Henri Fabre
Henri Fabre (born June 29, 1882 Marseille , † July 1, 1984 ) was a French aviation pioneer who made the first flight with a seaplane in 1910 .
Life
Henri Fabre was an engineer who studied Louis Blériot and Gabriel Voisin's planes early on . Thereupon he decided in 1909 to start building the first prototype of a seaplane . Fabre invested a lot of time in building the floats. This knowledge later helped him to equip other types of aircraft with floats.
The prototype only had a weak 18 kW (25 hp) engine and therefore did not fly. The next machine received a powerful 37 kW (50 PS) Gnôme star engine. He named the aircraft Hydravion for "seaplane".
Fabre had never flown before, and it took some courage to rely on his delicate plane. The Hydravion seaplane was conceptually a duck plane in lattice design and had a pusher propeller .
On March 28, 1910, attempts to launch began over the Étang de Berre near Martigues near Marseille . The second take-off was successful and the aircraft flew around 600 m. The next day it was even 6 km. The filigree Hydravion turned out to be very stable. After a crash on landing, the aircraft was redesigned. In April 1911, the new version started with the pilot Jean Bécue in Monaco . However, the plane was destroyed in the strong surf on the bank.
Since Fabre had no financial reserves, he stopped building new aircraft and began building floats, e.g. B. for Voisin .
The Hydravion can be viewed today at the Musée de l'air et de l'espace in Le Bourget .
Fabre flew around a year before Glenn Curtiss and is therefore considered to be the builder of the first fully functional seaplane. According to some sources, the Austrian Wilhelm Kress attempted flights with a seaplane as early as 1901 , but this is still controversial today.
literature
- G. Schmitt, W. Schwipps: Pioneers of early aviation. Gondrom Verlag, Bindlach 1995, ISBN 3-8112-1189-7 .
Web links
- Henri Fabre in Aviation Pioneers: An Anthology incl. Various photos with the Hydravion (English / French)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fabre, Henri |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French aviation pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 29, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Marseille |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 1, 1984 |