A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques and materials, as first pioneered by Hugo Junkers in 1915, and the need for greater speed, made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.

The term is also occasionally used in biology, to describe the wings of some flying animals.

Overview

In a biplane aircraft, two wings are placed one above the other. Both provide a portion of the lift, although they are not able to produce twice as much lift as a single wing of similar planform. This is because a wing's effect is imposed on a circular cylinder of air as the craft moves forward. In the case of the biplane, the upper and the lower are working on nearly the same portion of the atmosphere. In a wing of aspect ratio 6, and a wing separation distance of one chord length, the biplane configuration can produce about 20 percent more lift than a single wing of the same planform.

In the biplane configuration, the lower wing is often attached to the fuselage, while the upper wing is raised above, although other combinations have occurred. Almost all biplanes also have a third horizontal surface, the tailplane, to control the pitch, or angle of attack of the aircraft (although there have been a few exceptions). Either or both of the main wings can support flaps or ailerons to assist lateral and speed control; usually the ailerons are mounted on the upper wing, and flaps (if used) on the lower wing. Often there is bracing between the upper and lower wings, in the form of wires (tension members) and slender struts (compression members) positioned symmetrically on either side of the fuselage.

Variations on the biplane include the sesquiplane, where one wing (usually the lower) is significantly smaller than the other, either in span, chord, or both. Sometimes the lower wing is only large enough to support the bracing struts for the upper wing. The name means "one-and-a-half wings".

Another (aerodynamically quite distinct) variation is the tandem wing which is an aircraft with one wing in front of the other (e.g. a wing in the nose and a wing in the tail). This is not usually considered a biplane, as the two wings are not one above the other.

Advantages and disadvantages