Voisin Canard
Voisin Canard | |
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Voisin Canard floatplane being tested on the Seine, 3 August 1911. The front of the aircraft is on the right. | |
Role | |
National origin | France |
Manufacturer | Frères Voisin |
Designer | Gabriel Voisin |
First flight | February 1911 |
Introduction | 1911 |
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The Voisin Canard was an aircraft developed by Voisin brothers during 1910 and first flown early in 1911. It was named the Canard because of its duck-like shape.[1] It was originally flown as a landplane: with the addition of floats it became one of the first seaplanes used by the French Navy.
Design and development
The Canard was, even by the standards of 1910, a curiously regressive design,[2] its layout reminiscent of Alberto Santos-Dumont's 14-bis of 1906.
As first flown at Issy-les-Moulineaux by Maurice Colliex, the aircraft had an uncovered fuselage of wire-braced wood construction with the 50 hp (37 kW) Rossel-Peugeot[3] rotary engine at the rear and the front-mounted control surfaces consisting of an all-moving elevator divided into two halves, one either side of the fuselage, a rectangular balanced rudder mounted above the elevator, and a pair of short-span fixed horizontal surfaces with a high angle of attack mounted behind and below the elevators. Voisin's characteristic side-curtains were fitted to the outermost pair of interplane struts and roll control was achieved using trailing-edge ailerons on both upper and lower wings.[4]
The aircraft was judged a success and Voisin manufactured a number of examples. There are variations between the individual production aircraft: the two examples flown in the French military aircraft trials in 1911 had a wingspan of 15 m (49 ft 3 in).;[5] one was powered by a 56 kW (75 hp) Renault and the second by a 97 kW (130 hp) Gnome. The number of sets of side curtains varied, some aircraft having two or even three sets.
Seaplane version
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The seaplane variant, fitted with floats designed by Henri Fabre,[6] was initially built to the order of Prince Bibesco, who intended to use it make a flight across the Black Sea. It was first successfully flown from water on 25 April 1911.[7]
One example was bought by the French navy in March 1912 to equip the seaplane tender La Foudre, the first seaplane carrier in history.[8] A second example was delivered to the Navy in December 1913.[9]
Specifications
Data from Flight, 30 December 1911 p.1137[10]
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Capacity: 2[11]
- Length: 8 m (26 ft)
- Wingspan: 12 m (40 ft)
- Wing area: 43.9 m2 (473 sq ft)
- Gross weight: 549 kg (1,210 lb)
- Powerplant: 1 × Gnome 7-cylinder air-cooled radial, 52 kW (70 hp)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 90 km/h; 49 kn (56 mph)
Notes
- ↑ Les Nouveaux Appareils "Voisin" l'Aérophile, 1 March 1911, p.10l
- ↑ Gibbs-Smith, C. H. Aviation. London NMSI: 2003, p.193
- ↑ A New Voisin Machine, Flight 14 January 1911
- ↑ The New Voisin, Flight, 25 Feb 1911 p.167
- ↑ Appareils Voisin l'Aérophile,15 October 1911, p.490
- ↑ Further Trials with the Voisin Hydro-Aeroplane. Flight 19 August 1911, p.726
- ↑ The Voisin Hydro-Aeroplane. Flight, 10 June 1911, p.511
- ↑ Hallion, Richard: Taking Flight New York, Oxford University Press, 2003. p. 304 ISBN 9780195160352
- ↑ [French Navy Has Another Voisin Canard] Flight, 13 December 1913, p.1363
- ↑ "The Voisin Canard"
- ↑ Le "Canard" Voisin l'Aérophile 1 March 1911, p. 101
References
- Opdycke, Leonard E.Ŵ French Aeroplanes Before the Great War Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1999 ISBN 0-7643-0752-5
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Voisin Canard. |
- Flights of Maurice Colliex on the Canard Voisin
- Les Canards de Gabriel Voisin (HTML), PDF file with images