The eccentric engineer [Time Out Columnist]

AVIATION ENGINEERS rarely work in isolation, as for every designer there has to be at least one person mad enough to try the thing out, and rarely was there a better, or now more overlooked, team than L??on Levavasseur and Hubert Latham. Levavasseur began designing engines at the time that the first aeroplanes were taking to the air. The year before the Wright brothers first flew, he suggested to wealthy industrialist Jules Gastambide that he could produce an engine with the power-to-weight ratio suitable for flight. Aware that flattery will get you everywhere, he proposed such engines be named after Gastambide???s granddaughter, Antoinette. It was the deal clincher and Gastambide put up the cash. Levavasseur was as good as his word and that same year patented the world???s first V8 engine. By 1906 Gastambide felt confident enough to incorporate the Antoinette company with Levavasseur as technical director, Louis Bl??riot as vice-president and himself as president (of course).