Avro 504A
Avro 504B
Avro 504J
Produced by Alliott Verdon Roe, Britain’s great pioneering aircraft designer, the Avro 504 trained nearly every British pilot in the Great War; over 8,000 were built. Especially suitable for the purpose of training pilots, it was the standard training machine of the Royal Air Force. The plane’s diagnostic feature is the the [...]
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
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 [...]
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
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 [...]
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
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 [...]
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
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 [...]
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
The 1910 Paulhan biplane, actively discussed in aviation circles, was remarkable only for the strength and elasticity of its structure, and the ease with which it could be packed and shipped. Louis Paulhan, whose great exploits as an aeroplane pilot were well known, made a happy combination of a new type of [...]
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
One of the first machines designed by M. Goupy was a triplane with-a rear stabilizing cell, built for him by the Voisins and flown for short distances in the spring of 1908. The Goupy biplane, built in the Bleriot factory, resembled the Bleriot monoplanes in all the important features of its [...]
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Henri Farman on this machine established the world’s record for duration of flight, when on December 18th, 1910, he flew continuously for almost eight hours and a half. This achievement was made possible by the great weight-lifting capacity of this type, enabling him to carry almost 450 pounds of fuel in [...]
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Louis Breguet experimented with airplanes for many years at Douai, France, and gradually evolved, step by step, one of the best of the early flying machines. It is interesting to note that the first successful helicopter to lift a man was built by him and M. Richet in 1907, the total weight [...]
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
In 1910, Roger Sommer brought out a monoplane that followed regulation lines, but was exceptionally strong. In this machine M. Sommer at Douzy made many creditable flights within months of its introduction. The general aspect suggested a Bleriot fuselage mounted on a biplane chassis.
Top Speed: 54 m.p.h.
Engine: 50 horse-power seven-cylinder Gnome
Wingspan: [...]