Ader Éole

Unlike many early flying machines, the Éole did not attempt to fly by flapping its wings, but relied on the lift generated by its wings in forward motion. With wings resembling mechanical copies of bat wings, its steam engine was an unusually light-weight design driving a propeller at the front of the aircraft, but lacking any means for the pilot to control the direction of flight.

According to late 1907 claims made by Clément Ader,Clément Ader (1907), [http://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?A890/8/130/72/0/0 “La première étape de l'aviation militaire en France”], J. Bosc et Cie, 38 Chaussée d’Antin 38., p. 6 on October 9th, 1890, the machine achieved a short flight of around 50 m (164 ft) at the Chateau d'Armainvilliers in Brie. It reached a height of around 20 cm (8 in). The poor power-to-weight ratio of the steam engine and bad weather were felt to limit the flying height achieved.{{cite web|url=http://www.flyingmachines.org/ader.html|title=Clément Ader 1841 - 1925|last=Gray|first=Carroll|year=|accessdate=|location=}} Ader later claimed to have flown the Éole again in September 1891, this time to a distance of 100 m (328 ft), but this claim is less substantiated.

File:EolePatent.jpgs of Clément Ader's Eole]]

Some consider the Éole to have been the first true aeroplane, given that it left the ground under its own power and carried a person through the air for a short distance, and that the event of 8 October 1890 was the first successful flight. However, the lack of directional control, and the fact that steam-powered aircraft proved to be a dead end, both weigh against these claims. Ader's proponents have claimed that the Wrights' early airplanes required a catapult to take off; however, the Wrights did not use a catapult for their first flights in 1903, though they did for many flights in 1904 and later.

Modern attempts to recreate and evaluate the craft have met with mixed results. A full-size replica built in 1990 at the École Centrale Paris crashed on its first flight, injuring its pilot and leading to the termination of the experiment. Scale models, however, have been successfully flown.

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• Alexander Mozhaysky, a Russian inventor who also designed a steam-powered plane.

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• {{cite book|last=Opdycke|first=Leonard E.|title=French Aeroplanes before the Great War|year=1999|publisher=Schiffer Publishing|location=Atglen, PA|isbn=0-7643-0752-5}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.flyingmachines.org/ader.html|title=Clément Ader 1841 - 1925|last=Gray|first=Carroll|year=|accessdate=|location=}}

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{{Ader aircraft}}

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Category:19th-century French experimental aircraft

Category:Single-engined pusher aircraft

Category:Aircraft manufactured in France

Category:Steam-powered aircraft

Category:Unflown aircraft