Chanute-Avery Multiple-wing Gliding Machine “Katydid”.
Seventh and final form of multiplane soaring machine built by Chicago carpenter William Avery to the specifications of Octave Chanute based on the principles of the Pratt truss. Photographed here with Chanute during its extensive testing by Avery from the dunes on the shores of Lake Michigan at Miller Beach, Indiana, near Chicago in September of 1896; the Katydid was so named because of its insect-like appearance and made some two hundred glides that summer.
The Octave Chanute Pages  

First helicopter of František Novák in its final version with lighter rotor, 25 hp 3-cylinder engine and large anti-rotating panels dating from the summer of 1911. Novák started his pioneering work on helicopters already in 1909 with a model helicopter and in June 1910 he started building his first full size helicopter which used a motorcycle engine for power. In this first version it turned out that the 3 meter diameter rotor was too heavy and that the motorcycle engine was too weak. Later Novák was able to obtain a more powerful engine, a 3-cylinder Trojan and Nagl of 25 hp; and developed a lighter rotor of the same 3 meter diameter. This helicopter did lift into the air unloaded - however, as there was no compensation for the reaction movement, the machine counter-rotated in the air and even the fitting of large vertical panels did not stop the helicopter from spinning. Coinciding with the start of his more advanced second helicopter, development of Novák’s first ended in the Fall of 1911.

Sächsische Verein für Luftschiffahrt Flugapparat of 1909.
Combination Drachenflieger-Radflieger designed by the Sächsiche Verein für Luftschiffahrt. The machine was powered by a 30 hp engine constructed by Fritz Hayn. Actual construction was done by the “Maschinenfabrik von Hayn u. Leilich” in Chemnitz.

FEBRUARY 12, 1910.
A New German Flyer.
ON the 4th inst., a monoplane, which has been
designed and built by Herr Hilsmann, was given its first trials at Essen, and several long jumps of 60 to 100 metres were made. more1 

Obre Monoplane of 1910.
Third machine built by Emile Obre after two biplanes in 1909, designated, for some unexplained reason, Obre No.1 and No.3. Probably photographed at Issy-les-Moulineaux.

Berger Monoflygplan of 1911.
Unsuccessful design by Swedish actor Bror Berger, powered by a 42 hp R.E.P 5-cylinder fan type air-cooled engine. Building began during 1910 in a closed-down cinema behind the Blanchs Café, and in September 1911 Berger tried the machine at Gärdet, Stockholm. The first take-off attempt ended when the landing gear collapsed and the propeller broke. A new propeller was bought from Landskrona while sturdier gear was fitted, and the resulting new trials were, according to the press, very promising. Yet after 1911 nothing more was mentioned of the monoplane until it was donated to the Stockholm Technical Museum in 1927, in the same state of repair as it remains in today.

Monoplano Antoni, Biposto tipo 1913.
Bi-place monoplane built by the “Società di Aviazione Antoni” at campe di San Giusto.

Deboignie Monoplane of 1912.
Third and last monoplane designed by Édouard Eugène Joseph Ghislain Debongnie (born in 1883) of French nationality but naturalized to Belgian in 1905. Deboignie opened a workshop in Nieuport-Groenendyck,with his first monoplane coming out 1910. A second with characteristic curved wings appeared in 1911 and another in 1912. Although building three different monoplanes his firm was principally in propeller production. The works folded in 1914 with the beginning of the war.

High wing monoplane powered by a 50 hp Oerlikon, designed and built in 1911 by Яков Модестович Гаккель (Ya. M Gakkel).

Reid’s second machine powered by a 55 hp 5-cylinder Viale radial engine, 29 feet long, with a 32 foot span. The machine was quite successful and was flown numerous times in 1912 by Reid and by Ernest Anctil, who assisted in its construction.

Powered by a Zust motor and built by the firm of the Zari brothers in 1909. Enea Bossi emigrated to the USA after WWI.

Merćep-Rusjan EDA VI.
Monoplane built by the Rusjan brothers at the workshops of Mihajlo Merćep in Zagreb; completed sometime in Autumn 1910. Unfortunately, while promoting the upstart firm “Agramer Aëroplanfabrik M. Merćep” at Belgrad in January 1911, Edvard “Eda” Rusjan fell to his death when the wings collapsed on this machine. 

EDVARD RUSJAN 1886-1911 

Kimball Biplane of 1909.
Wilbur R. Kimball's aeroplane “New York No.1” at Morris Park, New York, during its christening by the well-known Ziegfield Follies showgirl Anna Held on March 12, 1909. With eight 4-bladed propellers driven by one engine; the big machine was built at Morris Park under the direction of the American Aeronautic Society but appears not to have flown with any great success.

Powered by a 50 hp Gnôme; the “Torpedo” was designed by Victor Tatin with Luis Paulhan being a sponsor of its 1911 construction.
MORE: Victor Tatin (1843-1913)
Avant Lilienthal, un précurseur mal connu
Victor Tatin compressed air powered Aeroplane of 1879
Victor Tatin Ornithopter of 1874
L'Aéro-Torpille 1911-1912 Tatin-Paulhan...

An American flying machine with wings in the form of half cylinders and immense helical spirals, or screws, set within them.

Sachsen Doppeldecker of 1911.
First Sachsen doppeldecker - powered by a 55 hp Argus and built by Alfred Manhardt and Erich Schmidt at the Sächsische Automobil- und Flugzeugwerke; the fore-runner to Deutsche Flugzeug Werke (D.F.W.).

Antoinette Monobloc of 1911.
Last design of the soon liquidated, and then-named firm “Antoinette Aéroplan-Ateliers”. Powered by a 50-60 hp Antoinette engine, the Leon Levavasseur-designed machine, aka the Antoinette Blindé, aka the Antoinette Latham, never left the ground.

Clark & Fitzwilliams Cycloplane of 1910.
Built in Buffalo, New York, the pedal-powered Cycloplane (sometimes Cycleplane) was 16 feet long spanning 15 feet, weighing about 55 pounds; with approximately 100 square feet of wing surface. Warping wings, front elevator and rear plane with rudder, were all controlled by levers on the frame. It is claimed that flights of 100 feet with a 119 pound pilot were made.

Székely IV Parasol of 1913.
Fourth machine designed and built by the Hungarian Mihály Székely (Hungary then part of the K.u.k - Austro-Hungary). A typical parasol wing machine with the pilot and passenger sitting in a nacelle beneath the wing-tractor configuration, with the engine high before the wing and petrol tanks above.

Vuia 2 Monoplane.
Designed and built by Romanian pioneer Traian Vuia in 1907. Claimed to be a rebuilt Vuia 1. Compact airframe and folded wings are distinctive features of this design which was powered by a 25 hp Antoinette motor.

Bellanca Parasol Monoplane 1911.
Third design of Giuseppe Mario Bellanca (1886-1960). It was his first US design - the other two were designed and built in Italy (Milan). Built in the backyard of his brother Carlo’s grocery shop in New York, the parasol’s first flight was made on the airfield at Mineola, New York in the fall of 1911. The engine was a 3-cylinder Anzani of 30 hp, mounted before the wing. The machine was quite successful and Bellanca opened a flying school using it. He gave lessons to Fiorella LaGuardia, later mayor of New York City.

BMFW Stahleindecker Militärtyp.
Militäreindecker [Military monoplane] designed by Ing. Philipp Enders [System Enders] announced in Flugsport 1911 to be constructed by the Flug Technische Gesellschaft Nürnberg-Fürth E.V., yet in the same issue a drawing infers that it is to be constructed by the Nürnberger Motoren und Maschinenfabrik. In the end the steel-constructed machine was exposited in the Berlin ALA (Algemeinen Luftfahrt Ausstellung) 1912 as a finished machine of the Bayerische Motoren- und Flugzeugwerke Nürnberg.

Zerbe Multiplane of 1910.
Five-wing multiplane - the second of three such multiplanes built by Californian Professor Jerome S. Zerbe, which came to grief on January 11, 1910 during the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Mesa. Zerbe is somewhat of a mysterious figure whose real name was only recently determined to be James Slough Zerbe.

Paulat Hydro-Aero Biplane of 1911.
Ion Paulat (1873-1954), born at Cioara, near Braila, was a sailor who at Galati built the first Romanian seaplane. As the Ministry of War provide no assistance to him, Paulat had difficulties obtaining an engine to power the aeroplane. In the end - through friendly help in order to conduct a flight test - he obtained one of the two 55 hp Hilz engines needed. With one engine the machine flew in early November 1911, making a jump of 10 meters at a height of 35 centimetres. As Paulat did not succeed in obtaining the required second Hilz engine, he designed the light 1912 Hydro-Aero Monoplane - suited for one Hilz engine - and completed in June 1912 as a landplane. This machine crashed on June 6, 1912. Paulat was called under arms during the Balkan War (1912-1913), but once returning, decided to end his aeronautical work due to his financial difficulties.

Libellule after its first modification in July 1907. Built in 1907 by Louis Blériot, and powered by a 24 hp Antoinette engine.

Carl Richard Nyberg began work on this Swedish flying test-bed in 1897, with tests and alterations to the design of the Flugan, the “Fly”, being made over a number of years.

Christmas Red Bird I of 1909.
First of three iterations of Red Bird built by Dr. William Whitney Christmas.
DR. WILLIAM W. CHRISTMAS 1865-1960 
Dr. Christmas claimed to make his first flight in March of 1908 in a plane of his own design.
Christmas Bullet 

Silverston “Vacu-Aerial” Flying Machine No. 2 of 1912.
Also known as Dr. Rudolph Silverston’s Milwaukee Flying Machine No. 2.