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Alphonse Pénaud (31 May 1850 – 22 October 1880), was a 19th-century French pioneer of aviation design and engineering. He was the originator of the use of twisted rubber to power model aircraft , and his 1871 model airplane, which he called the Planophore , was the first aerodynamically stable flying model.
Apr 29, 2024 · Born: 1850, Paris, France. Died: October 1880, Paris (aged 30) Alphonse Pénaud (born 1850, Paris, France—died October 1880, Paris) was a French aeronautical pioneer. Pénaud was the son of an admiral but suffered from a degenerative hip condition that prevented his following a family tradition of service in the French navy.
The story of Charles Alphonse Pénaud (pronounced pay-know), an early pioneer of model airplanes, deserves to be better known. In fact, this 19th century Frenchman may have been the most influential modeler of all time. Born in 1850 in Paris, Pénaud expected to carry on the family tradition of career maritime service.
May 31, 2019 · Pénaud’s ornithopter or model flying bird, 1872, from Octave Chanute, Progress in Flying Machines, 1894 (Linda Hall Library) Pénaud drew up plans for full-sized flying machines, but he was unable to secure either interest or funding. In despair, and having suffered for some years from osteotuberculosis, Penaud took his own life on Oct. 22 ...
Oct 8, 2016 · Decades before the Wright brothers achieved takeoff at Kitty Hawk, Parisian designer Alphonse Pénaud launched an innovative model airplane on an 11-second flight through the Jardin des Tuileries ...
Nov 30, 2009 · The model flew 131 feet, setting a new record for a flying toy—proving that heavier-than-air flight was possible. 3 Discovered at the beginning of the nineteenth century by George Cayley, but not quite understood, Pénaud was the first to theorize and demonstrate the principle of Inherent Stability.
May 18, 2021 · Children across the world have enjoyed playing with a simple mechanical toy that uses a twisted rubber band to give propulsion to a winged aircraft, yet not many realise that it was the French inventor Alphonse Pénaud who first used twisted rubber to power a flying model in 1870 and adopt its successful propulsion effect to make a lasting impact on the future of aviation.
