The Levasseur-Abrial A-1 was a

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

built in 1922 as a result of a collaboration between French aerodynamicist

Georges Abrial Georges Abrial (1898 in Paris – 1970 in Vauville, Manche) was an early France, French aerodynamics, aerodynamicist. Life After graduating from the St Cyr Aeronautical Institute he worked for Pierre Levasseur (aircraft builder), Levasseur (Levass ...

de Péga and constructor Pierre Levasseur. A single example was built, which was destroyed on its fourth flight.

Design and development

The A-1 had a one piece,

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

wing with swept

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, ...

s, an unswept

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. ...

and blunted tips. It had a

reflex In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs ...

, Joukovsky

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. ...

section and was thick in the centre, thinning outboard where tapered

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s reached out to the tips. It was built around pairs of swept wooden

spars The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS (SPARS was the acronym for "Semper Paratus—Always Ready"), was the women's branch of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. It was established by the United States ...

with

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 ...

skin from the forward one around the nose forming a torsion resisting D-box. The rest of the wing was covered with silk (pongée). The wing was set into the upper part of the flat-sided fuselage, with an open

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 ...

at its leading edge and behind a short, vertically edged nose. The fuselage tapered aft to large tail surfaces; a lightly swept, cantilever

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 ...

with angled tips was mounted at mid-height, carrying a one-piece

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

. The rounded profile of the

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

merged into that of its

rhomboidal Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are non-right angled. A parallelogram with sides of equal length (equilateral) is a rhombus but not a rhomboid. ...

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 ...

, leaving room below for elevator movement. The A-1's

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

was based on a pair of ash skids, mounted from the fuselage on

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

struts and cross-braced. There were light skids below the outer wings to protect the tips. If the terrain was suitable, wheels on a track single axle could be attached to them.

Operational history

The Levasseur-Abrial A-1 took part in the ''Congrès Experimental de Combegrasse'', held in August 1922 near

Clermont Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 146,734 (2018). Its metropolitan area (''aire d'attract ...

at a time when gliding as a sport was just beginning and before the importance of ridge lift or thermals was appreciated. It made three successful downhill flights after rubber cord launches, the longest lasting 117 s. On the fourth attempt the launching cord fouled the right wing and the glider crashed. Its pilot, Henri Pitot, escaped unhurt but the glider was badly damaged. The wing survived well enough to be on display on the Levasseur stand at the Paris Salon in November 1922. Its covering was partially removed to show the lightweight structure.

Specifications

References

{{Levasseur aircraft Glider aircraft Abrial aircraft Levasseur aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1922 High-wing aircraft