The Airplane - Jay Spenser [22]
Fabre’s machine looked as if its parts were in the wrong places. One aviation historian aptly described it as resembling “an unfinished length of fence.”2 This bizarre machine had an elevator above a small wing at front with a larger wing, fixed vertical stabilizers, and a pusher engine and propeller at the rear. Its most interesting aspect was the remarkably compact set of pontoons that kept it afloat and also contributed to lift in flight.
Henri Fabre took off from the water near Marseilles and alighted again in March 1910.
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Successful or not, all machines built in man’s quest for wings are of historical interest because they reveal what people were thinking.
Hubert Latham strode the bluffs near Calais in mounting exasperation. His boots splashed the sodden grass. Rain poured from his greatcoat and tweed cap. From below came the crash of waves. The twenty-six-year-old aviator was known for aplomb in the air, but his nerves had frayed visibly as each new day brought more rain, wind, and fog. This dawn he could not see the English Channel below—La Manche, as the French call it—much less the white cliffs of Dover, which glowed on the horizon on clear mornings.
It was the early summer of 1909. The Daily Mail a London newspaper, was offering a prize of £1,000 sterling—a veritable fortune—to the first person to fly an airplane across the English Channel. Latham was determined to claim this sum and attendant fame and honors for France and the Antoinette Company.
A wealthy Parisian of British descent, Latham was tall and slender, and spoke English and German as perfectly as French. Never without his trademark accessories—a jaunty cloth cap, white cigarette holder, and wristwatch in the era when pocket watches were the norm—he traveled in aristocratic circles and described himself as a “man of the world.”3
Above all, Latham lived for adventure. That thirst had led him to motorboat racing, big-game hunting, and aviation. Just months before daring the Channel, he had learned to fly in a graceful monoplane introduced by the Antoinette Company, which also built aero engines. A natural flier, he now served as the company’s chief pilot.
The poor weather finally ended on Monday, July 19, a day that started off as bad as the rest when Latham and his team awoke at four to check the weather. But at dawn the wind suddenly abated and the damp mists began lifting. A wireless report from the British side of the Channel proclaimed ten-mile visibility.
This was all Latham needed. He mounted his Antoinette and settled into the cockpit. Starting up took twenty minutes of fiddling with the engine controls while his helpers repeatedly swung the propeller. Finally the balky engine came to life. Latham nosed into the wind and opened the throttle, breaking free of the ground at 6:42 A.M.
The Antoinette of 1909 was the world’s first successful monoplane.
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
The temerity of this attempt had drawn crowds to both sides of the Strait of Dover. Both shores were clogged with motorboats and yachts. Frenchmen sent Latham off with cheers and waving hats. On the English side, excited shouts broke out over news of his departure. But the mood turned to anxiety and then worry as no airplane appeared.
Instead came word that Latham had been forced down, his fate unknown. A subsequent report brought the welcome news that he was safe. His engine having failed a third of the way across the 24-mile (38-kilometer) strait, Latham had glided down to the water and skillfully ditched. The rescue boat found him perched unflappably in the half-submerged Antoinette, indulging his addiction to cigarettes.
Latham promptly ordered another airplane from the company. He would try again.
The day that Latham ditched in the channel, rival French aviator Louis Blériot announced that he too would seek the Daily Mail prize. Blériot and his entourage arrived at a nearby village with his Model XI, a considerably smaller and simpler machine than the Antoinette.
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