Victor Tatin

Victor Tatin (1843–1913) was a French engineer who created an early airplane, the Aéroplane, in 1879. The craft was the first model airplane to take off using its own power after a run on the ground.^[2][3][4]

Victor Tatin
Born	1843 Paris
Died	18 April 1913[1]
Nationality	French
Occupation(s)	Aeronautical inventor and engineer
Honours	Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur

Victor Tatin airplane of 1879. Original craft, at Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace.

The model had a span of 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) and weighed 1.8 kg (4.0 lb). It had twin propellers and was powered by a compressed-air engine.^[5] It was flown tethered to a central pole on a circular track at the military facilities of Chalais-Meudon. Running under its own power it took off at a speed of 8 metres per second.^[5]

Between 1890 and 1897 Tatin and Charles Richet experimented with a steam-powered model with a wingspan of 6.6 m (21 ft 8 in) and weighing 33 kg (73 lb) with fore and aft propellers. They succeeded in flying this for a distance of 140 metres (460 ft) at a speed of 18 metres per second.^[6][7][8] In 1902-3 he collaborated with Maurice Mallet on the construction of the dirigible Ville de Paris for Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe^[9] and in 1905 he designed the propeller used by Traian Vuia for his experimental aircraft of 1906-7. In 1908 Tatin designed an unsuccessful pusher monoplane which was exhibited at the 1908 Paris Aéro Salon.^[10] In 1911 he collaborated with Louis Paulhan on the design of the Aéro-Torpille, a monoplane with a remarkably streamlined design.

Works

• Victor Tatin, Elements d'aviation (Paris: Dunod et Pinet, 1908).

See also

• Early flying machines