04/30/2014. Remarks by Kees Kort: "Ambroise Goupy was one of the many wealthy French with an interest in flying and aircraft. He had plans to build a plane for himself, but since he lacked the technical knowledge he hired the Italian aviation pioneer Mario Calderara to a concrete and specify a design. Calderara had spent some months in the factory of the Voisin brothers, and the construction of the first "Goupy design" was carried out by the Voisins in 1908.

The designation of this triplane design was stated on the vertical tail as Aeroplanes Voisin Goupy No. 1, and the aircraft also showed Voisin features, like the "vertical partitions" between the wings. The aircraft was not a success, its performance was restricted to high-speed ground runs, and despite many alterations, as visible in the available photos, the aircraft failed to fly.

Goupy was very persistent – and wealthy, of course – hence a second attempt was made, again with Calderara as designer, however the aircraft was constructed at the works of Louis Blériot. As the Voisins-built aircraft, in the second design also constructor features were applied, including the classic landing gear of the Blériot Type XI. The design appeared in April 1909, with the designation Goupy No. 2 applied to the vertical tail. The open biplane featured ailerons at the tips of top and bottom wings, double elevators, a single all-flying rudder, and a 50 hp Gnome seven-cylinder radial engine.

The design was apparently airworthy as it flew ca. 660 ft (200 m) on the first attempt in April 1909, with Goupy at the controls, later the day Calderara flew it for ca. 330 ft (100 m). As shown by the many available photos the aircraft was continuously developed and refined, noted differences included, amongst others, a partial-covered fuselage, a fairing from the tail to the middle of the fuselage, and landing gear skids to help prevent nose-overs.

In these additional photos Emile Ladougne is seen flying the Goupy No. 2 during the 1910 Deuxième Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne (Second Big Aviation Week of Champagne). This international aviation meeting was held at the plains of Bétheny, just north of the historic city of Reims in the Champagne region, later it became one of the major airfields of the French forces."