Robert Esnault-Pelterie

Robert Albert Charles Esnault-Pelterie (November 8, 1881–December 6, 1957) was a pioneering French aircraft designer and spaceflight theorist.

Related Topics:
1881 - 1957 - French - Aircraft

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He was born in Paris, the son of a textile industrialist. He was educated at the Faculte des Sciences, studying engineering at the Sorbonne.

Related Topics:
Paris - Textile - Engineering - Sorbonne

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His early experiments in aviation were based off the wright brothers machine, and used a biplane glider. His glider designs were tested on a beach near Calais, using wing-warping techniques for controlling the flight. However his designs were based upon misinformation and proved a failure. After condemning the Wright brother's approach, he developed the concept of the aileron along the trailing edge. This is now a standard roll maneuvering element on most modern aircraft. (Note that the aileron was also invented independently by the Aerial Experiment Association, headed by Alexander Graham Bell).

Related Topics:
Wright brothers - Calais - Aileron - Roll - Aerial Experiment Association - Alexander Graham Bell

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In 1906 he began his first experiments in towed flight. On September 19, 1906 he flew 500m. He made his first powered flight on October 10, 1907, a distance of 100m with the Pelterie I (or R.E.P. I). This was driven by a seven cylinder, 30hp air-cooled engine.

Related Topics:
1906 - 1907

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Trials of the monoplane Pelterie II began on June 8, 1908. This aircraft set a record with a 1,200m flight at 30m altitude. After a modifed version of this plane was flown for the last time in 1909 at Rheims, Pelterie stoped flying and instead focused on the development and manufacture of airplanes.

Related Topics:
1908 - 1909 - Rheims

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He served in World War I and was made an Officer de la Legion d'Honeur.

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His family had invested heavily to fund his airplane designs, and this had left them nearly in financial ruins. However, he was the inventor of the "joy stick" flight control, and owned a patent on the design. Following the war he was involved in litigation over his joy stick patent. Many planes built during the war had used this design and the aircraft companies owed him royalties. The damages he won and subsequent royalties made him a wealthy man. This also allowed him to repay his father's significant investment.

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He gained an interest in space travel, and was the first person to develop the equations for rocket flight in space. His culminating work was L'Astronautique, published in 1930. A later version published in 1934 included details on interplanetary travel and applications of nuclear power.

Related Topics:
Space travel - Rocket - 1930 - 1934 - Interplanetary travel - Nuclear power

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On June 8, 1927, Robert gave a symposium for the French Astronautics Society titled L'exploration par fusées de la très haute atmosphére de la possibilité des voyages interplanétaires, concerning the exploration of outer space using rocket propulsion. Jean-Jacques Barre attended this lecture, and developed a correspondance with Esnault-Peltier on the topic of rockets.

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In November, 1928 he was married to Carmen de Quiros on board

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the Ile de France while sailing to New York.

Related Topics:
Ile de France - New York

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In 1929 Robert proposed the idea of the ballistic missile for military bombardment. By 1930, Robert and Jean-Jacques had persuaded the French War Department to fund a study of the concept. In 1931, the two began experimenting with various types of rocket propulsion systems, including liquid propellants. The same year he ran a demonstration of a rocket engined powered with gasoline and liquid oxygen. During an experiment with a rocket design using tetra-nitromethane he lost three fingers from his right hand during an explosion. Unfortunately their work failed to galvanize an interest in rocketry within France.

Related Topics:
1929 - Ballistic missile - 1930 - 1931

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Among his interests was horseback riding, playing golf, camping,

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and driving a car. During his lifetime he earned about 120 patents in a variety of fields ranging from metallurgy to automobile suspension. He was the inventor of the "joystick" aircraft control, radial engines, and of a new type of fuel pump. He also developed the idea of rocket maneuver by means of a gimballed nozzle.

Related Topics:
Metallurgy - Joystick - Radial engine - Fuel pump - Gimbal - Nozzle

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