week) offered by Robert Peugeot. The Peugeot

family business included making cars and

bicycles, so the competition was good publicity

for them. The prize was for the first man to take

off and fly under his own steam. The contest

was first held in Paris in 1912 with hopeful

competitors attaching wings to their bicycles

to try to get airborne. Some just about got off

the ground, but to win the big money prize

you had to reach a height of at least one metre

and cover a distance of at least ten metres.

The contest became an annual event and the

winged bikes were known as aviettes. Some of

the aviettes managed short hops and their pilots

were awarded consolation prizes to encourage

everyone to keep on trying, but it wasn’t until

1921 that Gabriel Poulain took the cash, riding

his biplane aviette. In the Bois de Boulogne, a

huge public park in Paris, Poulain hurtled along

the road leading to the Longchamps racecourse,

heading for a large, square patch of white chalk

on the ground. When he reached the chalk,

by this time doing around 25 mph, he threw a

lever to alter the angle of his wings and he took
off. The tyre marks in the chalk showed that he
stayed in the air for up to 12 metres on the runs
that he made, and those watching judged that
he had made it to more than a metre in height.

The aviette flight of Gabriel Poulain was a

huge achievement, but it wasn’t really human

powered flight. He had managed a human-

powered take-off, but once his wheels were off

the ground he was no longer providing any kind

of power. He had no propeller or any other

kind of device to drive him through the air.

What he did was to glide for 12 metres, and

gliding is not powered flight. However, he

had shown that it was possible for a human to

provide the power needed to get airborne; the

next challenge was to stay airborne.

Top: The Wright

Brothers’ Wright Flyer
showing the distinctive

forward wings and the

pilot lying face down

to create less air

resistance and

give better weight

distribution.

Bottom: Front cover of

the French newspaper

Le Petit Journal, signed

by Gabriel Poulain and

showing him making his

epic 12-metre glide.

82  HUMAN POWERED AIRCRAFT