Octave Chanute

Octave Chanute, origin. Octave Alexandre Chanut, ( born February 18, 1832 in Paris, † November 23, 1910 in Chicago, Illinois) was an American railway engineer and aviation pioneer.

Life

Chanute was the son of Joseph Chanut and his wife Elise de Bonnaire. In 1838 he emigrated with his father to the United States and settled in New York. Occasion of the award of the U.S. citizenship in 1854 was Chanute Octave Chanute officially changed its name to change. In 1857 he married Annie Riddel James.

Chanute systematically collected information on the worldwide development of aviation technology. In 1891 he published them in a series of articles Aeronautics in American Engineer and Railroad Journal. The series was based on the 1894 band published Progress in Flying Machines. From 1896 designed and built Chanute gliders and tested in this flyer camps on Lake Michigan in 1896 and 1897, together with the reconstruction of a glide - apparatus of Otto Lilienthal.

With the help of his publications, the Wright brothers deepened their knowledge of flight dynamics. There was a lively correspondence and visits Chanutes place at the flight tests of the brothers. As early as 1893 was in correspondence with Chanute Lilienthal. Chanute can be considered a crucial link between Lilienthal's findings and those of the Wright brothers.

Octave Chanute died at the age of 78 years on November 23, 1910 in Chicago.

Works

• The Kansas City Bridge. - New York, Van Nostrand, 1870
• Progress in flying machines. - New York, 1894