Aéronavale (French Navy Air Force)
Orville Wright credited the Comte de Lambert, the well-known aviator engineer, as the inventor of the hydroplane. In Mr. Wright's own words: "Although suggestions of the hydroplane idea had been made years ago, and although Froude had made some experiments without results as far back as 1872, Comte de Lambert was the real inventor of the hydroplane. He was the first to produce a successful one, and all modern hydroplanes are based upon his work. In 1897 Comte de Lambert experimented with a catamaran formed of two narrow floats, to which were attached four transverse planes, whose inclinations could be varied two or three degres. At a speed of ten miles an hour, the floats were lifted entirely out of the water and the machine glided over the surface of the water on the four hydroplanes. Comte de Lambert continued these experiments during the following years up to 1907, and he succeeded in increasing the speed to thirty-four miles an hour."
In 1905-06, three of the French pioneers of modern aviation—Ernest Archdeacon, Gabriel Voisin, and Louis Bleriot—who experimented with the Chanute-Wright gliders—thought, after wrecking several machines by falls on land, that the water surface, being elastic, would be less dangerous to the operator, so they fitted their gliders with pontoons. The Archdeacon glider fitted with two boat-like floats, was first tried on the River Seine, near Paris, on June 8, 1905. It was towed by a fast motor boat and was piloted by Voisin. It rose to a height of about 50 feet over a distance of 400 feet. The Bleriot glider also towed by a motor boat and piloted by Voisin, proved to have less stability, and on July 18, 1905, being struck by a sudden gust of wind it dove into the water and Voisin, caught in the cage-like affair, was submerged for twenty seconds.
The Archdeacon experiment ended at the close of 1905 when Voisin left Mr. Archdeacon and formed partnership with Bleriot. The outcome of the Bleriot-Voisin partnership was two hydroaeroplanes, one consisting of two ellipticalshaped cells, fitted with three pairs of cylindrical, sheet-metal floats, a 24-horse-power motor, and two propellers; the other was a combination of the first and the Archdeacon glider, and was fitted with improved pontoons and two 24-horse-power Antoinette motors. Nearly a year was spent in experiments, but with little results. The principal trouble was no doubt the insufficient motor-power, and the fact that the pontoons were not scientifically constructed.
The first to leave the water with a powerdriven hydroaeroplane was Henri Fabre, a young French engineer, who, after three years of experiments, constructed a hydroaeroplane of original design fitted with a 50-horse-power Gnome motor, and succeeded in leaving the water, flying and returning to the water without mishap. This first flight took place on March 28, 1910, near Martigues, France; the height reached was about six feet, the distance covered one thousand feet. A better flight was made on May 17, 1910, of about one mile at a height of 30 feet, but on landing the machine was much damaged. Subsequently a number of flights were made; but the machine had many limitations. When at last it was wrecked, at Monaco, during a storm, Fabre discontinued the experiments. Fabre's floats were a great improvement on the pontoons.
The first test of seaplanes in a completion took place at Monaco on March 24-31, 1912. It was organized by the International Sporting Club of Monaco, which offered 15,000 francs for prizes to be divided between the three winners: first, 8000 francs; second, 4000 francs; third, 3000 francs. The contest was for starting and alighting from still water and rough water, starting and landing from dry land, and passenger carrying. Points were awarded to the winners of daily contests, and the one getting most points won the prize. First place was taken by Henri Fischer flying an Henri Farman biplane with a Gnome engine, and second place by Maurice Renaux flying an Henri Farman biplane with a Renault engine.
The French were first to set aside a ship to be used as a seaplane carrier, in 1912. This hangar ship, La Foudre, was used for many experiments, employing different types of machines, including a "Voisin Canard" operated by Captain Cayla, a Nieuport, operated by Ensign Delage; and a Curtiss hydroaeroplane, operated by Frank Barra. These experiments took place at St. Raphael. Since then all the first- and second-class European nations adopted seaplane carriers and kite-balloon carriers.
Recovering seaplanes at sea was a much more difficult problem to solve than launching the seaplanes and there is no solution at hand other than hoisting the seaplane by means of the usual boat crane. In 1913 Louis Bleriot, the French inventor and aeroplane manufacturer, conducted experiments intended to show the practicability of recovering seaplanes at sea. The device, consist ing of highly suspended cables to which the aviator was to fly and hook onto by means of an automatic clasp connected to the body of the aeroplane, was tried at Buc, France. Pegoud, the first man to loop-the-loop, flew the light Bleriot monoplane to the cable, engaged it with the catching apparatus, the latch automatically grasped the cable, and the machine came to a standstill. Then the propeller was again started, the latch-cord pulled to release the machine, which flew off without mishap. This might be repeated under very favorable conditions on board of a ship, but it could not be done under normal conditions, and it did not represent a solution to the problem of recovering seaplanes at sea.
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