Francois Denhaut and His Aircraft Designs

hesham

hesham

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Hi,

he was born on 4 October 1877 at Champagnat, Creuse and after some success as a racing cyclist
became interested in aviation. In 1908 he constructed his first aircraft, a canard biplane powered
by a 15 hp (11 kW) Anzani engine constructed with the help of a mechanic called Bouyer a M.
Mercier. It was briefly flown in August 1909, with Bouyer at the controls,in 1911 he gained his
pilot's license and became the chief pilot of Pierre Levasseur's flying school.


- To be continued
 
Hi,

1907 was the first glider,no more details
1908 Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercie was a similar to Wright aircraft bilane,powered by one engine
1908 Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercie/II maybe dveloped from earlier one
1908 third design was a biplane
1909 was a seaplane glider
1910 was a racer biplane flying boat,powered by one 50 hp Lemasson 6 pusher engine,Danton No.1
1910 was a racer biplane flying boat,powered by one 25 hp Anzani engine,Danton No.2
1910 was a racer biplane flying boat,powered by one 35 hp Lemasson pusher engine,Danton No.3
1912/I was experimental airplane,powered by one 50 hp Gnome N-1 engine
1912/II was experimental airplane,powered by one 50 hp Gnome N-1 engine
1912 Donnet-Leveque Type A was a two seat flying boat,powered by one 50 hp Gnome pusher engine
1912 Donnet-Leveque Type B was a two seat flying boat,powered by one 70 hp Gnome pusher engine
1912 Donnet-Leveque Type C was a three seat flying boat,powered by one 80 hp Gnome pusher engine
**** The Donnet-Leveque Types A,B & C were later produced under FBA company.
1913 Denhaut-Morane was a seaplane,powered by one 90 hp Anzani 10C engine
1913 Borel Aeroyacht I was a Borel-Denhaut racer flying boat biplane,powered by pusher engine
1913 Borel Aeroyacht II was the same as Aeroyacht I,but with cut-outs in the small low wings
1913 Borel Aeroyacht III was developed from Aeroyacht I & II,but featured an even longer trailing rudder tip,
longer lower wings, and conventional double-strut bracing-though still with wing-warping
1913 Borel Monaco was a racer seaplane monoplane,powered by one 160 hp Gnome engine
1914 Denhaut-Goupy was a sesquiplane seaplane,powered by one 100 hp Gnome Double Omega engine
**** With Donnet-Denhaut,the series;
DD.1 was a 80 hp Le Rhone engined single seat flying boat
DD.2 was a 160 hp Canton-Unne engined two-seat anti-submarine flying boat
DD.3 was a 140/150 hp HS two-seat flying boat biplane
DD.4 was a 160 hp Lorraine engined two-seat flying boat biplane
DD.5 was a 230 hp Lorraine engine flying boat,one aircraft was built
DD.6 was a 200 hp HS engined two-seat high speed recce flying boat
DD.7 was a 200 hp HS engined three-seat bomber and maritime flying boat
DD.8 was a 200 hp HS engined two-seat bomber flying boat
DD.9 was a 275 hp HS engined three-seat combat biplane flying boat
DD.10 was a 400 hp HS twin engined patrol flying boat
DP.10 or P.10 was a three engined version of DD.10,powered by total powered generated 1100 hp Hispano-
Suiza 8 Fb engines
DP.15 or P.15 was enlarge and more powerful version of P.15,powered by four 450 hp Renault engines
**** With Bellanger
1919 was a tourist biplane,powered by one 150 hp engine,project,BD.16 ?
1919 was another tourist biplane,powered by one 325 hp engine,project,BD.17 ?
1919 was a four engined high-mer biplane flying boat,powered by four 400 hp engines,project BD.18 ?
1919/20 was a twin engned biplane flying boat project,powere by two 300 hp engines,BD.19 ?
1919/20 was an amphibian version of above,powered by the same engines,BD.20 ?
B.21 ? HB.1 was related to Bille,not Denhaut
1922 BD.22 was an unequal span biplane reconnaissance and bomber flying boat,powered by two 260 hp Hispano-
Suiza 8 Fd V-8 engines
1922 BD.23 was a biplane glider,capable of accommodating a small engine
1923/24 HB.3 was a military version of BD.22,may it was BD.24 ?.
**** With CFA France-Aviation
HY.479 was an unequal span biplane flying boat,suitable for commercial and military uses,powered by one
380 hp Gnome-Rhone 9A Jupiter engine
***** With Villiers
Vil.23 was a twin engined seaplane prototype,powered by two Gnome-Rhone Jupiter engines,mounted in tandem.
Vil.26 was a four-seat low-wing patrol and escort seaplane,powered by one 420 hp Gnome-Rhone 9A engine
Vil.300 ? may it was a three engined observation and torpedo bomber project of 1930
Vil.320 was a twin engined amphibian seaplane prototype,intended for 1930 competition for postal seaplane
Vil.330 was a twin engined seaplane flying boat project of 1931
**** After Villiers,he designed for his own,
1931 was an amphibian tourist aircraft
1931 was twin engined exploration flying boat project
1932 was three engined exploration and torpedo bomber flying boat project
1932 was a four engined transatlantic flying boat project



- To be continued
 
Last edited:
hesham said:
...
1908 was a canard biplane,powered by one 15 hp or 20 hp Anzani engine
...
Click to expand...

On the 1908* Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercier biplane, that "15 hp Anzani engine" is highly dubious. According to one bio, François Denhaut had wanted an Antoinette engine (by Léon Levavasseur) but could not procure one. Instead, an engine was designed especially for the aircraft.

-- https://www.aerosteles.net/articles/denhaut-bio.pdf

Apparently, Denhaut and his auto-mechanic companion created an 18-to-20 hp aero-engine of their own design. But, the identity of that mécanicien is also up for question. Many sources agree with Wiki, saying that Monsieur Bouyer was the mechanic. Other say that it was Monsieur Mercier.

(* According to Flight), the Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercier machine was first flown on 11 Aug. 1909.)

It seems that Wiki may have also conflated two designs. That 1908 was a canard only in the sense that the was a close copy of the Wright Flyer. In other words, it had a biplane elevators on its forward boom and a rudder on the rear boom. Denhaut modified the Wrights' approach slightly by inserting another, diamond-shaped vertical surface between the elevators.

Another 1908/1909 Denault design had more radical control surfaces. Also labelled 'Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercier', this may have been an 'extreme makeover' of Denault's Wright copy. This (version?) retained the boom-mounted, biplane foreplane elevators ... but now without the auxiliary vertical surface. Indeed, it seems that Denhaut dispensed with the rear-mounted rudder altogether. Wing-warping was used but this Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercier machine also had those horizontal interplane panels which were de rigueur at the time.

BTW, Frédéric Danton - Denhaut's future financier - was among those photographed with this version of the Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercier biplane. (Danton is on the extreme left in the attached image.) Note the twin, belt-driven (Wright-style) propellers and the lower wing-mounted engine - clearly an inline, not an Anzani-style 'fan' or radial.

François Denhaut seemed to like experimenting with unusual control surface arrangements. Around that same period, Denhaut designed the Roze, Perret, et Chaffal machine.** A fairly large, overhung biplane, this 1909 aircraft had an aft-facing, boom-mounted horizontal tailplane but no obvious rudder (at least in its repaired, 1910 configuration). The Roze, Perret, et Chaffal biplane also shared that Wright-style belt-driven twin propellers. Construction was partly of steel tubing.

(** This may have been arranged by Louis-Étienne Roze to test a control system devised Jean Perret - brevet d'invention No. 401.712 - but I have no idea who M. Chaffal was.)
 

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My dear Apophenia,

I am completely lost in this explanation.

I reached to Donnet-Leveque Types.
 
hesham said:
... I am completely lost in this explanation...
Click to expand...

Apologies if it was my verbosity which confused. My main point, put more succinctly, was that the paraphrased Wiki description of Denhaut's 1908 'canard' biplane is not really accurate.

1 - In 1908, François Denhaut designed at least three biplanes with unusual tail arrangements;
2 - The second designs may have been expressed by the rebuilding of the first Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercier;
3 - Neither Denhaut-Bouyer-Mercier design (variant?) was powered by your "15 hp or 20 hp Anzani";
4 - Denhaut's third 1908 design was the unrelated 1909 Roze, Perret, et Chaffal biplane.

My secondary point, which may also have confused, related to the people involved. In part, this referred back to "a mechanic called Bouyer a M. Mercier" in post #1.

1 - As stated in reply #2, here, Wikipedia has conflated two separate people;
2 - It is not firmly established that Bouyer was the mechanic involved;
3 - Some sources say that M. Mercier was the mechanic working with Denhaut;
4 - Unrelated to the above was a note on Frédéric Danton's early involvement.

Does that help?
 
OK my dear Apophenia,

but the biplane of 1908,was called similar to Wright aircraft,or based on it.
 
hesham said:
... the biplane of 1908,was called similar to Wright aircraft,or based on it.
Click to expand...

The first 1908 biplane was a near copy of the Wright Flyer - complete with boom-mounted rear rudder. From the image, I can't tell if it had the Wright-style paired/parallel rudders or a single vertical surface. A minor difference was that diamond-shaped vertical surface inserted between the elevators (I'm not sure if that forward-mounted 'diamond' surface was fixed or was a movable rudder.)

The second 1908 biplane (or revised first airframe?) had no rear boom at all nor any apparent form of rudder.
 
hesham said:
DP.10 or P.10 was a three engined version of DD.10,powered by total powered generated 1100 hp Hispano-
Suiza 8 Fb engines
DP.15 or P.15 was enlarge and more powerful version of P.15,powered by four 450 hp Renault engines
Click to expand...

By the way,these were not from his creation,they came from the designer Percheron,but they were
basically depended on DD.10 airframe,he left the company with Donnet in 1918 and replaced by
new inventor.

 
hesham said:
By the way,these were not from his creation,they came from the designer Percheron...
Click to expand...

I get why you're including the DP.10 as a DD.10 'derivative' but it does confuse matters in a François Denhaut listing. As for the DP.15, it may have been inspired by the DD.10 but it was an entirely new Percheron design.
 
Hi,

I edit the Bellanger designs,the BD.21 ? was related to Bille,also add BD.23 ? and BD.24 ?.
 

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