We all know what a biplane is it's a plane with two wings
one above the fuselage and the other below
which is one of the possible configurations in a
fixed-wing aircraft
but why aren't they so common today and why were they use in the past?
we will answer these and many other questions
about biplanes in this video
welcome to joy planes rc2
INTRO
a biplane is an airplane with two wings one above the other of almost the same
size but if a plane has two wings and they are on the opposite sides of the
fuselage then is a plane with tandem wings it's something different don't get it wrong
but today we're going to talk only about biplanes everything goes back
to the beginning of aviation the Wright brothers were the first to fly a
motorized plane or at least as the official version since some people say
it was Alberto santos-dumont with a plane called 14 Bis
but we're not talking about that now the plane developed by the Wright brothers was
called the Wright Flyer and it was a biplane since the materials available at
the time were wood and fabric to cover the wings they needed to make a fairly
strong and lightweight structure
the configuration of two wings one above the other
has the advantage of having more structural strength if they're
reinforced using some pillars and tension lines the other important
advantage was the lift is generated by two wings compared to one wing you can
fly at slower speeds and with shorter wings something that came in handy
especially if the engines from before didn't have much power either but
placing a second wing doesn't double the amount of lift generated by the wings
in fact, the lift is just 20% higher this deficiency is because of the proximity
and position of the wings both interfere with each other in terms of aerodynamics
before the Wright brothers mankind was already using very large kites that
were modified in gliders large enough to carry a person
in 1804 George Caley is the first to build a glider that could fly for a few
seconds carrying a person George Caley was an English engineer who managed to
study the flight of birds and understand it to apply it on the first machine
heavier than air it is called that since by then there were already hot air
balloons and similar airships labeled "lighter than air aircraft"
but nothing like an airplane
this man is a true pioneer of the aviation in fact he was
the one who identified the forces acting on the flight lift weight thrust and
drag he also performed some aerodynamic experiments and discovered that a wing
with a curvature was more efficient in producing lift in fact the Wright
brothers studied his work and research to build their plane but we can talk about
this whole story in another video let's carry on with the biplanes it turns out
that that biplane was the most structurally safe configuration and that
guaranteed the flight of the machine then the first world war came
some people try to redesign these airplanes with only one wing but it was very
difficult to take off this happened for two main reasons
the engines at the moment were not powerful enough as the engines of today
to propel the aircraft at higher speed at the same time the engines were
somewhat heavy so removing a wing reduces that little extra lift that
it can provide so the airplane needs more speed and less weight to take off
something that cannot be done with the engines at that time but it was possible
to make a single wing airplane as we know them today but the wings should be
a little longer this will surely make the airplane fly the problem is that a
lot of wings are weak and not very resistant to aggressive maneuvers and to
be used in the world with this aggressive maneuvers was not recommended
it is possible to make the wings shorter but remember more speed is needed to
keep flying now if you want to keep the wings shorter you will need more speed
and that requires a powerful engine so overall it was all about having
a better engine something that will eventually come as the engines were in
constant development remember that the materials use were still wood and
fabrics biplanes were the standard
after the first world war aluminum alloys
began to be used in aircraft structures reinforcing the structural performance
and allowing the design of monoplanes to be usable
there were also new engines with a better power-to-weight ratio after all
the two wings have disadvantages that we haven't mentioned yet the first is the
increase in our dynamic drag one element that creates a lot of drag in these
planes is the bracing required to hold the two wings together there is also the
aerodynamic interference generated between the two wings to mitigate this a
little a wing is placed a little bit separated from the other in the
horizontal and vertical axis
to answer the question of why biplanes are not so common today I think the
answer is clear biplanes are not the most efficient flying machines some
biplanes are still in use in aerial displays and they're preserved has an
icon of the beginning of the aviation they also look cool and different from
the other airplanes but the truth is that
is not practical and efficient to fly a biplane
again this video took me a long time to finish especially for all
the graphics and animations involved I hope you really liked it and if you did
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for now I'll see you in the next video