Octave Chanute

Octave Chanute was born in Paris to Elise and Joseph Chanut, professor at the Collège de France. Octave and Joseph emigrated to the United States of America in 1838, when Joseph was named Vice President of Jefferson College in Louisiana. Octave attended private schools in New York. He added the "e" to his last name in his adult life. In 1857, he married Anne Riddell James, with whom he had a son and three daughters.{{Cite web |title=Part 1—Octave Chanute, The Father of Aviation |url=https://chicagology.com/transportation/chanute/ |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=chicagology.com}}

File:The Kansas City Bridge 1869.jpg, 1869]]

File:Hannibal Bridge.jpg

Chanute began his training as a civil engineer in 1848.

He was widely considered brilliant and innovative in the engineering profession. He designed and constructed the two biggest stockyards in the United States, Chicago Stock Yards (1865) and Kansas City Stockyards (1871). He designed and built the Hannibal Bridge with Joseph Tomlinson and George S. Morison. In 1869, this bridge established Kansas City, Missouri as the dominant city in the region, as the first bridge to cross the Missouri River there. He designed many other bridges during his railroad career, including the Illinois River rail bridge at Chillicothe, Illinois,{{Cite book|title = Rival Rails: the race to build America's greatest transcontinental railroad|last = Borneman|first = Walter R.|publisher = Random House|year = 2010|isbn = 978-1-4000-6561-5|location = New York|pages = 258}} the Genesee River Gorge rail bridge near Portageville, New York (now in Letchworth State Park), the Sibley Railroad Bridge across the Missouri River at Sibley, Missouri, the Fort Madison Toll Bridge at Fort Madison, Iowa, and the Kinzua Bridge in Pennsylvania.

Chanute established a procedure for pressure-treating wooden railroad ties with an antiseptic that increased the wood's lifespan. Establishing the first commercial plants, he convinced railroad men that it was advantageous to expend funds treating ties to extend their service life, thus reducing replacement costs. To monitor the longevity of railroad ties and other wooden items, he introduced the railroad date nail in the United States.

Chanute retired from the Erie Railway in 1883 to become an independent engineering consultant.

File:Chanute hangglider.jpg hang glider is a trailblazing design adapted by the Wright brothers, who "contrived a system consisting of two large surfaces on the Chanute double-deck plan".{{Cite web|url=https://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/inventors/i/Wrights/library/Aeronautical.html|title=Wright: Aeronautical Experiments|website=invention.psychology.msstate.edu}}]]

File: Katydid Chanute.jpg

File:William Avery Chanute glider 1904.jpg in 1904, about to launch a glider designed by Chanute.]]

{{quote box|width = 30%|...let us hope that the advent of a successful flying machine, now only dimly foreseen and nevertheless thought to be possible, will bring nothing but good into the world; that it shall abridge distance, make all parts of the globe accessible, bring men into closer relation with each other, advance civilization, and hasten the promised era in which there shall be nothing but peace and good-will among all men.{{Cite web|url=https://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/inventors/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Conclusion.html|title=Progress in Flying Machines: Conclusion|website=invention.psychology.msstate.edu}}}}

Chanute became interested in aviation after watching a balloon ascend in Peoria, Illinois, in 1856. When he retired from his railroad career in 1883, he devoted some leisure time to furthering the new science of aviation. Applying his engineering background, Chanute collected all available data from flight experimenters around the world and combined it with the knowledge gathered as a civil engineer in the past. He published his findings in a series of articles in The Railroad and Engineering Journal from 1891{{cite journal|last1=Octave|first1=Chanute|title=Aerial navigation|url=https://archive.org/stream/railroadengineer64newy#page/442/mode/2up/search/chanute|journal=The Railroad and Engineering Journal| year=1887 |access-date=5 February 2017}} to 1893, which were then re-published in the influential book Progress in Flying Machines in 1894.{{cite book | last=Chanute | first=Octave | orig-year=1894 | date=1998 | title=Progress in Flying Machines | publisher=Dover | isbn=0-486-29981-3}} This was the most systematic global survey of fixed-wing heavier-than-air aviation research published up to that time.

At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Chanute collaborated with Albert Zahm to organize a highly successful International Conference on Aerial Navigation.

Chanute was too old to fly, so he partnered with younger experimenters, including Augustus M. Herring and William Avery. In 1896, Chanute, Herring, and Avery tested a design based on the work of German aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal, and of hang gliders of their own design. The testing was in the dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan near the town of Miller Beach, Indiana, just east of what became the city of Gary.{{cite magazine|date=January 1911|title=The Death Of Octave Chanute|magazine=Popular Mechanics|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Sd4DAAAAMBAJ/page/n39 38]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Sd4DAAAAMBAJ}} These experiments convinced Chanute that the best way to achieve extra lift without a prohibitive increase in weight was to stack several wings, an idea proposed by the British engineer Francis Herbert Wenham in 1866 and realized in flight by Lilienthal in the 1890s. Chanute introduced the "strut-wire" braced wing structure that was used in powered biplanes of the future, not seriously challenged until the pioneering efforts of Hugo Junkers to develop all-metal cantilever airframe technology without external bracing from 1915 onward. Chanute based his "interplane strut" concept on the Pratt truss, which was familiar to him from his bridge-building work. The Wright brothers based their glider designs on the Chanute "double-decker", as they called it. A new design of a biplane glider was developed and flown in 1897.

Chanute corresponded with many aviation pioneers, including Otto Lilienthal, Louis Pierre Mouillard, Gabriel Voisin, John J. Montgomery, Louis Blériot, Ferdinand Ferber, Lawrence Hargrave, and Alberto Santos Dumont. In 1897, he started a correspondence with British aviator Percy Pilcher. Following Chanute's ideas, Pilcher built a triplane, but he was killed in a glider crash in October 1899 before he could attempt to fly it.

In 1900, Wilbur Wright read Progress in Flying Machines and contacted Chanute. Chanute helped to publicize the Wright brothers' work and provided consistent encouragement, visiting their camp near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1901, 1902, and 1903. The Wrights and Chanute exchanged hundreds of letters between 1900 and 1910.{{cite book | editor-last=McFarland | editor-first=Marvin W. | orig-year=1953 | date=2001 | title=The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright | volume=I and II | publisher=McGraw-Hill}}

Chanute freely shared his knowledge about aviation with anyone who was interested, and expected others to do the same. He encouraged colleagues to patent their inventions. His open approach led to friction with the Wright brothers, who believed their ideas about aircraft control were unique and refused to share them. Chanute did not believe that the Wright flying machine patent, premised on wing warping, could be enforced and said so publicly, including a newspaper interview in which he said, "I admire the Wrights. I feel friendly toward them for the marvels they have achieved, but you can easily gauge how I feel concerning their attitude at present by the remark I made to Wilbur Wright recently. I told him I was sorry to see they were suing other experimenters and abstaining from entering the contests and competitions in which other men are brilliantly winning laurels. I told him that in my opinion they are wasting valuable time over lawsuits which they ought to concentrate in their work. Personally, I do not think that the courts will hold that the principle underlying the warping tips can be patented."{{cite web

| url=http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/inventors/i/Wrights/library/Chanute_Wright_correspond/1910/Jan23-1910.html

| author=Octave Chanute

| date=1910-01-23

| title=Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, Dayton, Chicago, January 23, 1910

| access-date=2011-02-12

}} The friendship was still impaired when Chanute died, but Wilbur Wright attended Chanute's memorial service at the family's home. Wright wrote a eulogy that was read at the Aero Club meeting in January 1911.

When the Aero Club of Illinois was founded on February 10, 1910, Chanute was its first president until his death.Young, David M., "Chicago Aviation: An Illustrated History", Northern Illinois University Press, Dekalb, Illinois, 2003, Library of Congress card number 2002033803, {{ISBN|0-87580-311-3}}, page 54.Young, David M., Chicago Aviation: An Illustrated History, Northern Illinois University Press, Dekalb, Illinois, 2003, Library of Congress card number 2002033803, {{ISBN|0-87580-311-3}}, page 36.

File:Octave Chanute.jpg

Chanute died on November 23, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois, after battling pneumonia. Wilbur Wright attended his funeral in his honor.{{Cite web |last=Clark |first=Anders |date=2016-06-22 |title=Octave Chanute: From Railroad Engineer to The Father of Aviation |url=https://disciplesofflight.com/octave-chanute/ |access-date=2024-03-12 |website=Disciples of Flight |language=en}}

File:Octave Chanute - Frise de la rotonde du Capitole - détail.jpg detail The Birth of Aviation is displayed in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, and depicts Leonardo da Vinci, Samuel Langley, Octave Chanute, the Wright Brothers, and their pioneering Wright Flyer.]]

The town of Chanute, Kansas,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdD5adyrRFEC&pg=PA12 | title=Kansas Trivia | publisher=Thomas Nelson Inc. | last=Brackman | first=Barbara | year=1997 | pages=12| isbn=9781418553814 }} is named after Chanute. Three small towns in southeast Kansas were vying for the railroad's land office and Chanute suggested that they incorporate, to make the larger town more attractive to the railroad.

The former Chanute Air Force Base near Rantoul, Illinois, was started in 1917 by the U.S. Army as Chanute Field. The base was decommissioned in 1993 and converted to peacetime endeavors. One of these endeavors was the now-closed Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum, which detailed the history of Chanute Air Force Base and of aviation in general, and included a replica of Chanute's 1896 glider. The location of the base is now the Chanute Field Historic District, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1902, the Western Society of Engineers began to present the Octave Chanute Award for papers of merit on engineering innovations. From 1939 to 2005, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics presented the Chanute Flight Award for an outstanding contribution made by a pilot or test personnel to the advancement of the art, science, and technology of aeronautics.

In 1963, Chanute was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio.{{cite web |title=Enshrinee Octave Chanute |url=https://nationalaviation.org/enshrinee/octave-chanute/ |website=nationalaviation.org |publisher=National Aviation Hall of Fame |access-date=1 February 2023}}

In 1974, Chanute was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame.{{cite book | editor-last=Sprekelmeyer | editor-first=Linda | title=These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame | publisher=Donning Co. Publishers | date=2006 | isbn=978-1-57864-397-4}}

In 1978, the U.S. Postal Service commemorated Octave Chanute with a pair of 21-cent airmail stamps.

In 1996, the National Soaring Museum honored the 100th anniversary of the glider flying experiments in the sand dunes along Lake Michigan as National Landmark of Soaring No. 8.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, in Daytona Beach, Florida, has an off-campus residence hall, the Chanute Complex, for upper-class students.

The Gary Bathing Beach Aquatorium, in Gary, Indiana, houses a museum dedicated to both Octave Chanute and the Tuskegee Airmen. The historic bathing pavilion was designed by architect George Washington Maher.

He is represented in the Frieze of American History detail The Birth of Aviation, in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/frieze-american-history|title=Frieze of American History | Architect of the Capitol|website=www.aoc.gov}}

• {{US patent|61397}}, Rolling Track Irons
• {{US patent|98848}}, Dredging Machine (Octave Chanute & George S. Morrison)
• {{US patent|430068}}, Preserving timber structure
• {{US patent|582718}}, Soaring Machine
• {{US patent|582757}}, Means for Aerial Flight, Chanute filed the patent on behalf of Louis Mouillard, with one-half assigned to Chanute.
• {{US patent|606187}}, Soaring Machine, William Paul Butusov, Chanute collaborated and paid for the patent process and was assigned one-half.
• {{US patent|688932}}, Process of Preserving Wood
• {{US patent|834658}}, Means for Aerial Flight (or glider launcher).

• [http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&II=5&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_gb&FT=D&date=18980402&CC=GB&NR=189713372A&KC=A 13372] (flying machine, {{circa|1897}})
• 13373 (flying machine, {{circa|1897}}
• 15221 (flying machine, {{circa|1897}}

• 34507, Process of Preserving Wood Artificially against Decay

{{hidden begin|toggle=left|title=Timeline}}

ImageSize = width:777 height:500

DateFormat = YYYY

Period = from:1830 till:1915

PlotArea = width:710 height:475 left:40 bottom:20

TimeAxis = orientation:vertical order:reverse

ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1830

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PlotData=

at:1832 fontsize:S text:"Born Octave Alexandre Chanut, son of Joseph and Eliza (De Bonnaire) Chanut, in Paris, France"

at:1838 fontsize:S text:"Joseph Chanut (Father) accepts a position as Vice-president and History Professor at Jefferson College (Washington, Mississippi), north of New Orleans"

at:1846 fontsize:S text:"Moves to New York. Month-long steamship voyage, fascination with current technology."

at:1848 fontsize:S text:"Takes job as chairman with the Hudson River Railroad"

at:1854 fontsize:S text:"Becomes an American citizen. He adds the letter "e" to his family name and drops his middle name"

at:1857 fontsize:S text:"Marries Annie Riddell James in Peoria, Illinois; Plats the town of Fairbury, Illinois"

at:1863 fontsize:S text:"Appointed Chief Engineer of the Chicago and Alton Railroad"

at:1869 fontsize:S text:"Plats the town of Lenexa, Kansas."

at:1873 fontsize:S text:"Appointed Chief Engineer of the Erie Railway"

at:1883 fontsize:S text:"Resigns Chief Engineer position of the Erie Railway and opens consulting business in Kansas City"

at:1888 fontsize:S text:"Retires from railroad engineering, but continues working as a consulting engineer"

at:1894 fontsize:S text:"Publishes Progress in Flying Machines"

at:1896 fontsize:S text:"Develops biplane glider, influential to all further development in aviation"

at:1910 fontsize:S text:"Dies in Chicago"

{{hidden end}}

• Octave Chanute Award
• The "Pioneer Era" (1900–1914) of Aviation history

{{Reflist}}

• [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Contents.html Text of Progress in Flying Machines]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=62oWkVM39yAC Progress in Flying Machines By Octave Chanute], Courier Dover Publications, reprint 1997 of 1894 original. At Google books.
• World Book Encyclopedia
• [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1910/1910%20-%200986.html Octave Chanute, 1832-1910]. Obituary in Flight. 3 December 1910
• Simine Short. 2011. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EfnJecwvrCkC&q=locomotive+to+aeromotive Locomotive to Aeromotive: Octave Chanute and the Transportation Revolution]. University of Illinois Press. {{OCLC|785781240}}
• Simine Short: Flight Not Improbable. Octave Chanute and the Worldwide Race Toward Flight. Springer Biographies, Cham 2023. {{ISBN|978-3-031-24429-2}}

{{commons category}}

• {{Gutenberg author |id=466| name=Octave Chanute}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Octave Chanute}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=uKsJAAAAIAAJ Progress in Flying Machines]
• [http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/models/Aircraft/Chanute-Glider.html (Fiddlersgreen.net) history, photos, paper model]
• [http://spicerweb.org/Chanute/Cha_index.aspx A comprehensive look at Chanute's glider flying experiments in 1896 in northern Indiana]
• [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/webexhibits/chanute/ Flights Before the Wrights, Octave Chanute: aeronautical pioneer, engineer and teacher]
• {{Find a Grave|12537377}}
• [http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/56shm7qa9780252036316.html Locomotive to Aeromotive]

{{Presidents of the American Society of Civil Engineers|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chanute, Octave}}

Category:1832 births

Category:1910 deaths

Category:Engineers from New York City

Category:Gliding in the United States

Category:Aerodynamicists

Category:Wright brothers

Category:American aviation pioneers

Category:Aviation inventors

Category:Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal winners

Category:American railway civil engineers

Category:French emigrants to the United States

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Category:French aviation pioneers

Category:Chanute, Kansas