Talk:L'Aérophile

Glider
I notice repeated use of the word "glider" (or "powered glider") in the text, with references to Gibbs-Smith's material regarding the Wrights and Santos Dumont. Is that literally how Gibbs-Smith worded it? Did he say "powered glider" or "glider" when referring to Wright aircraft prior to 1908 or to Santos Dumont's of 1906? DonFB (talk) 08:25, 13 September 2010 (UTC)


 * No, Gibbs-Smith called Wright aircraft of Dec 1903 and after aeroplanes, and Santos-Dumont's 1906 one also an aeroplane. In light of your question I see that "glider" is overused in the article, because some of these craft were not intended/designed to glide. I wrote "glider" as I was trying (too) hard to avoid the term "aeroplane" in the transitional era because it changes in meaning across languages and time. Before 1900 "aeroplane" (variously spelled) could mean flat airfoils in experiments, then gliders were often called aeroplanes in French but usually not in English, then passenger-carrying aircraft were called aeroplanes in English and avions in French. The phrase "flying machine" would indicate what they were trying to make, but this term is ambiguous regarding whether it includes airships/dirigibles, gliders, and models, and ambiguity about whether the machine actually could fly. I avoided "flying machine" too and used "glider" but it isn't accurate.


 * Anyway, I reviewed the sources and made changes to this article. "Glider" is better replaced by "machine" in one case and by "airplane" in two cases.
 * (1) Ader's 1897 machine was not intended to glide so this article had the wrong term. I changed it from "glider" to "machine." I believe this matches the original French better also.
 * (2) Gibbs-Smith called the Wrights' 1902 craft a glider, which was and is the usual term in English.
 * (3) Gibbs-Smith uses "glider" regarding Esnault-Pelterie's 1904 craft, and in today's usage "glider" fits because it seems to have been launched by hand or external machine not its own power. The 1905 L'Aérophile article however calls it an "aéroplane" and says it glided (French: "fait des glissades"), so it seems one cannot use the term used by this publication to describe its article. I left it as "glider" in this article which has the right modern meaning. I added a footnote to point to an online copy of the original article from L'Aérophile which has been beautifully scanned and displayed. It's really worth a look.
 * (4) Re the Wright 1903 aircraft, the title of the relevant L'Aérophile article specifically calls it an aeroplane with a motor. I changed the article's reference from "controlled, powered glider" to "controlled, powered airplane." It sounds redundant now but wasn't at the time.
 * (5) Santos-Dumont's 1906 machine was called an aeroplane at the time, and by Gibbs-Smith, and in today's usage. So I changed it in this article from "powered glider" to "airplane".


 * After 1906 I think usage of "glider" and "aeroplane" in English matches current usage, but the French word "aéroplane" declines (isn't in my Fr-En dictionary at all) and for a modern airplane French uses Ader's term "avion". I researched all this but wouldn't be surprised by further corrections. -- Econterms (talk) 05:44, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

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Pronunciation
Aérophile is pronounced roughly ah-eh-row-feel, four syllables, not air-oh-feel. Awien (talk) 19:38, 18 March 2022 (UTC)