L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
De Marcay-Moonen
In 1911 the Army expected that most aeroplanes most of the time would be ferried from place to place by road, towed by trucks or carried by rail in crates; they were therefore especially interested in machines that could be disassembled and later quickly put back together. Designers worked to develop ingenious ways of doing this, but the Baron Edmond de Marcay and Moonen avoided the problem entirely by having the wings fold without unrigging them. A kingpost on each side of the fuselage slanted outwards toward the top, serving as anchor for the wing bracing - and warping-wires, and as the vertical pivot around which the butt of the rear spar could swing. Each panel then swung around back and down along the sides of the fuselage, which was triangular in section to accommodate them there.
The first de Marcay-Moonen was shown at the 1911 Exposition and had a triangular-section covered fuselage, the wings with rounded tips folding with all 12 rigging points per wing intact. The undercarriage was a simple structure of straight steel tubes and an Antoinette-like skid forward; 2 tailwheels held up the rear, with its lifting triangular tailplane and half-round elevators. The rudder was balanced, a comma, with no fin. The pilot sat aft of the trailing edge and the passenger sat forward of the leading edge; the cowled motor was mounted far forward.
(Span: 13 m; length: 12 m; wing area: 20 sqm; empty weight: 450 kg; gross weight: 600 kg; 50 hp Gnome)
Sadi-Lecomte flew a second type in the summer of 1912, this one with most of the fuselage uncovered, the tailwheels gone, and a small wheel fitted to the end of the forward skid. The Gnome was now uncowled.
In 1912 the firm was reported building a single-seater, L'Abeille (bee), at the Camp de Chalons, while another 2-seater was being tested at Villacoublay.
Журнал Flight
Flight, January 6, 1912.
PARIS AERO SHOW.
Marcay-Moonen.
THIS interesting monoplane, illustrations of which appeared in FLIGHT for December 9th, 1911, constructed to the designs of M. Henri Chazal, is interesting for the fact that its wings are pivoted, by which system their angle of incidence may be varied at the will of the pilot while in flight, and on landing they may be folded back against the fuselage by the mere turning of the wheel on the right of the pilot. To effect this each wing is mounted on and braced to a mast, which is attached at an angle to the fuselage. The adjustment of the wings for balancing purposes is made from the pilot's control wheel. Supposing the machine to be dipping on the left-hand side, the control wheel will be rotated towards the right, which action advances the axis of the left wing, and retards the axis of the right wing a similar amount. It is by virtue of the oblique mounting of the masts that the advancing or retarding of the wings causes their angle of incidence to be increased or diminished respectively.
The convenience of this method of wing-mounting is amply demonstrated by the fact that the machine was towed through the streets of Paris from its hangar at Issy-les-Moulineaux to the Grand Palais without being dismantled; and its re-erection at the latter place merely consisted of about a dozen rotations of the wing operating-wheel. To further assist the ease with which the machine may be steered over the ground, the rudder is made to work in conjunction with a pair of pivoting wheels, situated under the tail. The landing-chassis is identical with that of the Zodiac biplane, except that no provision is made for the accommodation of any sideway's movement in landing. Its propulsive group consists of a Gnome engine and a Chauviere propeller. Accommodation is provided for a passenger, and to lend a little realism to the assertion of the Marcay-Moonen people that their machine has been designed purely for military work, this latter's cockpit was equipped with a quick-firing gun and a wireless telegraphy installation.
Principal dimensions, &c. :-
Length 40 ft. Weight 990 lbs.
Span 45 ft. Speed 55 m.p.h.
Area 440 sq. ft. Motor 50-h.p. Gnome.
Flight, April 6, 1912.
Testing the Marcay Moonen Monoplane.
ON the 27th ult. the Marcay Moonen monoplane, which has its wings pivotted so that they may be folded back, was tested at Issy and apparently gave very good results. It was piloted by Aerremans.
