Pénaud Planophore

Pénaud Planophore, model aircraft designed, built, and first flown by the French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud in 1871.

Pénaud flew the small hand-launched model airplane, or planophore, as he preferred to call it, on Aug. 18, 1871, before a large group of invited witnesses at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. The model was a small monoplane with a wingspan of 45 cm (18 inches), a length of 50 cm (20 inches), and a weight of 15 grams (0.53 ounce). Fitted with a fixed vertical rudder and a horizontal stabilizer, the aircraft was powered by twisted rubber strands driving a two-bladed propeller. The little craft climbed through two circles and then glided back down to a landing near its takeoff point, having traveled approximately 40 metres (130 feet) in 11 seconds. It was the first successful public flight of a stable model airplane.

The model served as the first demonstration of inherent stability in the air. Lateral stability was achieved by sweeping the wings up at the tips. Providing dihedral wings in this manner increased the amount of lift on a wingtip that had begun to drop, automatically balancing the craft. A simple vertical stabilizer tended to keep the model moving in a straight line. One of Pénaud’s most noteworthy discoveries was that a degree of inherent stability in pitch could be obtained by setting the horizontal stabilizer at a slight negative angle. In addition to providing a practical demonstration of automatic stability that would shape the thinking of most subsequent experimenters, he also provided a useful mathematical discussion of the subject. The little planophore exercised an extraordinary influence on the generation of experimenters who would take the final steps toward the invention of the airplane. See also flight, history of.