- Raúl Pateras Pescara
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The Marquis of Pescara and his two helicopters around 1921-1925
Raúl Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio (born in Buenos Aires in 1890 and died in Paris in 1966), marquis of Pateras-Pescara, was an Argentine lawyer and inventor specializing in seaplanes and helicopters, as well as motors, compressors, and the Pescara free-piston engine.
Contents
Biography
At the beginning of the 20th century, his family returned from Buenos Aires to Europe. He worked with Gustave Eiffel on wind tunnel research to test a model torpedo-launching seaplane named the Pateras Pescara.[1]
In 1912, the Italian Ministry of the Navy tested the first aquatic torpedo launcher, based on the Pescara's model. Pescara met Alberto Santos Dumont in Paris at the beginning of the First World War.
In 1917, he applied in Spain for patent number 63,659, April 7, 1917, which would be followed by 98 other patents until 1929.
From 1919, Pescara built several true coaxial helicopters, primarily described in his tenth French patent entitled "Rational helicopter"[2] and submitted numerous patents across several countries. He first tested his machine indoor in 1921, before moving to Paris, France, where government funding was available.
On January 28, 1924, near Paris, "The Marquis Pateras Pescara broke his own world’s records for helicopter flight by remaining in the air eight minutes 13 4/5 seconds while flying 1,160 meters - about two-thirds of a mile – in a vertical line."[3] Equipped with this type of coaxial double rotor apparatus, he was able to achieve a new world record on April 18, 1924 with a flight of 736 m (805 yd) in 4 minutes 11 seconds (approximately 13 km/h) at a height of 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in).[4]
In 1929, with his brother Henri, the Italian engineer Moglia, and the Spanish government, he founded La Fabrica Nacional de Automobiles ("National Automobile Factory") with an investment of 70 million pesetas. A car, the Nacional Pescara, was exhibited at the 1931 Paris Motor Show, at the Grand Palais, on the stand neighboring Voisin's.[5] In 1931 this eight-cylinder car won the European Grand Prix for hill climbing.[6]
The Spanish Civil War forced Pescara to return to France. On February 28, 1933, the Pescara Auto-compressor Company was unveiled in Luxembourg.[7] It remained in business for 30 years, supported by six French patents.[8] One of its shareholders was the Pescara & Raymond Corporation based in Dover, Delaware, USA. Pescara auto-compressors fall into two basic types: symmetrical and asymmetrical.
During the Second World War, Pescara worked on electrical power in Portugal. Free-piston engines received new attention when they were mass-produced by SIGMA which developed the GS34, a 1200-horsepower generator. Pescara rejoined his sons in Paris in 1963 where he served as an expert for S.N Marep which was testing its 2000-horsepower ELPH 40.
Raúl Pateras-Pescara subsequently proposed the production of more powerful machines - new tandem generators based on the existing EPLH 40 and GS34[5]). The formation of a company to apply these processes was underway[9] when Pescara died.
See also
References
- ^ G. Eiffel Air resistance and aviation, p. 240
- ^ number 533,820, submitted in Spain on February 21, 1920
- ^ AERONAUTICS: Pateras Pescara - Time Magazine January 28, 1924
- ^ Helicopter Development in the Early Twentieth Century
- ^ a b Photos available on the website http://www.pateras-pescara.net.
- ^ The Nacional Pescara car:
- Erwin Trgast, Marabout Dictionary of sports and race cars, pp. 63-64 of Volume 3 (Mercedes through Zoller), translated from German to French by Walter Michel
- Autopassion, Issue 35, May 1990, ISSN 0982.930x
- Graham Robson, Cars that surprised the world (Bordas) ISBN 2-04-012906-5x
- Pau Grand Prix 1935, pages 31-42 by Pierre Darmendrail, ISBN 2-909450-03-1
- ^ Suivant acte reçu par Maître Charles-Marie-Emile Faber. Des assemblées générales extraordinaires ont eu lieu le 7 décemnbre 1936 et du 9 mai 1938, publiés au Mémorial, Recueil Spécial n° 102 du 23 décembre 1936 et N°46 du 21 mai 1938.
- ^ French patent numbers 595,341, 595,342, 595,343, 595,344, 595,345, and 595,346
- ^ SAPP - RC 6785 Lille
Further reading
- de Pescara, Christian. Aérofrance, pages 28–31. Issue 108. Dépôt légal: n° CPPAP 61682.
- de Pescara, Christian. Association des Amis du Musée de l'air. Pégase, pages 12–21 ISBN - 0399-9939.
External links
Categories:- Argentine inventors
- 1890 births
- 1966 deaths
- History of aviation
- Aviation inventors
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