| Moineau | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Role | Single seat sport and trainer aircraft |
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | Bessard and Millevoye |
| Designer | Bessard and Millevoye |
| First flight | May-June 1935 |
| Number built | 1 |
Bessard-Millevoye Moineau (Sparrow) was a single seat, low-powered French biplane intended to increase participation in popular aviation. Only one was built.
The single seat Moineau was designed to lower the costs of flying. It was low-powered, making it relatively cheap to build and run, and folding wings made it compact to store. It was capable of being flown by part-time pilots but also able, in more experienced hands, to perform aerobatics. [1]
Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in normal flight. Aerobatics are performed in airplanes and gliders for training, recreation, entertainment, and sport. Additionally, some helicopters, such as the MBB Bo 105, are capable of limited aerobatic maneuvers. An example of a fully aerobatic helicopter, capable of performing loops and rolls, is the Westland Lynx.
The Moineau was an equal span single bay biplane with bays defined by N-form interplane struts and wings with only slight stagger. The wings were built around two spruce tubes and had trellissed ribs and plywood leading edges. The lower wing was in two parts and attached to the lower fuselage; the three part upper wing had a short span, reduced chord centre section which was supported over the central fuselage on a tube steel cabane assisted by outward leaning N-form struts from mid-fuselage to the wing and slender forward interplane struts close to the fuselage. Both wings were strongly swept at 20° but only the upper wing had slight (about 1°) dihedral. Apart from the upper centre section the wings had constant and equal chord out to rounded tips. Only the lower wing carried ailerons. [1]
In aviation, stagger is the relative horizontal fore-aft positioning of stacked wings in a biplane, triplane, or multiplane.
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea, a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. Spruces are large trees, from about 20–60 m tall when mature, and have whorled branches and conical form. They can be distinguished from other members of the pine family by their needles (leaves), which are four-sided and attached singly to small persistent peg-like structures (pulvini) on the branches, and by their cones, which hang downwards after they are pollinated. The needles are shed when 4–10 years old, leaving the branches rough with the retained pegs. In other similar genera, the branches are fairly smooth.
In an aircraft, ribs are forming elements of the structure of a wing, especially in traditional construction.
The fuselage was built around four steel tube longerons with frames and diagonals. Spruce stringers and a canvas covering gave the outer fuselage ten faces forming only slightly curved sides and underside but a more rounded upper surface; the fuselage narrowed to the tail. The details of the nose would have depended on the choice of 30 kW (40 hp) engine fitted: options were the two cylinder Centaure, three cylinder Poinsard or four cylinder, inverted in-line Train 4T, though it is not known if the Moineau flew with any of these. The prototype was fitted with a 26 kW (35 hp) Mengin B flat twin, which resulted in a rather blunt nose with engine cylinders exposed for cooling. Its single seat, open cockpit was under the upper wing cut-out, immediately aft of the engine firewall and over the fuel tank; just behind it the upper fuselage was metal covered, part of it easily removable for access and also forming a streamlined headrest. At the rear a triangular tailplane carried unbalanced elevators with a cut-out for the movement of a large balanced rudder which together with a small fin formed a blunted quadrant.
In engineering, a longeron is a load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural frameworks.
Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures, the de Havilland Mosquito being an example of this technique, and on the pioneering all-wood monocoque fuselages of certain World War I German aircraft like the LFG Roland C.II, in its wrapped Wickelrumpf plywood strip and fabric covering.
The straight or inline engine is an internal-combustion engine with all cylinders aligned in one row and having no offset. Usually found in four, six and eight cylinder configurations, they have been used in automobiles, locomotives and aircraft, although the term in-line has a broader meaning when applied to aircraft engines, see Inline engine (aviation).
The Moineau had a fixed, wide track, tailskid undercarriage, with large, low pressure balloon tyres on half-axles formed on each side by three struts, a forward pair from the lower and mid-fuselage and a drag strut to the lower fuselage further aft. [1]
Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft and may be used for either takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally both. It was also formerly called alighting gear by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin Company.
The Bessard-Millevoye Moineau first flew in late May or early June 1935 at Toussus-Paris, piloted by Henri Déricourt, chief test pilot of the Paris Aero Club. [2] By mid-July he had demonstrated its aerobatic capabilities. [1] The French aviation journals contain no further references to the Moineau.
Henri Dericourt was a French agent for Special Operations Executive. It is unclear whether he became a double agent for the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), or was working under British instructions when he betrayed all of his comrades.
Data from Les Ailes 15 August 1935 [1]
General characteristics
Performance
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