Michel Wibault

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Michel Henri Marie Joseph Wibault (born June 5, 1897 in Douai , † January 23, 1963 in Paris ) was a French aviation pioneer. He was best known for his early construction work on all-metal aircraft and in the 1950s for pioneering concepts in the field of propulsion for VTOL aircraft , which Hawker Siddeley Harrier ultimately also implemented in operational aircraft.

Life

Wibault was born as the first child of the businessman Achille Wibault and his wife Madeleine de Bailliencourt. Poliomyelitis occurring at the age of four leads to severe physical impairment. His preoccupation with aviation began with aircraft model making. In addition, Wibault was able to visit the workshops of Louis Charles Breguet in his place of birth, Douai, and then in 1909 the world's first aviation meeting at Douai-Brayelle airfield .

After the capture of Douai by German troops in August 1914, Wibault was able to observe the German aircraft that were stationed at this airfield. His good knowledge of German allowed him to make a lot of notes. In addition, Anthony Fokker , who was supposed to demonstrate his aircraft in Douai, was quartered with friends of his. He was able to get more information from Fokker. Wibault then decided to go via Switzerland to the unoccupied zone in France in order to put the knowledge he had acquired into practice there. He came to Paris in March 1917, where he was able to convince Colonel Émile Dorand to support his fighter aircraft project. He received further financial support in December 1917 from his maternal uncle. A model of the design was successfully tested in Gustave Eiffel's aerodynamic laboratory . Together with engineer Paul Boccaccio, it designs the Boccaccio-Wibault with a Hispano-Suiza engine. In 1918 the aircraft achieved very good test results with a top speed of 237 km / h and a top altitude of 7500 m. These successes cemented its reputation, but the end of the war halted work on this prototype.

A pioneer in metal aircraft construction

Wibault founded his Société des Avions Michel Wibault office in 1919 . Manufacturing facilities were set up in Billancourt , where from 1920 various one and two-seat reconnaissance, fighter and bomber aircraft were manufactured.

Wibault is one of the pioneers in the field of all-metal construction. His ideas were applied to the Wibault 7 C-1 built in 1924 . In 1925, Vickers adopted the metal construction of the Wibault patent in the designs of the Vickers-Wibault brand. In 1931, Wibault merged with the Chantiers de Penhoët company from Saint-Nazaire to form the Wibault Penhoët Society. There he designed low-cost three-engine transport aircraft for French commercial aviation. Air France used the resulting twelve-seater Wibault 282T and Wibault 283T on their routes .

In 1937 the Ministère de l'Air appointed Michel Wibault to the management of the Arsenal de l'aéronautique , where he was entrusted with the construction of a four-engine transport aircraft. This should be able to accommodate 72 people on two decks and transport them across the Atlantic at 310 km / h. Due to the lack of suitable engines, the project was discontinued in 1937.

The United States and the French Free Forces

Michel Wibault left France in 1940 and went to London, where he took part in the organization of the French Free Armed Forces at the request of Charles de Gaulle . De Gaulle then sends Wibault to the USA, where he works with his former employee and chief engineer of the Republic Aviation Company , Alexander Kartweli, on the construction of the XF-12 Rainbow and Republic RC-3 Seabee .

Post-war period and development of the vertical take-off vehicle

After the war, Wibault founded a development office with financial support from the Rockefeller family. In 1954 he applied for a patent for a vertical takeoff aircraft with swivel nozzles. The vertical take-off was to be made possible by four swiveling fans, whose thrust vectors always go through the aircraft's center of gravity. It is powered by a Bristol Orion gas turbine . Two designs were to be equipped with this drive concept: Bréguet Br.1010 Aptérion and the Gyroptère.

In France Wibault received no support for its concept so that it in 1956 to representatives of the Mutual Weapons Development Program of NATO turned. They in turn passed the suggestions on to the engineering department of Bristol Aero-Engines under the direction of Stanley Hooker for assessment . As a first improvement, Bristol suggested using their Orpheus engine with a large front fan instead of the four fans. The compressor air from the fan was routed through rotatable nozzle outlets, while the hot exhaust gases from the jet engine were discharged directly downwards at an angle of 30o without deflection. The name of the engine was now Bristol BE53. At Hawker, the development program began on the basis of the BE53 under Sidney Camm, which led to the P.1127 and finally to the Harrier in 1960. Wibault died on January 23, 1963 and could no longer experience the great success of his concept. Wibault received the honorary title of Member of the Legion of Honor .

Web links

literature

  • Michel Wibault: Les Avions de chasse intégralement métalliques , Éd. Impr. De Vaugirard, publications "le Génie civil", 1925, 24 pp.
  • Yves Blanc, Jacques Cottereau: Une grande figure douaisienne, Michel Wibault, pionnier de l'aviation , Mémoires de la société nationale d'agriculture, sciences et arts de Douai, 5e série, t. XV, 2009-2010

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Yves Blanc, Jacques Cottereau, p. 147
  2. ^ Yves Blanc, Jacques Cottereau, p. 148
  3. ↑ Yves Blanc, Jacques Cottereau, pp. 148-149
  4. ↑ Yves Blanc, Jacques Cottereau, pp. 149–150
  5. ↑ Michel Wibault, Les Avions de chasse intégralement métalliques , 1925
  6. ^ Ch. F. Andrews: Vickers aircraft since 1908 , Putnam, London, 1969
  7. ^ [1] francaislibres.net
  8. ↑ Gas Turbines - A Handbook of Air, Land, and Sea Applications, Ed. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007, p. 326, [2]
  9. ^ Pegasus, the Heart of the Harrier - The History and Development of the World's First Operational Vertical Take-off and Landing Jet Engine, Pen & Sword Aviation, 2009
  10. ↑ [3]
  11. ^ Flight International April 25, 1963: Drawings of the Gyroptère and the Orpheus proposal online
personal data
SURNAME Wibault, Michel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wibault, Michel Henri Marie Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Douai
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1963
Place of death Paris