History of AirplanesCivilian aircraft: private planes, general aviation
An attempt was made to cross the Atlantic in a Sopwith Atlantic biplane by Com. Mackenzie Grieve and Maj. Harry Hawker on 18 May 1919. This plane generally followed the design of Sopwith warplanes, and had a 46 feet wingspan and was 31 feet long, weighing 6000 pounds fully equipped for flight. It was supposed [...]
One of the most notable developments at the end of 1913 was the appearance of the Sopwith ‘Tabloid’ tractor biplane. This single-seater, fitted with an 80 horsepower Gnome rotary engine, had the remarkable speed (for those days) of 92 miles an hour. A still more notable feature was that it could remain in level flight [...]
The Deperdussin, along with the Bleriot and Morane-Saulnier, was another speedy French monoplane that dominated the air races in the years leading up to World War One.
A very small monoplane, designed by MM. Bechereau and Koolhoven for the Deperdussin firm to compete in the James Gordon Bennett race, proved to be the fastest machine built [...]
A stream of gasoline burst forth as Gustav Hamel flew over the Thames River on September 20, 1913. The last thing any aviator needed in a wood and cloth monoplane with a barely-covered, hot, sparking, rotary engine a few feet away was gasoline in the cockpit. It was a mortal danger for any pilot, and [...]
Probably the most interesting aeroplane that came out during 1910 was the small Wright “roadster,” with its miniature biplane cell, and its huge propellers spanning almost the entire machine. This speed and reliability product of the Dayton inventors has excited a lot of interest, and suggested many of the improvements that the [...]
In 1903, after exhaustive experiments in gliding, Wilbur and Orville Wright finally flew a motor-driven airplane. Over the next five years they built other airplanes, which differed little from the one that first took wing at Kitty Hawk. Their first public flights, in September, 1908 (Orville Wright at Fort Meyer, and Wilbur Wright at Le [...]
In 1911, MM. Voisin Freres experimented with a biplane characterized by the absence of a tail and the grouping of the elevation and direction rudders at the front, carried by a long central fuselage. This fuselage was attached at the rear to the main biplane cell. But airplane design moved quite the [...]
The original Voisin type was soon replaced by the type “Bordeaux,” quite different from the original in controls and structure. There were several innovations on this machine, notably the Gnome rotary engine of 11 cylinders set like the spokes of a wheel.
The under-carriage and tail-booms and much of the understructure was made of steel [...]
This machine, built by the Voisins and first experimented with in the late part of l909, embodied several unorthodox biplane features, but had little success. The Goupy and the Breguet, aeroplanes of this type, however, turned out to be much more practical.
Top Speed: 50 m.p.h.
Engine: 40 horse-power 4-cylinder Voisin
Wingspan: 37 [...]
In June, 1909, Roger Summer purchased a biplane constructed by Henri Farman, and on July 3d he made his first flight. Scarcely a month later he held the world’s record for duration of flight, having flown continuously for two and a halt hours. His sudden jump into the ranks of the [...]