In a Paris museum stands the remarkable invention of Clement Adler which has been immortalized by the French nation as the first airplane to carry a human being into the air. Opinion differs, however, as to its success.

An eminent engineer, Adler, began his experiments in aviation in 1872 on a flapping wing machine which failed because a man didn't have the strength to operate it. Turning his attention in 1886 to the fixed-wing type of airplane run by steam engines, he built three machines. His work and demonstrations were kept in deepest secrecy.

Some maintain that the inventor of the first heavier-than-air vehicle to get off the ground was Clement Ader, an engineer from Toulouse who, at the age of 49, built his first flying machine, the Eole. which he tested in October 9, 1890, claiming the flight was crowned in success. The Eole actually lifted only a short distance from the ground. Heartened by the, result, Ader had been substantially funded by the French government to research whether the craft could lift off the ground and cover a given distance, and he himself invested all he had in the construction of the Avion III which he presented before the French Ministry on October 14. 1897.

What happened on that foggy October day was that the plane did not fly a yard. After the experiment, the War Ministry abandoned Ader to his destiny. Among other factors the French engineer, like so many others, was betrayed by its engines, which were too heavy and too weak to lift the Avion III off the ground.

Unsatisfied with the results of his first plane 'Ecole", he built two more. One, the 'Avion' was powered with TWO very well engineered 20-horsepower steam engines. The machine was mounted on a three wheeled landing rear and had a wingspan of an incredible 52 feet 6 inches.

The 'Avion' was demonstrated before a group of French military officers and according to the inventor and some of the witnesses, the 'Avion' actually took off the ground, but fearing a collision with nearby obstacles, Adler cut off the steam and the machine was wrecked.

The arguments remaining are concerned largely with the difference between a true sustained flight and a 'running hop'. Ader was an electrical engineer and inventor, and his name endures in history not only for his pioneering flight, or hop, which he claimed to have made in secret on 9 October 1890, but for his work in developing the telephone. The aircraft he used on the date given was called the Eole, and was the outcome of much earlier experiment, for Ader had publicly exhibited his first large model aeroplane in 1874. In appearance the Eole was like a bat, and it was powered by a steam engine which drove a tractor, or front-mounted, propeller. The wings were arranged to fold, as on modern naval machines used from aircraft carriers, but there were no controlling surfaces, and Ader himself mentioned 'insufficient stability' and 'the necessity for further study'.

A second machine, called the Avion, was never completed.. but it gave the French their accepted name for an aeroplane. Its successor, the Avion III, was tested on two occasions late in 1897; but there is no real evidence to support the claims of Ader, made in later years, that this succeeded in becoming airborne. The most remarkable feature of this third machine was that it had two engines.

Ader foresaw clearly the military uses of airplanes and the French military authorities gave him financial assistance. When this was withdrawn, and after Ader had spent his entire fortune, all work ceased. He destroyed the Ecole, sadly, but the Avion III and its remarkable steam engines survive.

The first machine ever to leave the ground under its own power was built by Clement Adler. A distinguished electrical engineer, Adler got the flying bug and in 1882 he started construction of a flying machine. The result was a bat-like monoplane driven by an exceptionally-light steam engine. In a test on October 9th, 1890, Adler apparently was able to get the machine, which he had named "The Eole," to raise itself above the ground some eight inches for a distance of 165 feet. But like Maxim's, Adler's machine lacked control and was incapable of sustained flight. Later attempts by Adler to build a more sophisticated flying machine for the French military failed, though Adler later was to claim he'd made flights with it as high as 1,000 feet.

Hi F.G. folks. My name is Mike Jackson and I live just up the road from you in Cave Creek, AZ. I'm a professional aviator and an aviation history enthusiast from way back. In my early years I was fascinated with Ader's Eole. I do some metal sculpture and after many years of putting it off, I decided to do a metal sculpture of the Eole. I purchased your dwg and bumped it up 150 %. The model has an 18 " wing span. The body and wings are made from 1/16 sheet steel cut with a plasma cutter. I cut along structural lines, shaped the compound curves on an anvil and Mig welded it altogether. Lots of grinding and polishing. The wheels roll and the prop turns. I brass coated the prop blades, the wing hand adjust  wheels, and the wheel "axle nuts". I got a gun metallic blue color out of the steel by running the torch over it. It is sprayed with a polyurethane gloss lacquer. Mike Jackson , Feb, 04

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Specifications for Clement Ader's Eole Flying Machine

Length: 21 ft 4 in Wingspan: 45ft 11 in Wing area: 301.4 sq ft Weight empty: 498 lb Gross weight: 652 lb Powerplant: 1x20 HP Ader alcohol-burning 4 cylinder steam engine Propeller: 4 bladed approx 11ft 6in dia Performance Maximum speed: 158 mph Range: 164 ft Service ceiling: 8 in