The Charmier-Dupuy 10 was a French parasol-winged single seat light aircraft designed for low-cost flying. The sole example was first flown in 1924. Over a long career, it was fitted with three different engines and remained on the French register until after World War II.

Design

In the early 1920s there was considerable interest in both France and the UK in small single seat aircraft, designed to be cheap to buy and run and thus increase the civil light aircraft market. In France these were often referred to as avionettes; the Carmier avionette, which later was later named the Carmier-Depuy 10 or Carmier T.10 was one example at the high powered end of the range. Charles Carmier was helped in its design by Dupuy and in its construction by an experienced pilot, Chalambel. The Carmier was a

parasol monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

, with a two-part rectangular plan wing braced to the lower fuselage by pairs of parallel struts out to the

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

wing spars at about 40% span. They were thick in section, with a thickness/

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

ratio of 18%, and strongly cambered. The wings were

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

covered and carried full span, narrow ailerons which could operate together as flaps or conventionally. The fuselage was built around four wooden

longerons In engineering, a longeron and stringer is the load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural ...

, though

frames A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (co ...

and stringers formed a circular cross-section. The covering was in

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

at the nose and tail, with fabric in the central,

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

region. The Carmier was initially powered by a three-cylinder, Anzani radial engine dating from 1911. The open cockpit was under the trailing edge of the wing, where there was a cut-out to improve upward visibility, and had a long streamlined headrest which topped the fuselage as it tapered strongly to the tail. Mounted at mid-fuselage height, the horizontal tail was all-moving and rectangular in plan apart from a large cut-out for rudder movement. The fin was triangular, with a tall, round tipped, parallel-sided rudder which extended well below the fuselage underside. The Carmier had fixed, conventional landing gear, with its mainwheels on a single axle mounted via rubber

shock absorbers A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which is then dissipated. Most sh ...

to a pair of cross-braced tube steel V-struts from the lower fuselage. A long tailskid from the fuselage underside was fixed to a lower extension of the rudder hinge, protecting the otherwise-vulnerable rudder.

Operational history

The date of the Carmier's first flight is not known but early development was proceeding in June 1924 at Orly, flown by Paul Carmier, the designer's brother. It was registered as ''F-EESF''. Despite the initial use of a propeller that was not ideally matched to the Anzani engine, it readily climbed to and speeds above appear to have been reached. The Carmier's first competitive event was the ''Tour de France des avionettes'', held in August 1924, for which it was fitted with a larger two litre (120 cubic inch), Anzani with a Levasseur propeller. Piloted by Paul Carmier, it was one of only three of fifteen entrants to qualify for the final, three stage event and won the first stage. Carmier was forced to drop out in the second stage by a broken oil pipe. Two years later, in June 1926, it was flying at Orly in a Civil Pilot's Union event with the same 45 hp engine. A further ten years later, after a period without notable public appearances, it was a contestant in the annual ''12 heures d'Angers'' event in the under two litre category, powered by a 1.08 litre (648 cu in)

Ava 4A The Ava 4A was a low power flat-four (boxer engine) developed for very light aircraft in France in the 1930s. It was used by several prototypes and at least one production series. Design and development Marcel Violet was a French racing driver ...

flat-four engine A flat-four engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-four engine, is a four-cylinder piston engine with two banks of cylinders lying on opposite sides of a common crankshaft. The most common type of flat-four engine is the boxer-four engine, ...

. It did not finish amongst the winners. In 1936 its engine was changed for the last time, when a

Train 4T The Train 2T, 4T and 6T were low power piston engines for light aircraft, produced in France. They were inverted, air-cooled in-line engines with the same bore and stroke, differing chiefly in the number of cylinders. Design and development In ...

four-cylinder, inverted, air-cooled inline engine was installed. The Carmier survived World War II and was briefly on the French prototypes register as ''F-WBBG''.

Specifications (T-10 - Train 4A)

References

{{reflist, 2, refs= {{cite book , title=Les Avions Français de 1944 à 1964, last=Gaillard, first=Pierre, year=1990, publisher=Éditions EPA, location=Paris, isbn=2 85120 350 9, pages=41 {{cite journal, date=7 August 1924 , title=The French ''Tour de France des Aviettes'', journal= Flight, volume=XVI , issue=1438 , pages=502 , url= https://www.Flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200502.html {{cite journal, date=16 July 1936 , title=The Six Hours of Angers , journal= Flight, volume=XX , issue=33 , pages=100 , url= https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1936/1936%20-%202007.html {{cite journal , last=Frachet , first=André , date=26 June 1924, title=L'avionnette Pierre Carmier , journal=Les Ailes, issue=158 , pages=2 , url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6556104n/f2 {{cite journal , date=3 June 1926, title=A Orly, la fête de l'U.P.C. a eu lieu dimanche, journal=Les Ailes, issue=259 , pages=2 , url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65682912/f2 {{cite journal , date=17 July 1936, title=Picture caption, journal=Les Ailes, issue=787 , pages=11 , url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6555227p/f11 {{cite journal , date=10 September 1936, title=Picture caption, journal=Les Ailes, issue=795 , pages=11 , url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65552357/f14 {{cite journal , date=3 July 1936, title=La liste des engagés, journal=L'Aéro, issue=1466 , pages=5 , url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5713086d/f5 {{cite web , url=https://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9968&ID_CONSTRUCTEUR=1502&ANNEE=0&ID_MISSION=0&MOTCLEF=, title=Carmier Dupouy T.10 , author=Bruno Parmentier , date=11 October 2005 , access-date=25 February 2005 Parasol-wing aircraft 1920s French sport aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1924 Single-engined tractor aircraft