L'Aérophile
Encyclopedia
L’Aérophile was a French aviation magazine
published from 1893 to 1947. It has been described as "the leading aeronautical journal of the world" around 1910.
. In 1898 it became the official journal of the Aéro Club of France
.
Important developments in early aviation were documented in its pages:
Historian Charles Gibbs-Smith critiqued L’Aérophile for never publishing the official report on the tests of Clément Ader
’s 1897 Avion III, when this report was finally made public in 1910, and thus failing to oppose the claim that Ader's machine had made a controlled flight in 1897.
L'Aérophile was a monthly publication in its first years. At some point it started to come out biweekly then in Sept 1910 started to publish weekly.
Starting at the end of 1898 it was the official journal of the Aero Club of France.
In later years it was also an official publication of the alumni association (Association des anciens élèves) of the French national aeronautical college (École nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique).
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
published from 1893 to 1947. It has been described as "the leading aeronautical journal of the world" around 1910.
History and contents
L’Aérophile was founded and run for many years by Georges BesançonGeorges Besançon
Georges Besançon founded and edited the aeronautical journal L'Aérophile.Besançon was a ballonist and journalist.Besançon helped train the later-celebrated balloonist Salomon Andrée, probably in the late 1880s....
. In 1898 it became the official journal of the Aéro Club of France
Aéro-Club de France
The Aéro-Club de France was founded as the Aéro-Club on 20 October 1898 as a society 'to encourage aerial locomotion' by Ernest Archdeacon, Léon Serpollet, Henri de la Valette, Jules Verne and his wife, André Michelin, Albert de Dion, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe, and Henry de...
.
Important developments in early aviation were documented in its pages:
- Octave ChanuteOctave ChanuteOctave Chanute was a French-born American railway engineer and aviation pioneer. He provided the Wright brothers with help and advice, and helped to publicize their flying experiments. At his death he was hailed as the father of aviation and the heavier-than-air flying machine...
's April 1903 speech to the Aéro-Club describing the glidingGlidingGliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s...
experiments of the Wright brothersWright brothersThe Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
was printed in May, 1903. Also Ferdinand Ferber's 1902 glider, the first in Europe modeled on those of the Wright brothers, was illustrated in the February 1903 issue. - The journal published illustrations of ailerons on Robert Esnault-PelterieRobert Esnault-PelterieRobert Albert Charles Esnault-Pelterie was a pioneering French aircraft designer and spaceflight theorist. He was born in Paris, the son of a textile industrialist...
’s glider in June 1905, and the ailerons were widely copied afterward. - In December 1905 and January 1906 journal articles confirmed that the Wright brothers had (as they claimed) flown a controlled, powered airplane, at a time when many readers did not believe this.
- The journal covered at length Alberto Santos-DumontAlberto Santos-DumontAlberto Santos-Dumont , was a Brazilian early pioneer of aviation. The heir of a wealthy family of coffee producers, Santos Dumont dedicated himself to science studies in Paris, France, where he spent most of his adult life....
’s flights of 1906, which were the first airplane flights in Europe. - Editor Georges Besançon wrote that Wilbur Wright’s 1908 flights in France had erased doubts about the Wright brothers' previous experiments.
- L'Aérophile published René LorinRené LorinRené Lorin , a graduate of the Ecole Centrale Paris, invented the ramjet. In 1908 he patented a subsonic ramjet design.Lorin published the principles of a ramjet in articles in the journal L'Aérophile from 1908 to 1913, expressing the idea that the exhaust from internal combustion engines could be...
’s article of Sept 1, 1908 in which he first proposed the ramjetRamjetA ramjet, sometimes referred to as a stovepipe jet, or an athodyd, is a form of airbreathing jet engine using the engine's forward motion to compress incoming air, without a rotary compressor. Ramjets cannot produce thrust at zero airspeed and thus cannot move an aircraft from a standstill...
.
Historian Charles Gibbs-Smith critiqued L’Aérophile for never publishing the official report on the tests of Clément Ader
Clément Ader
Clément Ader was a French inventor and engineer born in Muret, Haute Garonne, and is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation.- The inventor :...
’s 1897 Avion III, when this report was finally made public in 1910, and thus failing to oppose the claim that Ader's machine had made a controlled flight in 1897.
L'Aérophile was a monthly publication in its first years. At some point it started to come out biweekly then in Sept 1910 started to publish weekly.
Affiliations
From 1893-4, L'Aérophile was associated with the Union aérophile de France.Starting at the end of 1898 it was the official journal of the Aero Club of France.
In later years it was also an official publication of the alumni association (Association des anciens élèves) of the French national aeronautical college (École nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique).