Maurice Léger
Maurice Léger was a French mechanical engineer who made helicopters, including one in 1906 for Prince Albert I of Monaco.[1]
He was born on th 14th of December 1873, in Paris, deceased the 27th of July 1948 on Belle-Île-en-Mer, a rocky French island in the Atlantic, not far from the French coast and close to the direct west of Nantes, France. He attended the École centrale Paris, graduating in 1896). He did his military service in the military then was recruited in 1899 by the Société des bains de mer de Monte-Carlo. In February 1901, he filed a patent for an “hélicoptère ou appareil volant dirigeable plus lourd que l'air mû par des hélices”, that is “Helicopter or airship flying aircraft heavier than air, powered by propellers”.[2]
(The exact patent title above indicates our Patent CH-1902-23691. We are not sure how the French patent office did or did not fit into this. Patent HU-1901-22471 also factors in early within Léger's inernational series of filings around this one key patented helicopter.)
In 1903 he created the la Société des hélicoptères Léger with the assistance of Jules Richard then director of the Musée océanographique de Monaco.[3]
His design is already very modern because it has two bipal rotors with variable steps turning in the opposite direction and whose common axis can tilt to cause a translation of the device.[4]
Patents whose inventor or applicant is Maurice Léger
- Patent CH-1902-23691 (English title: Helicopter or airship flying aircraft heavier than air, powered by propellers, Supplementary to patent: Patent HU-1901-22471)
- Patent HU-1901-22471 (English title: Helicopter, "Steerable aircraft powered by wing screws", Filing date: 1901-02-20)
- Patent GB-1901-3691 (English title: Helicopter, Supplementary to patent: Patent HU-1901-22471, Filing date: 1901-02-20)
- Patent IT-1901-58652 (English title: Helicopter, or steerable heavier-than-air flying apparatus moved by propellers, Supplementary to patent: Patent HU-1901-22471, Filing date: 1901-02-20)
- Patent DE-1901-141019 (English title: Flight-apparatus, Filing date: 1901-02-21)
- Patent ES-1901-27364 (English title: A directable flying apparatus, heavier than air, moved by propellers "Helicopter", Supplementary to patent: Patent HU-1901-22471, Filing date: 1901-04-01)
- Patent AT-1903-12702 (English title: Helicopter "Flying apparatus", Supplementary to patent: Patent HU-1901-22471, Filing date: 1969-12-31)
- Patent LU-1901-4297 (English title: "Helicopter" or steerable heavier-than-air flying machine powered by propellers, Filing date: 1969-12-31)
References
Links
- Source to find: Maurice Léger et ses hélicoptères : 1901-1907 by Jacqueline Carpine-Lancre, 2007. (WorldCat)
| Names | Maurice Léger |
|---|---|
| Birth date | 1873-12-14 |
| Death date | 1948-07-27 |
| Countries | FR, Monaco |
| Locations | Paris; Monaco |
| Occupations | engineer, helicopter maker |
| Tech areas | Helicopter |
| Affiliations | |
| Wikidata id |
