Ader Éole

Maximum speed: 158 mph (252 km/h)
Range: 50 m (164 ft)
Service ceiling: 20 cm (8 in)
Wing loading: 8 kg/m² (2.4 lb/ft²)
Power/Mass: 0.05 kW/kg (0.0000006 hp/lb)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ader Éole (French: Aeolos, Greco-Roman wind god) was a primitive steam-powered aircraft developed by Clément Ader in 1890. Unlike many early flying machines, the Éole did not attempt to fly by flapping its wings, but was to rely on the lift generated by its wings (mechanical copies of bat wings). Its steam engine was an unusually light weight design and drove a propeller at the front of the aircraft.

On October 9 1890, the machine achieved a short flight of around 50 m (164 ft) at the Chateau d'Armainvilliers in Brie. The aircraft reached a height of around 20 cm (8 in). The poor power-to-weight ratio of the steam engine meant that this hop was around the best result that could be hoped for from such a design, but witnesses to the event felt that better results could have been achieved in better weather. The machine also lacked any means for the pilot to control the direction of flight. 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.

The Éole is considered by some to be 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 the event of October 9 to be, therefore, the first flight. However, the lack of directional control and the dead-end that steam-powered aircraft were doomed to reach are generally thought to weigh against these claims.

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 have been successfully flown however.