Here is a better image of it:
This is the Givaudan flying machine, built and tested at the Vermorel motor factory at Villefranche, France in 1909. It was quite unsuccessful.
A later version of it, known as the Vermorel-Givaudan, had triplane wings fitted to either side of the front set of cellular wings, and a fixed tailplane fitted to the rear set. In this form, it was also quite unsuccessful.
A French aeromodeller called Emmanuel Fillon has made a semi-accurate scale model of this machine:
As you can see, the model can fly, even if the full-sized one couldn't. M. Fillon has produced many wild and strange models and offers plans for quite a few of them (visit his website at
Plans Fillon), although unfortunately not for the Givaudan.
A few years ago, American aeromodeller David Dodge of Connecticut came up with a flying model that features also hoop wings. He calls these type of models the Ezekiel, due to the "wheels within wheels" aspect of their wing design. He has a website, but for some reason I can't put in a link to it. You'll just have to use this URL, but get rid of the spaces:
- http : // home .
att .net / ~dannysoar3 /Ezekiel.htm
The idea of using hoop wings on full-sized flying machines is still around, as can be seen by these
two entries in recent Red Bull and Birdman contests.
Cheers,
Paul