Even a person far from aviation, it should generally be clear that planes are different - and they differ both in their functionality, and in form and appearance in principle. Here, for example, there are biplanes among aircraft varieties. What they are when the first biplanes appeared, how modern ones differ from them - and we tell about other information regarding these iron birds in our material.
What is a biplane?
Before talking about the biplanes of the world, about biplanes from different countries, we will briefly talk about what a biplane is in general, and how it differs from other iron birds. The name “biplane” itself, as it were, hints at what this aircraft variety is: “bi” means “two”, in this particular case we are talking about two pairs of wings located one above the other. Such wings have a large area, although their span is smaller. As a result of this, during take-off and during landing, the biplane requires a significantly smaller strip than the monoplane - that is, an airplane with a single pair of wings. Initially, the wings of the biplanes were wooden, they were covered with fabric from above. This is not to say that such a design was highly durable, and therefore, it was soon abandoned, replacing the wooden planes (the so-called wings) with metal ones.
When did the biplanes appear?
The exact date of the appearance of the biplanes is not so difficult to name, but rather impossible. It is known that by the time World War I began, biplanes were the most sought-after iron birds. They were very popular, and during the war they were generally “numbers one” in aviation.
However, the development of biplanes definitely began even earlier. At the end of the nineteenth century, when aviation was just “getting on its feet,” various designers experimented with aircraft models and brought something of their own to this field of science. The development of gliders was actively going on, but experience showed that the design of such airplanes was not very successful - it was biplanes that were much more convenient. Many (mostly French-speaking) generally believe that the first was built from a biplane, and its authorship belonged to the Franco-Brazilian balloonist by the name of Santos Dumont. The thing is that every aircraft designer - that the aforementioned Santos-Dumont, that the notorious Wright brothers, that other scientists - introduced, as mentioned above, something of their own in aircraft construction, which, as we recall, was only just beginning to develop . Nobody really knew what would work, what would “fire”. And therefore, pioneers in this area can be considered all those who somehow had a hand in the development of the first aircraft models.
Early twentieth century
In the early 1900s, biplanes were, as they say, “in use” in aviation. There were several varieties of them. However, there were two main aerodynamic variants of iron birds: with a pushing propeller and the so-called box-shaped wing (this is a biplane wing when the shape of the box when viewed from the front is rectangular) - one, and with the tail unit located behind and with a pulling screw - two. In those years, they generally built mainly two-seater biplanes or single-seater monoplanes, since it was these two types of aircraft that, according to various tests, showed the best results. About the advantages of biplanes, as well as their disadvantages, we will discuss in more detail below.
Benefits
Biplane aircraft had many advantages - otherwise they would not have received so much popularity. Perhaps their main advantage was the large wing area already mentioned above with a relatively small wing span and the need for only a minimal runway. However, in addition to this, the biplanes had enough advantages: greater carrying capacity, better visibility for both the pilot and the passenger, the ability to use this machine as a training one, better maneuverability due to two wing planes, a decrease in the total weight and moments of inertia, and greater reliability - for the same reason, greater stability and much less frequent corkscrew. As you can see, there are more than enough pluses, but it cannot be assumed that biplanes had no minuses. They had, and just about the conversation will go further about them.
The disadvantages of biplanes
Unlike monoplanes, which were more suitable for sports flights, sportsmen used biplanes not so often (although special sports biplanes also existed, we will talk about this later). However, this can not be called a significant drawback, but serious fuel consumption due to the mutual influence of two pairs of wings on each other, is undoubtedly a minus of this design. Wings, by the way, are able to somewhat limit the visibility of the pilot; however, the location of the pilot in the cockpit varies - he may be in front of the wings, then this drawback also becomes insignificant. The main disadvantage of biplane aircraft is considered to be the increased profile drag (this is the difference between the aerodynamic drag of the wing and its inductive drag).
Be that as it may, the flaws of the biplanes did not at all prevent them, we repeat again, being the most used aircraft during the First World War. We’ll talk about this later.
Military biplanes
The above mentioned two types of biplanes, which were especially popular. One of them, a propeller biplane, was number one in the war years. It was first used in 1910 as an improved variation of previous military models. Such modernization of the biplanes has benefited - they have increased streamlining, due to which the iron birds were able to develop a high speed. The biplanes of the First World War were fuselage-free, in contrast to previously used models. The variant of biplanes under the name “Scout”, as you might guess, was British-made - small in size, with a single-rack box of wings and single-seaters - was not very popular. They developed a very high speed - higher than monoplanes - due to the small load on the wings, and in wartime this was almost the fundamental quality for aircraft. The Scout was the fastest and most maneuverable among all the iron birds, and it was this biplane model that became the source of inspiration for the creation of the subsequently fighter aircraft.
Biplanes of the USSR
These are all world biplanes, but what about Soviet biplanes? What pleased the aviation enthusiasts about the aircraft manufacturing of the country of the Soviets?
The successes in this science in our country were not as widespread as in other states, but they also took place. We also developed our own biplanes - and the first biplane that successfully flew into the air belonged to the authorship of Prince Kudashev. He stayed in the air in 1910 for several minutes, flying a couple of tens of meters, and radically changed the skepticism of representatives of the state apparatus towards Russian developments.
Following Kudashev, such scientific engineers as Sikorsky, Gakkel and, of course, Mozhaisky contributed to the Russian biplane building. And several decades later, already closer to the middle of the century, the world was pleased with the AN-2 world - a Soviet-made biplane that became the Guinness Book record holder as the longest-running aircraft in the world. We will talk more about him and his predecessor, the U-2 aircraft.
U-2 was born thanks to a scientist by the name of Polikarpov in 1927. When in 1944 he passed away, the biplane was renamed - from U-2 he turned into PO-2 in memory of his creator. The capacity of this aircraft was about a hundred horsepower, it only needed fifteen meters to take off, and they used it in completely different areas: for ambulance and passenger traffic, for military purposes and aerial photography - and so on. There was even a U-2 biplane bomber. On board were placed up to six bombs, eight kilograms each.
AN-2 owes its birth to designer Antonov - that’s why the name is based on the first two letters of the engineer’s surname. He first flew into the sky in 1947 and since then continued to do so for almost seventy long years (while several times during the Soviet era he was on the verge of closure). "Corn" - as the people call the AN-2 until now - was often used for passenger and freight transportation on local lines, constantly flying to district centers, villages, and regions. This was possible due to the great maneuverability of the biplane, and also because its properties included the ability to land on unprepared sites (and take off from them, respectively). A similar quality later contributed to the fact that it was on the AN-2 that the flight to the South Pole was made - much more like a more unprepared place for landing and take-off!
Biplanes in World War II
During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet U-2 biplanes played a huge role in our aviation. As mentioned above, they were used as bombers - not only were bombs placed on their sides, they were also practically invisible to fire, because they were very light and this allowed them to fly either at extremely low altitude or at the “turtle” »Speed. In addition, the biplanes carried out reconnaissance and communications aircraft functions. The biplanes also carried out night raids on the enemy camp, the U-2 constantly interacted with partisan detachments. The U-2 was much more maneuverable than the German biplanes, and therefore the Germans did not manage to sit on the tail of the Soviet pilots.
Also in the Great Patriotic War I-153 fighter biplanes played a significant role, the first battle for which was the battle back in 1939 at Khalkhin Gol. After that, the I-153 was actively used in the war with the Finns, and with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - on its fronts. With their help, mainly carried out attacks on ground targets. Since it was an old model, by 1945 it had practically failed and, giving way to the "young", was hardly involved in the future.
But the AN-2 in the Second World War did not manage to be used - it was "born" after its completion. Nevertheless, it can rightfully be called a military aircraft - this biplane has seen a lot in its lifetime. Korean and Vietnamese wars, civil wars in Laos and Nicaragua, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Croatia, the uprising in Hungary, the conflict in Karabakh, the war in Angola ... And these are far from all military clashes in which both transport and assault the funds were actively and successfully used by the Soviet "corn-maker".
Biplanes of the present
Modern biplanes, of course, are more modernized. Many things in them are improved, although some are still used from what was during the Soviet period. For example, the location of the upper wing in front of the rear wing remained unchanged, which significantly improves the viewing angle.
If we talk about new developments, then this, for example, the use of ultramodern American turboprop engine instead of the good old piston gasoline. Such biplanes are produced in Ukraine, and similar ones should appear soon in our country, despite the fact that the production of the AN-2 was stopped almost ten years ago. Today, however, rumors are circulating about the possible resumption of production of the most popular Soviet “maize” as part of the aircraft industry development program until 2025.
Sports Varieties of Biplanes
As mentioned above, a biplane has never been a sports plane - unlike a monoplane, which was more convenient for these purposes. However, of course, in the world there were - and still are - several sports varieties of biplanes. Among them, for example, Acro Sport models (United States of America) created in 1972. These biplanes are very light, and their design is so simple that it even implies the possibility of self-assembly. Acro Sport was originally released as a single-seat sports biplane, but six years later it was improved - and a two-seater model of this biplane appeared.
Interesting Facts
- The first officially recognized world flight was completed in December 1903. The plane on which this action took place was a biplane.
- In the good old Soviet "corn", the flight time can be up to twenty thousand hours, which is a very considerable figure.
- An-2 was launched in Novosibirsk. A large production was opened there at the Chkalovsky Aviation Plant. And the original name of this aircraft was "Unlucky" - the name proposed by the creator himself, engineer Antonov.
- Before the AN-3 appeared, the AN-2 was the largest single-engine aircraft.
- Biplanes began to be called "corn makers" in the mid-fifties of the last century, when they began to be actively used to carry out agricultural work on corn "plantations".
- In the Union, biplanes were called "corn-makers", but the Germans during the Great Patriotic War called our aircraft of this type "coffee grinders" and "sewing machines" - one another is finer!
- In one year with the AN-2, the Kalashnikov assault rifle was born. So for a long time there was a joke that the above aircraft is a Kalashnikov assault rifle with a propeller.
- The Soviet AN-2 is now produced even in China - under a different, of course, name. And until 2002, a biplane was also produced in Poland - for almost forty years, almost twelve thousand of these aircraft were produced there.
- And to this day, the AN-2 is present among the aircraft of the armies of nineteen states, including the Russian one.
- The first biplane plant appeared in 1907 in France.
- The fastest biplane in the world, a high-speed fighter biplane, was recognized in 1938 by the Italian Fiat, which became a modernized form of a fighter and a half-plane. The maximum speed that this aircraft was capable of developing reached five hundred and twenty kilometers per hour.
- In the Soviet Union in the forties, monoplans were preferred, biplanes were considered an anachronism, a relic of the past. Perhaps partly for this reason, engineer Antonov took a rather large amount of time to realize his idea - he planned to create the future AN-2 back in 1940 (and it turned out only seven years later).
- The last French biplane fighter was launched in 1937 under the name Bleriot-SPAD.
- The engineer Polikarpov created not only the famous U-2 biplane. It was also his authorship that a biplane fighter called “The Seagull” belongs, in other words, I-153, mentioned above.
- Despite the production of the AN-2 suspended in our country (and it was suspended due to the high cost of these biplanes and, as a consequence, the lack of demand for them), the biplane scheme is still the most “digestible” and most suitable for twenty light aircraft the first century, the search for the design of which is now being carried out by modern aircraft designers. Engineers emphasize that no model, with the exception of biplanes, can firmly occupy its niche in the aviation market. This means that the biplanes still live and live.
This is information about the various biplanes of the world. And I really want here, at the end of our article, to cite a small excerpt from the work of the famous writer Richard Bach - part-time lover of altitude, aircraft and sky. His work is called “Biplane”, and there are such lines in it:
This is one of those cases when there is no doubt that this moment is an important moment, that it will be remembered for a long time. At that moment, the ancient gas handle under my glove goes forward, and the first second of the journey begins. Here are the technical details in a crowd gathered around: 1750 engine revolutions per minute, oil pressure - 70 psi, its temperature - 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Other details hasten to join them, and I am ready to learn again: when this plane is on the ground, I see absolutely nothing ahead of me; I wonder how much you can push the throttle forward, so that the engine does not rotate faster; it will be a long and windy journey; pay attention to the grass that grows on the border of the runway; the tail rises so quickly, and we rush along the ground on the same front wheels. And we take off the earth. I am surrounded by a roar and a beating wind swirling by a whirlwind, but I can hear all this as they hear from there, from the ground: a subtle rumble that grows and for a moment turns into a powerful roar right above my head, then gradually calms down, and in the end only a silent tiny old biplane remains in the sky.
Nice, isn't it?