L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Leclerc (Le Clere or Leclere?)
In 1912 it was reported that a Docteur Leclere or Leclerc had "a huge bird of metal and canvas," probably built by a M Gonthier at Mareuil. near Riberac, near Dordogne, east of Bordeaux. It was a large monoplane with a streamlined clear-doped cylindrical fuselage, an air-cooled engine, and high wing pylons shaped like 2 large letter As; the cockpit was well forward underneath them. The rectangular tailplane rested on the top of the fuselage, with a rounded rudder set between 2 elevators. The machine ran on castering front wheels with a third immediately aft of them and a long tailskid behind that. It is shown also in a slightly different form, with larger nose, shorter pylons, and a second cut-out, this time for a water-cooled motor.