What Were They Thinking?

[red750]

In a recent thread someone commented on the weird looking designs that had been created over the years. In a book I was given recently, I came across this photo, and what I guess is an unusual location for a canard. It makes you wonder how they thought it could possibly fly, and even more incredible if it did. The book is "Aircraft Museums and Collections of the World Vol 4" by Bob Ogden

 

 

 

[willedoo]

Certainly a wierd one, Peter. It's a bit hard to find information on it that's not in French. Did some digging & apparently a eleytron is a hardened forward wing found on some types of beetles & the forward wing is named after it. Found one photo which shows standard type ailerons on the main wing. Here's a photo showing the underside of the forward wing,

 

http://www.airliners.net/photo/MAE/De-Rouge-Elytroplan/1360238/L/

 

It looks like the wing is pivoted & operated as a stabilator via cables & would work like a moving tailplane. It would be interesting to find out how or if it flew.

 

Here's some of his earlier ones, with Google translate:

 

http://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://forum.aviation-ancienne.fr/t7239-charles-de-rouge-et-les-elytroplans&ei=7jw2T6DwGZHGmQXc_rWFAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CE4Q7gEwBQ&prev=/search?q=De+Rouge-Chabrillan-Bouffort+Elytroplan&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=628&prmd=imvns

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

[siznaudin]

No real need to explain anything ... it's French![ATTACH=full]996[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

[Coop]

Maybe the pilot likes flying in the shade?