Etrich Taube

YavorD · 4 June 2009, 10:38 AM

Д 13032 Аэроплан товарищества "Авиата" (г. Варшава) - экспонат выставки.
An aeroplane exhibited by Aviata company (Товарищество Aвiaтa), Warsaw (Warszawa) at the First Intermnational Aeronautical Exhibition at Mikhaylov's Arena (Первая международная воздухоплавательная выставка в Михайловском манеже) in St Petersburg, April 1911.

Four more photographs dated 1910 and 1911. In my opinion, at least three of the pictures show one at the same event, St Petersburg, summer of 1911.

Regards,
Yavor

Flamingo · 4 June 2009, 11:59 AM

Lovely pictures, thank you Yavor!

Ransom E. Olds · 4 June 2009, 12:50 PM

Yavor: Any idea what the source of motive power was? Benz maybe? Ransom

YavorD · 4 June 2009, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ransom E. Olds

Yavor: Any idea what the source of motive power was? Benz maybe? Ransom

I can not confirm, but it can be 65 P.S. Austro-Daimler.
Regards,
Yavor

Aquilius · 4 June 2009, 02:03 PM

Marvellous pictures!

The date April 1911 indicates that we look here at the first Lohner-Etrich Taube that was delivered to Russia in the same month (tested in March at Wiener Neustadt).

3 Lohner-Etrich Tauben were sold to Russia in 1911.
The first two belonged to "Series A" (Etrich-X & Etrich-XIII).
Payment is dated on April 9th & July 26th, but that might be when MLG paid Lohner.

A third copy was passed over to Russia by Karl Illner in August 1911.
It belonged to "Series C" (Etrich-XXIII) and must have had the later undercarriage with two skids and 4 wheels and a slightly longer fuselage. Otherwise Series C was almost identical. All were powered by a 65 hp Austro-Daimler 4-cyl. engine.

Cheers

Aquilius

Ransom E. Olds · 4 June 2009, 02:21 PM

Yavor: Thanks for the pics and comments. I've always felt the Bleriot was "the" airplane of the belle epoque, but these doves are very chaming. Ransom

YavorD · 4 June 2009, 03:38 PM

Thank you, Aquilius!
I need to look more carefully into Reinhard Keimel's book.
Regards,
Yavor

Lodzermensch · 4 June 2009, 04:25 PM

Hello,

Thanks for interesting thread.

I even say – Polish connection, though.

Warszawskie Towarzystwo Lotnicze “AWIATA” – Warsaw Aviation Company AWIATA was a private venture of Polish businessmen established in autumn 1910 in Warsaw. The Company was building such aircraft as Farman III, IV, VII and Bleriot XI under license. In addition the Company had kept a flying school. It was AWIATA who had purchased three Etrich Taube in 1911.

Society was winded up in March 1912 by the tsarist authorities and the army took over its property – among other – the airplanes.

Greetings

Marek

YavorD · 5 June 2009, 01:30 AM

Thank you for the clarification, Marek!
I am a bit puzzled by the letter "V" used in "4 AVIATA Varsovie" instead of "W".
Photographs from the Aviation meeting at Kolomyazhskii Hippodrome in St Petersburg, 25 April - 3 May 1910 (old style).
Source: ЦГАКФФД.
Regards,
Yavor

Lodzermensch · 5 June 2009, 06:46 AM

Hello Yavor,

Thanks a lot for these excellent photographs I have never seen before except the second one.

As for the name of the Company – let me explain it from the beginning. As you know, east part of Poland was formally annexed by Russian Empire. Russian language was the official. This means that every official document – like registers or notary’s deeds - must have been written in Russian. For this reason a name Авиата is absolutely correct. However, Russian authorities permitted the simultaneous use of Polish names, thus among Polish people the Company was known under its Polish name AWIATA. Letter W in Polish is an equivalent of Russian В – pronunciation is exactly the same. That is why Russian Авиата in polish transcription is AWIATA. Pronunciation of a letter W in West European languages is different than in Polish. For this reason the name of Company visible on rudders of the Farmans is written as AVIATA – the same as the name of the city – Varsovie (French manner) instead Polish Warszawa. In other words – English or French V is an equivalent of Polish W and Cyrillic B.

I must admit that the date when photographs posted by you were taken is a bit misleading. As I wrote before AWIATA (AVIATA) was established in autumn 1910. I have never heard of any other AWIATA, AVIATA or Авиата existed in Warsaw before this date. Moreover, eight hangars, factory yard and other buildings of Company’s factory were built at the end of 1910. License production of Farman biplanes was launched in April 1911. As you can see – it was impossible to exhibit planes sported AVIATA trade mark before 1911.

Greetings

Marek