Louis Ferdinand Ferber (8 February 1862 – 22 September 1909) was a
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...
officer who played an important role in the development of aviation during the early 1900s. Although his aircraft experiments were belatedly successful, his early recognition and publicizing of the work of the
Wright Brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
was a major influence on the development of aviation in Europe.
Otto Lilienthal
Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making t ...
, through reading about his work in an article in the '' Illustrierte Zeitung.''
Aviation experiments
Early attempts
After some experimentation with models Ferber constructed his first full-size unmanned glider, which had a lozenge-shaped wing about across, and unsuccessfully attempted to fly it from a launching tower at his family's estate in
Rue
''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of the genus '' Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Mediterranean. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for i ...
in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
in August 1898. He then constructed a similar but smaller second machine, which he attempted to fly both as a
kite
A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...
and by towing it behind a horse, also without much success.
In early 1901 Ferber was transferred from Fontainbleu to
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionSaint-Etienne-de-Tinée, but the wing area proved insufficient for the purpose, and so a fourth, larger, glider was constructed.
Contact with Chanute
In 1901 Ferber became aware of the aeronautical experiments of
Octave Chanute
Octave Chanute (February 18, 1832 – November 23, 1910) was a French-American civil engineer and aviation pioneer. He advised and publicized many aviation enthusiasts, including the Wright brothers. At his death, he was hailed as the father of ...
, a French-born American civil engineer, as a result of reading an article in the ''Revue Scientifique'' published in the issue dated 1 June 1901.C. H. Gibbs-Smith (1974) ''The Rebirth of European Aviation''. London: HMSO, Ferber wrote to Chanute, and through him learnt of the experiments of the
Wright Brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
, receiving a copy of Wilbur Wright's paper "Some Aeronautical Experiments" which had been published in the ''Journal of the Western Society of Engineers'' in December 1901. Ferber then built his fifth aircraft, based on photographs of the Wright's 1901 glider.
This resembled the Wright glider in being a two-bay biplane with a forward elevator, but the resemblance ends there. As with Ferber's previous aircraft, the construction was crude in the extreme, the wings consisting merely of a simple framework of
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...
loosely covered with fabric, entirely lacking the ribs which formed the wings of the Wright's glider into a lift-giving aerofoil section. Moreover, there was no attempt at lateral control. The connection between lateral and directional control was the key discovery of the Wright Brothers, and although their 1901 glider lacked a rudder the use of
wing warping
Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of a fixed-wing aircraft or kite. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposit ...
was clearly described in the paper by Wilbur Wright. Ferber's experiments with this aircraft were encouraging, and an account of his work written by Ferber under his pseudonym "de Rue" was published in the February 1903 issue of ''
l'Aérophile
''L’Aérophile'' ("The Aerophile") was a French aviation magazine 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 ru ...
''.
Ferber did not attend Chanute's lecture to the Aero Club de France in April 1903, but after hearing of it he wrote to Ernest Archdeacon, one of the founder members of the Aero Club. His letter asked Archdeacon to use his influence to get the Aero Club to announce a prize for a glider flight, and contained the exhortation ("The aeroplane must not be allowed to reach successful achievement in America"). His suggestion was enthusiastically endorsed by Archdeacon, who included an extract from Ferber's letter in his account of Chanute's lecture published in ''La Locomotion'' on 11 April: the letter was also published in the April issue of '' L'Aerophile''.
Ferber experiments
Ferber then built another aircraft very similar to his 1902 glider. This differed principally in having a pair of triangular rudders mounted on the aft outboard interplane struts. This aircraft was then fitted with a 6 hp (4 kW) Buchet engine, driving a pair of coaxially mounted propellers, in which form it was called the Type V-bis. Between September 1903 and October 1904 a number of attempts at flight were made, and he also constructed a tall latticework tower supporting a long counterbalanced revolving arm from which the aircraft was suspended. Ferber wrote that trials of this machine "were completely useless, but drew public attention to aviation".
In April 1904 Ferber assisted Ernest Archdeacon with the trials of his Wright-derived glider at Berck-sur-Mer. Shortly after this Charles Renard, commander of the French Army balloon school at
Chalais-Meudon
Chalais-Meudon is an aeronautical research and development centre in Meudon, to the south-west of Paris. It was originally founded in 1793 in the nearby Château de Meudon and has played an important role in the development of French aviation. ...
, invited Ferber to join this establishment, and he took up this new post in early May 1904.
He also constructed another aircraft, the Type VI, notable for its use of a rear-mounted horizontal stabiliser and also featuring dihedral in an attempt to obtain lateral stability.
In June 1905 Ferber wrote to the Wright Brothers offering to buy one of their machines. The Wrights were unwilling to do this but their reply, dated 9 October 1905, detailed the flights they had recently made, and so Ferber was the first European to learn of these achievements.
After the death of Renard in April 1905, Ferber's relationship with the authorities at Chalais-Meudon deteriorated. In June 1906 he asked for three years' leave in order to work at the Antoinette company. This was granted in August 1906, and he was also allowed to continue his experiments at Chalais-Meudon. In 1906 Ferber built his aeroplane type VIII, fitted with a 24 hp Antoinette engine. When parked outside of hangar, this aircraft was destroyed by a storm in November. Rebuilt as type IX, it was belatedly but successfully tested in July 1908 at Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris.
In 1908, Ferber founded the ''Ligue Nationale Aérienne'' with the help of the well-known physiologist René Quinton. Quinton was a member of a Parisian group of literary personalities called the "Forty-five," who honored achievements in literature, sciences and arts. In May 1908 Ferber addressed the group at Quinton's suggestion and after receiving a standing ovation for his accomplishments in aviation, Quinton was inspired to establish a 10,000
franc
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century ...
s prize for the first person to fly for 5 minutes with engine stopped and without losing more than 50 metres altitude. In May 1909 the ''Ligue'' opened a flying school Port-Aviation (often called "Juvisy Airfield") at Viry-Châtillon with Ferber as its chief instructor.
Death
Captain Ferber was killed on 22 September 1909 at a flying meeting in
Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...
when he attempted a turn at low altitude in a Voisin biplane and one wing struck the ground. He was only the third victim of an aeroplane accident after Thomas Selfridge and
Eugène Lefebvre
Eugène Lefebvre (4 October 1878 – 7 September 1909) was a French aviation pioneer. He was reportedly the first stunt pilot,
Villard, Henry Serrano, ''Contact! The Story of the Early Birds,'' 1968, Thomas Y. Crowell, , retrieved April 9, 2 ...
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
.
In June 1910, the French Minister of War announced that one of their newly ordered Zodiac
dirigible
An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat ( lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding ...
s was to be named ''Capitaine Ferber'', and a memorial in the form of monolith bearing a bronze flying eagle was erected at Boulogne.
Gaston Combebiac wrote that Ferber ought to be considered a member of the Quaternion Society when he contributed a biographical note to the Society's ''Bulletin'':
:After all, since his intuition, at once mathematical and realistic, having not failed to recognize the advantages presented by the use of
vector calculus
Vector calculus or vector analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with the differentiation and integration of vector fields, primarily in three-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbb^3. The term ''vector calculus'' is sometimes used as a ...
for certain physical applications of mathematics, we must rank him among the members of our Association.
Aircraft
* Ferber I (1899) Monoplane hang-glider modelled on
Otto Lilienthal
Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making t ...
's designs.
* Ferber II
* Ferber III
* Ferber IV (1901) Monoplane hang-glider modelled on
Otto Lilienthal
Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making t ...
's designs.
* Ferber V (1902) Two-bay biplane glider with forward elevator, later fitted with triangular rudders on the outer interplane struts, and then rebuilt with a 6 hp Buchet engine and renamed the V-bis.
* Ferber VI (1904) two bay biplane glider, with an elongated rear-mounted horizontal stabiliser in addition to a forward elevator.
* Ferber VII
* Ferber VIII
* Ferber IX
Quotes
"L'ascension est une fleur qui naît de la vitesse". Translation : "The lift is a flower born from velocity".
"Concevoir une machine volante n'est rien; Fabriquer est peu; L'essayer est tout", Translation : ""To design a flying machine is nothing; To build one is something; To experiment is everything". In his memoir, ''The Story of the Winged-S,''
Igor Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, (25 May 1889 – 26 October 1972) was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His first success came with the Sikorsky S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construc ...
renders the quote "To invent a flying machine is nothing; to build it is little; to make it fly is everything."''The Story of the Winged-S,'' pp. 18-19. Sikorsky reports meeting Ferber in early 1909. "In French, the last of the three phrases would read: "L'essayer c'est tout," which means "to test it out is everything." However, knowing the ideas of Captain Ferber on this subject and the slang of French aerodromes of that epoch, I am convinced that my translation gives the correct meaning of this expression."
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
.
Notes
References
* Fred E. Culick & Spencer Dunmore (2001) ''On Great White Wings: The Wright Brothers and the Race for Flight'', page 107, Toronto: McArthur & Company Publishing.
* C. H. Gibbs-Smith (2003) ''Aviation: An Historical Survey'' London: NMSI,
* 1938 : I. Sikorsky : ''The Story of the Winged-S,'' Dodd-Mead, New York, 1938.
Early Aviators
The Early Birds of Aviation is an organization devoted to the history of early pilots. The organization was started in 1928 and accepted a membership of 598 pioneering aviators.
Membership was limited to those who piloted a glider, gas balloon ...