From a shed to the skies
QUESTION
Before the war, a series of articles in Practical 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 Practical 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, born July 20, 1873, in the Brazilian town of Palmira, son of a wealthy French coffee plantation owner, arrived in Paris in 1891 aged 18.
Inspired by the books of Jules Verne and fascinated by machinery, he studied physics, chemistry, mechanics and electricity through private tutors in Paris.
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 Number 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 in Europe.
He followed up his success with his Demoiselle monoplanes (Nos. 19 to 22) and in 1909-10 made numerous cross-country flights at speeds up to 120kph in an Demoiselle 21.
This was a lightweight monoplane with a wire-braced wing mounted above an open-framework fuselage built from bamboo, a material that is both lightweight and strong.
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 a cruciform tail.
The designer was so enthusiastic about aviation that he gave away his plans freely, claiming a build time of only 15 days.
French engineers ClémentBayard 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, Germany, whose 1909 Libelle (‘dragonfly’) was one of Germany’s first successful aircraft.
A Demoiselle replica played a starring role in the 1965 movie comedy Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.
When the film’s pilot attempted to take-off he discovered he could not get off the ground.
Eventually it was realised Santos-Dumont had been a small, lightweight man, so 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 from the film Pierre Dubois (played by JeanPierre Cassel).
More than a century after Popular Mechanics published the original plans, replicas are still being produced. Jeremy Collins, Farnborough, Hampshire.
QUESTION
Why are some bullets and cartridges designated ‘Special’? THE term ‘Special’ refers to a round longer than a standard round i.e .38 is 1.2 in long, whereas a .38 Special is 1.55 in, also there is a .357 Magnum which is based on the .38 Special which has a length of 1.59 in.
Therefore Specials and Magnums will not fit a standard .38, and a Magnum will only fit a Magnum chamber, but standard and Specials will chamber in 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
Did Stan Laurel or Oliver Hardy make any films independently from one another? THE earlier answer made reference to the duo’s visit to Ireland in the Fifties, some years after Laurel and Hardy’s movie heyday.
The day that the actors docked in Cobh, Co. Cork, lived on in the folk memory for many years. One contributor to the Visit Cobh website wrote about the palpable air of excitement that overcame the town when the SS America sailed into Cobh Harbour in September 1953. Stan Laurel, by then 63, and Oliver Hardy, two years his junior, were on what we would now call a ‘comeback tour’. They had sailed from a New York that was largely indifferent to their fading talents.
But in Ireland, the pair were still heroes to legions of fans who savoured their on-screen exploits. Accordingly, the actors were surrounded by wellwishers when they came ashore, and years later Laurel and Hardy would speak fondly of the visit. Laurel later said: ‘Our last good pictures were made in the Thirties, and you’d think people would forget but they don’t. The love and affection we found that day at Cobh was unbelievable. There were hundreds of boats blowing whistles and mobs and mobs of people screaming on the docks. We just couldn’t understand what it was all about. And then something happened that I can never forget. All the church bells in Cobh started to ring out our theme song, and Babe [Oliver Hardy’s nickname] looked at me, and we cried. Maybe people loved us and our pictures because we put so much love in them. I don’t know. I’ll never forget that day.’ Anna Fahy, Co. Louth.