A History of Aeronautics

by Evelyn Charles Vivian; W. Lockwood Marsh

The first test took place on Tuesday, October 12th, in the presence of the Chairman of the Committee. It had rained a good deal during the night and the clay track would have offered considerable resistance to the rolling of the machine; furthermore, a moderate wind was blowing from the south-west, too strong during the early part of the afternoon to allow of any trials.

Toward sunset, however, the wind having weakened, M. Ader decided to make his first trial; the machine was taken out of its hangar, the wings were mounted and steam raised. M. Ader in his seat had, on each side of him, one man to the right and one to the left, whose duty was to rectify the direction of the apparatus in the event that the action of the rear wheel as a rudder would not be sufficient to hold the machine in a straight course.

At 5.25 p.m. the machine was started, at first slowly and then at an increased speed; after 250 or 300 metres, the two men who were being dragged by the apparatus were exhausted and forced to fall flat on the ground in order to allow the wings to pass over them, and the trip around the track was completed, a total of 1,400 metres, without incident, at a fair speed, which could be estimated to be from 300 to 400 metres per minute. Notwithstanding M. Ader’s inexperience, this being the first time that he had run his apparatus, he followed approximately the chalk line which marked the centre of the track and he stopped at the exact point from which he started.

The marks of the wheels on the ground, which was rather soft, did not show up very much, and it was clear that a part of the weight of the apparatus had been supported by the wings, though the speed was only about one-third of what the machine could do had M. Ader used all its motive power; he was running at a pressure of from 3 to 4 atmospheres, when he could have used 10 to 12.

This first trial, so fortunately accomplished, was of great importance; it was the first time that a comparatively heavy vehicle (nearly 400 kg., including the weight of the operator, fuel, and water) had been set in motion by a tractive apparatus, using the air solely as a propelling medium. The favourable report turned in by the Committee after the meeting of October 2nd was found justified by the results demonstrated on the grounds, and the first problem of aviation, namely, the creation of efficient motive power, could be considered as solved, since the propulsion of the apparatus in the air would be a great deal easier than the traction on the ground, provided that the second part of the problem, the sustaining of the machine in the air, would be realised.

The next day, Wednesday the 13th, no further trials were made on account of the rain and wind.

On Thursday the 14th the Chairman requested that General Grillon, who had just been appointed a member of the Committee, accompany him so as to have a second witness.

The weather was fine, but a fairly strong, gusty wind was blowing from the south. M. Ader explained to the two members of the Committee the danger of these gusts, since at two points of the circumference the wind would strike him sideways. The wind was blowing in the direction A B, the apparatus starting from C, and running in the direction shown by the arrow. The first dangerous spot would be at B. The apparatus had been kept in readiness in the event of the wind dying down. Toward sunset the wind seemed to die down, as it had done on the evening of the 12th. M. Ader hesitated, which, unfortunately, further events only justified, but decided to make a new trial.

At the start, which took place at 5.15 p.m., the apparatus, having the wind in the rear, seemed to run at a fairly regular speed; it was, nevertheless, easy to note from the marks of the wheels on the ground that the rear part of the apparatus had been lifted and that the rear wheel, being the rudder, had not been in constant contact with the ground. When the machine came to the neighbourhood of B, the two members of the Committee saw the machine swerve suddenly out of the track in a semicircle, lean over to the right and finally stop. They immediately proceeded to the point where the accident had taken place and endeavoured to find an explanation for the same. The Chairman finally decided as follows:—

M. Ader was the victim of a gust of wind which he had feared as he explained before starting out; feeling himself thrown out of his course, he tried to use the rudder energetically, but at that time the rear wheel was not in contact with the ground, and therefore did not perform its function; the canvas rudder, which had as its purpose the manœuvring of the machine in the air, did not have sufficient action on the ground. It would have been possible without any doubt to react by using the propellers at unequal speed, but M. Ader, being still inexperienced, had not thought of this. Furthermore, he was thrown out of his course so quickly that he decided, in order to avoid a more serious accident, to stop both engines. This sudden stop produced the half-circle already described and the fall of the machine on its side.