The Sommer 1910 Biplane was an early French aircraft designed by

Roger Sommer Roger Sommer (4 August 1877 in Pierrepont, France – 14 April 1965 at Sainte-Maxime) was a French aviator. Born to Alfred Sommer, a Belgian industrialist, Roger Sommer became involved with aviation from an early age. He broke the record for ...

. It was a pusher configuration biplane resembling the successful Farman III, and was built in large numbers for the time. One was owned by

Charles Rolls Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident wit ...

Background

Roger Sommer had previously built an aircraft of his own design in 1908, achieving a few short straight-line flights in early 1909. This was housed at Châlons, where Sommer had a

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

between those occupied by

Gabriel Voisin Gabriel Voisin (5 February 1880 – 25 December 1973) was a French aviation pioneer and the creator of Europe's first manned, engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft capable of a sustained (1 km), circular, controlled flight, which was made ...

and

Henri Farman Henri Farman (26 May 1874– 17 July 1958) was a British-French aviator and aircraft designer and manufacturer with his brother Maurice Farman. Before dedicating himself to aviation he gained fame as a sportsman, specifically in cycling and moto ...

. In May 1909 Sommer bought a Farman III aircraft, and on 7 August 1909 he gained fame in this by breaking the endurance record held by Wilbur Wright, making a flight lasting 2 hr 27 min 15 sec. Later that year he made a successful appearance at the Doncaster flight meeting, winning the prize for the greatest distance flown during the meeting. Meanwhile, he had started building an aircraft of his own design at Mouzon in the Ardennes, where his family had a

felt Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...

-making business.

Design and development

The design of the Sommer biplane was derived from that of the Farman III, the aircraft being a pusher configuration equal-span biplane powered by a

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 ...

. Lateral control was effected by D-shaped

ailerons 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 ...

on the upper wing. A single

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 ...

was mounted in front of the wings: behind the wings wire-braced wooden booms carried a horizontal surface which was operated independently of the front elevator and was used to adjust the aircraft's

trim Trim or TRIM may refer to: Cutting * Cutting or trimming small pieces off something to remove them ** Book trimming, a stage of the publishing process ** Pruning, trimming as a form of pruning often used on trees Decoration * Trim (sewing), or ...

rather than for control purposes. Early examples has a single large

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 ...

mounted below this: this was later changed to four smaller rudders, two above it and two below, and subsequently changed again to one above and one below . The twin skids of the undercarriage were extended forwards to form part of the supporting structure for the elevator, and a single pair of wheels were mounted on an axle between the skids. A two-seat "Military" version with an extended upper wing was produced later.

Operational history

The prototype was first flown by Sommer on 4 January 1910 at Mouzon, when he managed three flights of over 4 km (2.5 mi) This first machine was sold to a M. Viateaux within two weeks, and by the end of February he had built a replacement and established a flying school at Mouzon. A large number of examples were built: by spring 1910 Sommer had sixty aircraft on order. Sommer had established flying school at

Douzy Douzy () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. In September 2015 it absorbed the former commune of Mairy. Population See also *Communes of the Ardennes department The following is a list of the 449 communes of the Ar ...

using his machines. One example was bought by

, and was exhibited on the Royal Aero Societys stand at the 1910 Aero Show at Olympia

The Humber-Sommer biplane

First Official Airmail Flight by Humber-Sommer biplane - India 1911

A small number of license-built copies of the Sommer biplane were built in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between t ...

. These were of mixed steel and wood construction, and one was used to carry out the world's first official mail-carrying flight, when 6,500 letters were flown by

Henri Pequet Henri Pequet (1 February 1888 – 13 March 1974) was a pilot in the first official airmail flight on February 18, 1911. The 23-year-old Frenchman, in India for an airshow, delivered about 6,500 letters when he flew from an Allahabad polo fiel ...

from the United Provinces Exhibition at Allahabad to

Naini Naini (also known as Naini Industrial Area) is a satellite neighborhood and a twin city of Prayagraj in Prayagraj district, Uttar Pradesh, India. By the 1950s Naini was established as the chief industrial area of the city. History Naini had a ...

. The letters bore an official frank "First Aerial Post, U.P. Exhibition, Allahabad, 1911", the text surrounding a drawing of the aircraft.

Specifications

Notes

References

*Lewis, Peter. ''British Aircraft 1809-1914''. London: Putnam, 1962 *Opdycke, Leonard E. ''French Aeroplanes before the Great War''. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1990 *''The Aero Manual 1910'' (reprint) Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles, 1972 {{ISBN, 0 7153 5512 0 pp. 162–3

External links

The Sommer Biplane

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's old ...

23 April 1910 Single-engined pusher aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1910 Biplanes 1910s French experimental aircraft Rotary-engined aircraft