Wibault 2

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Wibault 2
Wibault 2 BN 2 L'Annee aeronautique 1921-1922.jpg
RoleNight bomber
National origin France
Manufacturer Pierre Lavasseur
Designer Michel Wibault
First flight29 October 1921 [1]
Number built1 [1]

The Wibault 2, Wib 2 or Wib 2 BN.2 was a single engine biplane aircraft designed and built in France in the early 1920s. It was intended as a heavy night bomber, though a thirteen-seat passenger version was proposed. Only one was built.

Biplane airplane wing configuration with two vertically stacked main flying surfaces

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 similar unbraced or cantilever monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and the quest for greater speed made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.

France Republic with mainland in Europe and numerous oversea territories

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Contents

Design and development

As the military description BN.2 indicates, the Wib 2 was designed as a two-seat night bomber, but the designer had hopes of a passenger carrying derivative. As it was structurally an all-metal aircraft it had, by the standards of the times, a low structural weight and, as a consequence, a high useful load of 1,406 kg (3,100 lb) making the suggested capacity of thirteen passengers plausible. In addition to its metal construction, contemporaries noted other unusual design features, in particular the position of the wings well back along the fuselage, Flight speculated the idea being to distribute the passenger (or bomb) load symmetrically about the centre of pressure and over a greater longitudinal distance than usual, rather than along the span. The pilot sat quite close to the tail with the gunner (in the bomber version) in a separate, gun mounting equipped cockpit immediately behind him. Its span was large for a biplane with only a single set of struts and its upper wing had a shorter span than the lower. [2]

Fuselage aircraft main body which is the primary carrier of crew, passengers, and payload

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, and cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, as well, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage, which in turn is used as a floating hull. The fuselage also serves to position control and stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to lifting surfaces, which is required for aircraft stability and maneuverability.

<i>Flight International</i> magazine

Flight International is a weekly magazine focused on aerospace, published in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldest continuously published aviation news magazine.

The center of pressure is the point where the total sum of a pressure field acts on a body, causing a force to act through that point. The total force vector acting at the center of pressure is the value of the integrated vectorial pressure field. The resultant force and center of pressure location produce equivalent force and moment on the body as the original pressure field. Pressure fields occur in both static and dynamic fluid mechanics. Specification of the center of pressure, the reference point from which the center of pressure is referenced, and the associated force vector allows the moment generated about any point to be computed by a translation from the reference point to the desired new point. It is common for the center of pressure to be located on the body, but in fluid flows it is possible for the pressure field to exert a moment on the body of such magnitude that the center of pressure is located outside the body.

The wings of the Wib 2 were rectangular in plan and mounted without stagger or dihedral. The single bays were defined by parallel pairs of inward leaning interplane struts, assisted by crossed flying and landing wires from the bases of the struts to the fuselage. Cabane struts supported the upper wing above the fuselage. The wings had thick, high lift coefficient sections, constructed around deep single spars built up from Duralumin sheet; the ribs were formed from cross-braced metal tubes. Ailerons were mounted only on the lower wing. [2]

The lift coefficient (CL) is a dimensionless coefficient that relates the lift generated by a lifting body to the fluid density around the body, the fluid velocity and an associated reference area. A lifting body is a foil or a complete foil-bearing body such as a fixed-wing aircraft. CL is a function of the angle of the body to the flow, its Reynolds number and its Mach number. The lift coefficient cl refers to the dynamic lift characteristics of a two-dimensional foil section, with the reference area replaced by the foil chord.

Duralumin trade name of age-hardenable aluminium alloy

Duralumin is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. Its use as a trade name is obsolete, and today the term mainly refers to aluminium–copper alloys, designated as the 2000 series by the International Alloy Designation System (IADS), as with 2014 and 2024 alloys used in airframe fabrication.

Aileron Aircraft control surface used to induce roll

An aileron is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll, which normally results in a change in flight path due to the tilting of the lift vector. Movement around this axis is called 'rolling' or 'banking'.

The fuselage was metal framed and fabric covered, with a straight edged, wire braced tailplane carrying divided elevators mounted on top. Its vertical tail was low and broad, with a curved leading edge; the rudder was deep and aerodynamically balanced. The Wib 2 was powered by a 600 hp (447 kW) water-cooled V-12 Renault 12 M engine completely enclosed within a smooth cowling and drove a two blade propeller. Small radiators projected out on either side of the cowling. The undercarriage was of the fixed conventional type, with the mainwheels on a rigid axle supported by V-struts and assisted by a tailskid. [2]

Aircraft fabric covering

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.

Tailplane small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes

A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes. Not all fixed-wing aircraft have tailplanes. Canards, tailless and flying wing aircraft have no separate tailplane, while in V-tail aircraft the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and the tail-plane and elevator are combined to form two diagonal surfaces in a V layout.

Leading edge

The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts the air; alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil section. The first is an aerodynamic definition, the second a structural one. As an example of the distinction, during a tailslide, from an aerodynamic point of view, the trailing edge becomes the leading edge and vice versa but from a structural point of view the leading edge remains unchanged.

The Wib 2 flew for the first time on 29 October 1921 but only one, in bomber configuration, was built. [1]

Specifications (BN.2)

Wibault 2 Bn.2 night bomber Wibault 2 Bn.2 night bomber.png
Wibault 2 Bn.2 night bomber

Data from Flight, 12 January 1922, [2] Aviafrance [1]

General characteristics

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 201 km/h; 109 kn (125 mph) at 1,980 m (6,500 ft)
  • Range: 600 km (373 mi; 324 nmi)
  • Endurance: 4 hr at full throttle
  • Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,000 ft)
  • Wing loading: 44.6 kg/m2 (9.13 lb/sq ft)
  • Power/mass: 0.048 kW/m² (0.063 hp/lb)

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wibault 2". aviafrance.com. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "The Wibault night bomber". Flight . Vol. XIV no. 2. 12 January 1922. pp. 21–2.
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