Esnault-Pelterie, Robert

▪ French aviation pioneer

in full  Robert-Albert-Charles Esnault-Pelterie 

born Nov. 8, 1881, Paris, France

died Dec. 6, 1957, Nice

 French aviation pioneer who made important contributions to the beginnings of heavier-than-air flight in Europe.

      After studying engineering at the Sorbonne in Paris, Esnault-Pelterie built his first glider, a very rough copy of the Wright glider of 1902 but constructed without an understanding of the Wright brothers (Wright, Wilbur and Orville)' control system. As a result, he abandoned the attempt to fly the glider with a wing-warping system and became the first flying-machine pioneer to make use of ailerons (aileron), moveable surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing, to maintain lateral control. In 1907 Esnault-Pelterie designed and built a pioneer monoplane powered by an innovative seven-cylinder radial engine with which he made flights of up to 600 metres (about 2,000 feet). His later models, R.E.P. No. 2 and R.E.P. No. 2-bis, included several innovations, such as hydraulic brakes.

      As early as 1912, Esnault-Pelterie had also begun to write and lecture on the subject of space flight (space exploration). He coined the word astronautics and was a cosponsor of the R.E.P.-Hirsch Prize for important contributions to the field.

Tom D. Crouch

 

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