Early French Aviation, 1905–1930

Early French Aviation, 1905–1930 PDF Author: Graham M. Simons
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 152675875X
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
The author of Boeing 707 Group: A History delivers “a stunning study in early French aviation design with a plethora of aircraft” (IPMS/USA). France has been called the cradle of aviation by many—a fact that cannot be disputed, although some have tried. By the end of the 19th century, she led the world in lighter-than-air flight. Any concern about heavier-than-air flight was dismissed as inevitable, and France would achieve it in due course. France was also the first nation to stage air exhibitions. Unlike their counterparts in Britain, Germany and America, French designers were thoroughly entrepreneurial and tried a wide variety of adventurous styles from pusher to canard and monoplane to multiplane. In 1909 the first Air Show was held at the Grand Palais in what was to become an enduring tradition. Every year, the aircraft exhibitions were a massive success. It is not surprising that all this derring-do, all these technological achievements and all this innovation drew reporters and photographers like moths to a flame. The men, the machines, the places and the events all were recorded, reported, reproduced and then were filed away. Hundreds of images appeared in print, but thousands were printed up only as contact prints from large-format glass negatives and then disappeared into albums to be forgotten about. In the mid-1990s the author came across one such treasure-trove; a number of dust-covered albums containing around five hundred images of aircraft, airships and expositions—it is doubtful if most have appeared in print before, so this will probably be the first time the events of these French pioneers have ever been showcased.

Early French Aviation, 1905–1930

Early French Aviation, 1905–1930 PDF Author: Graham M. Simons
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 152675875X
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
The author of Boeing 707 Group: A History delivers “a stunning study in early French aviation design with a plethora of aircraft” (IPMS/USA). France has been called the cradle of aviation by many—a fact that cannot be disputed, although some have tried. By the end of the 19th century, she led the world in lighter-than-air flight. Any concern about heavier-than-air flight was dismissed as inevitable, and France would achieve it in due course. France was also the first nation to stage air exhibitions. Unlike their counterparts in Britain, Germany and America, French designers were thoroughly entrepreneurial and tried a wide variety of adventurous styles from pusher to canard and monoplane to multiplane. In 1909 the first Air Show was held at the Grand Palais in what was to become an enduring tradition. Every year, the aircraft exhibitions were a massive success. It is not surprising that all this derring-do, all these technological achievements and all this innovation drew reporters and photographers like moths to a flame. The men, the machines, the places and the events all were recorded, reported, reproduced and then were filed away. Hundreds of images appeared in print, but thousands were printed up only as contact prints from large-format glass negatives and then disappeared into albums to be forgotten about. In the mid-1990s the author came across one such treasure-trove; a number of dust-covered albums containing around five hundred images of aircraft, airships and expositions—it is doubtful if most have appeared in print before, so this will probably be the first time the events of these French pioneers have ever been showcased.

French Aeroplanes Before the Great War

French Aeroplanes Before the Great War PDF Author: Leonard E. Opdycke
Publisher: Schiffer Military History
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
French Aeroplanes Before the Great War is a catalog of the aeroplanes of the nearly 700 French builders who worked before the onset of World War I. Most of these aeroplanes flew some did not some were never even finished but all of them reflect the extraordinary vitality and sense of optimism that powered the aeronautical world before the future of the aeroplane began to become clearer in wartime. If the Wrights had not flown in 1903, one of the early French builders would very quickly have won the laurels for the first flight. Some of the machines appear in these pages probably for the first time in print; others are rarely seen. This collection serves as a kind of super Exposition Internationale de Locomotion Arienne; readers are invited to enter the Grand Palais, as they might have in 1908 or 1909, to enjoy these marvelous aircraft.

Military Aviation

Military Aviation PDF Author: Clément Ader
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
This book--the first English translation of Clm̌ent Ader's L'Aviation militaire--contains Ader's ideas about flight formed in the last decade of the nineteenth century, arranged in manuscript form by Ader in 1907, and published in 1909 in Paris by Berger-Levrault. The text is reproduced in its entirety, including notes added by Ader and explanatory notes and a bibliographical note by the editor and translator, Lee Kennett. Ader explains his ideas about the development of airplanes based on creatures in nature. He studied the bat and the bird, especially the vulture. Chapters detail the design of bases for aircraft, runway construction, naval airplanes, vertical artillery, air lanes, schools of aviation, and strategy for waging war in the air.

French Aircraft in the First World War

French Aircraft in the First World War PDF Author: Vital Ferry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782352503705
Category : Airplanes, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
During the cradle of aviation, at the beginning of the Great War, France had access to only a few dozen military aircraft, with a staff who didn't quite know what to do with them. However, during the course of the conflict, the embryonic Air Force, dedicated to the creation of reconnaissance and bombing missions, evolved like wildfire to the point that by the Armistice of 11 November 1918, French military aviation had become one of the world's most powerful as a result of the construction of 10,000 aircraft spread throughout nearly 300 squadrons. Having became the first nation equipped with an air force, the French aviation industry in its infancy before the war, had been able to produce in four years 50,000 aircraft, may of which would go on to support a number of her allies, including Britain, Russia and especially the United States. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the French Air Force from 1914 to 1918 through a historical narrative peppered with anecdotes and illustrated with many unpublished pictures from the period and profiles of the most iconic devices. The work is complete with full specifications of aircraft built and used by France during the four years of the Great War.

The Rise and Fall of the French Air Force

The Rise and Fall of the French Air Force PDF Author: Greg Baughen
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
On 10 May 1940, the French possessed one of the largest air forces in the world. On paper, it was nearly as strong as the RAF. Six weeks later, France had been defeated. For a struggling French Army desperately looking for air support, the skies seemed empty of friendly planes. In the decades that followed, the debate raged. Were there unused stockpiles of planes? Were French aircraft really so inferior? Baughen examines the myths that surround the French defeat. He explains how at the end of the First World War, the French had possessed the most effective air force in the world, only for the lessons learned to be forgotten. Instead, air policy was guided by radical theories that predicted air power alone would decide future wars. Baughen traces some of the problems back to the very earliest days of French aviation. He describes the mistakes and bad luck that dogged the French efforts to modernise their air force in the twenties and thirties. He examines how decisions made just months before the German attack further weakened the air force. Yet defeat was not inevitable. If better use had been made of the planes that were available, the result might have been different.

Picture History of Early Aviation, 1903-1913

Picture History of Early Aviation, 1903-1913 PDF Author: Joshua Stoff
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 9780486288369
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Carefully researched text, lavishly illustrated with over 250 photos, introduce early pioneers of flight: Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, Octave Chanute, Louis Bleriot, the Wright Brothers, many other aviation pioneers.

French Aircraft Of The First World War

French Aircraft Of The First World War PDF Author: James Davilla
Publisher: Flying Machines Press
ISBN: 9781891268090
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is the full story behind some of the most important Allied aircraft of WWI. More than 950 rare photos and 25 pages of color plates document all 400 French planes that were the mainstay of Allied air power. Three-view drawings in standard scales (1/48 and 1/72) are perfect for modelers and artists. Includes operational details and orders of battle.

Pioneer Aircraft

Pioneer Aircraft PDF Author: Philip Jarrett
Publisher: Brassey's
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This volume covers aviation from its earliest beginnings up to the outbreak of the First World War. It begins with the first theories and experiments in flight, including the attempts to fly by jumping from towers and the experiences of the lighter-than-air flight using balloons. It then analyses the experiments with kites and models in an attempt to understand the principles of aerodynamics. All this leads up to the first successful powered flights, culminating in the achievement of the Wright Brothers, whose flight at Kitty Hawk represented the first successful powered, sustained, and controlled flight. The remainder of the book covers the creation of an aeroplane industry putting aeroplanes to work, refining airframes and engines, adapting aeroplanes to fly from water, and understanding safety issues. The Series Editor Philip Jarrett, is a freelance author, editor and consultant specialiszing in aviation. He has been editor of Aeroplane, the Royal Aeronautical Society's newspaper, assistant editor of Aeroplane Monthly, and production editor of Flight International.

Contact!

Contact! PDF Author: Henry Serrano Villard
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 9780486423272
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This informative account recaptures the thrill of the pioneering days of aviation, back before flying was taken for granted. Among the significant and colorful figures covered are the Wright Brothers, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Henry Farman, Glenn H. Curtiss, and other aviators from around the world. 84 black-and-white illustrations.

First to Fly

First to Fly PDF Author: Charles Bracelen Flood
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 080219138X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
“The compelling story of the squadron of adventurous young American pilots who were among the first to engage in air combat.” —Tampa Bay Times In First to Fly, lauded historian Charles Bracelen Flood draws on rarely seen primary sources to tell the story of the daredevil Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille, who flew in French planes, wore French uniforms, and showed the world an American brand of heroism before the United States entered the Great War. As citizens of a neutral nation from 1914 to early 1917, Americans were prohibited from serving in a foreign army, but many brave young souls soon made their way into European battle zones. It was partly from the ranks of the French Foreign Legion, and with the sponsorship of an expat American surgeon and a Vanderbilt, that the Lafayette Escadrille was formed in 1916 as the first and only all-American squadron in the French Air Service. Flying rudimentary planes, against one-in-three odds of being killed, these fearless young men gathered reconnaissance and shot down enemy aircraft, participated in the Battle of Verdun and faced off with the Red Baron, dueling across the war-torn skies like modern knights on horseback. “First to Fly shows us that there was something noble and honorable about the Escadrille, men who did not turn against their own country but put their lives up to fight for a cause, not because they had to but because it was the right thing to do.” —The Wall Street Journal