French Aeroplanes Before the Great WarFrench Aeroplanes Before the Great War is a catalog of the aeroplanes of the nearly 700 French builders who worked before the onset of World War I. Most of these aeroplanes flew - some did not - some were never even finished - but all of them reflect the extraordinary vitality and sense of optimism that powered the aeronautical world before the future of the aeroplane began to become clearer in wartime. If the Wrights had not flown in 1903, one of the early French builders would very quickly have won the laurels for the first flight. Some of the machines appear in these pages probably for the first time in print; others are rarely seen. This collection serves as a kind of super Exposition Internationale de Locomotion Aérienne; readers are invited to enter the Grand Palais, as they might have in 1908 or 1909, to enjoy these marvelous aircraft. |
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2-seater 3-cylinder 50 hp Gnôme Aérienne aeroplane ailerons aircraft appeared Author's collection aviation biplane Blériot XI Bowers collection built canard Canton-Unné Clément-Bayard Concours Militaire Courtesy crashed curved Demoiselle Deperdussin empty weight engine et de l'Espace/Le Ferber firm fitted flew flight floats flown flying flyingboat forward elevator France front fuselage glider gross weight Hanriot Henry Farman hp Antoinette hp Anzani Issy Juvisy l'Espace/Le Bourget-France later leading edge length lower wing machine Monaco monoplane motor mounted Musée de l'Air nacelle Nieuport ornithopter outriggers pair Paris Paris Salon Peter M Bowers photograph pilot sat pusher propeller pylon rear rectangular rudder rectangular wings rudder Salon seaplane single single-seater skids Société Sommer Span spars speed struts tail surfaces tailplane tailwheel tandem tested tips top wing tractor propeller trailing edge triplane Type uncovered undercarriage vertical Voisin water-cooled wheels wing area wingtips