On Monday, June 19, 2000 at 9:00:00 AM UTC+2, Robert Ehrlich wrote:
Jan Lustrup wrote:

I will try to find out some more this summer...I whant to see the sigte with my
own eyes and read the plage there...so I will keep everyone informed about it..

Jan

willem wrote:

Hi everybody!
I'm very interested in dates of pioneer-flights( tryouts).
I have a dbase of the years -4000 - 1903.
The name Berentsen was missing, but I have found Narvestad in 1812 (?), a
flight made with wings...over 150 meters.
Now I want to know if it was 1812 or 1825?
Thanks for more information.
In a book that I am owning, "Histoire du vol à voile français" (i.e History of french
gliding) by Reginald & Anne Jouhaud, a lot of early precursors are mentionned, although
you may argue about the fact that some attempts may or not be regarded as flights. As the
title says, they only mention french attempts:

In 1580, a man whose name is now unknown tries to fly above the river Seine starting
from tower "Tour de Nesle". He doesn't succeed, but doesn't kill himself.

In 1604 an Italian engineer named Bolori, living in Troyes, succeed in gliding from
a tower, but kills himself.

In 1660 a man named Allard is severly injured after a flight attempt.

In 1678 a man named Besnier is said to have been flying using 4 wings tied to his
arms and legs. Later he sold some wings to other people who are said to succeed in
using them.

In 1742 Jean-François Boyuin de Beneto, marquis de Bacqueville build a flying machine
about which very few is known, probably made from 4 wings tied to arms and legs.
Starting from his house near the river Seine, he succeed in a 200m glide ending with a
crash landing and a broken leg.

In 1806 Guillaume Resnier de Goué succeed in a glide of 300m starting from a 40m high
tower at Angoulême, ending with a rough landing and a broken leg.

In 1856 Jean-Marie Le Bris build a glider looking like a big bird made of wood and
fabric, launches pulled by a running donkey his glider held on a carriage.. After take
off the tow rope catches the donkey's driver, then both land with a ground loop that
causes damage to a wing.

As the span of this glider was 15m, it is probably the first standard class glider of
the world, probably also the first flight with 2 persons, although it can hardly qualify
as a 2-seater. A replica of this aircraft was recently built and I saw it at the last
air fair in Le Bourget, as well as on an exhibition that was held in the following summer
on the Champs Elysées for celebrating the 100 years of existence of the Aéro Club de
France.

A very long paragraph in the book is then devoted to Louis-Pierre Mouillard, who succeeded
in his first flight in 1864 with a glider of 13kg and a wing area of 12m². Later Chanute
heard about his work, was writing to him, claimed a common patent with him and credited
him for the idea of wing twisting for controlling bank. At the first historical sailplane
meeting in France, held at Combegrasse in 1922, the local field was renamend "camp
Mouillard" in remembering of him.

Of course everything above, except my own seeing of the replica of the glider of Le Bris,
is taken from the book and I can't assert anything about the reliability of the facts
related.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4op7zrh7ws..._2841.JPG?dl=0