La singulière aventure d’Elie Clay

In 1880 his family settled in the village where his father, Théodule was a house painter. They lived in one of the eighteen houses that were built along the main road.

Born in 1889, the teenage Elie worked alongside his father and assisted him in his various professional tasks. In his free time Elie constructed in minute detail tiny aeroplanes that were driven by rubber engines. In 1907, aeronautical news was dominated by the exploits of Louis Charles Breguet and Paul Carnu. Their innovations fired the imagination of the young painter who dreamed of imitating these precursors of hover flight.

A WEIRD MACHINE

For some, building a helicopter would be a serious challenge but Elie proved he was determined to succeed. He brought in his brother Maurice to draw up the plans and gave Amand Clatot the job of assembly mechanic. This little team got together in the evenings and on Sunday afternoons. The workshop was set up in an agricultural building belonging to the Vianes-Sevestre family.

In 1909 the daily newspaper ‘La Dépêche de Rouen et de Normandie’ described the machine thus, “The bamboo fuselage is extremely light and rests on three wheels. The pilot sits in the middle between two upright supports on top of which stands the propeller shaft and the base of which serves as a knee lever. This shaft is usually in vertical position and supports three canvas propellers, one above the other. When these propellers are started they provide buoyancy. Propulsive force is afforded simply by using a control to incline the

shaft forward so that the shaft then assumes a slightly oblique position above the pilot’s head. The six propeller blades form a  supporting surface of 10m square. The steering lever is easy to manipulate and is similar to those used for monoplanes and its horizontal planes fold automatically so as to offer no resistance to ascension at the time of liftoff. Its total length is 5m50 and its height 3m90”. At the time of this visit the machine had no engine.

THE SMALL INVENTORS EXHIBITION

This was created on the initiative of the Lower Seine Free Society for the Emulation of Commerce and Industry. Its aim was to encourage small inventors and it took place from April 1st to April 30th 1910. Elie set up his machine in the courtyard of the Association of the Learned in rue St Lo in Rouen. He won the vermillion medal from the prefecture, a gold medal diploma and 400 francs in cash. Despite these encouragements his helicopter never flew. The engine power, that of a motor bike, was not enough to get it off the ground. The challenge was insurmountable for the young inventor. His poor knowledge of sustentation (the vertical component of the resultant of aerodynamic force) and the methods permitting stabilisation ruined his efforts.