Santos Dumont 19 bis (oz14886)

About this Plan

Santos Dumont 19 bis. Free flight scale model for rubber power. Peanut scale.

Update 25/10/2023: Added article, thanks to Pit.

Quote (google-translated from the German): "Construction plan: History of the Libellule by Santos Dumont (1907) Since Santos Dumont alternately gave his numbers to his airships, airplanes and even ships, the Libellule is not his 19th flying machine, but only his third. After the famous 14 bis (the double-decker duck), which flew once 60 m and then 220 m in Bagatelle (France) on October 23rd and November 12th 1906 and the prices for the first flights in Europe exceeded 25 m or 100 m (3000 Fr. Archdeacon or 1500 Fr. Aeroclub Franc), followed a year later by the Santos Dumont 15, a biplane, and the Santos Dumont 16, an airship. No. 17 was a double-decker project that was not built, No. 18 was a waterboat.

The S.D.19 monoplane that was now built (typical feature of the bamboo fuselage rod and the two front side fins with the number 19 as well as a 2-cylinder box engine in the middle of the front edge of the wing) was able to make short flights of up to 200 on November 17, 1907 m execute. The S.D.19 was designed and built in 15 days and was the first of Dumont's demoiselles, first called Libellule.

Wingspan is given as 5.1 or 5.2 m, wing depth 2 m, F = 10 m2, length 7 or 8 m, engine Dutheil-Chalmers 2 cyl. Boxer with 17 - 20 HP (22 kg). Weight with pilot is given as 110 kg (Santos Dumont weighed approx. 54 kg), so the total weight was only 56 kg. The SD 19 then received two TATIN propellers with V-belt drive from the boxer engine.

Now the 19 bis was developed from the Santos Dumont 19, which is our model for the model. Changes were as follows: an 8 cyl. Antoinette V engine of 24 hp was installed below in front of the driver's seat, a large TATIN propeller (similar to a saloon aircraft propeller) by means of a wide drive belt, which is the pulley rotates at the top in front of the wing. The two vertical fins marked 19 were removed, as was the small front hexagonal horizontal rudder. The wing got twice the number of ribs by inserting a rib into each free space. Two almost vertical cooler units gave the Libellule a striking appearance.

I have not yet been able to find a flight photo of the S.D.19. No flight performance is known, so it probably didn't fly.

However, our model can fly, ground take-off is also possible, and the flight image looks exciting, as was also reflected in the scale evaluation in competitions in Belgium in 1983 with second place and 1984 with first place out of around 40 models.

The front part of the model is slightly extended to make it easier to fly. The Libellule model plan is approximately 85% true to the original, as the existing photos do not show all the details.

To my knowledge there is no model of the Libellule in the Musee de l'Air in Paris either. Since there is no clear length information, the S.D. 19 stated both 7 and 8 m length, which is roughly the same for the S.D. 19 is true, the tail unit could also be 30 mrn (0.5 m) further apart than shown in the plan, which would also correspond to a side view of a photo of the flying machine..."

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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