Société Antoinette

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Société Antoinette
legal form
founding 1904
resolution 1912
Seat Puteaux , France
management Léon Levavasseur
Branch Engine construction , vehicle construction , aerospace engineering

Antoinette V8 engine (1909)
Antoinette V8 engine of the Antoinette VII
Antoinette IV
Antoinette VII
Antoinette Monobloc , 1911

The Société Antoinette was a French manufacturer of aircraft engines , airplanes and automobiles .

Company history

The company was founded in 1904 by Léon Levavasseur (Technical Director), Jules Gastambide (President) and Louis Blériot (Vice President) to manufacture engines and aircraft in Puteaux . After initial success, especially in engine construction, the technical director Levavasseur experimented with airplanes. As a result, Antoinette was commissioned in 1906 to build an airplane for Capitaine Ferdinand Ferber . When in this context Blériot's advice to stop manufacturing aircraft was ignored, as it would become a competitor to its own customers, Blériot left the company in 1907. The company was not always successful with its aircraft developments. Levavasseur left the company briefly from November 1909 to March 1910. Bankruptcy took place as early as 1912.

Antoinette engines

The company's engine development and production goes back to the beginning of the collaboration with Jules Gastambide in 1902, after whose daughter Antoinette the engines are named. On August 28, 1902, Levavasseur applied for a patent (No. 339068) for a light V8 engine with 59 kW (80 hp). The advanced engines were made of aluminum alloys and were intake manifold injectors with evaporative cooling . The well-known Antoinette V-8 engine was first used successfully in motor boats in 1905 and adapted for use in aircraft in 1906. The first versions developed 18 kW with a weight of 50 kg. The 14-bis , Voisin-Farman I, and other early aircraft were fitted with Antoinette 8V Antoinette engines.

vehicles

Automobiles were also made between 1906 and 1907. In 1906 the model appeared with a V8 engine with a displacement of 7270 cm³ and an output of 32 hp . In 1907 there was a model with a four-cylinder engine and 16 hp.

Planes

Aircraft types

A number of aircraft were developed. The Antoinette IV and the Antoinette VII model were known and successful .

In the spring of 1910, after Levavasseur's return, the Antoinette military aircraft Monobloc , a streamlined monoplane with cantilever wings, was developed. Because of its enormous weight, the underpowered machine was unable to take off during flight attempts in Reims in 1911 and was rejected by the military.

Hubert Latham's flights

In the spring of 1909, the Antoinette pilot Hubert Latham made several impressive flights. This convinced Levavasseur that Latham could cross the English Channel in an Antoinette plane and win the Daily Mail's "Cross Channel Prize" . Latham made two unsuccessful attempts to cross the canal in July 1909, both times when the machine failed over the canal. Between Latham's attempts, the former Antoinette vice-president Blériot successfully flew the channel with his Blériot XI .

In August 1909, Latham's efforts to promote Levavasseur's Antoinette products were more successful at the Grande Semaine de l'Aviation de la Champagne flight week in Reims . He won the altitude award, took second place in the speed competition and third place in the Gordon Bennett Cup for fixed-wing aircraft . In the Grand Prix competition for the longest flight, he took second place in an Antoinette IV and fifth place in an Antoinette VII .

literature

Web links

Commons : Antoinette  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
  2. ^ A b c Georgano: The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile.
  3. ^ Georgano: Cars. Encyclopédie complète. 1885 à nos jours.
  4. ↑ Ten Years Ago "To Antoinette Airplane" . In: Flight magazine, December 7, 1916, p. 1075
  5. ↑ Villard: Contact! , P. 52
  6. ↑ M. Levavasseur Retires from Antoinette Co. In: Flight magazine, November 13, 1909: Aviation News of the Week
  7. ↑ M. Levavasseur Rejoins The Antoinette Co. In: Flight magazine, March 19, 1910
  8. ↑ a b Bill Gunston: World encyclopaedia of aero engines . 2nd Edition. Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough 1989, ISBN 1-85260-163-9 , pp. 14 (first edition: 1886).
  9. ↑ Les moteurs et aéroplanes ANTOINETTE , p. 2
  10. ^ Author collective "The Motor" (1909): The Aero Manual . London: Temple Press Ltd. P. 148 ff.
  11. ↑ a b William H. Long Yard: Who's Who in Aviation History . Airlife Publishing Ltd, Shrewsbury 1994, ISBN 978-1-85310-272-1 , pp. 114 .
  12. ^ Modernity in 1911 . In: Flight magazine, May 14, 1942, p. 476
  13. ^ Flight magazine, May 14, 1942, p. 477
  14. ^ R. Dallas Brett: The History of British Aviation 1908-1914 , p. 26
  15. ↑ Stephen H. King: The Passion That Left The Ground: The Remarkable Airplanes of Léon Levavasseur , pp. 56-57.
  16. ^ Colin Boyle: Portrait of a Pioneer . In: Flight magazine, March 30, 1951, p. 365 and p. 366
  17. ^ Tabulated Performances, & c., Of Rheims Meeting . In: Flight Magazine , September 4, 1909, p. 536
  18. ↑ Stéphane Nicolaou: Reims - 1909: Le Premier Meeting Aérien International , p. 51 ff.