De Caze

   Viscount de Caze undertook the design of his Helicoplane - what we would now call a convertaplane - early in the century. In 1902 he was working on a large 6-meter diameter turbine rotor, the blades alone having an area of 29 sqm. He subsequently joined his efforts at the Surcouf workshops with those of Dumoulin and Besancon, the famous editor of L'Aerophile. The rotor was later abandoned.
   Construction started in 1912 at Liore et Olivier, to be continued at the shops of Louis Clement. A narrow open fuselage of classic construction was set on 4 wheels; cruciform controls were at the front, and a biplane cell with 2 vertical surfaces at the tail. High above were fixed 2 wings in tandem, with double-curved surfaces, the tips linked with horizontal struts carrying ailerons. The total wing area was c 24 sqm. A 50 hp Gnome was mounted flat below the center of the fuselage driving 2 horizontally-mounted 4-bladed propellers, and a similar engine set ahead of the biplane tail drove a pusher propeller.