Antoinette
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
manufacturer of light gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
engine
Engine
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion...
s. Antoinette also became a builder of aeroplanes
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
, most notably the record-breaking monoplane
Monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
s flown by Hubert Latham
Hubert Latham
Arthur Charles Hubert Latham was a French aviation pioneer. He was the first person to attempt to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane...
and René Labouchère. Based in Puteaux
Puteaux
Puteaux is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the heart of the Hauts-de-Seine department from the center of Paris....
, the Antoinette concern was in operation between 1903 and 1912. The company operated a flying school at Chalons for which it built one of the earliest flight simulator
Flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and various aspects of the flight environment. This includes the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of their controls and other aircraft systems, and how they react to the external...
s.
Private engine-building venture
Antoinette began as a private venture led by Léon LevavasseurLéon Levavasseur
Léon Levavasseur was a powerplant engineer, aircraft designer and inventor. His innovations included the V8 engine, direct fuel injection, and evaporative engine cooling...
and financed by Jules Gastambide, who owned an electricity generating station in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. While on holiday with Gastambide and his family in 1902, Levavasseur expressed his interest in the emerging field of aviation and proposed the development of light, powerful engines for use in aircraft. Levavasseur then suggested to Gastambide's daughter, Antoinette, that the engines should be named after her. Gastambide financed the venture. Levavasseur patented the V8 engine
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
configuration that year. By 1904, most of the prize-winning speedboats in Europe were powered with Antoinette engines. During this time, he designed engines of various configurations of up to thirty-two cylinders.
Antoinette incorporates
Antoinette was incorporated in 1906, with Gastambide as president and Levavasseur as technical director. The vice-president was aviation pioneer Louis BlériotLouis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he completed the first flight across a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft, when he crossed the English Channel. For this achievement, he received a prize of £1,000...
.
Antoinette displayed an automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
with a 7.2 litre, 32 hp V8 engine
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
in the 1906 Paris Salon de l'Automobile of that year.
The company's primary business was the sale of engines to aircraft builders. Their engines were used in Santos-Dumont 14-bis
Santos-Dumont 14-bis
The 14-bis , also known as , was a pioneer-era canard biplane designed and built by Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont...
of 1906, Paul Cornu
Paul Cornu
Paul Cornu was a French engineer who manufactured bicycles by trade.French engineer Paul Cornu designed the world's first manned rotary wing aircraft and made the first piloted free flight with it at Lisieux, Calvados, France on November 13, 1907. This first flight lifted Cornu about 30 cm ...
's rudimentary helicopter of 1907, the Voisin
Voisin
- Companies :*Avions Voisin, the French automobile company*Voisin , the French aircraft manufacturer- People :*Catherine Monvoisin, known as "La Voisin" , French sorceress during the reign of Louis XIV...
biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
that was modified and piloted by Henri Farman who used it to complete Europe's first 1 kilometer circular flight in January 1908, and other significant pioneer aircraft.
The Farman-Voisin biplane was powered by a water-cooled
Liquid cooling
Liquid cooling may refer to:* The cooling of a liquid.* The cooling of machinery or devices by convection or circulation of coolants* Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment, a garment worn by astronauts.* Liquid metal cooled reactor...
Antoinette V8 engine which developed 50 hp at 1,400 rpm. It used an early form of direct gasoline injection
Fuel injection
Fuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....
and weighed only 190 pounds in working order, including the water-filled cooling system. Its power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement of actual performance of any engine or power sources...
was not surpassed for another 25 years. The engine block consisted entirely of cast aluminium holding removable steel cylinders. Levavasseur's Antoinette engines often included advanced features, including direct fuel injection
Gasoline direct injection
In internal combustion engines, gasoline direct injection , also known as petrol direct injection or direct petrol injection, is a variant of fuel injection employed in modern two-stroke and four-stroke gasoline engines...
and evaporative engine cooling.
Aircraft manufacture
Levavasseur experimented with the construction of aircraft and in 1906 the Antoinette company was contracted to build an aircraft for Captain Ferdinand Ferber. Blériot tried to dissuade the directors of Antoinette from becoming aircraft manufacturers, fearing that they would begin competing against their own customers. Blériot left the company when his advice was ignored.Flying school at Châlons
In early 1909, the Antoinette company worked with the French ArmyFrench Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
at Camp Châlons near Mourmelon-le-Grand
Mourmelon-le-Grand
Mourmelon-le-Grand is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Camp Châlons:'Camp Châlons' is a military camp of circa 10,000 hectares nearby Mourmelon-le-Grand...
to establish the first military aircraft trials, a flight school and a workshop. The school included the Antoinette Trainer - a rudimentary flight simulator that comprised a half-barrel mounted on a universal joint
Universal joint
A universal joint, universal coupling, U joint, Cardan joint, Hardy-Spicer joint, or Hooke's joint is a joint or coupling in a rigid rod that allows the rod to 'bend' in any direction, and is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion...
, with flight controls, pulleys, and stub-wings (poles) to allow the pilot to maintain balance while instructors applied external forces.
One of their earliest pupils was the adventurer Hubert Latham
Hubert Latham
Arthur Charles Hubert Latham was a French aviation pioneer. He was the first person to attempt to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane...
. Within months of both learning to fly and developing his flying technique, Latham also became the company's principal instructor. His pupils in 1909 included Marie Marvingt
Marie Marvingt
Marie Marvingt was a French athlete, mountaineer, and aviator, and the most decorated woman in the history of France. She won numerous prizes for her sporting achievements and was the first woman to climb many of the peaks in the French and Swiss Alps...
, who became the first woman to fly combat missions as a bomber pilot and established air ambulance
Air ambulance
An air ambulance is an aircraft used for emergency medical assistance in situations where either a traditional ambulance cannot reach the scene easily or quickly enough, or the patient needs to be transported over a distance or terrain that makes air transportation the most practical transport....
services throughout the world, and Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera
Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera
Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain, Duke of Galliera was a Spanish military aviator.-Early life:...
, cousin of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and the first Spanish military pilot.
Aircraft promotion with Latham
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
in an Antoinette aircraft and win the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
prize for doing so. Latham made two attempts to cross the English Channel in July 1909, both of which were unsuccessful due to engine failure while over the Channel. Between Latham's attempts, former Antoinette vice-president Blériot successfully crossed the Channel in his own aircraft using a simpler and more reliable 25 hp air-cooled Anzani
Anzani
Anzani was an engine manufacturer founded by the Italian Alessandro Anzani , which produced proprietary engines for aircraft, cars, boats, and motorcycles in factories in Britain, France and Italy.-Overview:...
W3
W engine
A W engine is a type of reciprocating engine arranged with its cylinders in a configuration in which the cylinder banks resemble the letter W, in the same way those of a V engine resemble the letter V....
engine and a more efficient Chauvière propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
.
Latham's efforts to promote Antoinette products were more successful at the Grande Semaine de l'Aviation de la Champagne on 22–29 August 1909 at Reims, France, where he won the altitude prize, finished second in the speed competition, took third place in the Gordon Bennett Cup
Gordon Bennett Cup
There were three Gordon Bennett Cups, all established by James Gordon Bennett, Jr.*Gordon Bennett Cup in auto racing*Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning — for a time, a separate cup was also awarded for powered air racing...
for aeroplanes
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
, and, in the Grand Prix event, trying to fly the longest distance around the circuit in a single uninterrupted flight, he won second prize in one aircraft (an Antoinette IV
Antoinette IV
|-See also:* Antoinette III* Antoinette V* Antoinette VI* Antoinette VII* Antoinette military monoplane-References:* World Aircraft Information Files. Brightstar Publishing: London. File 889 Sheet 63.* *...
) and fifth prize in another (an Antoinette VII
Antoinette VII
|-See also:* Antoinette III* Antoinette IV* Antoinette V* Antoinette VI* Antoinette military monoplane-References:* World Aircraft Information Files. Brightstar Publishing: London. File 889 Sheet 63....
).
At the 1910 Gordon Bennett Cup at Belmont Park
Belmont Park
Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in Elmont in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, on Long Island adjoining New York City. It first opened on May 4, 1905...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Latham flew an Antoinette VII with a 100 hp V16 engine
V16 engine
A V16 engine is a V engine with 16 cylinders. Engines of this number of cylinders are uncommon in automotive use.A V16 engine is perfectly balanced regardless of the V angle without requiring counter-rotating balancing shafts which are necessary to balance Straight-4 and odd number of cylinder...
.
Aircraft built by Antoinette
| Model name | First flight | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Antoinette I | ||
| Antoinette II | ||
| Antoinette III | 1908 | Single-engine one-seat biplane, originally known as Ferber IX |
| Antoinette IV Antoinette IV |-See also:* Antoinette III* Antoinette V* Antoinette VI* Antoinette VII* Antoinette military monoplane-References:* World Aircraft Information Files. Brightstar Publishing: London. File 889 Sheet 63.* *... |
1908 | Single-engine one-seat monoplane with aft-mounted aileron surfaces |
| Antoinette V Antoinette V |-See also:* Antoinette III* Antoinette IV* Antoinette VI* Antoinette VII* Antoinette military monoplane-References:* World Aircraft Information Files. Brightstar Publishing: London. File 889 Sheet 63.* * -See also:... |
20 December 1908 | Variant of Antoinette IV with wing warping Wing warping Wing warping was an early system for lateral control of a fixed-wing aircraft. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposite directions... instead of aileron Aileron Ailerons are hinged flight control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. The ailerons are used to control the aircraft in roll, which results in a change in heading due to the tilting of the lift vector... s |
| Antoinette VI Antoinette VI |-See also:* Antoinette III* Antoinette IV* Antoinette V* Antoinette VII* Antoinette military monoplane-References:* World Aircraft Information Files. Brightstar Publishing: London. File 889 Sheet 63.*... |
1909 | Variant of Antoinette V with true ailerons (later converted to wing warping) |
| Antoinette VII Antoinette VII |-See also:* Antoinette III* Antoinette IV* Antoinette V* Antoinette VI* Antoinette military monoplane-References:* World Aircraft Information Files. Brightstar Publishing: London. File 889 Sheet 63.... |
1909 | Further development of Antoinette IV with larger engine and wing warping |
| Antoinette VIII | 1909 | Further development of Antoinette IV with larger engine and wing warping |
| Antoinette military monoplane | 1911 | Proposed military development of Antoinette IV |
Turbulent times and the end of Antoinette
