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.Vehicles of the Air by Victor Lougheed, p.157The human motor: energy, fatigue, and the origins of modernity by Anson Rabinbach p.99 Wilbur's Story by Donald B. Holmes
The model had a span of and weighed . It had twin propellers and was powered by a compressed-air engine.Exhibit Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace 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.
Between 1890 and 1897 Tatin and Charles Richet experimented with a steam-powered model with a wingspan of and weighing with fore and aft propellers. They succeeded in flying this for a distance of at a speed of 18 metres per second.Expériences Faites Avec Un Aéroplane l'Aérophile, June–July 1897, pp.128-30Victor Tatin at Flyingmachines.org, retrieved 25 June 2014 In 1902-3 he collaborated with Maurice Mallet on the construction of the dirigible Ville de Paris for Henri Deutsch de la MeurtheLa "Ville de Paris" l'Aérophile, February 1903, p. 48 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.Clement Bayard Flight, 9 January 1901, p.21 In 1911 he collaborated with Louis Paulhan on the design of the Aéro-Torpille, a monoplane with a remarkably streamlined design.
Works Victor Tatin, Elements d'aviation (Paris: Dunod et Pinet, 1908).
See also Early flying machines
Notes
External links
The Pioneers: Victor Tatin