Clément Ader

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Clément Ader (Script error: No such module "IPA".; 2 April 1841 – 3 May 1925)[1][2] was a French inventor and engineer who was born near Toulouse in Muret, Haute-Garonne, and died in Toulouse. He is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation. In 1870 he was also one of the pioneers in the sport of cycling in France.[3]

Electrical and mechanical inventions

Ader was an innovator in electrical and mechanical engineering. He originally studied electrical engineering, and in 1878 improved on the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell. After this he established the telephone network in Paris in 1880. In 1881, he invented the théâtrophone, 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 transmission of opera performances, over a distance of 2 miles (3 km) in 1881.[4] In 1903, he devised a V8 engine for the Paris–Madrid race, but although three or four were produced, none was sold.[5]

Aircraft prototypes

File:EolePatent.jpg
Patent drawings of Clement Ader's Éole.
File:AderAvion3(1897).jpg
Clement Ader Avion III (1897 photograph).

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 of his own invention, with 4 cylinders with a power rating of Template:Convert, driving a four-blade propeller. The engine weighed Template:Convert.[6] The wings had a span of Template:Convert. All-up weight was Template:Convert. 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 Template:Convert at a height of approximately Template:Convert.[7][8][9][10] Ader also claimed credit for getting off the ground in the Éole.[11]

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 Template:Convert in Satory near Paris,[12] was never widely accepted.[8]

File:Clement Ader Avion French patent 205155 of 19 April 1890.jpg
Clement Ader's Eole French patent 205155, 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 Template:Convert wingspan, equipped with two four-bladed tractor propellers, each powered by a steam engine of Template:Convert. 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.[13]

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. It is notable for its vision of aerial warfare and for its foreseeing the form of the modern aircraft carrier, 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[14] and was followed by the first trials in the United States in November 1910.

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An airplane-carrying vessel is indispensable. These vessels will be constructed on a plan very different from what is currently used. First of all the deck will be cleared of all obstacles. It will be flat, as wide as possible without jeopardizing the nautical lines of the hull, and it will look like a landing field.

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Influence

File:Avion III Art et Metiers.jpg
Clément Ader's Avion III is still displayed at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.
File:Avion III 20050711.jpg
Avion III.

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 honoring him. Airbus named one of its aircraft assembly sites in Toulouse after him. Clément Ader has been referred to as "the father of aviation".[15][16]

See also

Notes

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Further reading

  • Lissarague, Pierre, Ader, Inventor of Aeroplanes. Toulouse, France: Editions Privat, 1990
  • Lissarague, Pierre, Pegasus, the magazine of Musee de l'Air, Nos. 52, 56, 58, . (Articles on restoration of Ader's Aeroplane 3 and on the testing of engines and propellers.)
  • Pierre Lissarague and J. Forestier, Icarus an article on restoration of Ader's Avion 3, No. 134 (October 1990).
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  • Gibbs-Smith C.H., Aviation: An Historical Survey. London, NMSI, 2008. Template:ISBN

External links

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ G. N. Georgano Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985).
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ a b Encyclopædia Britannica: Clément Ader
  9. ↑ Carroll Gray, "Clement Ader 1841–1925"
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ La première étape de l'aviation militaire en France Bibliothèque numérique en histoire des sciences et des techniques. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  12. ↑ Gibbs-Smith2003 p.75
  13. ↑ Gibbs-Smith 2003, p. 75.
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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