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28-528: Aéroplanes Hanriot et Cie. or simply 'Hanriot' was a French aircraft manufacturer with roots going back to the beginning of aviation. Founded by René Hanriot in 1910 as The Monoplans Hanriot Company Ltd. , the company survived in different forms until 1916 when it established itself with the Hanriot-Dupont (HD.) fighters and observation aircraft. The company lasted through several takeovers and structural changes until, in 1936, it merged with Farman to become

56-580: A MF prefix. The Farman firm designed and built a number of motor car models  [ fr ] , including: During the 1920s, Farman Aviation briefly dabbled in building airboats (known generally by the French term "hydroglisseurs"). Farman's boat-building followed directly from its aircraft experience. During the First World War , Farman-built aircraft engines and propellers from Farman MF.7s were used to build airboats that were successfully used during

84-679: A builder and racer of motor boats and a race car driver for the Darracq motor company, built his first aircraft in 1907, although it did not fly until late 1909. It was a monoplane with a wire-braced wooden fuselage resembling the Blériot XI However, it was almost immediately superseded by a series of similar monoplanes, which were exhibited at the Brussels Salon d'Automobiles, d'Aeronautique, du Cycles et dus Sports in January 1910. These featured

112-502: A flying model powered by a 2 kW (3 hp) Duthiel-Chalmers. In 1910, Hanriot and his staff pilots regularly appeared at air shows in France and England. Hanriot's 15-year-old son Marcel Hanriot became the youngest holder of a pilot's certificate and joined his father's pilots as a competition flyer. René Hanriot then withdrew from competition flying himself and concentrated on constructing aircraft. Hanriot's 1911 military two-seater

140-495: A licence manufacturer, notably of Sopwith 1½ strutters , when the HD.1 was produced in 1916. The type was a conventional fighter with the general characteristics of a typical Sopwith aircraft, being strongly but lightly built and combining clean lines with a light wing loading . It used the same "1½" (or "W") cabane strut arrangement as the Sopwith two-seater. It had a flat lower wing, though

168-400: A protective cage surrounding the propeller. Farman's airboats sold for 25,000 to 50,000 francs depending on the model, a price that proved too steep for potential buyers; the company pulled out of the boat business by the end of the 1920s. Hanriot HD.1 The Hanriot HD.1 is a French World War I single-seat fighter aircraft. Rejected for service with French squadrons in favour of

196-473: A slender wooden monocoque fuselage and were powered by a 20 hp Darracq and a 40 hp Gyp. and a handful were built. Together with Darracq racing colleague Louis Wagner , Hanriot started a flying school at Bétheny near Reims , where the Hanriot factory was located. Beatrix de Rijk , the first Dutch woman to earn a pilot's licence, learned to fly there. Unusually, Hanriot tested new design features using

224-472: The Lorraine-Dietrich company under the name Lorraine-Hanriot . The merger lasted three years until 1933 when the two companies separated, and Marcel Hanriot stepped forward again to lead his family business. Under his management, the company embarked on an ambitious project to design and build state-of-the-art metal military aircraft like the H.220 heavy fighter . However, its main successes would be with

252-719: The Mesopotamian Campaign fought by Britain and her colonial subjects against the forces of the Ottoman Empire in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq ). Following the success of these improvised airboats, Britain began ordering purpose-built airboats from Farman and Charles de Lambert 's company for use on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Farman Aircraft began producing civilian airboats in the 1920s. Its first non-military airboat sailed in 1920, though its first civilian airboat for sale

280-683: The SPAD S.VII , the type was supplied to the Aviation Militaire Belge (Belgian Military Aviation) and the Corpo Aeronautico Militare (Military Aviation Corps) of the Royal Italian Army , with both of which it proved highly successful. Of a total of about 1,200 examples built, 831 were produced by Italian companies under licence . The Hanriot company produced a series of pioneering monoplanes pre-war but had settled down as

308-638: The Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Centre (SNCAC). 'Central Air Works' consortium. Hanriot aeroplanes included pre-war monoplanes with boat-like fuselages, the HD.1 and 2 World War I biplane fighters, the HD.14 trainer, and the H.220 series of twin-engined heavy fighters that eventually evolved into the SNCAC 600 fighter just before World War II ., The company's main bases of operations were Bétheny (a suburb of Reims ) Boulogne-Billancourt , Carrières-sur-Seine and Bourges . René Hanriot,

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336-586: The Sopwith 1 A.2 and Salmson 2 A.2 ). In 1915, Marcel Hanriot, after being seriously wounded in a night-flying raid, was released from military service and joined his father's factory. Around the same time, Hanriot hired the young engineer Emile Dupont, and in 1916, the Dupont-designed fighter HD.1 was produced. Although being passed over by the French Air Force in favour of the more powerful SPAD VII design,

364-519: The U.S. Navy – some naval Hanriots were converted to or built as floatplanes with enlarged tail surfaces. The bulk of early production was supplied to the Belgians, who notoriously had to make do with Allied cast-offs. With the Belgian fighter squadrons the HD.1 proved surprisingly successful and the type remained the standard Belgian fighter for the rest of the war. Willy Coppens , the top Belgian ace of

392-498: The 1912 military trials and attempts to sell them were unsuccessful. Faced with bankruptcy, René Hanriot sold his assets to Louis Alfred Ponnier, who reorganised the company as the Société de Construction de Machines pour la Navigation Aérienne (CMNA), headed by Pagny. In 1913, Marcel Hanriot, now 18, was called up for military service. The Ponnier factory continued to develop monoplane racers for several years, one of which placed second in

420-633: The 1913 Gordon Bennett Trophy competition. Following the outbreak of World War I , Marcel Hanriot, still in military service, flew French Air Force bombers. The German advance stalled with the CMNA/Ponnier factories in Rheims behind German lines, but René Hanriot founded a new factory, Aéroplanes Hanriot et Cie , in Levallois. Starting as a subcontractor building aeroplane components, the company progressed to licence-build aircraft from other manufacturers (notably

448-634: The Farman brothers reestablished the firm as the " Société Anonyme des Usines Farman " (SAUF), but only three years later it was absorbed by Sud-Ouest . Maurice's son, Marcel Farman, reestablished the SAUF in 1952, but his effort proved unsuccessful and the firm was dissolved in 1956. The Farman brothers designed and built more than 200 types of aircraft between 1908 and 1941. They also built cars until 1931 and boats until 1930. In 1907, Henri Farman bought his first aircraft from Gabriel Voisin and soon began to improve

476-459: The HD.1 / HD.2 series and bringing out new biplane and monoplane designs. In 1924, having outgrown its Boulogne-Billancourt works, the company moved to Carrières-sur-Seine René Hanriot died on 7 November 1925. His heirs, Marcel and his two brothers-in-law, entrusted daily operations of the factories to Outhenin Chalandre, formerly director of a paper mill. In 1930, the Hanriot company became part of

504-533: The HD.1 was ordered by the Belgian and Italian Air Force. Heavy demand resulted in a new factory being opened in Boulogne-Billancourt (84, rue des Moulineaux). Licences to build the HD.1 were also sold to Macchi in Italy. Hanriot produced 5000 aircraft and employed 2000 workers in his Boulogne-Billancourt factory alone. After the war, Hanriot continued to manufacture fighters and all-purpose aircraft, building on

532-645: The Italians, who manufactured it in quantity and used it to replace Nieuports and SPADs. The type was considered (by the Italians) to be a better all-round fighter than even the SPAD S.XIII and it became the standard Italian fighter, equipping 16 of the 18 operational Italian fighter squadrons by November 1918. Surplus Italian-built Hanriots were used by several countries postwar, including the Swiss . The U.S. Naval Aircraft Factory built (or possibly modified/converted) 10 HD.1s in

560-477: The design of the aircraft; as a result it was known as either Farman I or Voisin-Farman I . In 1908, after further modifications which included re-covering it with Continental rubberized fabric and the addition of side-curtains, the aircraft was re-designated Farman I-bis . Ailerons were fitted after Wilbur Wright's flying demonstration at Le Mans in August 1908. A second aircraft, to be called Farman II ,

588-464: The liaison/training monoplane H.180/H.182 and the twin-engined H.232/H.232 trainer In 1936, the company was included in Pierre Cot 's nationalisation programme. In 1937, It Merged with Farman to become the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Centre . Unlike Maurice Farman , who left the new company in protest, Marcel Hanriot remained one of the directors. Farman In 1941

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616-410: The top wing had quite sharp dihedral . On the power of its 110  hp (82 kW) Le Rhone rotary engine it was not outstandingly fast but it was very manoeuvrable and proved popular with pilots as a safe and pleasant aircraft to fly. To maintain a competitive climbing and altitude performance it was usual practice to restrict armament to one synchronised Vickers machine gun , although there

644-399: The war, was the most successful HD.1 pilot. At least one of his machines was experimentally fitted with an 0.43 in (11 mm) Vickers machine-gun for use in balloon busting, something at which Coppens excelled. Most of his victories were balloons and many were claimed while flying HD.1s. These aircraft remained in use until the late 1920s. The type was also supplied in small numbers to

672-524: Was Le Ricocheur (pictured at right), a closed-cabin prototype capable of carrying 12 passengers at speeds of up to 125 kilometres per hour (67 kn). Farman marketed airboats for use as water taxis and as light cargo vessels or patrol boats for French colonial governments, particularly on the Mekong and Niger rivers. These later airboats were open-cabin, like the airboats of today, though they tended to be somewhat larger, had higher freeboards , and lacked

700-693: Was also produced by the Nieuport-Macchi company of Varese, Italy, which built almost 900 HD.1s between 1917 and 1919; more than the parent firm. The new type was ordered into production as a possible replacement for the Nieuport 17 but became "superfluous" when it was decided to replace the Nieuport with the SPAD S.7 in the French air service. Some were supplied to the French Navy , a few of which were eventually passed to

728-562: Was built by the Voisin brothers incorporating design refinements to Farman's specification. Voisin sold this aircraft to J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon , who exported it to England, where it was renamed the Bird of Passage . This episode angered Farman, who in early 1909 ended his association with Voisin and started building his own aircraft. Aircraft designed and built by Henri Farman had a HF prefix, while examples designed and built by his brother Maurice carried

756-428: Was passed over at the French military trials, among other reasons, because its fuselage was so slender that the crew were completely unshielded. It was obsolete and never had a serious chance against contemporary Nieuport , Morane-Saulnier and Deperdussin types. Nieuport's former chief engineer Alfred Pagny designed the 1912 Hanriot, and the Nieuport influence was clearly visible. Still, it failed to gain any orders at

784-409: Was provision for a second gun and one was occasionally fitted. In French-built aircraft the gun (or guns) were fitted to the sides of the cockpit and were accessible to the pilot without their butts being in front of his face in the event of a crash – an unusual but welcome feature, even if its origins lay in the form of the cabane struts. Italian-built versions mounted one machine gun centrally. The type

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