Santos-Dumont 14-bis
14-bis | |
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The 14-bis in its final form in November 1906, with octagonal-planform interplane ailerons | |
Role | Experimental aircraft |
Designer | Alberto Santos-Dumont |
First flight | 23 October 1906 |
Number built | 1 |
The 14-bis (
Background
In June 1905, French aviator
Design
Santos-Dumont supervised construction of a Hargrave-cell biplane powered by an
Operational history
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/14-bis_no_campo_de_Bagatelle._Julho_1906_-Museu_Casa_Natal_de_Santos_Dumont-Cropped.jpg/220px-14-bis_no_campo_de_Bagatelle._Julho_1906_-Museu_Casa_Natal_de_Santos_Dumont-Cropped.jpg)
The first trials of the aircraft were made on 22 July 1906 at Santos-Dumont's grounds at Neuilly, where it had been assembled. In order to simulate flight conditions, Santos-Dumont attached the aircraft under his latest non-rigid airship, the Number 14, which is why the aircraft came to be known as the "14-bis".[9] The aircraft was then transported to the grounds of the Château de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, where there was more space. The forces imposed by the aircraft pulled dangerously at the airship's envelope, nearly tearing it and only allowing limited control.[citation needed] The danger of these tests caused Santos-Dumont and his team to quickly abandon them, although some useful information was obtained that led to adjustments in the balance and weight distribution of the aircraft.[citation needed]
Further trials were made with the aircraft hung from a rope attached to pulleys running along a 60 m (200 ft) long steel cable slung between two posts, one 13.5 m (44 ft) high and the other 7 m (23 ft) high,
The first free-flight trials of the 14-bis took place at the Polo Ground in the Bois de Boulogne on 21 August, but were halted by damage to the newly fitted aluminium-bladed propeller, which replaced one with silk-covered wooden blades.[11] After repairs another trial took place the following day; although the nosewheel left the ground, the aircraft had insufficient power to take off, and Santos-Dumont decided to replace the engine with a 37 kW (50 hp) Antoinette.[11] Trials resumed on 4 September without great success, and on 7 September, after the propeller was damaged, a new slightly larger one was fitted.[12]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Voo_do_14_bis.jpg/220px-Voo_do_14_bis.jpg)
On 13 September 1906 Aéro-Club de France observers gathered to witness an attempt to make a prize-winning flight. The aircraft failed to take off during a first attempt, but during the second it lifted and flew between 4 and 7 metres (13 and 23 ft) at an altitude of about 70 centimetres (28 in). The aircraft then landed in a nose-up attitude, breaking the propeller and bringing an end to the day's experiments. This brief flight did not qualify for any prize, but earned Santos-Dumont an ovation from the crowd.[11]
On 23 October, after a series of engine tests and high-speed ground runs (one of which ended as one wheel came loose, but this was quickly fixed), Santos-Dumont made a flight of over 50 metres (160 ft) at an altitude of 3–5 m (10–16+1⁄2 ft).[13] This earned Santos-Dumont the first of the aviation prizes, 3,000 francs for a flight of 25 m (82 ft) or more.[citation needed]
This landing damaged the aircraft slightly, but Santos-Dumont announced that he should be ready to attempt the 100-metre (330 ft) prize on 12 November 1906.
Concluding flights, and the inclusion of ailerons
Following the airframe damage from the 23 October flights, the 14-bis was repaired, and octagonal ailerons, with a hinging and mounting location similar to Robert Esnault-Pelterie's 1904-era biplane glider design,[14] were added to the middle of each outermost wing cell, with the surfaces pivoting between the outermost forward struts, again like Pelterie's 1904 glider. These were operated by cables attached to the shoulders of the pilot's flightsuit, somewhat like the hip-movement wing-warping control of the Wright Flyer. On the morning of 12 November 1906 the aviation community of France assembled at the Château de Bagatelle's grounds to witness Santos-Dumont's next attempt. As Santos-Dumont allowed the 14-bis to run down the field, a car drove alongside, from which
14-bis vs. Wright Flyer
Some contend that the 14-bis, rather than the 1903 Wright Flyer, was the first true airplane.[17] For takeoff the 1903 Wright Flyer used a launch rail and a wheeled dolly which was left on the ground; the airplane landed on skids due to the sandy landing surface at Kitty Hawk.[18] After 1903 the Wrights used a catapult to assist most takeoffs of their 1904 and 1905 airplanes. The Santos-Dumont 14-bis did not use a catapult and ran on wheels located at the back of the aircraft – said to have been adopted by Santos-Dumont for his 14-bis after personally witnessing Traian Vuia's contemporary, four-wheeled aircraft's flight attempts earlier in 1906[19] in the western suburbs of Paris, not far from the Château de Bagatelle's grounds – with a "nose-skid" under the front of the 14-bis' fuselage.
In contrast to that view, on October 5, 1905,
Specifications
Data from Opdycke, French Aeroplanes before the Great War;[26] Gray, The 1906 Santos-Dumont No 14bis[27]
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Wingspan: 11.5 m (37 ft 9 in)
- Wing chord: 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
- Height: 3.75 m (12 ft 4 in)
- Wing area: 52 m2 (560 sq ft)
- Gross weight: 290 kg (639 lb)
- Powerplant: 1 × Antoinette 8V Water-cooled V-8 piston engine, 37 kW (50 hp)
- Propellers: 2-bladed paddle blade pusher propeller, 2 m (6 ft 7 in) diameter
Media
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14-bis on a French postcard
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Model of 14-bis, with octagonal ailerons
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14-bis Square in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Replica 14-bis at the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
Legacy
The 14-bis was featured as one of the highlights of Brazil during the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.[28]
Notes
- ^ Bruce, Stuart E. Mechanical Flight Flight, 20 February 1909, p.108
- ^ "10 Milestone Flights". Air and Space Magazine.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica: Clément Ader
- Romanian Academy Library. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
- ^ Gibbs-Smith, p. 160
- ^ Wykeham, pp. 202–203
- ^ Gibbs-Smith, p. 137
- ^ Gibbs-Smith, p. 212
- ^ Le Aéroplane Santos-Dumont l'Aérophile, July 1906, p.167
- ^ Le Aéroplane Santos-Dumont l'Aérophile, July 1906, pp. 168–169
- ^ a b c L'Essor de Santos-Dumont l'Aérophile, September 1906, pp. 191–194
- ^ Gibbs-Smith, p. 218
- ^ La Deuxième envolée de Santos-Dumont L'Aérophile October 1906, p. 245
- ISBN 1885119682
- ^ Flight, 1909, p. 12
- ^ "l'Aéroplane Santos=Dumont No. 19". l'Aérophile (in French): 314. November 1907.
- ^ "The Case for Santos-Dumont". wright-brothers.org. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
- ISBN 9780486260563.
- ^ Hadirca, Dan. "TRAIAN VUIA - in a Century of Aviation". biblacad.ro. Romanian Academy Library. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
Santos Dumont made up his mind to try the simple flight on wheels that soon led him to victory and immortalized him after he heard and saw Vuia's flights
- ISBN 1-58663-300-7.
- ^ "1903-The First Flight – Wright Brothers National Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)". National Park Service.
- ISBN 9781900747448.
- ^ Gray, Carroll F. "The 1904 Huffman Prairie Experiments, The 1904 Flyer & The Search For A "Practical Machine"". WW1 Aero: The Journal of the Early Aeroplane (182): 5–21.
- ^ The Wright Brothers, David McCullough, 2015 Simon and Schuster, p. 240
- ^ The Wright Brothers, David McCullough, 2015 Simon and Schuster, p. 39
- ^ Opdycke, p. 227
- ^ Gray, pp. 12–13
- Rio 2016Opening Ceremonies (5 August 2016)
Bibliography
- Barros, Henrique Lins de. Alberto Santos-Dumont. Associacao Promotora Da Instrucao, Rio de Janeiro: 1986.
- BARROS, Henrique Lins de (2006). Santos-Dumont and the Invention of the Airplane (PDF). Translated by Maria Cristina Ramalho Ardoy. Rio de Janeiro: CBPF. p. 17. ISBN 85-85752-17-3. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 27, 2021.
- Gray, Carroll F. (November 2006). "The 1906 Santos-Dumont No. 14bis". WWI Aero: The Journal of the Early Aeroplane (194): 4–21. ISSN 0736-198X.
- ISBN 0 11290180 8
- Joao Luiz Musa, Marcelo Breda Mourao, and Ricardo Tilkian, Eu Naveguei Pelo Ar ("I Flew Through the Air") 2003
- Alberto Santos Dumont A Conquista Do Ar ("The Conquest of the Air") 1901
- Hippolyto Da Costa, Fernando. Alberto Santos-Dumont: The Father of Aviation. transl: Soares, Hercillio A. VARIG Maintenance Base, Rio: 1973.
- Opdycke, Leonard E. (1999). French Aeroplanes before the Great War. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 0-7643-0752-5.
- Tobin, James. To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and The Great Race for Flight. Free Press, New York: 2003.
- Wykeham, Peter. Santos Dumont: A Study in Obsession. London: Putnam, 1962
Further reading
- Bitencourt; Pogorzelski; Freitas; Azevedo (2011). "A CFD-based Analysis of the 14-Bis Aircraft Aerodynamics and Stability". J. Aerosp. Technol. Manag. 3 (2): 137–146. .
External links
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