AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 04 / 268

Plate 04 of 268 · Pioneers · Single-seat light monoplane

Santos-Dumont Demoiselle

No. 20 Demoiselle (1909), replica BAPC.256, painted as BAPC.256, the non-flying Santos-Dumont Demoiselle replica in the Flight Shed at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge: the No. 20 Demoiselle of 1909, Alberto Santos-Dumont’s tiny single-seat monoplane, with a 5.5 m bamboo-ribbed wing, a flat-twin engine perched on the leading edge driving a two-bladed tractor propeller, a tail boom of three bamboo canes braced by steel posts and wires, a cruciform tail on a universal joint that served as both elevator and rudder, the pilot sitting below the wing between two bicycle wheels, and a tail skid, shown standing on its wheels and skid: cream fabric wing stained around the roots, with brown boards over the root leading edge and dark radiator tubes beneath, natural varnished bamboo canes, maroon-brown painted steel posts, struts and chassis, a darker khaki cloth tail, a pale wooden propeller with a copper hub dome and a brown tank above the engine, with no markings, as photographed between 2010 and 2024 (shape from the Demoiselle plans published by Popular Mechanics in 1910; finish following photographs of BAPC.256; builder and engine type unconfirmed); it stands for the pioneer replicas in the gazetteer’s museums, from the Ferguson Flyer and the Wallbro Monoplane to the Short S.27 and Cody’s man-lifting kite.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as BAPC.256, the non-flying Santos-Dumont Demoiselle replica in the Flight Shed at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge: the No. 20 Demoiselle of 1909, Alberto Santos-Dumont’s tiny single-seat monoplane, with a 5.5 m bamboo-ribbed wing, a flat-twin engine perched on the leading edge driving a two-bladed tractor propeller, a tail boom of three bamboo canes braced by steel posts and wires, a cruciform tail on a universal joint that served as both elevator and rudder, the pilot sitting below the wing between two bicycle wheels, and a tail skid, shown standing on its wheels and skid: cream fabric wing stained around the roots, with brown boards over the root leading edge and dark radiator tubes beneath, natural varnished bamboo canes, maroon-brown painted steel posts, struts and chassis, a darker khaki cloth tail, a pale wooden propeller with a copper hub dome and a brown tank above the engine, with no markings, as photographed between 2010 and 2024 (shape from the Demoiselle plans published by Popular Mechanics in 1910; finish following photographs of BAPC.256; builder and engine type unconfirmed); it stands for the pioneer replicas in the gazetteer’s museums, from the Ferguson Flyer and the Wallbro Monoplane to the Short S.27 and Cody’s man-lifting kite. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (410 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Demoiselle, Ferguson Flyer, Wallbro, White, Short S.27, Roe I Biplane, Lilienthal, Cody kite); engine, crew and dimensions are for the No. 20 Demoiselle (1909), replica BAPC.256 modelled here.

History

The Demoiselle

Alberto Santos-Dumont, the son of a wealthy Brazilian coffee planter, settled in Paris in the 1890s and made his name with small airships, flying No. 6 round the Eiffel Tower in 1901 to win the Deutsch prize. In 1906 his tail-first 14-bis biplane made the first officially witnessed powered aeroplane flights in Europe. He then turned to something much smaller: an aeroplane light and simple enough for a private owner, which he called the Demoiselle, a French word for both a young lady and a dragonfly. The first, No. 19, flew at Bagatelle in November 1907.

No. 19 was too unstable to be of much use, and Santos-Dumont reworked the design until, in 1909, it became No. 20. The pilot sat below a bamboo-ribbed silk wing of only 5.5 m span, between two bicycle wheels, with a flat-twin engine perched on the leading edge above him. Three bamboo canes, braced by steel posts and wires, carried a cruciform tail on a universal joint, so that one surface served as both elevator and rudder, and the wing was warped for roll control. Complete, it weighed little more than its pilot. On 13 September 1909 Santos-Dumont flew it across country from Saint-Cyr to Buc, about 9 km, to win a bet.

Santos-Dumont took out no patent on the Demoiselle and gave the design away. Clément-Bayard built a small batch for sale, and in June and July 1910 the American magazine Popular Mechanics printed full plans so that its readers could build their own, which many did. The Demoiselle was a machine for small, light pilots, and its tiny wing made it a handful for anyone heavier. Santos-Dumont gave up flying after a crash early in 1910 and fell ill with multiple sclerosis; he went home to Brazil and died in 1932. The Demoiselle is the oldest design among the pioneer replicas in the gazetteer’s museums, which also include the Ferguson Flyer, Ireland’s first aeroplane, the Wallbro and White monoplanes, the Short S.27, the Roe I biplane, a Lilienthal glider and Cody’s man-lifting kite.

This airframe

Demoiselle replica BAPC.256

BAPC.256The airframe modelled

BAPC.256 is a non-flying replica of the No. 20 Demoiselle, displayed in the Flight Shed at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, among the museum’s reproductions of the Edwardian aeroplanes built and flown at Brooklands and elsewhere. Its builder and the identity of its engine are not recorded in any source we could find. The model shows it as photographed in the museum between 2010 and 2024, standing on its wheels and tail skid: a cream fabric wing, stained around the roots, with brown wooden boards over the root leading edge and dark radiator tubes beneath it, natural varnished bamboo canes, maroon-brown painted steel posts, struts and chassis, a darker khaki cloth tail, a pale wooden propeller with a copper hub dome, a flat-twin engine with a brown tank above it, and a drum-shaped fitting where the pilot’s seat would be. No markings appear on the airframe, so none are painted. The shape follows the Demoiselle plans published by Popular Mechanics in 1910, checked against the dimensions published by Flight in 1909; the finish follows photographs of BAPC.256. The model stands for all the pioneer replicas in the gazetteer’s museums.

See it at Brooklands Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Demoiselle in 6 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 268 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.