Hayot

   From 1909 to 1914, Captain Hayot worked at refining his basic design for an automatically stable aeroplane, and designed 5 awkward tandem machines.
   The first, a multiplane built by Chauviere and tested near Beauvais during the spring of 1909, was described as being equipped with 5 groups of 3 small planes, 2 each at front and amidships, and one at the rear, all above a long fuselage. But when it appeared, it showed 2 groups of 4 planes forward, linked by a long spar to 2 other groups at the rear, with a pair of ailerons on each side of the fuselage at the middle, and a biplane rudder fitted ahead of an elevator at the rear. Each group of 4 wings was fitted so close together that the leading edges of the second set were just behind the trailing edges of the first. The pilot sat behind the rear group; a mechanic sat between the engine and the radiator, mounted above a Bleriot-style undercarriage just ahead of the first wings. The engine drove 2 tractor Chauviere propellers through a long shaft. Little more is known about this huge set-piece: Coffin's flight tests were apparently unsuccessful.

   (Span: 4 m; length: 10.6 m; height: 6 m; 60 hp 6-cylinder water-cooled Dutheil-Chalmers)