Clément Ader (; 2 April 1841 – 3 May 1925) was a French inventor and engineer who was born near

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

in Muret,

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; , ; ''Upper Garonne'') is a department in the southwestern French region of Occitanie. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's fourth-largest. ...

, and died in Toulouse. He is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

. In 1870 he was also one of the pioneers in the sport of cycling in France.

Electrical and mechanical inventions

Ader was an innovator in electrical and

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

. He originally studied

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, and in 1878 improved on the

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

invented by

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

. After this he established the telephone network in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1880. In 1881, he invented the

théâtrophone Théâtrophone (, "the theatre phone") was a telephony, telephonic distribution system available in portions of Europe that allowed the subscribers to listen to opera and theatre performances over the telephone lines. The théâtrophone evolved fr ...

, a system of telephonic transmission where listeners received a separate channel for each ear, enabling stereophonic perception of the actors on a set; it was this invention which gave the first

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

transmission of opera performances, over a distance of 2 miles (3 km) in 1881. In 1903, he devised a

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...

for the Paris–Madrid race, but although three or four were produced, none was sold.

Aircraft prototypes

Following his work with V8 engines, Ader turned to the problem of mechanical flight and until the end of his life gave much time and money to this. Using the studies of Louis Pierre Mouillard (1834–1897) on the flight of birds, he constructed his first flying machine in 1886, the '' Ader Éole''. It was a bat-like design run by a lightweight

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

of his own invention, with 4 cylinders with a power rating of , driving a four-blade

propeller A propeller (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 working flu ...

. The engine weighed . The wings had a span of . All-up weight was . On 9 October 1890 Ader attempted to fly the ''Éole''. Aviation historians give credit to this effort as a powered take-off and uncontrolled flight in ground effect of approximately at a height of approximately .Encyclopædia Britannica: Clément Ader
/ref> Ader also claimed credit for getting off the ground in the Éole. Ader began construction of a second aircraft he called the '' Avion II'', also referred to as the ''Zephyr'' or ''Éole II''. Most sources agree that work on this aircraft was never completed, and it was abandoned in favour of the ''Avion III''. Ader's later claim that he flew the ''Avion II'' in August 1892 for a distance of in Satory near Paris, was never widely accepted. Clement Ader Avion French patent 205155 of 19 April 1890

Clement Ader Avion French patent 205155 of 19 April 1890

Ader's progress attracted the interest of the minister of war, Charles de Freycinet. With the backing of the French War Office, Ader developed and constructed the '' Avion III''. It resembled an enormous bat made of linen and wood, with a wingspan, equipped with two four-bladed

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

propellers, each powered by a steam engine of . Using a circular track at Satory, Ader carried out taxiing trials on 12 October 1897 and two days later attempted a flight. After a short run the machine was caught by a gust of wind, slewed off the track, and came to a stop. After this the French army withdrew its funding, but kept the results secret. The commission released in November 1910 the official reports on Ader's attempted flights, stating that they were unsuccessful.

Book on aviation

Clément Ader remained an active proponent of the development of aviation. In 1909 he published '' L'Aviation Militaire'', a very popular book which went through 10 editions in the five years before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. It is notable for its vision of aerial warfare and for its foreseeing the form of the modern

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

, with a flat flight deck, an island superstructure, deck elevators and a hangar bay. His idea for an aircraft carrier was relayed by the US naval attaché in Paris and was followed by the first trials in the United States in November 1910.

Influence

Ader is still admired for his early powered flight efforts, and his aircraft gave the French language the word '' avion'' for a heavier-than-air aircraft. In 1938, France issued a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

honoring him.

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

named one of its aircraft assembly sites in

after him. Clément Ader has been referred to as "the father of aviation".

Notes

External links

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Clement Ader

Clement Ader's first flight in 1879 ?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ader, Clement 1841 births 1925 deaths People from Muret French aviation pioneers Aircraft designers French aerospace engineers Aerial warfare pioneers Commanders of the Legion of Honour