Aéroplanes Deperdussin was established in 1909 by the silk broker Armand Deperdussin with Louis Béchereau acting as the technical director. The first product of their aircraft works at Laon was a canard configuration design, which was not a success. The 1910 monoplane was their first successful design. The prototype was first flown by Guillaume Busson at Issy-les-Moulineaux in October 1910,[1] possibly powered by a water-cooled inline four-cylinder Clerget engine.
The 1910 Deperdussin monoplane was a tractor configuration mid-wing monoplane, with a very slender fuselage formed by a shallow fabric-covered wire-braced wooden box-girder, the longerons curving in to a vertical knife-edge at the back. The depth of the front section of the fuselage was increased by a shallow shell of wood veneer built over curved formers. Due to the extremely shallow fuselage, the pilot was almost completely exposed, sitting on rather than in the fuselage.[2]
The wings were mounted below the upper longerons and were slightly tapered. Lateral control was by wing warping. In earlier aircraft the warping and bracing wires were attached to a pair of vertical kingposts just aft of the leading edge of the wing: in later aircraft these were braced by diagonal struts leading back to the fuselage longerons. The empennage of early examples consisted of an elongated triangular vertical fin with a cutout to allow elevator travel with a rectangular rudder hinged to the trailing edge, and a similarly elongated triangular tailplane with an elevator.[3]
In later examples, such as that in the Shuttleworth Collection, the horizontal tail surface was shorter, the leading edges being swept at about 45°. A distinctive feature of the type was that the trailing edge of the rudder and elevator was braced by wires leading to the control horns. The controls consisted of a wheel mounted on an inverted U-shaped yoke, the uprights of which were outside the fuselage structure. Fore and aft movement of the entire yoke operated the elevator and the wheel operated the wing warping. The rudder was controlled by pedals. The undercarriage consisted of a pair of trapezoidal frames, each braced by a diagonal member extended forwards to form a short upcurved skid to protect the propeller in the case of nose-overs, with a pair of wheels carried on a sprung cross axle between the two frames.[4]
The example shown at the 1910 Paris Aero Salon had a length and wingspan of 9m (30feet), a wing area of 15m2 and was powered by a 4-cylinder water-cooled Clerget engine driving a six-bladed propeller.[3]
Although Deperdussin did produce a catalogue in 1911 which lists Types A, B, C, D and E,[5] this system of nomenclature was not generally used at the time: an example of contemporary nomenclature is provided by the report in Flight on the 1911 Paris Aero Salon. Deperdussin exhibited four aircraft: these are described as the "School Type", the "Military single seater", the "Military two-seater" and the "Military three-seater" .[6] The "School Type" was powered by a 25NaN Anzani three-cylinder semi-radial engine, was 7.45 m long with a wingspan of 8.5 m. The "Military single seater" is powered by a 50hp Gnome Omega and is slightly longer at 7.5 m. The "Military two-seater" was powered by a 70hp Gnome Gamma and was 8m (26feet) long with a wingspan of 10m (30feet). The three-seater is described as being a different type.
Neither the Shuttleworth Collection nor the RAAF Museum use any type designation for the aircraft in their collections.
Deperdussin, like most contemporary French aircraft manufacturers, also ran their own flying schools, at Étampes, Pau, and Bétheny in France and at Brooklands in England, and many early aviators learned to fly on Deperdussin aircraft.
Two examples were bought by the Australian government and formed part of the equipment of the Central Flying School at Point Cook, together with two Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2as and a Bristol Boxkite[12]