Wright Model F

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Model F
Wright Model F.jpg
RoleMilitary reconnaissance aircraft
National originUnited States
Manufacturer Wright Company
Designer Grover Loening
First flight1914
Number built1

The Wright Model F was a prototype military aircraft built by the Wright Company for the U.S. Army in 1914. It was the first Wright design to feature a fuselage. [1] [2] [3] [4] The major structural elements of previous Wright designs had been connected by open frameworks. [5] The application of metal armor to the underside of the fuselage, together with its unenviable performance, [6] earned the aircraft the nickname "Tin Cow".

Contents

Design

The Model F was a three-bay, unstaggered biplane with equal-span wings. Its overall configuration was conventional, with a conventional tail carried at the rear of the fuselage. [3] The pilot and observer sat side-by-side in an open cockpit. [3] Power was supplied by a piston engine mounted in the nose, which drove two two-bladed pusher propellers mounted on the interplane struts and linked by chain drives. [3] It was fitted with fixed, tailskid undercarriage. [3]

Development

The Model F was designed in response to a 1913 U.S. Army Signal Corps specification for a reconnaissance aircraft. [7] The specification called for the underside of the aircraft to carry a crew of two with a four-hour endurance, be protected by chrome-steel armor, and to be capable of carrying a machine gun. [7] Due to a lack of confidence in American-produced aero engines of the time, the specification also called for use of a foreign powerplant. [7] The contract was worth $9,500. [4]

Wright responded with a design by Grover Loening that resembled the contemporary French designs, [4] [8] with a fuselage, and tail unit that consisted of a fin and horizontal stabilizer. Loenig also adopted the current "Deperdussin-style" controls that combined the aircraft's controls into a central control stick. [6] As originally designed, the aircraft was powered by tractor propellers. [7]

A series of revisions followed, which aviation historian Richard P. Hallion describes as "a dark comedy of errors". [6] At one stage of development, the aircraft was equipped both with "Deperdussin-style" controls, as well as the system of control wheels fitted to previous Wright designs, before the "Deperdussin-style" controls were removed completely. [6] The tractor propellers were moved to become pushers, and the seating arrangement was changed to be side-by-side. [6]

By the time the Model F was finally delivered, it was already a year late, Wright was delivering it at a financial loss, and Loening had quit the company in frustration. [6]

Operational history

The Model F was accepted by the Army in March 1915, and given the serial number "39". [5] [6] During testing it was described as "a lumbersome mass of rattling material" and given its "Tin Cow" nickname. [6] Test pilot Lt. Herbert Dargue said that it was "uncontrollable on the ground and out of date." [9] Only two months later, the aircraft was withdrawn [9] [6] along with all the Army's other pusher designs.<ref name="roach105"> It had only flown seven times. [9]

Operators

Specifications

Data from Hallion 2019, p.68

General characteristics

Performance

Notes

References

  1. ↑ Taylor 1992, p.898
  2. ↑ The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft 1985, p.3098
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "The New Wright Biplane" 1914, p.1133
  4. 1 2 3 Roach 2016, p.104
  5. 1 2 Swanborough 1963, p.478
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hallion 2019, p.68
  7. 1 2 3 4 Hallion 2019, p.67
  8. ↑ Hallion 2019, p.67–68
  9. 1 2 3 Roach 2015, p.105

Bibliography

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