#5 Clément Ader

Successful flight – 1890

Clément Ader was a French inventor and engineer and is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation. Using the studies of Louis Pierre Mouillard on the flight of birds, he constructed his first flying machine in 1886, the Éole. It was a bat-like design run by a lightweight steam engine of his own invention, with 4 cylinders developing 20 horsepower (15 kW), driving a four-blade propeller. The engine weighed no more than 4 kg/kW (7 pounds per horsepower). The wings had a span of 14 m (46 ft). All-up weight was 300 kg (650 lb). On 9 October 1890, Ader attempted a flight of the Éole. It is accepted that the aircraft took off, reaching a height of 20 cm, (8 in) and flew uncontrolled for approximately 50 m (160 ft), 13 years before the Wright Brothers.

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