Santos-Dumont Demoiselle
The Santos -Dumont Demoiselle (French demoiselle "Libelle" ) was the final development of the Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont. She was the first mass produced in small series sport aircraft in the world. The original type Demoiselle No 19 developed Santos -Dumont several times to type No. 22.
History
Alberto Santos Dumont hoped that with his light aircraft No. 19 to win the Grand Prix d'Aviation (1 km flight ) by Henry German and Ernest Archdeacon, but failed. On November 21, 1907, he flew his No. 19 122 meters wide. The price eventually won Henri Farman on January 13, 1908.
The first Belgian pilot Hélène Dutrieu learned in 1908 on a Demoiselle to fly. Your first attempts at flight without ticket then ended, however, in a crash landing. The last flight of Alberto Santos Dumont ended on January 4, 1910 also with an accident, Demoiselle, about which he never spoke. The later French flying ace in World War Roland Garros flew the plane in 1910 at Belmont Park in New York.
Santos -Dumont distributed the drawings of Demoiselle for free, so there was a whole series of replicas. The Finnish Demoiselle Tampereella type No. 20 of 1910 was such a model. In June and July 1911 Santos -Dumont was honored in the magazine Popular Mechanics for the development of the No. 20 and No. 21.
Construction
The Light Aircraft No. 19 was 7.90 meters long and had a wingspan of 5.50 meters. The plane made of bamboo was powered by a 13 kW (18 hp) Duthiel -Chalmers motor. The engine was dry only 24.5 kg heavy and was located above the pilot's head. The engine was placed in the later versions lower front of the pilot. Overall, the aircraft weighed only 110 kg. The Demoiselle was controlled mainly by the tail fin and Tragflächenverwindungen. The pilot sat under the engine between the two-wheeled chassis.
Development and Records
Since the performance of the Demoiselle was too small, replaced Santos Dumont in 1909 by a motor 35 hp Darracq engine and called the machine now # 20; further modifications led to the types No. 21 and No. 22, No. 22 The type had a slightly larger wingspan and a 40 hp water-cooled Clément- Bayard engine. She had an extraordinary capacity for that time. She flew up to 110 km / h and needed only 200 meters to take off. In September 1909, the Demoiselle reached several flying records, such as a flight over 18 km in 16 minutes.
Series production
In the auto manufacturing Clément- Bayard in France, the machines were built in a small series, one of which allegedly 15 copies were sold. The machine could be produced finished within 15 days. In Europe, the machines cost with motor 7500 francs. The inventor Tom Hamilton she built in the Hamilton Aero Manufacturing in the U.S. and sold them without motor for $ 250, the Chicago Company, she offered to complete for $ 1,000.
Museum aircraft
A replica of the Demoiselle No. 20 is the Museu Aeronautico in Rio de Janeiro.
Specifications
Flight -ready replica
An airworthy replica of the Demoiselle was presented in August 2013 at the airfield in Lilienthal Laugh Speyerdorf.