I've long been puzzled by the English use of French terms in aeronautics. Aileron, longeron, empennage, decalage - all common aircraft terms - are French. While it's generally thought that the French were the first to fly (Mongolfiers in 1783) they weren't the first heavier-than-air fliers, didn't invent the aileron, etc, thus the query.

I would like to help out, but I don't think I've ever heard any of those terms. I've never really studied aircraft, and tv shows with commercial aircraft or jet fighters must not use big words.

Decalage reminded me of a term I have heard, fuselage, which is also from French. Decalage doesn't appear to be an English word, at least it isn't in dictionary.com, and Fuselage comes from "fusele", so while they sound the same, the etymology can't be from the same root.

Fuselage is a derivative of fusee, spindle. I suspect that the English word, fuse, in its meaning of "blend together," might also be a cognate, since an aircraft fuselage is both spindle-shaped AND the area where the other parts join. Still, nobody's suggested why we use these French terms!

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I would like to help out, but I don't think I've ever heard any of those terms.

Same here, Asa.

Sean, I did look up "decalage" in the OED, and here is what it says:

etymology: "Fr. décalage displacement, f. décaler to displace"

definition: "1917 R. B. MATTHEWS Aviation Pocket-Bk. (ed. 5) XII. 267 Decalage, the difference in the angle of incidence between any two distinct aerofoils on an aeroplane; e.g., the main plane and the tail; or more usually between the chords of the upper and lower planes of a biplane. 1933 Flight (Suppl. Aircraft Engin.) 27 Apr. 396d/1 The term aerodynamic decalage..defined as the angle that the no lift angle of the upper plane makes with the no lift angle of the lower plane, positive when the upper plane is at greater incidence than the lower."

Asa, many of our cooking words are French, presumably because they excel in cooking. Do they excel in flying?

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Do they excel in flying?

The French do appear to have been at the forefront in the development of aviation. Looking through Wikipedia's article, the French and France are mentioned quite often.

Indeed, arnie, 'tis so, but I've long been struck by such odd facts as American Glenn Curtiss inventing the aileron (French for "little wing") but using a French word for it.

Oh, I left out "nacelle" from my list of French aircraft parts!

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Do they excel in flying?

No, but they excel at telling people that they do! St-Exupery gets credit as the father of aviation literature, and rightly so. Oh, the article that arnie referenced mentioned Alberto Santos-Dumont in France. He was Brazilian!

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:
American Glenn Curtiss inventing the aileron (French for "little wing") but using a French word for it.

According to this article, "The development of the aileron is indeed one of the most bizarre and controversial tales of the early days of aviation. ...

who did invent the aileron? Strong claims could be made for Boulton, the Wright brothers, Farman, Bell, and Curtiss. The Wrights certainly deserve the most credit for first recognizing the problem of roll control and devising a solution to it, but [Henri] Farman probably has the best claim for having invented the modern aileron that we still use today."

Indeed. Here's an interesting bit from the article Shufitz cited:

"However, Wilbur Wright made over 100 demonstration flights throughout France in 1908 and gave the Europeans new impetus to improve the awkward, sluggish controls of their aircraft. Starting with the wing warping concept, designs soon evolved to include separate movable surfaces that resembled miniature wings. These "little wings" were sometimes referred to as "winglets," not to be confused with modern winglets which are vertical extensions of the wingtip. They were often mounted above or below the wing, in front of the wing, or sometimes placed in between the wings of a biplane."

Winglets and wing-warping. Hmm.

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not to be confused with modern winglets which are vertical extensions of the wingtip.

Is that where "wingtip" shoes originate?

When it seemed that nobody could help me here, I asked this question on WordOrigins, then e-mailed the Smithsonian Institution. Pat Trener from the Smithsonian wrote back informing me that because the litigous Wrights spent most of their energy and money suing Glenn Curtiss over the invention of the aileron, the French, who were already quite aeronautically sophisticated, leapt ahead of everyone else, and named the parts of their more sophisticated aircraft. Thus my answer - I think.

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Is that where "wingtip" shoes originate?

Wingtip shoes came well before aircraft winglets. They're named for the bird wing-like shape of the decorative toe overlay.

Although the first successful, controlled heavier than air powered flight was by the Wrights, they were a secretive couple and kept very quiet about their achievements. However, the Europeans, especially the French and British, made their work public and, indeed, didn't realise just how much better the Wright brothers' machinews were until several years after that first flight in 1903 when the Wrights came to Europe and rather showed the Europeans up. It was probably not until about 1910 that later inventors began to overhaul the Wrights, who stuck to their original "tail first" concept for rather too long.

But the terms for much aeronatical paraphenalia had by then passed into the language and, English being the promiscuous creature it is, was happy to accept them.

A similar thing happened to with automobile development (which word is itself French) and it is the reason why most countries (with the notable exception of the USA) refer to the sizes of their car engine by cc's, not cubic inches, even if they don't (or didn't) use metric measurements.

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A similar thing happened to with automobile development (which word is itself French)

Some argue that a Frenchman, Cugnot, built the first automobile many years before Daimler and Benz, so that seems fair. Cugnot's was steam-powered, and for military application, but it still moved on its own power.

Asa, trying to build up enough steam to move on his own power and go to work... (Yawn)

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the French, who were already quite aeronautically sophisticated, leapt ahead of everyone else, and named the parts of their more sophisticated aircraft.

Sounds quite similar to what your wordcraft friends had said, Asa.

Ummmm.... isn't THIS Wordcraft? Am I on the wrong planet again?

Asa the utterly befuddled