Multi-millionaire Santos-Dumont designed his No.19 monoplane - nicknamed Demoiselle - at the end of 1907. This monoplane was very small and ultra light weight, span of 5 meter and a lenght of 8 meter. The very light bamboo construction weighed somewhat less than 60 kg inclusive the twin-cylinder Dutheil and Chalmers engine rated at 17 till 20 hp.
This artist has mixed the versions somewhat as what we see is the original version of the Demoiselle with its very thin bamboo tailboom combined with a later version of the machine which had the engine just before the pilot driving the propeller (fitted at the height of the wing) via a chain. The original version had the tiny engine mounted just before the wing.
This machine could only fly with very light aviators, like Santos Dumont (49 kg).
The card is one of series produced by the chocolate firm Lefèvre-Utile, which still exists today.
Tags: 1907 Demoiselle Lefèvre-Utile No.19 Santos-Dumont
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Lefèvre-Utile had to present the famous flight from Louis Blériot crossing the Channel from France to England ob 25 July 1909. Their illustrator did a marvellous job by painting the machine Blériot actually used in the flight. Detail is great and precise even the slight wrinkle in the rudder is securely reporduced. The safety tube mounted in the fuselage which should have kept the machine afloat when coming into the water is not drawn in. After the flight every card producer in France saw fit to present cards of Blériot crossing the Channel. Most (or all) of these cards were fakes which the machine 'pasted' in. Often also wrong Blériot types were copied in.
A marvellous card, printed the old way in relief.
Tags: 1909 Blériot Dover Lefèvre-Utile Type XI
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In February 1909 the Wright brothers demonstrated their biplane for the first time in France at Pau. They did a lot of flights during 9 till 18 Fwebruary, where they took a lot of people for the first time into the air. They even took up King Alphonse XIII - king of Italy - against the protocol which even forbade him to go up into the air in a balloon. Wilbur Wright and King Alphonse XIII made a flight of 28 minutes endurance (!).
A card in the series of Lefèvre-Utile.
Tags: Biplane Lefèvre-Utile Pau Wright
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Suitably honoured in a spectacular colour card by Lefèvre-Utile - the French biscuits makers - is the US aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss. On 28 August 1909 Glenn Curtiss was the winner of the Coupe Gordon-Bennett at a speed of 75,693 km/hr. Just second was Blériot with a speed of 75,298 km/hr.
Curtiss was flying a special version of his biplane, mostly identified as the Reims racer. On the card the machine is identified as a Herring Curtiss biplane.
When you want to view more of the Lefèvre-Utile (LU) cards in my collection tap the tag 'Lefèvre-Utile'.
Tags: 1909 Biplane Coupe Gordon Bennett Curtiss Glenn Curtiss Lefèvre-Utile Pusher Reims
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This Lefèvre-Utile (LU) card most likely commemorates that the Voisin brothers - Charles and Gabriel - lived in their early years in <b>Neuville-sur-Saône</b> (near Lyon). As boys they started already their interest in flying as they constructed in their holiday of 1896 a six meter span glider along sketches found in a magazine. This plane was built in the factory (work place) of their grandfather at Neuville.
I think this card commemorate the humble beginnings of the Voisin brothers at Neuville in 1896 while setting it against one of the big designs of the Voisin brothers arounf 1909 / 1910.
Tags: Biplane Lefèvre-Utile Lyon Neuville Pusher Voisin
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