A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are.
94-408: The triplane arrangement may be compared with the biplane in a number of ways. A triplane arrangement has a narrower wing chord than a biplane of similar span and area. This gives each wing-plane a slender appearance with higher aspect ratio , making it more efficient and giving increased lift. This potentially offers a faster rate of climb and tighter turning radius, both of which are important in
188-512: A Daily Mail competition with a prize of £75 for one of his designs in 1907. With the prize money and the use of stables at his brother's house in West Hill, Putney , he then began to build a full-size aeroplane, the Roe I Biplane , based on his winning model. He tested this at Brooklands in 1907–08, later claiming to have made his first successful flight on 8 June 1908. After encountering problems with
282-411: A monoplane is its ability to combine greater stiffness with lower weight. Stiffness requires structural depth and where early monoplanes had to have this provided with external bracing, the biplane naturally has a deep structure and is therefore easier to make both light and strong. Rigging wires on non-cantilevered monoplanes are at a much sharper angle, thus providing less tension to ensure stiffness of
376-572: A surveyor . When he arrived in British Columbia he discovered that a slump in the silver market meant that there was little demand for surveyors, so he spent a year doing odd jobs, then returned to England. There he served as an apprentice with the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway . He later tried to join the Royal Navy to study marine engineering at King's College London , but, although he passed
470-581: A 435 hp (324 kW) Curtiss C-12 engine, the Cactus Kitten had a wingspan of 20 ft (6 m). In the 1922 Pulitzer race it came 2nd behind a Curtiss biplane. In its triplane configuration it surpassed its monoplane and biplane antecedents in handling and speed and, for a brief period in 1922, the triplane was once again being noticed with the Kitten being touted as the world's fastest plane and being capable of surpassing 200 miles per hour. The same year it
564-426: A biplane has the wings positioned directly one above the other. Moving the upper wing forward relative to the lower one is called positive stagger or, more often, simply stagger. It can increase lift and reduce drag by reducing the aerodynamic interference effects between the two wings by a small degree, but more often was used to improve access to the cockpit. Many biplanes have staggered wings. Common examples include
658-417: A central wing of greater span than the others and many examples were used for ASW and patrol duties. Their last such design, the 1919 Levy-Besson High Seas had the top wing extended to the same span as the central wing and was also ordered into production, although the run was cancelled after relatively few had been delivered. Besson split from Levy and created his own Besson LB maritime patrol flying boat in
752-608: A documented jet-kill, as one Lockheed F-94 Starfire was lost while slowing down to 161 km/h (100 mph) – below its stall speed – during an intercept in order to engage the low flying Po-2. Later biplane trainers included the de Havilland Tiger Moth in the Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and others and the Stampe SV.4 , which saw service postwar in the French and Belgian Air Forces. The Stearman PT-13
846-509: A faster and more comfortable successor to the Dragon. As the available engine power and speed increased, the drag penalty of external bracing increasingly limited aircraft performance. To fly faster, it would be necessary to reduce external bracing to create an aerodynamically clean design; however, early cantilever designs were either too weak or too heavy. The 1917 Junkers J.I sesquiplane utilized corrugated aluminum for all flying surfaces, with
940-468: A fighter. The Sopwith Triplane was a successful example, having the same wing span as the equivalent biplane, the Sopwith Pup . Alternatively, a triplane has reduced span compared to a biplane of given wing area and aspect ratio, leading to a more compact and lightweight structure. This potentially offers better maneuverability for a fighter, and higher load-capacity with more practical ground handling for
1034-648: A full-size biplane at Brooklands , near Weybridge in Surrey, and officially became the first Englishman to fly an all-British machine a year later, with a triplane, on the Walthamstow Marshes . Roe was born in Patricroft , Eccles , Lancashire , the son of Edwin Roe, a doctor, and Annie Verdon. He was the elder brother of Humphrey Verdon Roe . Roe left home when he was 14 to go to Canada where he had been offered training as
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#17328511545871128-462: A large aircraft type. The famous Fokker Dr.I triplane offered a balance between the two approaches, having moderately shorter span and moderately higher aspect ratio than the equivalent biplane, the Fokker D.VI . Yet a third comparison may be made between a biplane and triplane having the same wing plan: the triplane's third wing provides increased wing area, giving much-increased lift. The extra weight
1222-432: A low wing loading , combining both large wing area with light weight. Obtaining a large enough wing area without the wings being long, and thus dangerously flexible was more readily accomplished with a biplane. The smaller biplane wing allows greater maneuverability . Following World War I, this helped extend the era of the biplane and, despite the performance disadvantages, most fighter aircraft were biplanes as late as
1316-507: A minimum of struts; however, it was relatively easy to damage the thin metal skin and required careful handling by ground crews. The 1918 Zeppelin-Lindau D.I fighter was an all-metal stressed-skin monocoque fully cantilevered biplane, but its arrival had come too late to see combat use in the conflict. By the 1930s, biplanes had reached their performance limits, and monoplanes become increasingly predominant, particularly in continental Europe where monoplanes had been increasingly common from
1410-484: A separate stabilising tail with both fin and tailplane. The wings were of typical Cayley kite-like planform having a low aspect ratio. The craft was not large enough to carry an adult so a local boy was chosen as the passenger. His name is not known. Between 1907 and 1911 a number of pioneers experimented with triplanes, some capable of flight and others not. None proved outstanding, although the series produced by A.V. Roe had some success and sold in small numbers. In 1907
1504-626: A small number of his Type II and III designs, before abandoning the triplane. Alexander Graham Bell was experimenting with an "octahedral" wing design and in 1910 built a triplane example, the Oionus I , which failed to fly. In 1911 the Belgian César Battaille constructed a triplane capable of short flights or hops, and the Russian Rodjestveisky also constructed a triplane. During World War I , some aircraft manufacturers turned to
1598-473: A somewhat unusual sesquiplane arrangement, possessing a more substantial lower wing with two spars that eliminated the flutter problems encountered by single-spar sesquiplanes. The stacking of wing planes was suggested by Sir George Cayley in 1843. Hiram Maxim adopted the idea for his steam-powered test rig, which lifted off but was held down by safety rails, in 1894. Otto Lilienthal designed and flew two different biplane hang gliders in 1895, though he
1692-471: A tandem triplane due to its relatively large triplane aft plane. The Fokker V.8 of 1917 was another tandem design although not a true tandem triplane, having a triplane fore wing, biplane rear wing and monoplane tail stabiliser. In 1921, the Italian Gianni Caproni mated three stacks of triplane wings from his Ca.4 series to a single fuselage in a tandem triple triplane arrangement, to create
1786-505: A twin-rotored aircraft and had secured the financial backing of Sir William Armstrong of Armstrong-Whitworth . This machine was being built in Denver in the United States. After disagreements about the design of the machine and problems with his salary, Roe, who had been sent back to Britain to deal with patenting the design, resigned. He then began to build a series of flying models, and won
1880-486: Is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer , used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation . While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane , it produces more drag than a monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and higher speeds made
1974-411: Is a two bay biplane , the extra bay being necessary as overlong bays are prone to flexing and can fail. The SPAD S.XIII fighter, while appearing to be a two bay biplane, has only one bay, but has the midpoints of the rigging braced with additional struts; however, these are not structurally contiguous from top to bottom wing. The Sopwith 1½ Strutter has a W shape cabane, however as it does not connect
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#17328511545872068-491: Is better known for his monoplanes. By 1896 a group of young men in the United States, led by Octave Chanute , were flying hang gliders including biplanes and concluded that the externally braced biplane offered better prospects for powered flight than the monoplane. In 1903, the Wright Flyer biplane became the first successful powered aeroplane. Throughout the pioneer years, both biplanes and monoplanes were common, but by
2162-457: Is more typically referred to as a three surface aircraft , or sometimes a tandem triple or tandem triplet , and is not a triplane as such. These modern types may also be compared to the pioneer Voisin-Farman I and Curtiss No. 1 which also had a large main wing with smaller fore and aft planes; the smaller planes were not regarded as part of the main wing arrangement, and they were not described as tandem types. Biplane A biplane
2256-609: Is much more common. The space enclosed by a set of interplane struts is called a bay (much as the architectural form is used), hence a biplane or triplane with one set of such struts connecting the wings on each side of the aircraft is a single-bay biplane . This provided sufficient strength for smaller aircraft such as the First World War -era Fokker D.VII fighter and the Second World War de Havilland Tiger Moth basic trainer. The larger two-seat Curtiss JN-4 Jenny
2350-437: Is partially offset by the increased depth of the overall structure, allowing a more efficient construction. The Caproni Ca.4 and Levy-Besson families of large, multi-engined triplanes both had some success with this approach. These advantages are offset to a greater or lesser extent in any given design by the extra weight and drag of the structural bracing and by the loss of lift resulting from aerodynamic interference between
2444-524: The Bristol M.1 , that caused even those with relatively high performance attributes to be overlooked in favour of 'orthodox' biplanes, and there was an allegedly widespread belief held at that time that monoplane aircraft were inherently unsafe during combat. Between the years of 1914 and 1925, a clear majority of new aircraft introduced were biplanes; however, during the latter years of the First World War,
2538-566: The Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano prototype transatlantic airliner. It proved unstable and crashed on its second flight. A further example was under construction in Kansas City, Kansas, as late as 1922. Recently, the term "tandem triplane" has been used for some new monoplane types that have active " canard " foreplane surfaces in addition to conventional wings and horizontal tailplane. A configuration having three comparable lifting surfaces in tandem
2632-684: The Grumman Ag Cat are available in upgraded versions with turboprop engines. The two most produced biplane designs were the 1913 British Avro 504 of which 11,303 were built, and the 1928 Soviet Polikarpov Po-2 of which over 20,000 were built, with the Po-2 being the direct replacement for the Soviet copy of the Avro 504. Both were widely used as trainers. The Antonov An-2 was very successful too, with more than 18,000 built. Although most ultralights are monoplanes,
2726-595: The Lite Flyer Biplane, the Sherwood Ranger , and the Murphy Renegade . The feathered dinosaur Microraptor gui glided, and perhaps even flew, on four wings, which may have been configured in a staggered sesquiplane arrangement. This was made possible by the presence of flight feathers on both forelimbs and hindlimbs, with the feathers on the forelimbs opening to a greater span. It has been suggested that
2820-451: The Model L trainer (of which three examples were constructed as floatplanes) and the Model S and Model 18-T fighters. The Curtiss GS-1 prototype of 1918 was unusual in being a floatplane scout from the outset. The performance of the fighting triplanes was soon overtaken by improved biplane fighters. However, as late as 1919 three prototype Sopwith Snarks were flown, and in 1920 and 1921
2914-539: The Nieuport-Delage NiD 42 / 52 / 62 series, Fokker C.Vd & e, and Potez 25 , all serving across a large number of air forces. In the general aviation sector, aircraft such as the Waco Custom Cabin series proved to be relatively popular. The Saro Windhover was a sesquiplane with the upper wing smaller than the lower, which was a much rarer configuration than the reverse. The Pfalz D.III also featured
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3008-698: The Sopwith Cobham , the only twin-engined type that Sopwith ever produced, fared little better two years later. From 1918, the British company Bristol developed a series of heavy triplanes which, like the Caproni design, appeared in different variants aimed at different roles. The first was the Bristol Braemar bomber, flying in 1918 with the Mk II version in 1919. The Bristol Pullman 14-seat transport variant flew in 1920. This
3102-490: The de Havilland Tiger Moth , Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann and Travel Air 2000 . Alternatively, the lower wing can instead be moved ahead of the upper wing, giving negative stagger, and similar benefits. This is usually done in a given design for structural reasons, or to improve visibility. Examples of negative stagger include the Sopwith Dolphin , Breguet 14 and Beechcraft Staggerwing . However, positive (forward) stagger
3196-572: The "Red Baron". Although it had a good rate of climb and was highly manoeuvrable, it was not particularly fast. Following the break-up of two examples in the air, the type was withdrawn from service for strengthening, and by the time it was re-introduced, it was no longer at the forefront of performance. Meanwhile, in the US, the Curtiss company produced many triplane designs between 1916 and 1918. Of these, several fighters and related types entered production, notably
3290-503: The CR.42 was able to achieve success in the defensive night fighter role against RAF bombers that were striking industrial targets throughout northern Italy. The British Fleet Air Arm operated the Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber from its aircraft carriers, and used the type in the anti-submarine warfare role until the end of the conflict, largely due to their ability to operate from
3384-506: The Ca.4, making nine wings in all, and is generally classified as a multiplane . Among the many large seaplane designs produced in the US by Curtiss between 1916 and 1918, several were triplanes, however none entered production, including the Wanamaker Triplane prototype. Britain, too, gained its first triplane bomber in 1917 with the single-engined Sopwith Rhino . It was not a success and
3478-518: The Caribou , performed the first non-stop flight between the Canadian mainland and Britain in 30 hours 55 minutes, although the intended target for this long distance flight had originally been Baghdad , Iraq . Despite its relative success, British production of the Dragon was quickly ended when in favour of the more powerful and elegant de Havilland Dragon Rapide , which had been specifically designed to be
3572-550: The Danish pioneer Jacob Ellehammer flew a powered triplane and would later receive a prize for flying it in Germany. The French Bousson-Borgnis canard triplane of 1908 was a failure. The Goupy No.1 , designed in 1908 by Ambroise Goupy and built by Voisin , was more successful. A few weeks after the Goupy No.1 flew, Hans Grade's triplane became the first German-built aeroplane to fly. In
3666-503: The First World War, the British Royal Aircraft Factory developed airfoil section wire named RAFwire in an effort to both increase the strength and reduce the drag. Four types of wires are used in the biplane wing structure. Drag wires inside the wings prevent the wings from being folded back against the fuselage, running inside a wing bay from the forward inboard corner to the rear outboard corner. Anti-drag wires prevent
3760-565: The French Nieuport 17 and German Albatros D.III , offered lower drag than a conventional biplane while being stronger than a monoplane. During the Interwar period , numerous biplane airliners were introduced. The British de Havilland Dragon was a particularly successful aircraft, using straightforward design to could carry six passengers on busy routes, such as London-Paris services. During early August 1934, one such aircraft, named Trail of
3854-596: The Germans had been experimenting with a new generation of monoplanes, such as the Fokker D.VIII , that might have ended the biplane's advantages earlier had the conflict not ended when it had. The French were also introducing the Morane-Saulnier AI , a strut-braced parasol monoplane , although the type was quickly relegated to the advanced trainer role following the resolution of structural issues. Sesquiplane types, which were biplanes with abbreviated lower wings such as
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3948-483: The biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s. Biplanes offer several advantages over conventional cantilever monoplane designs: they permit lighter wing structures, low wing loading and smaller span for a given wing area. However, interference between the airflow over each wing increases drag substantially, and biplanes generally need extensive bracing, which causes additional drag. Biplanes are distinguished from tandem wing arrangements, where
4042-598: The competition aerobatics role and format for such a biplane well-defined by the mid-1930s by the Udet U 12 Flamingo and Waco Taperwing . The Pitts Special dominated aerobatics for many years after World War II and is still in production. The vast majority of biplane designs have been fitted with reciprocating engines . Exceptions include the Antonov An-3 and WSK-Mielec M-15 Belphegor , fitted with turboprop and turbofan engines respectively. Some older biplane designs, such as
4136-536: The craze for the homebuilt tandem-wing Mignet Pou du Ciel (Flying Flea), a triplane variant, the American Flea , was produced in America around 1939. In this variant the top wings were fixed and the bottom wing acted as all-flying ailerons. In 1975 a triplane glider, titled BrO-18 "Boružė" ( lith . Ladybird ) was built in then-Soviet Lithuania by Bronius Oškinis. The aircraft having a wingspan of 4.9 meters, also earned
4230-542: The end of World War I . At the start of World War II , several air forces still had biplane combat aircraft in front line service but they were no longer competitive, and most were used in niche roles, such as training or shipboard operation, until shortly after the end of the war. The British Gloster Gladiator biplane, the Italian Fiat CR.42 Falco and Soviet I-153 sesquiplane fighters were all still operational after 1939. According to aviation author Gianni Cattaneo,
4324-480: The few Danish designs to fly, in 1907, and the first powered type to fly in Germany, was also a triplane. However the triplane has seldom proved a practical solution and few types have ever entered production. The majority of triplane designs emerged during a narrow period from 1908 to 1923. Besides the famous fighting triplanes of the First World War , several larger types became successful bombers, airliners and maritime patrol aircraft, sometimes as different variants of
4418-463: The finish line. In 1921 the "Cactus Kitten" racing triplane was created by modifying the "Texas Wildcat 2" biplane (which in turn was a modification of the monoplane "Texas Wildcat" monoplane), thus becoming the only design in history to have gone from monoplane to biplane to triplane configuration. Also referred to as the Curtiss-Cox racer, being designed and sponsored by Cox from Texas and powered by
4512-449: The heavily armoured Boeing GA-1 and GA-2 ground-attack triplanes proved too heavy to be useful. A few British designers pursued the triplane configuration in the anti- Zeppelin role. From 1915, Armstrong Whitworth developed the F.K.5 and F.K.6 prototypes. These were large three-seat types with twin engines and the middle wing of noticeably longer span than the others. Then in 1917 Blackburn produced their single-seat triplane . It
4606-539: The hind limbs could not have opened out sideways but in flight would have hung below and slightly behind the fore limbs. Alliot Verdon Roe Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe OBE , Hon. FRAeS , FIAS (26 April 1877 – 4 January 1958) was a pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer , and founder in 1910 of the Avro company. After experimenting with model aeroplanes, he made flight trials in 1907–1908 with
4700-515: The less the interference, but the spacing struts must be longer, and the gap must be extremely large to reduce it appreciably. As engine power and speeds rose late in World War I , thick cantilever wings with inherently lower drag and higher wing loading became practical, which in turn made monoplanes more attractive as it helped solve the structural problems associated with monoplanes, but offered little improvement for biplanes. The default design for
4794-612: The low speeds and simple construction involved have inspired a small number of biplane ultralights, such as Larry Mauro's Easy Riser (1975–). Mauro also made a version powered with solar cells driving an electric motor called the Solar Riser . Mauro's Easy Riser was used by "Father Goose", Bill Lishman . Other biplane ultralights include the Belgian-designed Aviasud Mistral , the German FK12 Comet (1997–),
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#17328511545874888-412: The main wings can support ailerons , while flaps are more usually positioned on the lower wing. Bracing is nearly always added between the upper and lower wings, in the form of interplane struts positioned symmetrically on either side of the fuselage and bracing wires to keep the structure from flexing, where the wings are not themselves cantilever structures. The primary advantage of the biplane over
4982-540: The management of Brooklands he moved his flight experiments to Walthamstow Marshes , where he rented space under a railway arch at the western end of the viaduct. Despite many setbacks, Roe persisted with his experiments and there is now a blue plaque commemorating his first successful flight (in July 1909) at the site. His aircraft, Avroplane , a triplane, is preserved in London's Science Museum . A working replica of this aircraft
5076-924: The maritime arena was the Felixstowe Fury prototype of 1918, also known as the Porte Super-Baby. Almost as late as the Barling Bomber, in 1922 the Japanese flew the Mitsubishi 1MT torpedo bomber. It entered production as the Navy Type 10. After World War I , several examples of the Curtiss 18-T were used for racing. An 18T-2 nearly won the Curtiss Marine Trophy Race in 1922 (limited to U.S. Navy pilots), but pilot Sandy Sanderson ran out of fuel just before
5170-411: The mid-1930s. Specialist sports aerobatic biplanes are still made in small numbers. Biplanes suffer aerodynamic interference between the two planes when the high pressure air under the top wing and the low pressure air above the lower wing cancel each other out. This means that a biplane does not in practice obtain twice the lift of the similarly-sized monoplane. The farther apart the wings are spaced
5264-411: The middle set level with the top of the fuselage, and the top set supported above the fuselage on cabane struts . In a practical flying boat , even the lowest wing must be placed well above the waterline of the hull, creating a tall structure overall. The first heavier-than-air craft to carry a person in free flight was a triplane, as far back as 1848 and long before the advent of powered flight. One of
5358-503: The military. Examples were produced by Albatros, Aviatik , Brandenburg, DFW, Euler, Fokker, Friedrichshafen, LFG Roland , Lloyd, Lohner, Oeffag, Pfalz, Sablating, Schütte-Lanz, Siemens-Schuckert, W.K.F, in Britain by Austin and in the US by Curtiss. Only two companies, Fokker and Curtiss, would see any of their designs into production. Fokker's V.4 prototype of 1917 (identified by some as the V.3) had unusual cantilevered wings without bracing,
5452-561: The most famed copies was the Siemens-Schuckert D.I . The Albatros D.III and D.V , which had also copied the general layout from Nieuport, similarly provided the backbone of the German forces during the First World War. The Albatros sesquiplanes were widely acclaimed by their aircrews for their maneuverability and high rate of climb. During interwar period , the sesquiplane configuration continued to be popular, with numerous types such as
5546-561: The most unusual was the 1917 Curtiss Autoplane , a triplane flying car. The same year, the more conventional Curtiss-Judson Triplane, a one-off and slightly enlarged triplane variant of the Curtiss Model F , was sold for private use. After the war, in France the Besson H-3 private tourer flew in 1921. And in 1923 the German hang-glider enthusiast Hans Richter flew a triplane variant. Following
5640-588: The night ground attack role throughout the Second World War. In the case of the Po-2, production of the aircraft continued even after the end of the conflict, not ending until around 1952. A significant number of Po-2s were fielded by the Korean People's Air Force during the Korean War , inflicting serious damage during night raids on United Nations bases. The Po-2 is also the only biplane to be credited with
5734-483: The outbreak of the First World War biplanes had gained favour after several monoplane structural failures resulted in the RFC's "Monoplane Ban" when all monoplanes in military service were grounded, while the French also withdrew most monoplanes from combat roles and relegated them to training. Figures such as aviation author Bruce observed that there was an apparent prejudice held even against newly-designed monoplanes, such as
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#17328511545875828-406: The outer wing. On a biplane, since the angles are closer to the ideal of being in direct line with the forces being opposed, the overall structure can then be made stiffer. Because of the reduced stiffness, wire braced monoplanes often had multiple sets of flying and landing wires where a biplane could easily be built with one bay, with one set of landing and flying wires. The extra drag from the wires
5922-504: The possibility of building a flying machine, having observed the soaring flight of albatrosses . In 1906 he applied for the job of Secretary of the Royal Aero Club . Although there were other better-qualified candidates, Roe's enthusiasm for aviation impressed Charles Rolls , and Stanley Spooner who interviewed him, and he was given the job. Shortly after this he was offered a job as a draughtsman by G.L.O. Davidson, who had devised
6016-634: The relatively compact decks of escort carriers . Its low stall speed and inherently tough design made it ideal for operations even in the often severe mid-Atlantic weather conditions. By the end of the conflict, the Swordfish held the distinction of having caused the destruction of a greater tonnage of Axis shipping than any other Allied aircraft. Both the German Heinkel He 50 and the Soviet Polikarpov Po-2 were used with relative success in
6110-410: The same basic design, both during and immediately after the war. The last triplane design, privately homebuilt, was introduced shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War . The first heavier-than-air machine to carry a human on a free, untethered flight was a triplane glider constructed by George Cayley and flown in 1848. It was modern in form, having three stacked wings above the fuselage and
6204-719: The same enthusiasm for reform as the American poet Ezra Pound , who also wrote for the Mosley press. During the Second World War , two of his sons were killed in action while serving with the Royal Air Force . Squadron Leader Eric Alliott Verdon-Roe aged 26, in 1941, and Squadron Leader Lighton Verdon-Roe DFC aged 22, in 1943. Between 1928 and 1940 Verdon-Roe lived at Hamble House in Hamble-le-Rice , Hampshire . Verdon-Roe died on 4 January 1958 at St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth . and
6298-499: The same overall strength and is therefore lighter. A given area of wing also tends to be shorter, reducing bending moments on the spars, which then allow them to be more lightly built as well. The biplane does however need extra struts to maintain the gap between the wings, which add both weight and drag. The low power supplied by the engines available in the first years of aviation limited aeroplanes to fairly low speeds. This required an even lower stalling speed, which in turn required
6392-502: The same portion of the atmosphere and thus interfere with each other's behaviour. In a biplane configuration with no stagger from the upper wing to the lower wing, the lift coefficient is reduced by 10 to 15 percent compared to that of a monoplane using the same airfoil and aspect ratio . The lower wing is usually attached to the fuselage , while the upper wing is raised above the fuselage with an arrangement of cabane struts , although other arrangements have been used. Either or both of
6486-445: The same year Farman modified his original Voisin machine to triplane configuration, and Dorand constructed a military triplane. In 1909 the American Morris Bokor constructed his own canard triplane and the Frenchman Alfred Groos constructed a triplane which failed to fly. Through 1909 and 1910 the British aviation pioneer A.V. Roe built a series of four experimental triplanes—types I , II , III and IV —and selling
6580-415: The same year, and also the Besson Hydravion école which he exhibited at the Paris 1919 Air Show. He later developed a number of smaller designs for other roles, including Besson H-6 mail plane flown in 1921. The Italian Caproni Ca.4 of 1917 was another successful design and entered service with the Italian air force as a heavy bomber in 1918. Many further variants were produced, both during and after
6674-442: The series of Nieuport military aircraft—from the Nieuport 10 through to the Nieuport 27 which formed the backbone of the Allied air forces between 1915 and 1917. The performance of the Nieuport sesquiplanes was so impressive that the Idflieg (the German Inspectorate of flying troops) requested their aircraft manufacturers to produce copies, an effort which was aided by several captured aircraft and detailed drawings; one of
6768-495: The similar-sized American Witteman-Lewis XNBL-1 triplane, known as the "Barling Bomber", which first flew in 1923. On a smaller scale, the Avro 547 airliner was a modified Avro 504 with an extra wing. Two were built, of which the first flew in 1920. It was sold to Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services but proved unsuited to the tough conditions in the Australian Outback. Britain's only triplane contribution to
6862-538: The technical and mathematics papers, he was rejected for failing some of the general subjects. As well as doing dockyard work, Roe joined the ship SS Jebba of the British & South African Royal Mail Company as fifth engineer on the West African run. He went on to serve on other vessels, finishing his Merchant Navy career as third engineer aboard the SS Ichanga . It was during these voyages that he became interested in
6956-533: The three wings. The design resulted in poor handling and was eventually dropped. Sopwith developed three different triplane designs in 1916. One, known simply as the Sopwith Triplane , went into production and became the first military triplane to see operational service. It had equal-span wings of high aspect ratio, mounted on a fuselage very similar to that of the preceding Pup biplane, and braced by one sturdy strut on each side with minimal wire bracing. The type
7050-433: The title of world's smallest glider at that time. Similar configuration was used in hydro-glider BrO-17V "Antelė" (Lith. Duckling ). A tandem triplane has two sets of triplane wings, fore and aft. Few have been made. The Dufaux triplane of 1908 was Switzerland's first native aircraft design, configured as a tandem triplane with a smaller biplane horizontal stabiliser. The 1909 Roe I Triplane has also been described as
7144-432: The triplane configuration for fighter aircraft . In practice these triplanes generally offered inferior performance to the equivalent biplane and, despite a brief vogue around 1917, only four types saw limited production. Nieuport built a series of triplane prototypes between 1915 and 1917, featuring a top wing heavily staggered backwards to improve the pilot's view and a characteristic triangular strut arrangement bracing
7238-400: The upper and lower wings together. The sesquiplane is a type of biplane where one wing (usually the lower) is significantly smaller than the other. The word, from Latin, means "one-and-a-half wings". The arrangement can reduce drag and weight while retaining the biplane's structural advantages. The lower wing may have a significantly shorter span, or a reduced chord . Examples include
7332-498: The uppermost wing being attached only by cabane struts to the fuselage. The wings vibrated excessively in flight and the next prototype, the V.5, featured a single interplane strut on each side, similar to the Sopwith but with no wires called shrouds . This became the prototype of the famous Fokker Dr.I triplane of 1917, which would become immortalised as the aircraft most closely identified in popular culture with Manfred von Richthofen ,
7426-523: The war. Caproni later re-numbered many of these variants as new types, including the Ca.48 airliner . In Italy's first commercial aviation disaster and one of the earliest – and, at the time, deadliest – airliner accidents, a Ca.48 crashed while flying over Verona , Italy , on August 2, 1919, killing everyone on board (between 14 and 17 people). The unsuccessful Caproni Ca.60 prototype transatlantic seaplane had three sets of triplane wings taken from
7520-419: The wings are placed forward and aft, instead of above and below. The term is also occasionally used in biology , to describe the wings of some flying animals . In a biplane aircraft, two wings are placed one above the other. Each provides part of the lift, although they are not able to produce twice as much lift as a single wing of similar size and shape because the upper and the lower are working on nearly
7614-434: The wings from folding up, and run from the underside of the outer wing to the lower wing root. Conversely, landing wires prevent the wings from sagging, and resist the forces when an aircraft is landing, and run from the upper wing centre section to outboard on the lower wings. Additional drag and anti-drag wires may be used to brace the cabane struts which connect the fuselage to the wings, and interplane struts, which connect
7708-421: The wings from moving forward when the aircraft stops and run the opposite direction to the drag wires. Both of these are usually hidden within the wings, and if the structure is sufficiently stiff otherwise, may be omitted in some designs. Indeed many early aircraft relied on the fabric covering of the wing to provide this rigidity, until higher speeds and forces made this inadequate. Externally, lift wires prevent
7802-412: The wings in any stacked configuration. The multiplane idea was taken a step further by the quadruplane . No examples were successful, and as biplane design advanced, it became clear that the disadvantages of the triplane and quadruplane outweighed their advantages. In a practical landplane design, the lower set of wings are typically set approximately level with the underside of the aircraft's fuselage ,
7896-597: The wings to each other, it does not add to the number of bays. Large transport and bombing biplanes often needed still more bays to provide sufficient strength. These are often referred to as multi-bay biplanes . A small number of biplanes, such as the Zeppelin-Lindau D.I have no interplane struts and are referred to as being strutless . Because most biplanes do not have cantilever structures, they require rigging wires to maintain their rigidity. Early aircraft used simple wire (either braided or plain), however during
7990-568: Was buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St Andrew in Hamble; there is a commemorative plaque to Roe and his sons inside the church. On 28 October 2011 a green plaque was unveiled by Wandsworth Council and members of the Verdon-Roe family at the site of Roe's first workshop at West Hill, Putney. In 1980, Verdon-Roe was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at
8084-607: Was donated to the Navy and used as a trainer for the 1922 Pulitzer race, fame having proven very fleeting. In 1927 a Catron & Fisk CF-10 twin-engined 22-seat airliner was modified with additional fuel tanks and updated engines and named the Pride of Los Angeles . The intention was to enter the Dole Air race , but an in-flight incident caused the aircraft to crash before the race started. Some triplanes have been developed for private use. Perhaps
8178-531: Was followed by two examples of a new, larger design for a military freighter known as the Bristol Tramp . The Tarrant Tabor , another and much larger British bomber, was built with three wings to carry the six engines required—four more-powerful engines being unavailable. The power imbalance due to the high mounting caused the Tabor to crash on its maiden flight in 1919. Its designer Walter Barling went on to design
8272-428: Was knighted in 1929. In 1933 he changed his surname to Verdon-Roe by deed poll , adding the hyphen between his last two names in honour of his mother. He was a member of Oswald Mosley 's British Union of Fascists in the 1930s. He was a believer in monetary reform and thought it wrong that banks should be able to create money by "book entry" and charge interest on it when they lent it out. In this respect he shared
8366-423: Was not enough to offset the aerodynamic disadvantages from having two airfoils interfering with each other however. Strut braced monoplanes were tried but none of them were successful, not least due to the drag from the number of struts used. The structural forces acting on the spars of a biplane wing tend to be lower as they are divided between four spars rather than two, so the wing can use less material to obtain
8460-594: Was ordered by both the RFC and RNAS , but the RFC traded theirs for another type and the Sopwith saw service only with the RNAS, where it served with success. The Sopwith type's performance advantage and early successes over the Albatros D.III spurred military interest in the design, especially in Germany and Austria-Hungary. A flurry of fighter prototypes were produced through 1917 and 1918, sometimes reluctantly while under pressure from
8554-515: Was something of a throwback, featuring a pusher propeller and boom-mounted empennage in the manner of an earlier era. The arrangement was intended to allow fitting of an upwards-firing 2-pounder recoilless gun in the forward fuselage. Neither type progressed beyond the prototype stage. The French began experimenting with bomber designs in 1915. The Morane-Saulnier TRK and Voisin Triplane prototypes of 1915 and 1916 were not successful. The Voisin design
8648-472: Was unusual in having a subsidiary tail boom above the fuselage, helping to support the empennage . French triplanes had more success in the long-range maritime role. Labourdette-Halbronn produced a twin-hulled triplane torpedo bomber prototype, the H.T.1, in 1918 and two prototypes of a modified H.T.2 version in 1919. Besson designed several triplane flying boats between ca. 1917 and 1919, initially in partnership with Levy. The Levy-Besson Alerte of 1917 featured
8742-666: Was unveiled on 7 June 2008 at the Brooklands Museum in Surrey . With his brother Humphrey , Alliott founded the A.V. Roe Aircraft Co. on 1 January 1910, later renamed Avro Aircraft, at Brownsfield Mill, Great Ancoats Street , Manchester. His most popular model, the 504 , sold more than 8,300 units, mainly to the Royal Flying Corps and later to the Royal Air Force for use by training units. In 1928 he sold his shares and bought S. E. Saunders Co., and formed Saunders-Roe . Roe
8836-696: Was widely used by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) while the US Navy operated the Naval Aircraft Factory N3N . In later civilian use in the US, the Stearman became particularly associated with stunt flying such as wing-walking , and with crop dusting, where its compactness worked well at low levels, where it had to dodge obstacles. Modern biplane designs still exist in specialist roles such as aerobatics and agricultural aircraft with
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