Deperdussin 1912 Racing Monoplane

The Deperdussin 1912 Racing Monoplane was a French aircraft built by Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin especially for racing. It is notable for being the first aircraft to exceed 100 mph in level flight.

Design and development
The Deperdussin 1912 Racer, was a high-wing monoplane with wings which were tapered so that their chord was greater at the tips (1.60 m wide) than at the root (1.30 m wide), this producing better wing-warping for lateral control. The fuselage consisted of a wooden box-girder entirely skinned with plywood, with the rounded top and bottom built up from laminations of wood.

It was powered by a 100 hp Gnome double Omega 14-cylinder twin-row rotary engine.

It was first flown late in 1911 or early in 1912; Jules Védrines is recorded as making "fast flights" in the aircraft on 2 January 1912. A number of record-breaking flights followed, and on 22 February Védrines succeeded in flying it at over 100 mph, flying a distance of 200 km in 1 h 15 min 20.8 s, an average speed of 169 km/h By this time the engine had been replaced by the more powerful 140 hp Gnome double Lambda engine.

It is probable that this aircraft was the one being flown by Védrines when he crashed at Épinay on 29 April during an attempt to fly from Brussels to Madrid in a single day.