MAN-MADE BIRDS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21256, 30 August 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

MAN-MADE BIRDS

Monoplanes and Biplanes IX. THE CHOICE OF THE WRIGHTS

When the Wrights were making their early experiments they had difficulty in making wings that would be stiff enough to keep their shape if they were to be long enough to support a man in the aii - . They realised, however, that it was not necessary that there should be only one plane, that is, one wing on each side of the engine and pilot; almost as good results

would be obtained by dividing the wing surface into two parts and putting one wing above another on each side. By this method it was possible to brace the upper wing against the lower, getting more strength for the same weight than would be possible with a machine with only one wing. The Wrights' machine was thus a biplane; a machine with only one wing on each side is called a monoplane. You will see in the photographs on this page that the monoplane

has a thicker wing than the biplane, and you will also see the struts and wires that brace the wings of the biplane to each other and to the body or fuselage of the aeroplane. Some of the early experimenters, working not long after the first flights, made successful monoplanes, and it was claimed that these were faster. However, after a few years of flying it was generally agreed that though both types had advantages of their own. neither was

very greatly better than the otheiv Most fighting machines are biplanes, because they can more easily be made strong enough to stand violent "stunting" such as is necessary in. air fighting. It is also easier to make a biplane that will climb steeply. During the war the Ger« mans produced a triplane—that is, a machine with three sets of wings, and the English experimented with

a quadriplane, which had four sets. In the last few years a fashion for monoplanes for commercial us® has grown up in the United States, and this has lately spread to England. You will remember that the Southern Cross and the Faith in Australia each have only one plane. Because this is on the top of the fuselage, these machines are known as high wing monoplanes; both these aeroplanes, by the way, were designed by Antony Fokker, who built the triplanes the Germans use 4

in the war. Sir Charles KingsfordSmith's new racing machine has its single wing at the bottom of the fuselage, and is therefore called a low-wing monoplane. An ordinary Moth is a biplane. To-day, designers choose monoplanes or biplanes for reasons other than those that influenced th# Wright brothers, who simply wanted strong but light construction. You will remember from the picture of their machine in the first issue or "The Px-ess Junior" that though it was a binlnn* it lrv\VoH wm-