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Alberto
Santos-Dumont had shown Europe that the dream of powered flight could be
a reality. During 1907 many aviation enthusiasts and experimenters tried
to build on his achievement. Few of them, however, met with much success.
Among them were Adolf de Pischof, Louis
Blériot, and Romanian Trajan Vuia. Meanwhile Paul Cornu and
the Breguet brothers experimented with helicopter designs. In Britain,
Horatio Philips got (briefly) airborne in a machine with four sets of wings,
Samuel Cody began construction of a biplane for the Army, and John William
Dunne was commissioned by the Government to design an aeroplane in secret.
The most successful aircraft of the year was by far and away the one made by the brothers Charles and Gabriel Voisin. With a biplane elevator at the front, it was clearly influenced by the Wright's designs, but it also owed something to boxkite construction, and carried a huge square tail assembly at the rear. Power was provided by the 50hp Antoinette. It was a crude and heavy machine with no control in roll at all, but it was capable of staying in the air for several seconds at a time, and on this basis the brothers set up a workshop to manufacture it. In the summer of 1907 their third production machine was ordered by Henry Farman.
Farman himself became a casualty of the sport when he was involved in a serious accident. He fully recovered, but the experience destroyed his enthusiasm for cars. Nevertheless his fascination with machinery endured. He was aware of the Voisin float-glider experiments on the Seine during 1905/06, and he had flown in balloons before with his brother, Richard. When the Voisins began to produce a powered aeroplane for sale in 1907 he was one of their first customers. He made his first flight at the end of September and, displaying his usual sure feel for machines, he was soon able to stay in the air longer than anyone else. On 26 October he flew for 771 m. (843 yds) at Issy. For this flight he won a cup sponsored by Ernest Archdeacon of the Aéro-Club. |
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By
now it was clear to members of the Aéro-Club that Farman
would soon attempt to win the last and largest Archdeacon prize, the so-called
'Grand Prix' of Aviation. This comprised a purse of 50,000 francs
(of which half had been contributed by oil magnate Henri Deutsch de la
Meurth), for the first aviator who could fly to a marker 500 m. from his
take-off point and return without touching the ground. Farman made a practice
flight on 9 November without observers present, but then the weather deteriorated.
His record attempt was finally made early in the new year, on 13 January
1908. A pole was set up on the frosty parade ground at Issy by Aéro-Club
officials and a finishing line marked by flags 500 m. away. In contrast
to Santos-Dumont's exploits a year or so earlier,
there were no large crowds present - only a knot of fellow enthusiasts
in overcoats. Farman took off, crossed the line at low altitude and began
a wide turn with the pole at its centre. Gradually he wavered back up towards
the spectators by the flags. One minute, 28 seconds after he took-off he
recrossed the line to their jubilant cheers of congratulation. Due to his
wide, flat turn he had probably covered about 1500 m. in all (about a mile).
This was by far the longest European flight to date.
Later in 1908, Henry Farman would go on to make the first cross-country flight in Europe and begin work on his own design of aeroplane, which would soon prove hugely influential. Click here for more.
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