The Hydroaéroplane Caudron-Fabre, (Caudron-Fabre), was a French amphibious seaplane that competed in the 1912 Monaco event. It was one of the first true amphibians, able to take-off from water and touch down on land.

Design and development

On 28 March 1910, the Frenchman Emile Fabre made the first successful take-off from and landing on water. His float design was the first to allow an aircraft to break away from the surface and was patented. Its success attracted the interest of most of the major French aircraft builders, who saw new possibilities for aviation opening up.

Glenn Curtiss Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early ...

bought a licence to build them. These aviators included René Caudron, who combined Fabre's floats with a new aeroplane design that retained many of the characteristics of his Type B.2, Type C,

Type D Type D or D-Type may refer to: * D-type asteroid * Jaguar D-Type, a sports racing car * Honda D-Type, a motorcycle * Type D personality, a concept used in the field of medical psychology * Type D plug, a type of electrical power plug * ''Type ...

and Type E unequal span two bay biplanes. The wings of the Caudron-Fabre were particularly similar to those of the B2 and D2, rectangular in plan, apart from slightly angled tips, equal chord and mounted without stagger. There were two spars, one at the

leading edge The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...

and one at about one third chord, with

interplane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s in parallel pairs connecting forward and aft spars. Those defining the bays and the centre section were vertical but the outer pairs leaned strongly outwards to support the longer upper wings. Lateral control was achieved by

wing warping Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of a fixed-wing aircraft. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposite direc ...

. The Caudron-Fabre, like the earlier Caudron land-planes, had no enclosed

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

but instead a pair of parallel vertical girders, each with cross-members but only cross-braced horizontally towards the tail. On the land-planes the lower longitudinal members of the girder ran to the undercarriage; this was not practical on the float-plane so they were replaced by horizontal members running forward from the tail to beyond the wing. These extensions, braced by sloping

strut A strut is a structural component commonly found in engineering, aeronautics, architecture and anatomy. Struts generally work by resisting longitudinal compression, but they may also serve in tension. Human anatomy Part of the functionality o ...

s on each side to both of the centre section struts formed a kind of outrigger on which the pilot sat, exposed, just forward of the leading edge. Behind the pilot and mounted on the rear pair of the centre-section struts was an un-cowled,

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

Anzani 6-cylinder Alessandro Anzani developed the first two-row radial from his earlier 3- cylinder Y engine by merging two onto the same crankshaft with a common crankweb. Development By December 1909 Anzani had a 3-cylinder air-cooled true radial engine runn ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...

. Long cut-outs from the

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...

s of both wings were needed to clear the path of the large diameter, two blade

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. A rectangular

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

was mounted on a cross member between the upper girders, strengthened by outward diagonal bracing, with broad chord elevator-like surfaces extending beyond. A pair of rectangular

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

s were hinged, close together, from this same cross-member. The Caudron-Fabre had an

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

composed of both wheels and floats, though it was possible to remove the former; photographs show the aircraft in both configurations. There was no cross-axle, each wheel being mounted individually on two pairs of outwardly splayed V-struts from the feet of the inner interplane struts and another to the feet of the nearest centre-section struts. Its floats were mounted immediately ahead of the wheels, articulated at a forward point on their centreline by a strut from the outrigger, a strut from the wing leading edge over the wheels and another from the wheel axle. A rear strut had a

pneumatic Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air. Pneumatic systems used in Industrial sector, industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A central ...

shock absorber 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 ...

. A third float, similar in size and shape, was mounted on a vertical strut attached to the girder cross-member ahead of the tailplane, braced at its lower end by a pair of struts angled up to the ends of the vertical girders. The floats were flat bottomed with segmental section and an almost square plan, with a width about 70% of their length. As on Fabre's original aircraft, they were mounted with a pronounced

angle of attack In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...

Operational history

The Caudron-Fabre left the Caudron factory in July 1911, and when the requirements of the Monaco competition were released, towards the end of 1911, Caudron was able to modify the aircraft to meet them. Nonetheless, at the end of the March 1912 event it was only placed fifth out of nine competitors, with Farman aircraft first and second. It did attract attention as the only amphibian present and has been claimed as the first truly amphibious aircraft, able to operate from land or water without having to change its undercarriage.

Specifications

References

External links

Les hydravions des frères CAUDRON

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hydroaeroplane Caudron-Fabre F Amphibious aircraft 1910s French sport aircraft Biplanes Single-engined pusher aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1911