How the French Developed Their Newest Type of Battleplane
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Title (Dublin Core)
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How the French Developed Their Newest Type of Battleplane
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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How the French Developed Their Newest Type of Battleplane
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Caption: This latest type airplane, intended for reconnoitering duty in the Marne sector, is just
put together by expert workmen back of the French lines. It is built for speed
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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FOR a long time the principal French |
reconnoitering and bombing air-
planes were only slight modifications of |
the early Henry Farman type, well known |
in America. That airplane was stripped
down to the last essentials: ailerons, |
elevator, rudder and a simple four
wheeled landing gear with rubber shock-
absorbers (then a novelty). The pilot was
perched on the front edge of the lower
plane. A large fuel tank formed the back
of his seat; directly behind it was the
Gnome motor with a big, low-pitched
pusher-propeller. That arrangement
made a fuselage or hull impracticable.
The big, double-control surfaces had to
be carried by a wide open “cage” of
poles (at first of bamboo) and wires.
Farman was not a scientist, not an engi-
Teer, not an inventor, but a bicycle rider
who knew what was practical in flying.
When the war began, Farman'’s homely
type of airplane ousted the complicated
Breguet biplanes and all the mono-
planes because of its dependability. It
was not improved much—simply given
stronger, better engines, simpler control
surfaces, some streamlining and an |
enclosed body for the aviator. All this
was, of course, not sufficient to permit the
development of modern speeds.
From the very beginning the French
also had some Caudrons, large biplanes, |
from which the modern type of speed air
planes was developed. In these machines
the body was turned into a fuselage be-
cause there were twin motors and pro-
pellers out on the planes. A central
fuselage offered, therefore, the simplest
mounting for rudder, elevator and sta-
bilizers. This developed in it the germ of a
speed machine. Thus it came about that
the Caudron forged ahead more and
more, as the science of aviation pro-
gressed and developed.
The accompanying illustration shows
one of the latest developments of this
type, a true, up-to-date speed machine.
Streamlining is proclaimed paramount by
the form of the engine housings which are
50 arranged that they permit the wind to
reach and cool the machinery. Other
obvious proofs of minimum head resist-
ance are the characteristic nose of the
fuselage, the remarkably slender struts
and staywires made vibrationless by
holding two parallel wires against an
intermediate piece of wood.
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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Int Film Serv. (photo)
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1918-06
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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916
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Filippo Valle
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 92, n. 6, 1918
