Later claims Coandă-1910

henri coandă in 1967

in december, brought airplane out of hangar @ issy-les-moulineaux and, after bit of coaxing, started motor. must admit never outstanding pilot. seemed unable shake off vague apprehension and, morning, in addition usual uneasiness, rather excited. climbed cockpit, accelerated motor, , felt power jet thrust straining plane forward. gave signal remove wheel blocks, , plane started moving ahead. had anticipated not attempt fly today, make ground tests on small field @ issy-les-moulineaux. controls seemed loose me, injected fuel turbine. much! in moment surrounded flames! had cut , reduce power quickly. worked throttle , flames subsided. did have opportunity lift head. saw plane had gained speed, , walls of ancient fortifications bordering field lunging toward me. pulled on stick, hard. in moment plane airborne, lunging upward @ steep angle. flying—i felt plane tipping—then slipping down on 1 wing. instinctively, cut gas left hand , jet fuel right. next thing knew, found myself thrown free of plane, came down, , burst flames. impossible determine wreckage whether celluloid or fuel cause of fire. test over. had flown first jet airplane.

a collection of aviation stories published in 1957 major victor houart, friend of coandă s, wrote eyewitness day coandă flew , crashed. 1 chapter of book describes how houart, group of french dragoons, watched coandă taxied twice around airfield, lifted off avoid ruins of old fortification wall, started flames engine applying power, , thrown aircraft moment hit wall, coandă not badly hurt . houart s version put fuel tank in overhead wing, metal. in further statements, coandă said 1910 aircraft had movable leading edge slots, retractable landing gear , fuel supply held in overhead wing reduce fuselage profile , drag. in 1965, coandă presented set of drawings, photographs , specifications of 1910 aircraft national air , space museum (nasm), prepared huyck corporation , received director s. paul johnston , aviation curator louis casey.

rocket engineer g. harry stine worked alongside coandă 1961 1965 @ huyck corporation, , interviewed him in 1962. in 1967, magazine flying printed account written stine, described landing gear retracting lower wing, fuel tank hidden in upper wing. stine wrote coandă flew on 10 december 1910, , described heat 2 jet exhausts being me after powerplant mounted in aircraft. in 1980s after coandă s death, stine wrote magazine article , book mentioning 1910 aircraft, including new details such name of master mechanic pierre clerget friend helped build turbo-propulseur. stine s recounting of 10 december flight included group of eyewitness french dragoons, asbestos heat shields , metal deflector plates aft of engine, intended taxiing unintentional flight, steep climb stall, coandă thrown clear, , aircraft crashing ground, burning. stine gave assessment coanda s turbopropulseur had elements of true jet , patent application had no indication of critical stage—injection of fuel compressed air . wrote although there several jet-propelled aircraft in existence @ time—the 1910 coanda jet , 1938 caproni campini n.1—the first pure jet aircraft flight made in germany in 1938 .

in 1965, historian emeritus paul e. garber of nasm interviewed coandă, related december 1910 flight no accident, had seated himself in cockpit intending test 5 factors: aircraft structure, engine, wing lift, balance of controls, , aerodynamics. said heat engine fantastic , placed mica sheets , deflecting plates direct jet blast away wooden fuselage. garber wrote coandă s aircraft began move forward , rise ground, exhaust flame, instead of fanning outward, curved inward , ignited aircraft. in interview coandă said brought aircraft earth under control, landing abrupt , thrown clear of airframe consumed flame, engine reduced few handfuls of white powder.

rebuttals

details of rotary fan portion of 1910 engine

in 1960, charles harvard gibbs-smith, aviation historian @ science museum in london, reacted mid-1950s assertion coandă built , flew first jet engine aircraft. gibbs-smith wrote there has arisen controversy machine, designed rumanian-born , french-domiciled henri coanda, exhibited @ paris salon in october 1910. until has been accepted all-wood sesquiplane, cantilever wings, powered 50 hp clerget engine driving turbo-propulseur in form of large simple ducted air fan. fan fitted right across machine s nose , cowling covered nose , part of engine: resulting jet of plain air propel aeroplane. wrote no claims flew, or tested, made @ time , , story of flying appeared in 1950s—the aircraft disinterred obscurity. wrote airfield @ issy-les-moulineaux, former military exercise ground test supposedly took place, under constant observation of french army owned it, french aviation reporters , photographers, , aviation experts other countries. said airfield famous, used, observed, , reported-on airfield in paris , , events, let alone exciting crash , destruction fire, have been carried in local papers , described in military reports, no contemporary accounts exist of coandă-1910 being tested, flown or destroyed. gibbs-smith countered coandă assertions point point, saying aircraft did not have retractable undercarriage, did not have leading or trailing edge wing slots, did not have fuel tank overhead in wing, , did not have fuel injected turbine. gibbs-smith pointed out pilot have been killed heat if combustion had been initiated in engine s air stream.

in 1970 gibbs-smith wrote account of coanda-1910, using same phrasing in 1960:

unsuccessful, prophetic, machine coanda biplane (strictly speaking sesquiplane) exhibited @ paris salon in october. of all-wood construction, cantilevered wings—which did not robust—and antoinette-like fuselage obliquely cruciform tail-unit; equipped reaction propulsion unit consisting of 50 hp clerget engine driving large ducted fan in front of it, latter enclosed in cowling covered nose of machine , part of engine: fan simple air-fan driving air form propulsive jet . although inevitably earth-bound, aircraft stands first full-size attempt @ jet-propelled aeroplane.

in 2010, antoniu wrote thought gibbs-smith speculated on basis of evidence of absence aircraft never tested or flown, gibbs-smith did not find concrete evidence support position. similarly, antoniu unable find concrete proof of test flight. antoniu wrote gibbs-smith did not check french patents claimed coandă in 1910 , 1911, describing retractable gear, leading edge wing slot , upper wing fuel tank, , did not see photographs private collections demonstrating aspects wrote.

coandă s patent diagram improvement in propellers , filed 1911 , granted 1914

in 1980, nasm historian frank h. winter examined 1965 drawings , specifications coandă prepared while @ huyck corporation , wrote article coandă s claim: there wholly new description of inner workings of machine not occur in of accounts given [in 1910s] , defies of patent specifications. said coandă told various conflicting stories claimed 1910 flight, , coandă produced set of altered drawings proof of claims:

differences between version of coanda s story , earlier 1 marked , hardly need pointed out; though obvious ones are: planned versus accidental , unintentional flight; immediate flight versus busy taxiing field; coanda being thrown plane after stalled versus coanda pitched forward after landing, , on. apart personal recollections, henri coanda bestowed upon museum drawings , illustrations of turbo-propulseur. drawings, purporting show internal details of machine, unfortunately modern. say, executed in 1960s, not in 1910 or 1911; worse, fuel injection outlet tubes aft end of turbine seems later addition original drawings. in brief, drawings not constitute evidence in coanda s claim.

in article, winter wondered why coandă did not add novel feature of fuel injection , air stream combustion may 1911 patent applications if feature had been present during supposed flying experience 5 months earlier. rather, winter noted august 1910 patent filings in french same may 1911 ones in english, , descriptions applicable air or water flowing through device, meaning patents not possibly include fuel combustion in jet stream. noted no mention made in patents of asbestos or mica heat shields, or of fuel injection or combustion.

while looking through aviation periodicals , paris newspapers reporting month of december 1910, winter found there spell of bad weather @ issy during no flying took place. situation occurred mid-month, period covering conflicting dates (10 , 16 december) coandă said aircraft tested, flown , crashed. in regular foreign aviation news column, flight magazine reported blank period of inclement weather @ issy ended on 19th when guillaume busson tested monoplane made armand deperdussin. other aircraft tests , piloting activities listed, no mention of coandă or machine.

winter found camille (or cosimo) canovetti, italian civil , aviation engineer, had been working on turbo-propulseur-style aviation engine before coandă, , had attempted show aircraft such engine @ aviation exposition in milan in 1909. canovetti took out patents on machine in 1909, , more in 1910. canovetti wrote in 1911 1910 appearance of coandă engine called general attention designs his.

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