Victor Tatin | |
Birth Date: | 1843 |
Birth Place: | Paris |
Death Date: | 18 April 1913[1] |
Nationality: | French |
Occupation: | Aeronautical inventor and engineer |
Victor Tatin (1843–1913) was a French engineer who created an early airplane, the Aéroplane, in 1879. The craft was the first model airplane to take off using its own power after a run on the ground.[2] [3] [4]
The model had a span of 1.9m (06.2feet) and weighed 1.8kg (04lb). It had twin propellers and was powered by a compressed-air engine.[5] It was flown tethered to a central pole on a circular track at the military facilities of Chalais-Meudon. Running under its own power it took off at a speed of 8 metres per second.[5]
Between 1890 and 1897 Tatin and Charles Richet experimented with a steam-powered model with a wingspan of 6.6m (21.7feet) and weighing 33kg (73lb) with fore and aft propellers. They succeeded in flying this for a distance of 140m (460feet) at a speed of 18 metres per second.[6] [7] [8] In 1902-3 he collaborated with Maurice Mallet on the construction of the dirigible Ville de Paris for Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe[9] and in 1905 he designed the propeller used by Traian Vuia for his experimental aircraft of 1906-7. In 1908 Tatin designed an unsuccessful pusher monoplane which was exhibited at the 1908 Paris Aéro Salon.[10] In 1911 he collaborated with Louis Paulhan on the design of the Aéro-Torpille, a monoplane with a remarkably streamlined design.