Antoinette IV

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Antoinette IV
Antoinette IV in flight
Role Experimental aircraft
Manufacturer Antoinette
Designer Léon Levavasseur
First flight 19 October 1908
Status Destroyed
Number built 1

The Antoinette IV was an early French monoplane.

Design and development[edit]

The Antoinette IV was a high-wing aircraft with a fuselage of extremely narrow triangular cross-section and a cruciform tail. Power was provided by a V8 engine of Léon Levavasseur's own design driving a paddle-bladed tractor propeller. Lateral control was at first effected with large triangular, and shortly afterwards trapezoidal-planform ailerons hinged to the trailing edge of the wings, although wing-warping was substituted at an early stage in flight trials, and in this type proved more effective.

On 19 February 1909, the Antoinette IV flew 5 km (3.1 mi) at Mourmelon-le-Grand, and on 19 July, Hubert Latham attempted to cross the English Channel in it, covering 11 km (6.8 mi) out of Sangatte before making a forced water landing due to engine failure.[1][2][3][4]

On 3 October 1910, Frenchman René Thomas, flying the Antoinette IV, collided with British Army Captain Bertram Dickson by ramming his Farman III biplane in the rear.[5] Both pilots survived, but Dickson was so badly injured that he never flew again.[6][7][8]

Specifications[edit]

General characteristics

  • Crew: one, pilot
  • Length: 11.50 m (37 ft 9 in)
  • Wingspan: 12.80 m (42 ft 0 in)
  • Wing area: 50 m2 (538 sq ft)
  • Empty weight: 250 kg (550 lb)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Antoinette 8V , 37 kW (50 hp)

See also[edit]

Related lists List of aircraft (pre-1914)

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Flying Triumphs of the Monoplane". Bunbury Herald. Vol. XIX, no. 3180. Western Australia. 15 July 1909. p. 3. Retrieved 8 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "CROSSING THE CHANNEL". The Brisbane Courier. Vol. LXVI, no. 16, 076. Queensland, Australia. 21 July 1909. p. 5. Retrieved 8 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "MARVELS OF THE MONOPLANE". Kalgoorlie Miner. Vol. 15, no. 4312. Western Australia. 26 July 1909. p. 5. Retrieved 8 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia., ...His monoplane, the Antoinette IV., was built to his. designs by M. Levasseur...
  4. ^ "HUBERT LATHAM'S FEAT". Evening Journal. Vol. XLIII, no. 11992. South Australia. 3 September 1909. p. 2. Retrieved 8 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ Villard, Henry Serrano (1 January 1968). CONTACT! The Story of the Early Birds Man's first decade of flight from Kitty Hawk to World War I. Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
  6. ^ "Aeroplanes in Collision". Popular Mechanics. Hearst Magazines. January 1911. p. 91.
  7. ^ "The Milan Aviation Meeting, Italy, 1910". Science Museum Pictorial. Science and Society Picture Library. 1910. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  8. ^ "Continental Flight Meetings". Flight. 8 October 1910. pp. 828–829. ...the Antoinette monoplane crashed on to the biplane, both machines falling to earth a mass of broken planes and tangled wires.