Name of the French aviation pioneer who is credited with the first self-propelled flight with a "heavier than air" vehicle.

"Clément Ader"

-Born near Toulouse in 1841 and loving everything related with the sky, he built his own balloon. He made inventions about telephony etc. until 1890 when he built his own flying machine called "Eole". With this machine he made a "flight or jump" of 50 meters on the 9th of October.

-Considered by many as the first flight taken by a device on its own, as they ensure it in many sectors especially the French. It was not officially registered, which did do the Wright brothers.

The Eole had a steam engine, emphasizing the condenser on top of the machine.

"Ader's Eole"

-The engine was made of two cylinders, just as we see in the figure below.

"The engine of the Eole"

-He made other variants of the "Eole" ( II and III). Between 1894 and 1897 he built the "Avion". As for its wings it looked like a bat. It had two engines and two propellers. He continued building until the "Avion III".

“Avión III”

-We can give the honor to Clément Ader that the name "Avion" that he gave to his machine would be used for all the machines that were built after that until today. In French and Spanish this word is still used.

-It also had a condenser on top of the machine facing forward in order to cool the rest of the steam and return it in its liquid state.

"Engine for the Avion III"

-The trials were made at the fields of Satory-Vincennes, on a prepared track of 1500 meters.

-October 14th 1897 the "Avion III" made a flight of 300 meters and a bad landing, according the documents of that time.

-The engines were almost identically to those of the "Eole II". They developed 30 CV with a weight of 48 kg.

-The height of the engine was 1050 mm. The two cylinders were mixed of high and low pressure.

-The stroke was 140 mm. The diameter of the cylinders was 70 mm for high pressure and 120 mm for the low pressure.

This engine is exhibited in the "Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers" in Paris. (school of arts and crafts).

“Two views of the Eole”

-The hanging Eole is the restored original, exhibited at Musee des Arts et Métiers, Paris.

-The showed Eole has a reproduction of the engine at floor level. The two alternative engines drive one propeller each.

-They have a very open angle position. Above the machine, the funnel and the condensor are missing.

“Double Eole engine”

"Burner and boiler side"

"Boiler diagram"

-This drawing and the photograph below come from the Science Museum in London.

“Ader Eole”

-They are from Ader's Eole and as we can see, it is sufficiently open from the right side to be able to see the boiler and the steam machine clearly.

"Ader's Eole" (PiP)

-The steam engine drives the propeller directly.

-The lower boiler has a curved funnel towards the rear and above the wing.

-The condenser is totally on top and in front of the seat there is a group of three control levers for the engine.

"Clément Ader, awarded"

"Two cylinder Ader in V"

-After his experiences with steam engines, he enters the new century with interest for the new piston engines that were used by Daimler since 1892 and in France by Panhard and Peugeot one year later.

“Ader 4 V”

He begins to build engines with car technology having the vision to use them for aviation.

-First with 2 cylinders in V. (See diagram) and later one with 4 cylinders in V as shown on the photo.

-He patented these engines in 1898 and he had planned to build 6 and 8 cylinder versions from there on.

-In 1909 an Adler engine was installed in the "Ader I" airship. It gave 45 CV.

-Clément Ader died in 1926.

From appendixes A3 and 4/6: See also Clement Ader. From the "Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace" at Le Bourget we have received a photograph of the engine that was used in his first machines.

-We show it because it is complementary information that let us analyze it better.

"Ader engine in collapsed position"

-In another recent visit to the museum "Ailes Anciennes de Toulouse” we descovered an Ader air-cooled engine with two cylinders in V.

"Front view of the 2V"

"Two more views of the two cylinder Ader from 1903"

-We can see a carburetor for each cylinder in this model from the year 1903.

-The intake collector reaches the valve housing, with the rocker on top.

-However the exhaust valve works below with a finned housing.

-It gave 35 CV and had a displacement of 479 cc.

"The intake valve"

-The one of the main text seems to have one unique carburetor.

-It was installed in racing motorcycles with shaft drive.

"Panel at Ailes Anciennes in Toulouse"

-In 1938 this engine was installed in a HM8 (Henry Mignet, Pou-du-Ciel) with an adaption realized by mr. Pierre Emile Feuillerat.

-This engine is air-cooled and those of the main text are water-cooled.

From appendix 8: A photograph that we received shows us the mounting of two coupled Ader engines in a car, and being perhaps the first V8 engine. It gives 20 hp.

"The two V4 Ader engines coupled in a vehicle, 1903"

From appendix 9: A photograph of the Ader engine located in the Czech Republic. See main text. Attention: It is presented as Ader de Lavallois. (possible place of the factory).

“Ader 2V”

"Another view of the Ader"

-In the intake collectors the carburetor is missing. The intake valves are not controlled, they are automatic.