Chanute, Octave Alexandre

SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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b. 18 February 1832 Paris, France

d. 24 November 1910 Chicago, USA

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American engineer, developer of successful hang-gliders in the 1890s and disseminator of aeronautical information.

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Chanute was born in Paris, but from the age of 6 he lived in the United States, where he became a prominent railway engineer. He developed an interest in aviation relatively late in life, and in fact built his first glider at the age of 64. Before that, he had collected all the information he could find on aviation, especially on the work of Otto Lilienthal in Germany. In 1894 he published an account of these researches in a classic work, Progress in Flying Machines.

By 1896 Chanute was ready to carry out practical experiments of his own and designed a series of hang-gliders. He started with a Lilienthal-type monoplane and progressed to his very successful biplane glider. He used a bridge-truss method of cross-bracing to give his wings the required strength, a system used by many of his successors, including the Wright brothers. Chanute's gliders were flown on the shore of Lake Michigan by his two young assistants A.M.Herring and W.Avery. The biplane glider made some seven hundred flights without mishap, covering up to 100 m (110 yds). In 1898 Herring fitted an engine into a modified glider and claimed to have made two short hops.

In 1900 the Wright brothers made contact with Chanute and sought his advice, which he readily gave, indeed, he became one of their most trusted advisors. In 1903 Chanute travelled to Paris and gave an illustrated lecture describing his own and the Wrights' gliding successes, generating much interest amongst European aviators.

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Principal Honours and Distinctions

Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal 1910.

Bibliography

1894, Progress in Flying Machines, New York (Chanute's classic work).

Further Reading

C.H.Gibbs-Smith, 1986, Aviation, London.

—1965, The Invention of the Aeroplane 1799–1909, London (both describe Chanute's place in the history of aviation).

T.D.Crouch, A Dream of Wings, Americans and the Airplane 1875–1905 (includes several chapters on Chanute and a comprehensive bibliography).

Chanute is also mentioned in most of the biographies of the Wright brothers.

JDS