L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Vaniman
Melvin Vaniman worked as music teacher, actor, opera singer, and airplane mechanic; he settled finally in Gennevilliers, a northern suburb of Paris, where he was hired by the American balloonist Walter Wellman to redesign his airship's car and put in a 75 hp automobile engine. To his balloon the America Vaniman and Wellman added an equilibrator, a 120' long leather tube filled with food for the trip that was to serve as a drag-rope for Wellman's Atlantic try. The first attempt started on 2 September 1907, failed, and in 1909 they tried again - and failed again. On 15 October 1910 Wellman, Vaniman , 4 crewmen, and a cat named Kiddo started once more, again with the equilibrator, now a long bag full of gasoline for a second engine. The apparatus failed again, Wellman and his crew were saved, and Wellman abandoned the attempt. But Vaniman continued: he had a new airship, the Akron, built by Frank Seiberling of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and started again on 2 July 1912. Shortly after takeoff, the airship exploded, and Vaniman and his 4-man crew died in the attempt.
But in the meantime, in Paris in 1907 he had designed an aeroplane first described as a monoplane, but which was in fact a monstrous canard triplane of which 2 variants are known. A large steel-tube structure carried 3 wings of 11-meter span each. The pilot sat on the lowest wing beside the 70 hp Antoinette engine which drove a single pusher propeller. The forward elevator was first mounted ahead of the tall rectangular rudder; then it was re-set lower on another pair of Wright-style outriggers; there was no rear tail surface at all. The whole rig rested on a 4-wheel chassis.
The triplane was modified in 1908 and reported as No Ibis. Ailerons were added at the tips of the middle wing, controlled through the pilot's elbows. Fixed horizontal and vertical surfaces were added at the rear, supported by 3 high-set parallel spars, the pusher propeller churning away below the booms. The forward surfaces were now carried by a complex set of spars, and the machine rested on 3 wheels instead of 4; tip wheels were fixed under the tips of the lower wing. Although on wheels, the second version of the Vaniman ran on special rails: one photograph shows it flying, but the photo may be dubbed.
(1 st version: span: 11m; length: 6 m; wing area: 72.6 sqm; empty weight: c 300 kg: 70 hp Antoinette)
In May/June 1908 Vaniman showed another awkward triplane; its relation to the first one is unclear. It had wings of a much shorter span, each 12 rib-bays in length, and what resembled the awkward forward rectangular rudder of Vaniman Ibis. A deeply arched rear tail surface and a low-slung flat forward elevator were to provide longitudinal stability.
Voisin
Vaniman triplane: Built in August 1908 - described under Vaniman.