Ferdinand Ferber

Ferdinad Ferber
Born	8 February 1862
Died	22 September 1909 aged 47 Boulogne, France
Allegiance	France
Service/branch	French Army
Rank	Captain

Ferdinand Ferber (February 8, 1862 - September 22, 1909) was a French Army artillery captain who played an important role in the development of aviation during the early 1900's. Although his attempts to build aircraft were generally unsuccessful, his early recognition of the value of the Wright Brothers' work was influential on other people.

Aviation experiments

Ferber's interest in flight was the result of Otto Lillienthal's experimental gliders. During 1901 Ferber constructed a primitive copy of a Lilienthal glider, attempting to fly it from a launching tower. Ferber became aware of the aeronautical experiments of Octave Chanute, a French-born American civil engineer, as a result of reading an article in the Revue Scientifique published in the issue dated 1 June 1901. Ferber wrote to Chanute, and through him learnt of the experiments of the Wright Brothers, receiving a copy of the Wilbur Wright's paper "Some Aeronautical Experiments" which had been published in the Journal of the Western Society of Engineers in December 1901. Ferber then built a glider based upon photographs of the Wright's 1901 glider.

Ferber's 1902 glider, the Type V, resembled the Wright glider in being a two-bay biplane with a forward elevator, but the resemblance ends there. The construction was crude in the extreme, the wings consisting merely of a simple framework of bamboo loosely covered with fabric, entirely lacking the ribs which formed the wings of the Wright's glider into a lift-giving aerofoil section. Moreover there was no attempt at lateral control. The connection between lateral and directional control was the key discovery of the Wright Brothers, and although their 1901 glider lacked a rudder the use of wing warping was clearly described in the paper by Wilbur Wright. Ferber's experiments with this aircraft were encouraging, and an account of his work written by Ferber under his pseudonym "de Rue" was published in the February 1903 issue of l'Aérophile.

Ferber did not attend Chanute's lecture to the Aero Club de France in April 1903, but after hearing of it he wrote to Ernest Archdeacon, one of the founder members of the Aero Club. His letter asked Archdeacon to use his influence to get the Aero Club to announce a prize for a glider flight, and contained the exhortation:

"The aeroplane mut not be allowed to reach successful achievement in America (il ne faut pas laisser l'aéroplane s'acheiver en Amérique).

Ferber then built another aircraft very similar to his 1902 glider. This differed principally in having a pair of triangular rudders mounted on the aft outboard interplane struts. This aircraft was then fitted with a 6hp (4 kW) Buchet engine, driving a pair of coaxially mounted propellers, in which form it was called the Type V-bis. Between September 1903 and October 1904 a number of attempts at flight were made, and he also constructed a tall latticework tower supporting a long counterbalanced revolving arm from which the aircraft was suspended. Ferber wrote that trials of this machine "were completely useless, but drew public attention to aviation"

During 1904 Ferber assisted Ernest Archdeacon with the trials of his Wright-derived glider at Berck-sur-Mer. He also constructed another aircraft, the Type VI, notable for its use of a rear-mounted horizontal stabiliser and also featuring dihedral in an attempt to obtain lateral stability.

In June 1905 Ferber wrote to the Wright Brothers offering to buy one of their machines. The Wrights were unwilling to do this but their reply, dated 9 October 1905, detailed the flights they had recently made, and so Ferber was the first European to learn of these achievements.

In 1908, Ferber founded the National Aviation League with the help of the well-known physiologist René Quinton. Quinton was a member of a Parisian group of literary personalities called the "Forty-five," who honored achievements in literature, sciences and arts. In May 1908 Ferber addressed the group at Quinton's suggestion and after receiving a standing ovation for his accomplishments in aviation, Quinton was inspired to establish a 10,000 francs prize for the first person to fly for 5 minutes with engine stopped and without losing more than 50 metres altitude..

Captain Ferber was killed on 22 September 1909 when a Voisin biplane he had bought ran into a ditch while taxying at speed.

Aircraft

• Ferber I
• Ferber II
• Ferber III
• Ferber IV

1901 monoplane hang-glider modelled on Otto Lilienthal's designs.

• Ferber V

1902 two bay biplane glider with forward elevator, later fitted with triangular rudders on the outer interplane struts, and thn rebuilt with a 6 hp Buchet engine and renamed the V-bis.

• Ferber VI

1904 two bay biplane glider, with an elongated rear-mounted horizontal stabiliser in addition to a forward elevator.

• Ferber VII
• Ferber VIII
• Ferber IX

References

• On Great White Wings: The Wright Brothers and the Race for Flight, page 107
• Gibbs-Smith, C.H. The Rebirth of European Aviation. London: HMSO, 1974 ISBN 0 11 290180 8
• Gibbs-Smith, C.H. Aviation: An Historical Survey London: NMSI, 2003 ISBN 1 90074752 9
• Opdycke, Leonard E. French Aeroplanes Before the Great War Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1999 ISBN 0 7643 0752 5