Henri Farman (26 May 1874 – 17 July 1958)"A Pioneer of Aviation Dies: M. Henry Farman." Illustrated London News, 26 July 1958, p. 10. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 23 October 2020. was a British-French aviator and aircraft designer and manufacturer with his brother Maurice Farman. Before dedicating himself to aviation he gained fame as a sportsman, specifically in cycling and motor racing. Henri acquired French nationality in 1937.Obituary: Flight
Family and early life Henri Farman was born in Paris, France, and was baptised as Harry Edgar Mudford Farman. He was a son of Thomas Frederick Farman, the Paris correspondent of the London Standard."Chapter Three: Awakening in France." Contact! The Story Of The Early Aviators. p. 38. Unabridged republication of the revised edition of Contact! The Story Of The Early Birds, The Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1987, Dover Publications 2002, New York. Accessed via Google books. accessed 13 August 2020."Aviators at Rheims. Personal Sketches: M. Henri Farman." London Evening Standard, 24 August 1909, p. 8. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 23 October 2020. His father was born in 1845 at Layer Marney, Essex, England.Thomas Farman in entry for Frederick Mudford, 1871 "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch : 27 September 2019. accessed 13 August 2020. His mother, Sophia Ann Louisa Mudford, was born in Canterbury, Kent, on 9 September 1841. She was baptised on 16 July 1844 at St Pancras Old Church in London, and was a daughter of the author William Mudford, who by the time of Sophia's baptism was living at Harrington Square."London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1917 for Sophia Ann Louisa Mudford." St Pancras: Baptisms 1844, No. 1267, p. 183.Ancestry image p. 92. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: p90/pan1/024. Ancestry.com. accessed 23 October 2020.Sophia Ann Louisa Mudford, 1844: "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch 24 March 2020. accessed 13 August 2020. Sophia and Thomas were married at St George's Hanover Square Church London, on 31 August 1868."City of Westminster Archives Centre; London, England; Westminster Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: STC/PR/1/2." Ancestry.com. Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020. accessed 13 August 2020."Marriages: Farman – Mudford." Chelmsford Chronicle, 11 September 1868, p. 8. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 23 October 2020.
Henri trained as a painter at the École des Beaux Arts, but soon became interested in the new mechanical inventions that were appearing at the end of the 19th century. He was able to pursue this interest as an amateur sportsman."Henry Farman" Grace's Guide To British Industrial History. accessed 19 August 2020.
Cycling Farman took part in cycle races from the age of fourteen, and started winning some races. Brother Maurice Farman also began cycle racing at the same age and started winning prizes."Farman: 1904." From Motoring Annual and Motorist’s Year Book 1904, via Grace's Guide To British Industrial History. accessed 19 August 2020. Henri became a championship cyclist, and won the Paris - Clermont-Ferrand race on 6 June 1892."Sporting and Cricket Notes." St James's Gazette, 7 June 1892, p. 7. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 23 October 2020."Paris - Clermont-Ferrand 1892." Accessed via CyclingRanking.com. accessed 15 August 2020. On 6 October 1892 he won the French Championship, at the Vélodrome Buffalo in Paris, over a distance of 100 kilometres."Cycling in France." London Evening Standard, 8 October 1892, p. 3. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 23 October 2020.
On 25 June 1893, Henri went by bicycle from Paris to Madrid with the journalist, author, and French cyclist Edouard de Perrodil. Edouard had written an account of this journey, and a book was published by MM. C. Marpon and Flammarion, titled Vélo ! Toro! Paris-Madrid bicyclette en 1893, which included drawings by Farman. They were received by the French Ambassador, among others upon reaching Madrid."Cycling - A Ride from France to Spain." Dublin Evening Telegraph, 22 June 1893, p. 3. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 24 October 2020."Paris by Day." Daily Telegraph & Courier (London), 4 November 1893, p. 3. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 24 October 2020.
He then took part in tandem races with his brother Maurice Farman, forming a successful partnership."1902 Who's Who in Light Cars: Farman" Grace's Guide To British Industrial History. accessed 15 August 2020. On 31 January 1895, at the Vélodrome d'Hiver, the Farman brothers broke the tandem bicycle record, covering 44.906 kilometres in an hour."Cycling. Bicycle Record." Western Morning News, 1 February 1895, p. 7. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 26 October 2020. They announced their retirement from cycling in November 1896."A Retiring Franco-AngloRider." Sporting Life, 11 November 1896, p. 7.The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 26 October 2020.
Motor racing At around the same time as his brother Maurice, Henri discovered motor racing. On 17 February 1901, he won the light car class (400 – 650 kg) Grand Prix du Palais d'Hiver, of the Circuit du sud-ouest. Maurice Farman won the heavy car class of the race."The Brothers Farman Take Two Firsts." Sporting Life, 20 February 1901, p. 8. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 23 October 2020. On 29 May 1901, Henri took part in the Paris-Bordeaux race and finished in seventh place. This was an open-entry race held concurrently with the 1901 Gordon Bennett Cup, and over the same course."1901 Paris-Bordeaux Race." Grace's Guide To British Industrial History. accessed 15 August 2020. Fifth place was taken in the 1901 Paris to Berlin Race."1901 Paris-Berlin Race." Grace's Guide To British Industrial History. accessed 15 August 2020. Henri won the heavy class section of the 1902 Paris - Vienna race. Marcel Renault came first in the general classification of this race."A View of the Race.By Charles Jarrott, competitor in the 1902 Paris to Vienna race." From Ten Years of Motors and Motor Racing,E.P.Dutton and Company, New York, Charles Jarrott, 1906, pp. 131-154. via The Motor Miscellany. accessed 18 August 2020. He took third place in the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup.
He had an accident during the elimination trials for the 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup, on 16 June, over the hilly Auvergne circuit. While on the last round of this circuit, descending the Clermont Ferrand hill, on one of the turns in that descent, his car skidded. Henri and his chauffeur were thrown from the car, and ended up on top of a tree. Many onlookers believed he had been killed. But Henri was unharmed, came down from the tree and smoked a cigarette. He believed his car had ended up at the bottom of a ravine after this accident, but was not certain about the final destination of it."Gordon Bennett Race: Accidents on French Course. Mr. Farman's Missing Car." London Daily News, 17 June 1905. p. 7. The British Newspaper Archive: Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited in partnership with the British Library. accessed 24 October 2020."The Farman Brothers: Maurice and Henry." From Ten Years of Motors and Motor Racing,E.P.Dutton and Company, New York, Charles Jarrott, 1906, pp214-215. via The Motor Miscellany. accessed 15 August 2020.
Aviation
Farman started practicing in 1907 with a homemade biplane glider on the sandhills of Le Touquet, after first experimenting with model aeroplanes of different sizes."Chapter Three: Awakening in France." Contact! The Story Of The Early Aviators.p. 39. Unabridged republication of the revised edition of Contact! The Story Of The Early Birds, copyright the Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1987, Dover Publications 2002, New York. via Google books. Accessed 13 August 2020. He then decided he wanted a powered plane, and ordered a Voisin 1907 biplane on 1 June 1907. He used this aircraft to set many official records for both distance and duration.
On 26 October 1907, at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, he made flights, among others, of 363, 403, and 771 metres in the plane. He also started to turn the plane in the air on this date. The distance of 771 metres was completed in 52 seconds. It was the longest flight in the world that year, and won Farman the Ernest Archdeacon Cup. He made a complete circular flight of 1,030 metres, in 1 minute 14 seconds on 10 November 1907 at Issy. This was the first time that a European aeroplane had completed a full circle. And the first time that an aeroplane, other than a Wright brothers one, had stayed in the air for longer than a minute.
The Voisin-Farman I was also the first biplane in Europe to fly a circular circuit of 1 kilometre, over a predetermined course, on 13 January 1908."Voisin-Farman I." Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., Tom D. Crouch, 27 January 2010. Accessed 11 August 2020."History Of Flight: Other Aviation Pioneers." Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 3 December 2018. Accessed 11 August 2020. This again occurred at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, and won Farman the 50,000 franc Grand Prix d'Aviation offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe.* And on 21 March 1908, at the same place, he made a flight of 2 kilometres."Progress of Mechanical Flight" Flight, 2 January 1909, p. 12. Accessed via the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine. Accessed 10 August 2020. In the evening of the same day, Léon Delagrange took Farman back to the hangar, making Farman the first fixed-wing aircraft "passenger"."Le Matin 1908-03-22 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5686431.item# At the end of May Farman had also made the first flights in Europe with a passenger, carrying Ernest Archdeacon for at Ghent.
On 30 October 1908, Farman went on to make the first cross-country flight in Europe. Farman flew from his hangars at Camp de Châlons, Bouy, to Reims, landing at the cavalry ground. It was a distance of 27 kilometres.
By early 1909, Farman fell out with Gabriel Voisin because Voisin had sold an aircraft that had been built to Farman's specifications to J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon. This aircraft was named the Bird of Passage by Brabazon. Farman then started manufacturing aircraft to his own design. The first of these, the Farman III, first flew in April 1909. It was an immediate success and widely imitated."Farman III." Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., Tom D. Crouch, 4 April 2008. Accessed 11 August 2020.