''L’Aérophile'' ("The Aerophile") was a French aviation magazine published from 1893 to 1947. It has been described as "the leading aeronautical journal of the world" around 1910.

History and contents

''L’Aérophile'' was founded and run for many years by Georges Besançon. In 1898 it became the official journal of the Aéro Club of France. Important developments in early aviation were documented in its pages: * Octave Chanute's April 1903 speech to the Aéro-Club describing the excitement of the

gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is ...

experiments done by his group in 1896/7 and of the Wright brothers was printed in April, 1903. Also Ferdinand Ferber's 1902 glider, the first in Europe modeled on those of the Wright brothers, was illustrated in the February 1903 issue. * The journal published illustrations of ailerons on Robert Esnault-Pelterie’s glider in June 1905, and the ailerons were widely copied afterward. * In December 1905 and January 1906 journal articles confirmed that the Wright brothers had (as they claimed) flown a controlled, powered airplane, at a time when many readers did not believe this. * The journal covered at length

Alberto Santos-Dumont Alberto Santos-Dumont ( Palmira, 20 July 1873 — Guarujá, 23 July 1932) was a Brazilian aeronaut, sportsman, inventor, and one of the few people to have contributed significantly to the early development of both lighter-than-air and heavier- ...

’s flights of 1906, which were the first airplane flights in Europe. * Editor Georges Besançon wrote that Wilbur Wright's 1908 flights in France had erased doubts about the Wright brothers' previous experiments. * ''L'Aérophile'' published René Lorin’s article of 1 September 1908 in which he first proposed the

ramjet A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an a ...

. Historian Charles Gibbs-Smith criticised ''L’Aérophile'' for not publishing the official report on the tests of

Clément Ader Clément Ader (2 April 1841 – 3 May 1925) was a French inventor and engineer who was born near Toulouse in Muret, Haute-Garonne, and died in Toulouse. He is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation. In 1870 he was also one of ...

’s 1897 ''Avion III'' when this report was finally made public in 1910, and thus failing to oppose the claim that Ader's machine had made a controlled flight in 1897. ''L'Aérophile'' was a monthly publication in its first years, then started to come out twice a month in 1910.

Affiliations

From 1893–94, ''L'Aérophile'' was associated with the Union aérophile de France. Starting at the end of 1898 it was the official journal of the Aero Club of France. In later years it was also an official publication of the alumni association (Association des anciens élèves) of the French national aeronautical college (École nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique).

Bibliography and archives

Some early issues have been scanned and are available a
archive.org
thanks to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Other issues are online a
google books
Some portion of the ''L'Aérophile'' archives are kept by the US Library of Congress.Detailed finding aid for ''L'Aérophile'' collection at the Library of Congress
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aerophile 1893 establishments in France 1947 disestablishments in France Aviation magazines Defunct magazines published in France French-language magazines History of aviation Magazines established in 1893 Magazines disestablished in 1947 Magazines published in Paris Monthly magazines published in France Weekly magazines published in France