Peyret Tandem
Encyclopedia
The Peyret Tandem, a.k.a. Peyret Alérion Tandem, was a French single seat glider of tandem wing
Tandem wing
thumb|right|QAC Quickie Q2A tandem wing aircraft usually involves two full-sized wings, both of which are full airfoils. Sometimes an aircraft of this configuration can look like a variation on the biplane, but is in fact very different. The forward wing is often technically a canard, fitted with...
configuration. It won first prize at the first British Glider Competition of 1922.
Design and development
Louis Peyret, who had unsuccessfully attempted to fly the Blériot IIIBlériot III
-Bibliography:* Phillipps, Brian A. Bleriot: Herald of an Age. Stroud: Tempus, 2000 ISBN0 75241739 8* Hallion, Richard P. 'Taking Flight. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0 19 516035 5...
floatplane and had designed the Blériot VI
Blériot VI
-Bibliography:* Devaux, Jean and Michel Marani. "Les Douze Premiers Aéroplanes de Louis Blériot". Pegase No 54, May 1989.* Elliott, Bryan A. Blériot: Herald of an Age. Stroud: Tempus, 2000. ISBN 0 7524 1739 8...
, a tandem wing aircraft, was a friend of Louis Blériot
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he completed the first flight across a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft, when he crossed the English Channel. For this achievement, he received a prize of £1,000...
. His post-World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
glider was a true tandem wing aircraft with two identical pairs of straight edged, constant chord
Chord (aircraft)
In aeronautics, chord refers to the imaginary straight line joining the trailing edge and the center of curvature of the leading edge of the cross-section of an airfoil...
high mounted wings, swept at 5°. Both also had 5° of dihedral but the front wing was mounted at a larger angle of incidence
Angle of incidence
Angle of incidence is a measure of deviation of something from "straight on", for example:* in the approach of a ray to a surface, or* the angle at which the wing or horizontal tail of an airplane is installed on the fuselage, measured relative to the axis of the fuselage.-Optics:In geometric...
than the rear for longitudinal stability, as is the tailplane
Tailplane
A tailplane, also known as horizontal stabilizer , is a small lifting surface located on the tail behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes...
in a conventional aircraft. The wings were built up around tubular Duraluminum spars
SPARS
SPARS was the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, created 23 November 1942 with the signing of Public Law 773 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The name is a contraction of the Coast Guard motto: Semper Paratus and its English translation Always Ready...
and braced with N shaped lift strut
Lift strut
Nearly all biplane aircraft have their upper and lower planes connected by interplane struts which divide the wings into bays braced by diagonal wires...
s, also Duraluminum but with wooden fairings, which ran from the lower fuselage
Fuselage
The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
longerons to mid-span.
The fuselage was built around spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
longerons and struts with some plywood
Plywood
Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...
frames and covered with stress bearing 3-ply mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
about 2.4 mm (0.94 in) thick. Unusually, there were five main longerons. In the central region of the fuselage four of them defined a deep rectangle but the upper two came towards each other together rearwards producing an isosceles trapizoidal section. A fifth longeron ran centrally above them, positioned so that the overall fuselage section was an isosceles triangle at the rear. Further forward, as the upper longerons separated, the fuselage had five flat faces. The side faces came together at the nose to form a vertical knife-edge and the bottom face curved upwards. The open cockpit was formed by a break in the upper skinning, though the fifth, upper, longeron continued over the pilot's head. Near the cockpit the upper skins were dished inwards to improve the pilot's view.
At the rear, above the second wing, was a small triangular fin
Fin
A fin is a surface used for stability and/or to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media, . The first use of the word was for the limbs of fish, but has been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made devices...
which carried a rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
that extended to the bottom of the fuselage. The Peyret had a wider track and more refined undercarriage than many of the Itford gliders, with wheels on a single axle mounted below the fuselage on a combination of rubber shock absorbers and radius arms from the forward fuselage.
The control system was unusual. Both front and rear wings carried full-span control surfaces operated by a control column. Sideways movement of the column made the surfaces on both front and rear wings act together as conventional ailerons. Forward movement of the column lowered the control surfaces on the rear wing, as with conventional elevators, but also raised those on the front wing. Thus the tail was raised and the nose depressed. The rudder was operated by a conventional rudder bar.
Operational history
In August 1922 the Daily Mail newspaper offered a £1,000 prize for the longest duration flight by an unpowered, heavier than air aircraft. The competition was to be organized by the Royal Aero ClubRoyal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club is the national co-ordinating body for Air Sport in the United Kingdom.The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls , partly inspired by the Aero Club of France...
, who chose the site (Itford Hill, on the Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
near Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
) and the date (16-21 October). This gave competitors six weeks to design, build and transport their entries. 13 arrived in time and one of these was the Peyret tandem wing glider, competition number 2, to be flown Alex Maneyrol. This unusual aircraft was the competition winner.
Alex Maneyrol did not fly the Peyret Tandem until the final day of the Itford competition, Saturday 21 October. F. P. Raynham
F. P. Raynham
Frederick Phillips Raynham was a British pilot from the early days of aviation, gaining his aviator's certificate in 1911. He test-flew Avro, Martinsyde, Sopwith and Hawker aircraft before and after first World War. He later formed the Aircraft Survey Co...
's flight of 133 min, made on the Tuesday, then stood as the longest flight but at about 14:30 Maneyrol launched into brisk winds and first exceeded Raynham's time then bettered the current world record of 186 minutes. He finally landed in the dusk, with the help of assembled car headlights, after a flight lasting just over 201 minutes which won Peyret and Maneyrol the Daily Mail £1,000 prize.
Contemporary reports of the flight remarked on the combination of flight steadiness and controllability of the Peyret in the winds, "quick on the controls and rapid in its manoeuvres" and capable of "short, sharp turns".
After Itford Maneyrol increased the world glider duration record in the Peyret Tandem to 485 minutes at Vauville
Vauville
Vauville may refer to the following communes in France:*Vauville, Calvados*Vauville, Manche...
on 23 January 1923. He died later that year when his powered Peyret aircraft, a conventional monoplane, broke up at the Lympne light aircraft trials
Lympne light aircraft trials
The Lympne Light Aircraft Trials were held to encourage the development of practical light aircraft for private ownership, with a strong but not exclusive emphasis on fuel economy. They were held in 1923, 1924 and 1926. Each year saw different restrictions on engine size, framed initially in terms...
.
An additional Peyret Tandem (or perhaps the original one refurbished) was supplied to the Royal Aircraft Establishment
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...
in 1923, bearing serial number J7128.
Specifications
Further reading
- Simons, Martin. Sailplanes 1920-1945”. 2nd revised edition. EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.. Königswinter. 2006. ISBN 3-9806773-4-6