L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Jourdan
Photographs of this ungainly machine from April 1910 to March 1912 show a wide variety of alterations: evidently the designer remained unsatisfied. The Jourdan appeared first at the field at Juvisy in the spring of 1910. On top of an uncovered box frame was mounted the most striking feature of the design, a large open-ended conical barrel with the large opening in front, 2 m in diameter. Inside at the forward end was set a 70 hp Gnome driving a tractor propeller. A long deeply curved rectangular wing on each side made it into an ungainly monoplane, with a triangular tailplane at the rear, set at a high angle of attack. The pilot sat below, between the twin paired wheels of the 2-skid undercarriage; his control stick with horizontal steering wheel directed the rudder, rear elevator, and wing-warping. The machine was tested, unsuccessfully, during the rest of 1910; in November it was reported the wings could warp from 14° to 7°.
Early in 1911 Bobba continued to try to make the machine airworthy, and during the summer it was modified heavily: the tailplane was now rectangular, and new wings were squared off, with trailing ailerons. Since the kingposts had disappeared, the barrel was now mounted level with the wheels, with an open-frame fuselage arranged at the back of it, with the pilot sitting inside it just aft of the rear end of the barrel. The reporters called it a helicoplane. In March 1912 Jourdan modified it again. The barrel was cut in half longitudinally to make a lifting vault on top of the fuselage, which consisted of the mating of the sections of the first and second frameworks together, with the addition of a second seat in front of the pilot. The wings were changed again, now warping, with raked tips. A small fin was added and 2 of the wheels and the skids deleted. In this form it managed to fly early in 1912.
(Span (last version): 14 m; length: 10 m; weight: 500 kg; 70 hp Gnome)
But Jourdan, now without further funds, abandoned his work. It is reported that he was hired by another aviation firm, but he was found apparently murdered on the morning of 15 July 1912; but he may have committed suicide.