Clement Adler

Clement Adler was born in France in 1841. He became an engineer in Toulouse and took a keen interest in aviation. He studied the flight of birds and bats built small model flying machines. In 1872 he began experimenting with a flapping wing machine. However, it failed because a man did not have the strength to operate it.

Adler was also an inventor who worked on the development of the telephone. At the 1881 Paris Expedition of Electricity he demonstrated stereophonic sound transmission by telephone. Later that year he patented his invention.

In 1886 Adler began building a monoplane powered by a steam engine. It was bat-shaped and had heavily cambered wings of 45.9 feet (14 m) span. The Ecole was flown by Adler near Gretz on 9th October, 1890. It rose about 6 inches off the ground and travelled about 165 feet (50.29 m).

The French War Ministry was impressed by Adler's achievement and commissioned him to produce a new plane. It took him five years to build the Avion III. Like the Ecole it had bat-shaped wings that had a span of 52.5 feet (16 m). Powered by two steam engines it had two tractor propellers.

The Avion III underwent a secret test at the Sartory Military Base on 12th October, 1897. The engines were too heavy and too weak to lift the machine off the ground. However, Adler falsely claimed that he had flown about 1,000 feet (300 m). It was not until 1910 that the French War Ministry admitted that Adler had been lying about the achievements of the Avion III.

Clement Adler died in 1925.