 6 and on 19 October 1901 he set out and rounded the Tower, only to suffer yet another engine failure. This time he managed to restart the engine and claim the prize. This flight created a sensation in Paris and beyond. Santos-Dumont continued to create news with a series of airship exploits, and by 1906 he had built a total of fourteen airships. In 1904 Santos-Dumont visited the United States and met Octave Chanute, who described to him the achievements of the Wright brothers. On his return to Paris he set about designing an aeroplane which was unlike any other aeroplane of the period. It had box-kite-like wings and tail, and flew tail-first (a canard) powered by an Antoinette engine at the rear. It was built for him by Gabriel Voisin and was known as the "14 bis" because it was air-tested suspended beneath airship No. 14. It made its first free take-off on 13 September 1906, and then a series of short hops, including one of 220 m (720 ft) which won Santos-Dumont an Aero-Club prize and recognition for the first aeroplane flight in Europe; indeed, it was the first officially witnessed aeroplane flight in the world. Santos-Dumont's most successful aeroplane was his No. 20 of 1909, known as the Demoiselle: a tiny machine popular with sporting pilots. About this time, however, Santos-Dumont became ill and had to abandon his aeronautical activities. Although he had not made any great technical breakthroughs, Santos-Dumont had played a major role in arousing public interest in flying.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAéro Club de France Grand Prix de l'Aéronautique 1901. Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1904.Bibliography1904, Dans l'air, Paris; 1904, pub. as My Airships (repub. 1973, New York: Dover).Further ReadingPeter Wykeham, 1962, Santos-Dumont, A Study in Obsession, London.F.H.da Costa, c. 1971, Alberto Santos-Dumont, O Pai da Aviaçāo; pub. in English asAlberto Santos Dumont, Father of Aviation, Rio de Janeiro.JDS -
2 Dumont, Alberto Santos
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3 Aerospace
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Caproni, Giovanni BattistaDassault, MarcelGiffard, Baptiste Henry JacquesJohnson, Clarence LeonardKorolov, Sergei PavlovichSopwith, Sir Thomas Octave MurdochTsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich -
4 Lebaudy, Paul
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 1858 Enghien, Franced. 1937 Rosny-sur-Seine, France[br]French airship pioneer responsible for the first practical airship, in collaboration with his brother Pierre (1861–1924).[br]Soon after Alberto Santos-Dumont had made his first successful flight in a small airship, Paul and Pierre Lebaudy decided to construct a large airship. The two brothers were sugar manufacturers in Moisson, France, and in 1899 they commissioned their chief engineer, Henri Julliot, to build them a large airship. Julliot was conscientious and cautious, and consequently he spent many months studying the problems and working out a feasible design. The Lebaudy I was not completed until late in 1902 and made its first flight on 13 November. It was 57 m (187 ft) long and powered by a 30 kW (40 hp) Daimler petrol engine driving two propellers which enabled it to fly at 40 km/h (25 mph); it could overcome all but very strong winds. During the ensuing months, Lebaudy I made many successful flights, often carrying passengers, and usually returning to its base at Moisson. On 12 November 1903 it flew a distance of 62 km (381/2 miles) in 1 hour 41 minutes, from Moisson to Paris, where it was put on display and attracted huge crowds. After being damaged, Lebaudy I was rebuilt as Lebaudy II, although it was often called La Jaune because of the yellow fabric of the envelope. In 1905 it made a flight lasting over 3 hours; few would argue that this was the first really successful airship.[br]Further ReadingBasil Clarke, 1961, The History of Airships, London.Wilfrid de Fonvieille, 1911, Histoire de la navigation aérienne, Paris.JDS -
5 Levavasseur, Léon
[br]b. 8 January 1863 Cherbourg, Franced. 26 February 1922 Puteaux, France[br]French designer of Antoinette aeroplanes and engines.[br]Léon Levavasseur was an artist who became an electrical engineer and in 1902 Technical Director of a firm called Société Antoinette, headed by Jules Gastambide (Antoinette being the name of Gastambide's daughter). Levavasseur's first aeroplane, built in 1903, was a bird-like machine which did not fly. The engine showed promise, however, and Levavasseur developed it for use in motor boats from 1904. In 1906 he produced two Antoinette aero-engines, one of 24 hp (18 kW) and the other 50 hp (37 kW), which were used by Alberto Santos-Dumont and several other early designers. In February 1908 Levavasseur produced a tractor (propeller at the front) monoplane, the Gastambide- Mengin I, for two of his colleagues. Flown by a mechanic, this managed several short hops before it crash-landed. It was rebuilt and improved to become the Antoinette II and later in the year became the first monoplane to complete a circular flight. Levavasseur then went on to produce a series of Antoinette monoplanes which, with the monoplanes of Louis Blériot, challenged the pusher biplanes of Voisin and Farman. The rivalry between the Antoinettes and Blériots made headlines in 1909 when they were being prepared to win the Daily Mail prize for the first flight across the English Channel. Hubert Latham took off in his Antoinette on 19 July 1909, but his engine failed and he had to be rescued from the sea. On 25 July Louis Blériot took off in his Blériot No. XI and won both the prize and worldwide acclaim. In 1911 Latham flew his Antoinette across the Golden Gate at San Francisco. The same year Levavasseur built a revolutionary streamlined three-seater monoplane with cantilever wings (no wire bracing), but this Monobloc Antoinette failed; with it the line of Antoinettes came to an end.[br]Further ReadingC.H.Gibbs-Smith, 1965, The Invention of the Aeroplane 1799–1909, London (provides details of the Antoinette monoplanes).F.Peyrey, 1909, Les Oiseaux artificiels, Paris (a contemporary account of the early machines).JDS -
6 Mignet, Henri
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 19 October 1893 Saintes, Franced. 31 August 1965 Bordeaux, France[br]French inventor of the Pou-du-Ciel or Flying Flea, a small aeroplane for the do-it-yourself constructor, popular in the 1930s.[br]Throughout the history of aviation there have been many attempts to produce a cheap and simple aeroplane for "the man in the street". The tiny Demoiselle built by Alberto Santos- Dumont in 1909 or the de Havilland Moth of 1925 are good examples, but the one which very nearly achieved this aim was Henri Mignet's Flying Flea of 1933. Mignet was a self-taught designer of light aircraft, which often incorporated his unorthodox ideas. His Pou-du-Ciel ("Sky Louse" or "Flying Flea") was unorthodox. The materials used in construction were conventional wood and fabric, but the control system departed from the usual wing plus tailplane (with elevators). The Flea had two wings in tandem. The rear wing was fixed, while the forward wing was hinged to allow the angle of incidence, and hence its lift, to be increased or decreased. Reducing the forward wing's lift would cause the Flea to dive. After Mignet's first flight, on 6 September 1933, and the publication of his book Le Sport de l'air, which explains how to build a Poudu-Ciel, a Pou-building craze started in France. Mignet's book was translated into English and 6,000 copies were sold in a month. During 1935 the craze spread to Britain, where a Flying Flea could be built for £50–£90, including the engine. After several fatal crashes, the aircraft was banned in 1936. A design fault in the control system was to blame, and although this was remedied the wave of popular enthusiasm vanished. Mignet continued to design light aircraft and during the Second World War he was working on a Pou- Maquis for use by the French Resistance but the war ended before the aircraft was ready. During the post-war years a series of Flying Flea derivatives appeared, but their numbers were small. However, the home-build movement in general has grown in recent years, a fact which would have pleased Henri Mignet, the "Patron Saint of Homebuilders".[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChevalier de la Légion d'honneur. Médaille de l'Aéronautique.Bibliography1935, The Flying Flea: How to Build and Fly it, London (English edn).Further ReadingKen Ellis and Geoff Jones, 1990, Henri Mignet and His Flying Flea, Yeovil (a full account).Geoff Jones, 1992, Building and Flying Your Own Plane, Yeovil (describes the Flying Flea and its place in the homebuild story).JDS
См. также в других словарях:
Santos-Dumont, Alberto — ▪ Brazilian aviator born July 20, 1873, Cabangu, near Palmyra [now Santos Dumont], Minas Gerais, Braz. died July 23, 1932, Guarujá, São Paulo Brazilian aviation pioneer who captured the imagination of Europe and the United States with his… … Universalium
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Alberto Santos-Dumont — (* 20. Juli 1873 auf der Fazenda Cabangu bei Palmira im brasilianischen Bundesstaat Minas Gerais; † 23. Juli 1932 in Guarujá/Bundesstaat São Paulo) war ein brasilianischer … Deutsch Wikipedia
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