Design that really took off
QUESTION Before the war, a series of articles in Popular Mechanics magazine gave plans of how to build a flyable one-seater wooden aircraft in a home workshop. Were any built and flown? The self-build aircraft featured in the June 1910 edition of Popular Mechanics under the heading how To Build The Famous ‘Demoiselle’. Demoiselle means ‘damselfly’, and it was an early aircraft designed by a great pioneer of early flight, Alberto Santos-Dumont.
Santos-Dumont was born on July 20, 1873, in Brazil, the son of a wealthy French coffee plantation owner.
At the age of 18, he moved to Paris. Inspired by the works of Jules Verne and fascinated by machinery, he studied physics, chemistry, mechanics and electricity through private tutors.
Ballooning was all the rage in late 19th-century Paris, and Santos-Dumont soon took to the air. This led to the design and construction of 11 steerable balloons, or dirigibles, between 1898 and 1905.
he won the prestigious Deutsch de la Meurthe prize in October 1901, flying his No. 6 dirigible from the Parc Saint Cloud to the eiffel Tower and back.
Subsequently, he started designing gliders and aeroplanes. When his giant canard-wing 14-bis Oiseau de proie (bird of prey) took flight on October 23, 1906, it became the first heavier-than-air aircraft to fly more than 25m in europe.
he followed up his success with his Demoiselle monoplanes (Nos. 19 to 22).
This was a lightweight monoplane with a wire-braced wing mounted above an open- framework fuselage built from bamboo. The pilot’s seat was below the wing and between the main wheels of the undercarriage. The rear end of the boom carried a tailwheel and cruciform tail (shaped like a cross).
In 1909- 10, Santos- Dumont made various cross-country flights at speeds up to 120 kmph (75 mph) in a Demoiselle 21.
The designer was so enthusiastic about aviation that he gave away his plans freely, claiming a build time of only 15 days.
The French engineers Clement-Bayard manufactured a number of Demoiselles, making it the world’s first production aircraft. Numerous examples were built following the publication of the plans in Popular Mechanics.
An article in the same magazine the following year featured a picture of two such examples from Massachusetts under the title Aeroplane Built From Magazine Description.
Among those who built their own versions was hans Grade, of Koeslin, whose 1909 Libelle (dragonfly) was one of Germany’s first successful aircraft.
A Demoiselle replica played a starring role in the 1965 film Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.
When the film’s pilot attempted to take off, it was discovered he was too heavy to get off the ground — Santos-Dumont was a small, lightweight man. Joan Lily Amelia hughes, a petite British World War II ferry pilot and one of Britain’s first female test pilots, was hired and disguised as the male French pilot in the film.
More than a century after Popular Mechanics published the Demoiselle plans, replicas are still being produced.
Jeremy Collins, Farnborough, Hants.
QUESTION Why are some bullets and cartridges designated ‘special’?
The term ‘special’ refers to a round longer than a standard round, ie, .38 is 1.2 in long, while a .38 Special is 1.55 in.
The .357 Magnum is based on the .38 Special, and has a length of 1.59 in.
Specials and Magnums will not fit a standard .38, and a Magnum will not fit any other than a Magnum chamber, but standard and Specials will fit the chamber of a Magnum.
In fact, it was quite common to use .38 Specials in a Magnum on ranges.
This Special/Magnum system also applies to any other calibre. John C. Kent (former target shooter),
London SW6.
QUESTION There appear to be several new polling companies for the General Election. Is this some form of rebranding exercise?
FOLLOWING several recent failures, one could see why some pollsters would want to rebrand. however, You Gov, Survation, ICM, Com Res, Opinium, Panelbase and ORB were all operating during the last election. The only one that has rebranded is TNS, which has become Kantar.
WPP is a huge British advertising company. Its research insight and consulting companies are under a separate umbrella group known as Kantar, which bought TNS in 2008 and publishes polls under the name Kantar.
It will be fascinating to see if any pollsters call this election accurately.
Most have reweighted to account for ‘shy’ Tories and high voter turnout by the elderly. But the size of the youth vote is a major unknown.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT; fax them to 01952 780111 or email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.