Mystery Early Aircraft

[Pelzig]

Greetings!

So, a chap sent me a image of a framed "stock art" photograph he got from a retailer and asked me what it was. Sadly, my knowledge of pre-1910 aviation is not up to par and I don't have an extensive book selection in the home library which shows anything which looks similar. To me, it doesn't appear to be a completed aircraft which doesn't help in identification but perhaps the knowledgeable host here can take a crack at it?

Cheers,

Ed

 

[Schneiderman]

Surely incomplete as there is not enough clearance for the propeller to rotate

 

[avion ancien]

It looks to comprise two umbrellas, a spinning wheel and a ceiling fan!

 

[Foo Fighter]

Watch your head on that ceiling fan, it's vicious looking.

 

[edwest4]

Those are paddles.

 

[Aerohydro]

Hello All,

I think we're looking at the work of Alberto Santos-Dumont.

Consider the propeller. Santos-Dumont was using, in December 1907, the very same design on his No.19 monoplane:



Nearly a year later, he was still using the same basic design:



Also, consider the angled wings at the back. The Santos-Dumont No.14 airship, which underwent numerous alterations during its operational life, had at one point an hexagonal rudder, constructed exactly like the pair of horizontal vanes seen on our mystery machine. The photo below, of the No.14, was taken in 1905:



Unfortunately, it's not clear to me which of Santos-Dumonts' many designs that this connects to. As far as I can tell, the hexagonal rudder first appeared in June 1905, and the rib-and-frame type of propeller blade design dates from late 1907.

In 1908, Santos-Dumont built the No.16, a weird airship that combined both LTA and HTA design features. It was initially fitted with a single engine and a tractor propeller, and later on with two engines and propellers that were mounted on outriggers. (See here for photos.) Both versions, though, show the No.16 with a wheeled undercarriage, something that the configuration of our mystery aircraft simply precludes from having.

The photo shows the framework as having a rectangular cross-section, which would made sense if it needed to accommodate a wicker basket, which Santos-Dumont normally used with his airships. There is also a hefty cross-spar - this design feature also appears on a number of his airships.

Unfortunately most of Santos-Dumont's records and papers have been lost to us. Without being able to supply proof of anything, I suspect our mystery aircraft is a test-rig for one of Santos-Dumont's designs, and that it can be dated from late 1907 onwards. It might have been an early iteration for what eventually became the No.16, or it might been intended for an airship that ultimately never saw the light of day.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[hesham]

I think you are Aerohydro,

and for this designer,please see;

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/santos-dumont-airplanes-projects.32318/