Alphonse Pénaud

Who was Alphonse Pénaud?

Alphonse Pénaud, was a 19th-century French pioneer of aviation design and engineering. He was the originator of the use of twisted rubber to power model aircraft, and his 1871 model airplane, which he called the Planophore, was the first truly successful automatically stable flying model. He went on to design a full sized aircraft with many advanced features, but was unable to get any support for the project, and eventually committed suicide in 1880, aged 30.