Horned Paul

See also: Horned

Paul Cornu , born in 1881 with Glos-the-Tool bag Orne close to the Eagle has nine years in 1890 when its family settles with Lisieux. His/her father, Jules, were very skilful. It could draw and had invented itself some tricks. It is him which launched his/her son. Certificate of studies out of pocket, Paul carries out his first invention at 14 years: a temperature regulator for incubator. To make boil the pot, the Horned father and wire repair bicycles and sewing machines in their workshop, close to the station.

In parallel, they develop a bicycle and a motor tricycle, a thermal clock, a Moto… Thanks to the publication of their work in reviews, they are made known. In 1903, they carry out a " Carrier ultralégère" with two engines: for each aft wheel. It reached 70 km/h: their great triumph! They had orders of industrialists of Ukraine, Romania or England… but also of country doctors. It never will however be marketed: they were not businessmen.

In 1905, Paul Cornu starts to be interested in the Aviation. Quantities of models had already flown but not of model life size. One year later, the inventor tries a test in front of the notable ones of the city. That enabled him to obtain 12.000 F of subscriptions to build the final model.
The machine resembles a large insect equipped with two propellers assembled on large wheels of Bicyclette.

Paul Cornu died in Lisieux in 1944 crushed under the allied bombardments. Under the debris the few elements disappeared from the helicopter which it had preserved, plans, and a large model. Fortunately, a case of documents was saved, it contained the handwritten newspaper of the experiments, an important correspondence, newspaper cuttings, articles of French and foreign reviews, and much of photographs and postcards.
All these documents were deposited by the family of Paul Cornu to the Museum of art and history of Lisieux. The most complete study of this funds, made by Mr. Carvin, is available here. The note below takes again the principal points of them.

The Helicopter

Indeed, the lifting propeller aircraft was born from the hands and in the head from this clever handyman who had invented the Bicyclette with engine and the Voiturette.

It is the first to have taken off on board a Hélicoptère of its manufacture with Coquainvilliers, in the surroundings of Lisieux, the November 13rd 1907. The afternoon, this day there, with the second starting, the apparatus is raised with its bag of 55 kg (appearing the pilot). Paul Cornu tries to maintain it but it is removed. His/her brother, Jacques, remained hung with the frame of the machine, are almost removed, him too. It is necessary little of them so that the apparatus escapes to them. Paul Cornu then jumps flat belly on one of the handles and, studding himself with a hand to the frame, he manages of the other to decrease the advance with lighting. The apparatus improves the ground without any damage. It was not an odyssey with the firmament, just a few seconds of levitation to 1,50 m in height. It was nevertheless a historical flight, a jump of chip and giant at the same time. For the first time, a machine was freed from the ground without dash with a man on board. There was dream of Icare in the lucky find of Paul Cornu, then 26 years old.
This date of the November 13rd 1907 is quoted in all the stories of the Aviation, as being that of the first coasting flight of a Hélicoptère with its pilot.

Actually, the first flight really controlled will take place, according to the newspaper of the tests, a few days later (the apparatus is then retained by cords: it is thus not a " vol" free). But it is understood that, after the emotions of November 13rd, the other experiments had the appearance of a " flights of routine" !

For the tests, the installation was simple: a floor in a pasture on which the machine was posed.

The Hélicoptère Paul Cornu was provided with a saddle and four wheels of bicycle, of two lifting propellers six meters in diameter as a rotor. Its engine was a Antoinette of 24 ch. It is an immense belt of 22 meters which actuates the two propellers. At each end of the apparatus, a tilting plan receives the air driven back by the propeller and ensures the horizontal propulsion. The weight of the apparatus reached 330 kg (with the pilot).

A few months before Horned Paul, two other French, Louis Breguet and Maurice Leger, had succeeded of the comparable experiments but the collective memory retained that of the Normand. Perhaps because on the self-educated side of the character and because a whole city was behind its project. But to tell the truth, speech of flight in connection with this exploit appears very exaggerated in Paul Cornu itself.
According to " history of the hélicoptère" of Jean Ball (France Worsens 1991), there would have been simply a " effect of sol".

Thereafter, Horned Paul continuous to work in the family workshop and continues his experiments, in particular on the propellers and patents a system allowing the cyclic variation of incidence of the blades. After the First World War, it is discovered a new passion: the construction of radios.

Like a thousand of Lexoviens, he dies in June 1944, at 62 years, during the bombardments. Lisieux forever forgotten Horned Paul. Since 1969, the largest college of the city bears its name.

The Hélicoptère was not the only center of interest of Paul Cornu who showed inventiveness in connection with many of other mechanical applications:

1898 : engine bicycle
1899: rotary patent of Driving
1900: engine with variable piston stroke
1901: thermal clock
1902 and 1903: tricycle with vapor and Motor bike
1904: Carrier

External bond

A. Cléry: Horned the Paul Paddle-wheel (1909).

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