Antoinette (manufacturer)
Antoinette was a French manufacturer of light petrol engines. Antoinette also became a pioneer-era builder of aeroplanes before World War I, most notably the record-breaking monoplanes flown by Hubert Latham and René Labouchère. Based in Puteaux, the Antoinette concern was in operation between 1903 and 1912. The company operated a flying school at Chalons for which it built one of the earliest flight simulators.
Detail of Antoinette VII aircraft, showing Antoinette V8 engine
Antoinette V8 aircraft engine exhibited at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci", Milan.
Antoinette V8 aircraft engine exhibited at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci", Milan.
Ground training on an Antoinette simulator
Aviation in the pioneer era
The pioneer era of aviation was the period of aviation history between the first successful powered flight, generally accepted to have been made by the Wright Brothers on 17 December 1903, and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.
Vue du Pont de Sèvres, painted in 1908 by Henri Rousseau
Wilbur Wright gliding, October 1902
Photo of Santos-Dumont's 12 November 1906 aileron-fitted Quatorze-Bis, for its concluding series of flights before retirement.
Henri Farman winning the Grand Prix d'Aviation, 13 January 1908