A biplane 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 the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
The Horten H.IX, RLM designation Ho 229 was a German prototype fighter/bomber designed by Reimar and Walter Horten to be built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik. Developed at a late stage of the Second World War, it was one of the first flying wing aircraft to be powered by jet engines.
William Bushnell Stout was a pioneering American inventor, engineer, developer and designer whose works in the automotive and aviation fields were groundbreaking. Known by the nickname "Bill", Stout designed an aircraft that eventually became the Ford Trimotor and was an executive at the Ford Motor Company.
In a fixed-wing aircraft, the spar is often the main structural member of the wing, running spanwise at right angles to the fuselage. The spar carries flight loads and the weight of the wings while on the ground. Other structural and forming members such as ribs may be attached to the spar or spars, with stressed skin construction also sharing the loads where it is used. There may be more than one spar in a wing or none at all. Where a single spar carries most of the force, it is known as the main spar.
The ANT-2 was the first all-metal aircraft designed by the Tupolev design bureau. A small passenger plane, it could carry two passengers in a cabin behind the pilot.
The Fokker V.1 was a small German sesquiplane experimental fighter prototype built in 1916 by the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Sporting a parasol wing, it was the first Fokker aircraft purportedly designed by Reinhold Platz—the respective roles played by Fokker himself, Platz, and possibly others in the conceptual design of Fokker airplanes are a matter of dispute among historians—and was an early experiment in cantilever wing construction, eliminating the bracing wires typical of aircraft design at the time, something that had already been achieved with metal materials in Hugo Junkers' own pioneering Junkers J 1 in 1915.
The Blackburn R.2 Airedale was a single-engine three-seat monoplane deck-landing aircraft for land and sea reconnaissance, built in the UK in 1924. Only two were built.
The Parnall Imp was an unusual single-engined, two-seat British biplane built in 1927. It had a straight cantilever lower wing which supported the markedly swept upper wing. Only one was built.
Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company was an American aircraft manufacturer founded by William Bushnell Stout as the Stout Metal Airplane Co. in 1922. The company was purchased by Ford Motor Company in 1924 and later produced the Ford Trimotor. At the height of the Great Depression, Ford closed the aircraft design and production division in 1936, temporarily re-entering the aviation market with the production of the B-24, at the Willow Run aircraft factory during World War II.
The Stout Batwing Limousine was a single-engine, high-wing cantilever aircraft. It was also called simply the "Commercial Sedan".
The Stout ST was a twin-engine torpedo bomber built for the US Navy. It pioneered the American use of metal construction and the cantilever "thick wing" design concepts of German aeronautical engineer Hugo Junkers, themselves pioneered in the second half of 1915.
The Stout 1-AS Air Sedan was an all-metal monoplane that was an early example in the Ford Trimotor lineage.
The Czerwiński-Shenstone Harbinger, aka the Shenstone-Czerwiński Harbinger or the Shenstone Harbinger was a Canadian high performance tandem seat sailplane designed in Canada. Only two were built, one in the UK and one in Canada. The latter did not fly until 1975, being under construction for 26 years; the former remained active until at least 1994.
The Pegna-Bonmartini Rondine, or Pegna Rondine, is a single-seat ultralight sport aeroplane designed by Giovanni Pegna and built by Piaggio in Italy during 1923.
The Daimler L15, sometimes later known as the Daimler-Klemm L15 or the Klemm-Daimler L15 was an early two-seat low-powered light aircraft intended to popularise flying. In mid-career it flew as a glider.
The Feiro Dongó was a Hungarian side-by-side trainer biplane. It was notable for its high aspect ratio wings, aerodynamic clearness and high lift/drag ratio.
In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of struts, which act in compression or tension as the need arises, and/or wires, which act only in tension.
The Handasyde H.2 was a six seat airliner built in the UK in the early 1920s. Only one was completed.
The Hamilton H-18 was a 1920s US four/five passenger aircraft. An early all-metal design, it reflected Junkers and Stout design practices. Though it won safety and efficiency awards only one was built.
