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Ultralight inspired by Georges Sablier?

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cluttonfred

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Georges Sablier was a prolific French aircraft designer especially active in the 1920s and 1930s with many designs for amateur construction as well as a relationship with Spanish company for commercial production of his designs, though I do not know if any were actually produced, certainly not in any great numbers. For more information see:

Georges Sablier (French) (English)
Georges Sablier - Machines (French) (English)
Georges Sablier Type Designations

Be warned that "sablier" also means "hourglass" in French so Google Translate sometimes gets confused.

A number of Sablier's plans packages/construction guides from the 1930s can be downloaded here. Sort by "AUTEUR(S)" and go down to "SABLIER" and clicking on the links will start downloading the files (some are quite large). There are quite of few other interesting documents in many languages including English in that list.

In any case, one particular early Sablier design caught my eye, the Type 3 glider of 1923. It's a conventional parasol monoplane with an usually low aspect ratio (<4) for the time that was reported to be remarkably stable and controllable. The fuselage and struts remind me a bit of the Kimbrel Banty. It's not clear from the photos below but I would guess that the parallel struts are braced with wires in an X and perhaps the cabanes as well. The cabanes could have wires on one side only to facilitate cockpit access.

I could see a less extreme version of the Sablier Type 3 with paramotor engine on the nose and a bigger rudder making a fine, simple, stable ultralight. Simple aluminum tube/gussets/blind rivets for the fuselage and tail surfaces, maybe wood wings, all covered in fabric, BMX bicycle MAG plastic wheels, tail skid for a little braking without real brakes or maybe the Sandlin approach of wheels at the CG and skid under the nose for glider-like braking.

Type-3_01_Notices_p2.jpg

Span/Envergure 6,80 m
Length/Longueur 5,65 m
Wing area/Surface alaire 12,90 m2
Empty weight/Poids à vide 60 kg

Type-3_02_Notices_p2.jpg Sablier_Type-03.jpg

Hmmm....
 
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