L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Nord Aviation
Fernand Scrive and his son organized a flying club called Nord Aviation, which published aeronautical articles in 1908 and 1909. The school carried on many manned glider experiments; several of these biplane gliders were shown at the Paris Salon of 1909, both with the top wings horizontal and the lower wings angled sharply up; they flew in public at the 1909 air meet at Tournai, in Belgium. The most famous was designed by Scrive, with a short top wing and a much larger lower wing. The tail unit had a tiny tailplane and a large vertical fin with triangular trailing edge; the whole unit was set on a single thin boom braced with a kingpost. The pilot hung by his elbows beneath the wings. The glider was later modified with a different tail and 2 small wheels forward, with a skid at the trailing edge of the lower wing. The glider was sometimes referred to as the Scrive-Van Damme, for the pilot.
(Span: (lower) 8.5 m; wing area: 24 sqm; length: 7 m; weight: 25 kg)
Another was designed by Didier Scrive and Marcel Coquard, and was similar to Fernand's except with equal-span wings. The tail was cruciform and set on a shorter outrigger; the initials SG were painted on the rudder.
(Span: 6.5 m; wing area: 26 sqm)
Another machine spanned 5 m with skids underneath: the pilot was to pull up his legs above the skids for landing.