Santos-Dumont 14-bis
| 14-bis | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| The 14-bis in its final form in November 1906, with interplane ailerons | |
| Role | Experimental/Pioneer aircraft |
| Manufacturer | Alberto Santos-Dumont |
| Designer | Alberto Santos-Dumont |
| First flight | September 7, 1906 |
| Number built | 1 |
The 14-bis (Quatorze-bis), also known as Oiseau de proie ("bird of prey" in French), was a pioneer era canard biplane designed and built by Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. The aircraft made the first powered flight made anywhere outside of the United States and first publicly witnessed flight.
In June 1905 Gabriel Voisin flew a glider which was towed by a fast boat on the River Seine, making a flight of over 150 m (500 ft). The glider's wing and tail were made up of Hargrave cells, a box kite-like structure that provided a degree of inherent stability. This established the Hargrave cell as a configuration useful not only for kites but also for heavier-than-air aircraft. Santos-Dumont was living in Paris at the time, and was one of the most active "aeronauts" in Europe, having developed a series of non-rigid airships that displayed unparalleled agility, speed, endurance, and ease of control. Santos-Dumont met Voisin at the end of 1905, and commissioned him to help him construct an aircraft with the intention of attempting to win one of the prizes for heavier-than-air flights offered by the Aéro-Club de France to promote the development of heavier-than-air aviation in France. These included the Coupe Ernest Archdeacon prize of a silver trophy and 1500 francs for the first flight of 25 m (82 ft) and another prize of 1500 francs for the first flight of 100 m (330 ft).
Accordingly, Santos-Dumont had a Hargrave-cell (box kite-like) biplane powered by an Antoinette engine. The wings, each made up of three cells, were at the back and configured with pronounced dihedral to make the aircraft laterally stable. The 18 kW (24 hp) Antoinette liquid-cooled, fuel-injected V8 engine was mounted at the extreme rear end of the fuselage, itself located almost vertically equidistant between the biplane wing panels' wing roots, with the rear-mount engine driving a pusher propeller, and the pilot stood in a balloon basket immediately in front of the engine. A movable boxkite-style cell at the nose, pivoted on a universal joint within it and controlled by cables was intended for yaw and pitch control. This layout would later come to be called a "canard configuration". It was constructed from bamboo and pine joined by aluminium sockets and was covered with Japanese silk.
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