French aviators and inventors

continue to devote time and thought to the construction of a machine which will permit man to fly entirely by their own exertion. No motor or other outside power enters into the making of these small machines, called ‘aviettes’, the fundamental idea being to propel them by human force alone.

Results so far have not been strikingly successful, but high hopes are entertained of several new ‘aviettes’ now under course of construction. The formula followed by these inventors was obtained by M Magnan, director of a French technical school, who, after years of study, declares he has succeeded in translating the principle of bird flight into machines. By applying his formula to the measurements of a bird, M Magnan obtained the following dimensions for an ‘aviette’ of the monoplane variety, whose maximum weight, including the pilot, should not be more than 440 pounds: Wing surface, 32.67 square feet; weight of wings, 34.45 pounds; spread of wings, 16 feet; width of wings, 3.63 feet; length of tail, 4.38 feet; length over all, 10 feet.

View 1923 footage of an aviette HERE

Gazette article 1913