Published by Andrea Hartstein The Indoor Aeroplane The Indoor Aeroplane

Home | Articles & Plans | Photo gallery | Competition reports | News & Events | Links & Resources |

Santos-Dumont 14bis

Click on an image to see it in high resolution
Click to see the image in high resolution Click to see the image in high resolution Click to see the image in high resolution
Click to see the image in high resolution    

About the model
A peanut built by Anders Sellman from plans by Larry Kruse. It has a flight duration of about 70 seconds, and won the penaut class at the Swedish Indoor Champs 2008. Construction is balsa with single surface tissue covering.

About the origial
A pioneer aeroplane built and flown by Alberto Santos-Dumont, famous for making the first powered flights in Europe. In september 1906, the Santos-Dumont 14bis made its first flight, albeit with the negligible distance of seven meters. The following month, Santos-Dumont made a flight of 60 meters, winning the Coupe Archdeacon for the first flight of over 25 meters. Finally, on november 12, Santos-Dumont made a series of flights, of which the longest was 220 meters, capturing the Aero-club prize for the first flight of 100 meters.
A probably unique feature of this aeroplane was the pilot position, standing up in a balloon type wicker basket which was mounted inside the fuselage.

Home | Articles & Plans | Photo gallery | Competition reports | News & Events | Links & Resources |