Louis Béchereau

Louis Béchereau was a French aviation pioneer, born 25 July 1880 and died in Paris on 18 March 1970. He was a contemporary (among others)Clément Ader, Gabriel Voisin, Wilbur Wright Henri Farman and Louis Blériot. In 1902, Béchereau joined a machine shop in Bezons where he participated in the prototype car designed by Clément Ader. With a nephew of Clement Ader in 1903 he created "Construction Company of Aerial Devices." Armand Deperdussin had entrusted the realization of a plane in 1909 Production Company of Deperdussin Airplanes, with Béchereau as a technical consultant. Béchereau conceived from the outset devices called "monocoque", the spindle-shaped body very aerodynamic. This feature allows them to achieve performance previously unthinkable. Its revolutionary design allowed the Deperdussin to win several awards, including the famous Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup in 1912.

Deperdussin Racing Aircraft (1913)

"On April 6, 1913, Marcel Prevost became the first winner of the Schneider Cup. As early as 1912, French designer Bechereau had drawn up the basic plans of the externally braced Deperdussin monoplane, with which Prevost won the Gordon Bennett Cup race from September 27 to 29, 1913. The plane was distinguished by an aerodynamic styling so far ahead of its time that the United States, Great Britain, and Germany withdrew their entries from the Gordon Bennett race. The superiority demonstrated by the Deperdussin seaplane in winning the Schneider Cup doubtless contributed to their decisions."

(source: Conquerors of the Air, The Evolution of Aircraft, 1968, Heiner Emde and Carlo Demand)

For more information, see The Schneider Trophy - 1st Edition April 16, 1913

1923 Schneider Cup winner

The winner of the 1923 Schneider Cup was D. Rittenhouse of the U.S. in a Navy Curtiss CR-3 The average speed was 177.38 mph. The location of the race was Cowes, England.

Schneider Cup established in 1912

On December 5, 1912 at an Aero Club de France banquet to award the Gordon Bennett Prize, Jacques Schneider, son of an industrialist, announced that he was founding a new contest. He established an annual race for seaplanes with a prize of 1,000 pounds and a trophy for the winner. The conditions of the race called for a level of precision that added to the race's appeal and would drawn thousands of spectators to the event. The qualifying tests included the following:

• Each contestant had to move over the water in rough seas beyond he starting line under its own power; 
• start and land after executing a loop; 
• move on the water under its own power at a minimum velocity of 12 mph over a half-mile stretch between buoys;
• repeat the above procedure; 
• then start and land once again. 

The machine also had to stay moored for six hours to prove that it was seaworthy.

The first Schneider Cup race took place in Monte Carlo on April 6, 1913 and a Morane-Saulnier, two Nieuports, and a Deperdussin qualified out of the 24 entries.

(source: Conquerors of the Air, The Evolution of Aircraft, 1968, Heiner Emde and Carlo Demand)

Paper airplane aerodynamics

Interesting and very clear description of paper airplane aerodynamics by John Collins. Collins currently holds the world record for longest flight of a paper airplane.