An aileron is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll, which normally results in a change in flight path due to the tilting of the lift vector. Movement around this axis is called 'rolling' or 'banking'.
Traian Vuia or Trajan Vuia was a Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer who designed, built, and tested the first tractor monoplane. He was the first to demonstrate that a flying machine could rise into the air by running on wheels on an ordinary road. He is credited with a powered hop of 11 m (36 ft) made on March 18, 1906, and he later claimed a powered hop of 24 m (79 ft). Though unsuccessful in sustained flight, Vuia's invention influenced Louis Blériot in designing monoplanes. Later, Vuia also designed helicopters.
Clément-Bayard, Bayard-Clément, was a French manufacturer of automobiles, aeroplanes and airships founded in 1903 by entrepreneur Gustave Adolphe Clément. Clément obtained consent from the Conseil d'Etat to change his name to that of his business in 1909. The extra name celebrated the Chevalier Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières in 1521. A statue of the Chevalier stood in front of Clément's Mézières factory, and the image was incorporated into the company logo.
The 14-bis, also known as Oiseau de proie, was a pioneer era, canard-style biplane designed and built by Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. In 1906, near Paris, the 14-bis made a manned powered flight that was the first to be publicly witnessed by a crowd. It was also the first powered flight made anywhere outside of the United States, as well as the first powered flight by a non-Wright Brothers airplane.
The Blériot XI is a French aircraft from the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most famous accomplishments of the pioneer era of aviation, and not only won Blériot a lasting place in history but also assured the future of his aircraft manufacturing business. The event caused a major reappraisal of the importance of aviation; the English newspaper The Daily Express led its story of the flight with the headline "Britain is no longer an Island".
The Voisin Canard was an aircraft developed by Voisin brothers during 1910 and first flown early in 1911. It was named the Canard because of the resemblance of its forward fuselage to that of a duck's long neck while in flight. It was originally flown as a landplane: with the addition of floats it became one of the first seaplanes used by the French Navy.
Louis Ferdinand Ferber was a French Army officer who played an important role in the development of aviation during the early 1900s. Although his aircraft experiments were belatedly successful, his early recognition and publicizing of the work of the Wright Brothers was a major influence on the development of aviation in Europe.
Preston Albert Watson was a Scottish aviation pioneer, who conceived his own original method of controlling an aeroplane in flight. This was his rocking wing method of lateral control, which consisted of a secondary smaller wing mounted above the main wing on an A-frame that could pivot about its longitudinal axis. Watson's method of lateral control was applied by him in three different aeroplanes; the first was built in late 1909, the second in July 1910 and his third in 1913.
The Antoinette IV was an early French monoplane.
The Antoinette military monoplane, also known as the Antoinette Monobloc or the Antoinette-Latham was an early 3-seat monoplane built in France in 1911 by the Antoinette company in the hope of attracting orders from the French military. It featured a futuristic and aerodynamic design with innovative elements that were ahead of its time, including unbraced cantilever wings, an enclosed fuselage and wheel fairings, and an engine with steam cooling and direct fuel injection. However, due to an under-powered engine, it was barely able to fly and failed to attract orders.
The Blériot XII was an early French aeroplane built by Louis Blériot. It was first flown in May 1909 and was the first aircraft to be flown with two passengers on board, and was used by Blériot to gain second place in the 1909 Gordon Bennett Cup and to set a new world speed record.
The Morane-Borel monoplane was an early French single-engine, single-seat aircraft. It was flown in several European air races.
The Bristol Prier monoplane was an early British aircraft produced in a number of single- and two-seat versions.
The 1907 Voisin biplane, was Europe's first successful powered aircraft, designed by aeronautical engineer and manufacturer Gabriel Voisin. It was used by the French aviator Henri Farman to make the first heavier-than-air flight lasting more than a minute in Europe, and also to make the first full circle. The first examples of the aircraft were known by the name of their owners, for instance the Delagrange I, or the Henri Farman n°1. Farman made many modifications to his aircraft, and these were incorporated into later production aircraft built by Voisin. The type enjoyed widespread success, and around sixty were built.
The Esnault-Pelterie R.E.P. 1 and the R.E.P. 2 were experimental aircraft built and flown in France in the early twentieth century by Robert Esnault-Pelterie. These aircraft are historically significant because they were the first to employ a joystick as their main flight control.
The Howard Wright 1909 Monoplane was the first of a series of tractor configuration monoplane aircraft built by Wright in England during 1909 and 1910. A variant, the Lascelles Ornis, was displayed at the 1910 Aero Show at Olympia in London.
The Nieuport II was a mid-wing monoplane racing or sport aircraft built by the Société Anonyme des Établissements Nieuport between 1910 and 1914 and was noted for its high performance using a small twin-cylinder engine, and winning many races, primarily in France before being used as a trainer during World War I by French flying schools.
The 1910 Deperdussin monoplane was the first aircraft to be built in significant quantities by Aéroplanes Deperdussin. The type was produced in a number of variants which were flown successfully in air races and gained several records during 1911, and was used by the Australian Central Flying School at Point Cook, Victoria. Several have survived, including an airworthy example in the Shuttleworth Collection in England.
The pioneer era of aviation was the period of aviation history between the first successful powered flight, generally accepted to have been made by the Wright Brothers on 17 December 1903, and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.
The Vuia 1, also nicknamed Liliacul, was a pioneer aircraft designed and built by Romanian inventor Traian Vuia. It was finished in December 1905 in France and first flew on 18 March 1906 at Montesson.
