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Cl ment Ader (February 4, 1841 - March 5, 1926) was a French engineer born in Muret, Haute Garonne remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation.
In his time an electrical and mechanical genius, the engineer Ader innovated in a number of domains. He originally studied electrical engineering, and in 1878 improved the telephone, recently invented by Alexander Graham Bell. He refined the invention and established the first telephone network in Paris in 1880. In 1881, he invented the theater-phone, a system of telephonic transmisssion where two channels allowed binaural hearing and gave listeners an exact idea of the respective positions of the actors on a set; it was this invention which gave the first transmission in stereo of the spectacles of the Opera, over a distance of 2 miles (3 km) (1881).
Following this he turned towards mechanical flight, and here concentrated, until the end of his life, all of his time and money. Using the studies of Louis Mouillard (1834-1837) on the flight of birds, he constructed his first flying machine in 1886, the ole, a bat-like design run by a lightweight steam engine of his own invention (4 cylinders developing 20 horsepower (15 kW), the weight no more than 7 pounds per horsepower (4 g/W)) and driving a four-blade propeller. The wings, with a span of 14 yards, were equipped with a system of warping and all together weighed 650 pounds (300 kg). On October 9, 1890, Ader attempted a flight in the ole which succeded in taking off and flying a distance of approximately 50m before witnesses. However, the plane then crashed and was wrecked.
Following the wreck of the ole, Ader undertook the construction of an aircraft he called the Avion II (also referred to as the Zephyr or ole II). Most sources agree that work on this aircraft was never completed, and was abandoned in favour of the Avion III, but Ader claimed in later life that he flew the Avion II in August 1892 for a distance of 200 yards (200 m) at a field in Satory.
Ader's progress attracted the interest of the minister of war, Freycinet. With the backing of the French War office, Ader developed and constructed the Avion III. The Avion was like an enormous bat of linen and wood, of 16 yards in wingspan, equipped with two puller propellers of four blades, each powered by a steam engine of 30 hp (22 kW). After extensive taxiing tests, Ader attempted a flight at Satory on October 14, 1897. Some witnesses content that the Avion rolled, took off towards the sky and, before the official commission, flew a distance of more than 300 yards (300 m), while others contend that the the Avion III crashed before even taking off. In any event, the commission was not impressed and withdrew its funding, but kept the results secret. After the Wright brothers made their flight, the commission released reports on Ader's flights stating that they were succesful.
Abandoning everything and in particular public demonstrations, the "father of aviation" died in Toulouse, in obscurity. His Avion is still displayed at the museum of the Conservatory of Arts and Industry in Paris. Non-French aviation historians often discredit any claims of priority, since all flights ended in crashes, many were disputed, and because Ader greatly exaggerated his achievements in later life. Nonetheless, Ader's October 9, 1890 flight of the ole remains relatively undisputed and Ader is still admired for his efforts; in 1938 France issued a postage stamp honoring him, and Airbus named one of its aircraft assembly sites in Toulouse after him.
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