ADER, CLMENT

born Feb. 4, 1841, Muret, France died March 5, 1926, Toulouse self-taught French engineer and inventor, and a pioneer of flight before the Wright brothers. Ader was an early enthusiast of aviation who constructed a balloon at his own expense during the Franco-German War of 1870-71. In 1876 he quit his job in the Administration of Bridges and Highways to make more money to support his hobby. His early inventions in electrical-communications included a microphone and a public-address device. He then focused on the problem of heavier-than-air flying machines and in 1890 built a steam-powered, bat-winged monoplane, which he named the Eole. On October 9 he flew it a distance of 50 m (160 feet) on a friend's estate near Paris. The steam engine was unsuitable for sustained and controlled flight, which required the gasoline engine; nevertheless, Ader's short hop was the first demonstration that a manned heavier-than-air machine could take off from level ground under its own power.