The Breguet Type I was an experimental aircraft built in France in 1909. It was Louis Bréguet's first fixed-wing aircraft design.[1] [2] Breguet had previously had some success with two helicopter designs, one of which had been exhibited at the Paris Aero Salon in December 1908. Because of these machines, the Type I was at first known as the Breguet Type III.
The Breguet Type 1 differed from most biplane designs of the time by being of tractor configuration and not having a forward elevator, as used by the Wright Brothers and Gabriel Voisin, and in using a steel structure when wood was the material of choice for most builders at the time. The engine was mounted at the front of the aircraft in a square section nacelle projecting forwards from the lower wing, driving a three-bladed propeller. The upper wing was built in three separate sections, with the entire outer sections pivoting about the main spar for control purposes, while the lower wings, which had a smaller wingspan, were divided into two pivoting planes, with a large gap between them in place of a centre section. The wings were connected by four steel tube interplane struts, each enclosed in a streamlined fairing.The tail surfaces were mounted on four cross-braced steel booms and consisted of a large-span upper elevator and a smaller lower surface, with a pair of rudders filling the gap between them. The undercarriage consisted of a pair of forward-projecting skids with a small wheel mounted between them, supplemented by outrigger wheels on each wingtip. Power was provided by a 60hp Renault V-8 engine. The machine was displayed without an engine at the Olympia Aero Show in London in March 1909[3] and first took to the air on 28 June at La Brayelle Airfield. Bréguet flew this aircraft, given the exhibition number 19, at the Grande Semaine d'Aviation in August,[4] but crashed when the machine was caught in a gust of wind . Bréguet himself was unharmed.[5]