Georges Abrial
Georges Abrial (born May 8, 1898 in Paris , † 1970 in Vauville ), full name Paul Émile Georges Abrial de Péga , was a French aerodynamicist and an early advocate and promoter of the concept of gliding in France.
Life
After graduating from the Institute of Aeronautics in Saint-Cyr , where Gustave Eiffel's first wind tunnel was available to him for profile research, he was drafted into the army in 1917 as a report driver. He then worked for Levasseur as an aerodynamicist and the Levasseur-Abrial A-1 glider was created. Abrial did pioneering work in the field of inherently stable profiles for tailless aircraft and it is very likely that even before the First World War the basis for his profile investigations were based on the designs of René Arnoux , the early French pioneer of the " board winged wing "“(Who tried out his designs on the Field of Mars in Paris in 1912/13). Abrial later designed several gliders and motor gliders himself in the 1920s, before devoting more and more to promoting the French glider movement. In 1932 he designed a flying wing school glider in low -wing construction , which he named A-12 Bagoas, and whose wing geometry was very similar to that of Arnoux. However, the project was not very successful and Abrial gave up aircraft construction but brought out many publications on aerodynamics and aircraft construction. In this respect, the very successful designs by Charles Fauvel and Al Backstrom are based on his wing profiles. After the Second World War he was again active in promoting gliding in France and in French Africa. In 1954 he returned to designing tailless aircraft with the A-13 “Buse” project. But that plan was never put into practice. For his services he was awarded the Legion of Honor Medal of Merit.
Aircraft designs
- Levasseur-Abrial-A1
- Abrial A-2 Vautour (1925) - single-seat glider, 12.65 m wingspan
- Abrial A-3 Oricou (1927) - single-engine, single-seat touring aircraft
- Abrial A-12 Bagoas (1931) - single-seat, brushless glider with extremely low aspect ratio
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Abrial, Georges |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Abrial de Péga, Paul Émile Georges (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French aerodynamicist and promoter of gliding |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 8, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1970 |
| Place of death | Vauville |