Clément Ader
| Clément Ader | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
2 April 1841 Muret, Haute-Garonne, France |
| Died | 3 May 1925 (aged 84) Toulouse, Haute Garonne, Occitanie, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | |
| Projects | |
| Significant design | |
| Significant advance | First self-propelled flight (1890) |
Clément Ader (2 April 1841 – 3 May 1925) was a French inventor and engineer who was born in Muret, Haute-Garonne (a distant suburb of Toulouse), and died in Toulouse. He is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation.
Ader was an innovator in a number of electrical and mechanical engineering fields. He originally studied electrical engineering, and in 1878 improved on the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell. After this he established the telephone network in Paris in 1880. In 1881, he invented the théâtrophone, a system of telephonic transmission where listeners received a separate channel for each ear, enabling stereophonic perception of the actors on a set; it was this invention which gave the first stereo transmission of opera performances, over a distance of 2 miles (3 km) in 1881. In 1903, he devised a V8 engine for the Paris–Madrid race, but although three or four were produced, none were sold.
Following this, he turned to the problem of mechanical flight and until the end of his life gave much time and money to this. Using the studies of Louis Pierre Mouillard (1834–1897) on the flight of birds, he constructed his first flying machine in 1886, the Éole. It was a bat-like design run by a lightweight steam engine of his own invention, with 4 cylinders developing 20 horsepower (15 kW), driving a four-blade propeller. The engine weighed no more than 4 kg/kW (7 pounds per horsepower). The wings had a span of 14 m (46 ft). All-up weight was 300 kg (650 lb). On 9 October 1890 Ader attempted to fly the Éole. Aviation historians give credit to this effort as a powered take off and uncontrolled hop of approximately 50 m (160 ft) at a height of approximately 20 cm, (8 in). Ader also claimed credit for getting off the ground in the Éole.
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