Saulnier

   After graduating in 1905 from the Ecole Centrale, an engineering school, Raymond Saulnier was drafted into the artillery, and then vainly searched for a job in Brazil, finally joining the Bleriot company in 1908 as a "pair engineer." Here he did the calculations for various types including the famous XI; he was not the designer of this most famous of the Bleriot machines, as has often been reported. After Bleriot's Channel crossing, Saulnier was not given a permanent appointment; he wrote a book and contributed to the Encyiopedia de l'Aviation; and in October 1909 he founded his own firm, named Societe des Aeroplanes Saulnier, at Courbevoie, north of Paris.
   Here he designed a monoplane, of which several were reported built: 2 are known, unless the second was in fact the first modified. It was rolled out in March 1910 and taken to Mourmelon where Saulnier had rented a hangar. Its rectangular fuselage tapered to a horizontal tailpost; a triangular tailplane and dorsal fin were also unlike the Bleriot; the pilot sat on a strap hanging inside the uncovered frame. The wing-bracing pylon comprised an inverted V and 2 kingposts. Wings and undercarriage and castering tailwheel bespoke their origins. The aeroplane was damaged in March 1910.

   (Span: 8 m; length: 7.2 m; empty weight: 280 kg; 30 hp aircooled Darracq)
  
   The second machine (or modification of the first) showed little difference: the pylon was formed of 2 inverted Vs and a horizontal bar, the fuselage was covered on the top rear, and the elevator was now in halves to clear the larger rudder. The engine was a 50 hp Anzani; the machine was reported to have flown on 27 May 1910, reportedly sometimes by Anzani himself. In June 1910 a Saulnier monoplane was described at Juvisy with a Labor-Picker engine. Saulnier also built a biplane for de Lesseps.
   The Saulnier company was bankrupt in September, and on 3 October 1910 the assets - no aeroplanes included - were sold at auction. He met Morane at a Borel event - Borel was selling the Bleriot XI - and in 1911 Saulnier became involved with the formation of a new and more successful firm, the Societe Anonyme des Aeroplanes Morane-Borel-Saulnier. Saulnier went with Morane when Morane left the new firm.