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12 May 2004, 11:56 AM
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#1 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Birken-Honigsessen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
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Probably a very silly question but ...
... why were wings staggered forward or backward? When building a biplane the easiest way would be to place them like on a Spad VII. Were staggered wings just a way to improve the view of the crew or was there a general technical concept behind the very common forward staggered wings (S.E.5) and the less often seen backward staggered wings (Sopwith Dolphin)?  Thank you in advance for your help. 
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. Best regards from Germany . Volker Nemsch . |
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12 May 2004, 01:32 PM
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#2 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 724
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Depending on how it is done staggering wings, either forward or backward can accomplish of number of desireable flight characteristics in an aircraft in addition to better visibility - it can reduce interference drag and reduce corresponding wingtip lift loss, it can improve center of gravity, and reduce stall speed.
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12 May 2004, 01:56 PM
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#3 (permalink) | |
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Have Goggles Will Travel!
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: california
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Volker_Nemsch Posted: May 12 2004, 10:56 AM
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12 May 2004, 06:50 PM
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#4 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Richlea Sask. Canada
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A wing builds a low pressure area above the thickest point, which is how planes fly. This low extends up and back for a considerable ways depending on the speed, among other things. If there's another wing in this area, the low actually pulls down on the top wing, losing net lift. By staggering the wings, the top one is moved out of the peak low pressure area.
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12 May 2004, 07:01 PM
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#5 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: A Place Far, Far Away
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Is this related?
Lower wings offset from the fuselage such as Bristol F2s and Pfalz D.XV? Have never understood that and seen it as complicated - at least for the rigger. Anyone?
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"A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice.." -Baldwin Four of The Baldwin Piano Company |
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13 May 2004, 01:08 AM
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#6 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Birken-Honigsessen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
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I had the same idea while looking through my picture archive.
The Dorand AR.2 below is an interesting example for this ...
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. Best regards from Germany . Volker Nemsch . |
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13 May 2004, 05:09 AM
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#7 (permalink) |
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Der Falke von Ruritania
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Location: Above the trenches
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Backward stagger seems to be a dead end with more drawbacks than benefits, given that it was seldom used. The most notorious case was the Airco DH5, where the attempt was to keep the great visibility of the DH2 in a tractor biplane, and the craft resulted a failure, I suspect much of the blame was due to the back stagger wing.
Regarding the Beechcraft, the stagger wing was used by these reasons "The seldom used stagger wing configuration has the bottom wing forward of the top wing, and at a higher angle of attack. This ensures that the bottom wing always stalls first. When this happens, the sudden loss of lift drops the nose, which prevents the top wing from stalling. In other words, only the bottom wing stalls, and then you are still flying a lightly-loaded high wing airplane."
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13 May 2004, 05:29 AM
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#8 (permalink) | |
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Scout Pilot
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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13 May 2004, 05:30 AM
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#9 (permalink) |
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Der Falke von Ruritania
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Regarding the fuselage "suspended" between" the wings
Here's my conjectures 1) a way of getting a little more wing surface thereby increasing lift 2) ease of fabrication,
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"Who art thou that judgest another man's servant"? Romans XIV-IV |
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13 May 2004, 05:50 AM
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#10 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: A Place Far, Far Away
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Me too.
Ease of wing fabrication but more for a rigger. Is that enough? There must be some "value" engineers theorized. The Nieuport Triplane makes me think these guys weren't so "crackpot" after all, given the above description of the Staggerwing flight characteristics. Is this all self-evident to some pilots and all aeronautical engineers and why little comment attends these things? I'm ignorant.
__________________
"A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice.." -Baldwin Four of The Baldwin Piano Company |
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