Aircraft

Decommines I

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Emmanuel Honoré Decommines, known as Georges Decommines, was born in Ostend, Belgium, on 14 February 1879. His brother Louis Decommines helped him with the construction of this airplane. The tractor propeller was driven by a 25 hp Anzani, which was financed by his aunt. On the first flight attempt, on the morning of May 15, 1910 on the beach of Ostend, Belgium, refused to start and on the second threw a propeller blade through the fuel tank, causing a fire which burned both the plane and the pilot/builder, but both were able to recover and try again. After repair, the machine crashed while attempting to take off. The builder, with minimal damage this time, took the hint and scrapped it, but he would come back with another design the year after.

DeChenne 1911 Aeroplane             

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was a success and gave its first public demonstration flight at Monett on July 4, 1911, flown by Monett druggist Logan McKee. It then made an exhibition tour in Oklahoma and Texas.

The aeroplane made several straight away flights, going some distance, but hardly exceeding fifty feet in height, alighting in some pasture and returning to the grounds.” If I am reading this correctly, when McKee wanted to turn around, he landed and turned the plane around on the ground, then flew back to the fair grounds. Turning was by far the most dangerous maneuver in early flight, and making a plane that could turn safely was a major design challenge for early airplane builders. Either McKee was a very cautious pilot, or the DeChenne was a very limited aircraft. In any case, the DeChenne company received $1,000 for a two day exhibition at Caddo.

On October 6, 1911, Aero magazine carried a classified ad seeking a new pilot for the Dechenne, and on November 25, 1911, it carried an ad offering to sell the plane’s engine. “Cheap if taken soon. Reason, have closed for season and can make more by spring.” If the plane ever flew again after McKee, I have found no record of it. In February, 1913, Aero & Hydo magazine carried a “quitting business” ad offering to sell various assets of the DeChenne company.

Debongnie Monoplanes

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No.3

Édouard Eugène Joseph Ghislain opened a workshop in Nieuport-Groenendyck, with his first monoplane coming out 1910. A second with characteristic curved wings appeared in 1911 and another in 1912. Although building three different monoplanes his firm was principally in propeller production. The works folded in 1914 with the beginning of the war.

de Bruyere C1

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A fighter of the First World War created by French engineer Marcel de Bruyere in 1917, the C 1 was a biplane with equal-span, staggered wings supported by inverted V-struts. Pitch control came from a one-piece, all-moving canard foreplane, while roll was managed by full chord tip ailerons managed roll on the upper wing. The 150-horsepower Hispano-Suiza 8Aa engine was placed behind the wings.

A long shaft connected the engine to a pusher propeller mounted at the tail. The aircraft lacked a fixed horizontal stabiliser but had a short vertical fin and long tail skid to protect the rear-mounted propeller. Its tricycle landing gear and metal fuselage were extremely advanced for the time.

Large circular side windows gave reasonable downward visibility, and it was armed with a single Hotchkiss M1902 37mm cannon.

The fighter, designated de Bruyere C1, first flew in April 1917 from the Etampes test aerodrome in Belgium.

During the test flight, the plane climbed several meters, rolled over and crashed. The craft was not rebuilt and received no further development.

de Bruyere С1
Engine: 150 hp Hispano-Suiza 8a
Wing span: 8.20 m
Length: 7.50 m
Crew: 1
Armament: 1 x 37 mm Hotchkiss M1902

Debreyer JCD-03 Pelican

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The “Pélican” flying wing was designed by Jean-Claude Debreyer based on the AV-36. Unlike that machine, however, it is not designed for soaring but only for inexpensive powered flight. The designer’s goal was to produce a machine that was easy to build, ultra-light and low in cost, which explains the choice of the flying wing configuration, the low aspect ratio of the wing and the tandem landing gear. The prototype was built of wood with a few laminated parts; the wing section was the same as that of the AV-36 (Fauvel F4 17%). The two-stroke engine, mounted at the rear of the short fuselage, between the two fins, drives a two-bladed propeller directly. The Air Est Services, based in eastern France, offers a kit version, built of composite materials, named JCD-03. It can be equipped with a 12 hp Solo engine or a 24 hp Koenig which gives a considerable improvement over the original performance figures.

The Pelican is transformed into the Eagle by substituting a 24 hp direct drive Konig for the Solo.

Air Est JCD-03 Pelican

Wing span: 7.92 m
Length: 3.10 m
Wing area: 12.0 sq.m
Airfoil: Fauvel F4 17%
Empty weight: 85 kg
Max. weight: 175 kg
Engine: Solo 15 ch
Propeller diameter: 75 cm
Takeoff run: 150 / 200 m
Stall speed: 45 km/h
Cruise speed: 75 km/h
Endurance: 3 hours

Air Est JCD-03 Eagle
Empty weight: 90 kg
Wing span: 7.2 m
Wing area: 12 sq.m
Fuel capacity: 20 lt
Engine: Konig SC 430, 24 hp
MAUW: 200 kg
Seats: 1
Max speed: 130 kph
Cruise speed: 90 kph
Minimum speed: 40 kph
Climb rate: 3 m/s
Fuel consumption: 8 lt/hr
Kit price (1998): 45 000 F sm