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1 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 -
2 Short, Hugh Oswald
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 16 January 1883 Derbyshire, Englandd. 4 December 1969 Haslemere, England[br]English co-founder, with his brothers Horace Short (1872–1917) and Eustace (1875–1932), of the first company to design and build aeroplanes in Britain.[br]Oswald Short trained as an engineer; he was largely self-taught but was assisted by his brothers Eustace and Horace. In 1898 Eustace and the young Oswald set up a balloon business, building their first balloon in 1901. Two years later they sold observation balloons to the Government of India, and further orders followed. Meanwhile, in 1906 Horace designed a high-altitude balloon with a spherical pressurized gondola, an idea later used by Auguste Piccard, in 1931. Horace, a strange genius with a dominating character, joined his younger brothers in 1908 to found Short Brothers. Their first design, based on the Wright Flyer, was a limited success, but No. 2 won a Daily Mail prize of £1,000. In the same year, 1909, the Wright brothers chose Shorts to build six of their new Model A biplanes. Still using the basic Wright layout, Horace designed the world's first twin-engined aeroplane to fly successfully: it had one engine forward of the pilot, and one aft. During the years before the First World War the Shorts turned to tractor biplanes and specialized in floatplanes for the Admiralty.Oswald established a seaplane factory at Rochester, Kent, during 1913–14, and an airship works at Cardington, Bedfordshire, in 1916. Short Brothers went on to build the rigid airship R 32, which was completed in 1919. Unfortunately, Horace died in 1917, which threw a greater responsibility onto Oswald, who became the main innovator. He introduced the use of aluminium alloys combined with a smooth "stressed-skin" construction (unlike Junkers, who used corrugated skins). His sleek biplane the Silver Streak flew in 1920, well ahead of its time, but official support was not forthcoming. Oswald Short struggled on, trying to introduce his all-metal construction, especially for flying boats. He eventually succeeded with the biplane Singapore, of 1926, which had an all-metal hull. The prototype was used by Sir Alan Cobham for his flight round Africa. Several successful all-metal flying boats followed, including the Empire flying boats (1936) and the ubiquitous Sunderland (1937). The Stirling bomber (1939) was derived from the Sunderland. The company was nationalized in 1942 and Oswald Short retired the following year.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHonorary Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Freeman of the City of London. Oswald Short turned down an MBE in 1919 as he felt it did not reflect the achievements of the Short Brothers.Bibliography1966, "Aircraft with stressed skin metal construction", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (November) (an account of the problems with patents and officialdom).Further ReadingC.H.Barnes, 1967, Shorts Aircraft since 1900, London; reprinted 1989 (a detailed account of the work of the Short brothers).JDS -
3 Roe, Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 26 April 1877 Manchester, Englandd. 4 January 1958 London, England[br]English designer of one of the most successful biplanes of all time, the Avro 504.[br]A.V.Roe served an apprenticeship at a railway works, studied marine engineering at Kings College London, served at sea as an engineer, and then took a job in the motor-car industry. His hobby was flying: after studying bird-flight, he built several flying models and in 1907 one of these won a prize offered by the Daily Mail. With the prize money he built a full-size aeroplane loosely based on the Flyer of the Wright brothers, with whom he had corresponded. In September, Roe took his biplane to the motorracing circuit at Brooklands, in Surrey, but it made only a few hops and his activities were not welcomed. Roe then moved to Essex, where he assembled his new aeroplane under the arch of a railway bridge. This was a triplane design with the engine at the front (a "tractor"), and during 1909 it made several flights (this triplane is preserved by the Science Museum in London).In 1910 Roe and his brother Humphrey founded A.V.Roe \& Co. in Manchester, they described it the "Aviator's Storehouse". During the next three years Roe designed and built aeroplanes in Manchester, then transported them to Brooklands to fly (the authorities now made him more welcome). One of the most significant of these was his Type D tractor biplane of 1911, which led to the Avro 504 two-seater trainer of 1913. This was one of the most successful trainers of all time, as around 10,000 were built. In November 1914 a flight of Avro 504s carried out the first-ever bombing raid when they attacked German airship sheds as Friedrichshafen. A.V.Roe produced the first aeroplanes with enclosed cabins during 1912: the Type F monoplane and Type G biplane. After the war, his Avian was used for several record-breaking flights. In 1928 he sold his interest in the company bearing his name and joined forces with Saunders Ltd of Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, to found Saunders-Roe Ltd. "Saro" produced a series of flying boats, from the four-seat Cutty Sark of 1929 to the large, and ill-fated, Princess of 1952.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1929 (in 1933 he incorporated his mother's name to become Sir Alliott VerdonRoe). Honorary Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society 1948.Bibliography1939, The World of Wings and Things, London.Further ReadingL.J.Ludovic, 1956, the Challenging Sky.A.J.Jackson, 1908, Avro Aircraft since 1908, London (a detailed account).JDSBiographical history of technology > Roe, Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon
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4 Blériot, Louis
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 1 July 1872 Cambrai, Franced. 2 August 1936 Paris, France[br]French aircraft manufacturer and pilot who in 1909 made the first flight across the English Channel in an aeroplane.[br]Having made a fortune with his patented automobile lamp, Blériot started experimenting with model aircraft in about 1900. He tried a flapping-wing layout which, surprisingly, did fly, but a full-size version was a failure. Blériot tried out a wide variety of designs: a biplane float-glider built with Gabriel Voisin; a powered float-plane with ellipsoidal biplane wings; a canard (tail-first) monoplane; a tandem monoplane; and in 1907 a monoplane of conventional layout. This last was not an immediate success, but it led to the Type XI in which Blériot made history by flying from France to England on 25 July 1909.Without a doubt, Blériot was an accomplished pilot and a successful manufacturer of aircraft, but he sometimes employed others as designers (a fact not made known at the time). It is now accepted that much of the credit for the design of the Type XI should go to Raymond Saulnier, who later made his name with the Morane-Saulnier Company.Blériot-Aéronautique became one of the leading manufacturers of aircraft and by the outbreak of war in 1914 some eight hundred aircraft had been produced. By 1918, aircraft were being built at the rate of eighteen per day. The Blériot company continued to produce aircraft until it was nationalized in 1937.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCommandeur de la Légion d'honneur. Daily Mail £1,000 prize for the first cross-Channel aeroplane flight.Further ReadingC.H.Gibbs-Smith, 1965, The Invention of the Aeroplane 1799–1909, London (contains a list of all Blériot's early aircraft).J.Stroud, 1966, European Transport Aircraft since 1920, London (for information about Blériot's later aircraft).For information relating to the cross-Channel flight, see: C.Fontaine, 1913, Comment Blériota traversé la, Manche, Paris.T.D.Crouch, 1982, Blériot XI, the Story of a Classic Aircraft, Washington, DC: National Air \& Space Museum.JDS
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