Antoinette

Antoinette was a short-lived (1903-1912) French manufacturer of light gasoline engines which were quite advanced for that period. Antoinette also became a builder of distinctively graceful, record-breaking monoplane aircraft flown by Hubert Latham (1883-1912) and Rene Labouchere. The company, led by Leon Levavasseur (1863-1922) and based in Puteaux, also displayed a car with a 32hp V8 engine and hydraulic clutches, instead of a gearbox and differential, at the 1906 Paris Salon de l'Automobile. The following year, a 4 cylinder convert|16|hp|abbr=on engine and then a convert|30|hp|abbr=on V-8 engine were also made available to sportsmen by Antoinette. The last and most powerful Antoinette engine was a V-16 developing convert|100|hp. It was mounted on an "Antoinette VII" monoplane in 1910 in order to compete in the Gordon-Bennett Cup. Lastly, Antoinette engines were also installed in fast boats built for racing purposes.

In October 1906, an Antoinette engine powered Europe's first heavier-than-air flying machine to fly, the Santos-Dumont 14-bis. However, the 14-bis was by definition not a true airplane because it lacked controllability in two out of three axes and could only fly straight ahead in ground effect. More significantly, in January 1908, a Voisin pusher biplane modified and piloted by Henri Farman successfully completed Europe's first 1 kilometer circular flight, landing where it had taken off. This Farman-Voisin biplane was powered by a water-cooled Antoinette V8 engine which developed convert|50|hp at 1,400 rpm. It used an early form of direct gasoline injection and weighed only 190 pounds in working order, including the water-filled cooling system. Its power-to-weight ratio was not surpassed for another 25 years.

Appearing in 1906, Antoinette's 25- and convert|50|hp engines gave European aviation its start. Excellent as they were, these lightweight aero engines were subject to quitting if the tiniest bit of dirt or debris found its way into the fuel to clog their early fuel injection systems. A routine practice at the time was to pour in the gasoline through a funnel lined with chamois leather, which also served as a microfilter. That the Antoinette engine could quit in flight is illustrated by Hubert Latham's aborted English Channel crossing on July 19th 1909, when the renowned aviator had to ditch his monoplane on the water halfway to the English coast. Bleriot's monoplane succeeded a few days later, on July 25th 1909, largely thanks to a much simpler and more reliable convert|25|hp|abbr=on air-cooled Anzani 3W radial. It is only in 1909, with the advent of the convert|50|hp|abbr=on Gnome Omega rotary, early aviators like Farman gained a superb and distinctly more reliable French aero engine to choose from. In 1907, an Antoinette engine powered the firstFact|date=April 2008 true helicopter, designed by Paul Cornu.

Aircraft

*Antoinette I
*Antoinette II
*Antoinette III (1908) Single-engine one-seat biplane, originally known as Farman IX
*Antoinette IV (1908) Single-engine one-seat monoplane with aft-mounted aileron surfaces
*Antoinette V (1908) Variant of Antoinette IV with wing warping instead of ailerons
*Antoinette VI (1908) Variant of Antoinette V with true ailerons (later converted to wing warping)
*Antoinette VII (1909) Further development of Antoinette IV with larger engine and wing warping
*Antoinette VIII
*Antoinette military monoplane (1911) Proposed military development of Antoinette IV

References

* King, Stephen H. "The passion that left the ground. The remarkable airplanes of Leon Levavasseur". World Association Publishers, 2007. ISBN 1595711783

External links

* [http://cluaran.free.fr/mb/bib/antoinette.html Antoinette monoplane] fr icon