The Paulhan biplane was a French experimental aircraft designed in 1910 by the successful aviator

Louis Paulhan Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan (; 19 July 1883 – 10 February 1963), was a French aviator. He is known for winning the first ''Daily Mail'' aviation prize for the first flight between London and Manchester in 1910. Biography Paulhan was b ...

in collaboration with Henri Fabre. The prototype became the second aircraft bought by the British War Office: two further examples, differing in constructional detail, were built.

Design and development

Although the general arrangement of the aircraft was conventional for the time, being a pusher biplane with a front-mounted

elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They a ...

and a rear-mounted horizontal stabiliser and

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 air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

, it had a number of extremely unorthodox constructional details. The most obvious was the construction of the wings, which had a single

spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

forming the leading edges of the wings which was an exposed

warren truss Warren Errol Truss, (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott Government and the Turnbull Governm ...

of a type designed and patented by Fabre. The ribs were cantilevered from this spar, each rib being enclosed in a pocket in the covering, which was laced to the leading edge and attached to the trailing edge end of each rib by a spring clip. The other flying surfaces were similar. The wings were connected by four single

interplane struts 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 ...

, the central pair attached to booms (also Fabre girders) bearing the forward-mounted elevator and a rear-mounted rudder mounted in front of an adjustable horizontal stabilising surface. The aluminium-covered

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...

, in which the pilot and passenger were seated side by side) in front of the

Gnome Omega The Gnome 7 Omega (commonly called the Gnome 50 hp) is a French seven-cylinder, air-cooled aero engine produced by Gnome et Rhône. It was shown at the Paris Aero Salon held in December 1908 and was first flown in 1909. It was the world's f ...

rotary engine, was suspended between the wings by steel cables which were attached to the ends of the central pair of interplane struts. The undercarriage consisted of a pair of long skids mounted on extensions of the inner interplane struts and connected to the forward extremities of the fuselage booms, each bearing a pair of wheels on a short axle. A tailskid which could be moved by the pilot to act as a brake was carried on the lower end of the rudder mounting. The second example retained the same general arrangement but differed considerably in constructional detail. The Fabre lattice girders were replaced by conventional spars, the single interplane struts replaced by more conventional paired struts and the tail surfaces altered to a cruciform arrangement, with the rudder divided into two sections above and below the stabiliser. The trim of the aircraft could be altered on the ground by adjusting the bracing cables for the tail surfaces.

Operational history

After being exhibited at the 1910 Paris Aero Salon, a few short flights were made by Paulhan at the end of October at Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole and showed what ''

Flight Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can be a ...

'' described as "satisfying flight behavior". A public demonstration of the aircraft was later made on 26 November by Albert Caillé, including two return flights betewwen St Cyr and Buc. Paulhan wanted this demonstration of his aircraft to be made by someone other than himself, in case its success was attributed solely to his skill as a pilot. (Caillé was a former pupil at Paulhan's flying school who had only been awarded his Aero Club de France license at the beginning of September.) Commercial rights for Great Britain had been acquired by

George Holt Thomas George Holt Thomas (31 March 1869 – 1 January 1929) aviation industry pioneer and newspaper proprietor. Holt Thomas founded, in 1911, the business which became Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited or Airco. Son and grandson of successful ar ...

, who succeeded in interesting the British

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

in the aircraft. After a demonstration flight during which it met the War Office's demands of a two-hour flight with a passenger and (200 kg (441 lb) of ballast in a 40 kmh (25 mph) wind and a gliding flight from a height of 200 m (626 ft), an example was ordered and early January 1911 Caillé successfully put it through a series of tests at Buc. Captain Fulton from the British Army witnessed the tests and accepted the aircraft on January 11, 1911. It was subsequently flown at the Royal Aircraft Factory, where it did not impress,.Driver, Hugh, ''The Birth of Military Aviation: Britain, 1903-1914''. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society, 1997. p.259

Specifications

Notes

References

*Munson, Kenneth ''Pioneer Aircraft 1903-14'' London: Blandford, 1969 *Opdycke, Leonard E., ''French Aeroplanes before the Great War'' Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1999 {{ISBN, 978-0-7643-0752-2 Single-engined pusher aircraft 1910s French experimental aircraft Canard aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1910 Biplanes