Triplane

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Triplane

A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft

Fixed-wing aircraft

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of heavier-than-air flight whose Lift is generated not by wing motion relative to the aircraft, but by forward motion through the air....
equipped with three sets of wings, each roughly the same size and mounted one above the other. Traditionally, vertical wings, elevators, and canards

Canard (aeronautics)

In aeronautics, canard is an airframe configuration of fixed-wing aircraft in which the tailplane is ahead of the main wing, rather than behind them as in conventional aircraft empennage....
are not included in this count. Typically, the lower set of wings would be level with the underside of the aircraft's 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 hardpoint attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating Hull ....
, the middle set level with the top of the fuselage, and the top set supported above the fuselage on struts.

The first triplane

Goupy No.1

The Goupy No.1 was an experimental aircraft built in France in 1908, which on 5 September that year became the first triplane to fly. Designed by Ambroise Goupy and built by A?roplanes Voisin, it was a conventional, tractor design with fixed tailwheel undercarriage and an open cockpit....
was designed in 1908 by Ambroise Goupy and built by Blériot

Blériot Aéronautique

Bl?riot A?ronautique was a France aircraft manufacturer founded by Louis Bl?riot. It also made a few cyclecars from 1921 to 1922.After Louis Bl?riot became famous for being the first to fly over the English Channel in 1909, he established an aircraft manufacturing company....
, flown with a 37 kW (50 hp) Renault

Renault

Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. Due to its alliance with Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., it is currently the world's 4th largest automaker.It owns the Romanian automaker Dacia and the Korean automaker Renault Samsung Motors....
engine.

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Encyclopedia

A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft

Fixed-wing aircraft

Canard (aeronautics)

Fuselage

Goupy No.1

Blériot Aéronautique

Renault

Tractor configuration

An aircraft constructed with a tractor configuration has the engine mounted with the propeller facing forwards such that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air, as opposed to the pusher configuration in which the propeller faces backwards and the aircraft is "pushed" through the air....
biplane. Triplanes have greater wing area than biplane

Biplane

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....
s and monoplane

Monoplane

A monoplane is an aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the "ordinary" form for a fixed wing aircraft....
s of similar wing span and chord

Chord (aircraft)

In reference to aircraft, chord refers to the distance between the leading edge and trailing edge of a wing, horizontal stabilizer or vertical stabilizer, measured in the direction of the normal airflow....
, potentially offering increased lift and tighter turning radii.

During World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, some aircraft manufacturers turned to this configuration in an effort to gain extra maneuverability for fighter aircraft

Fighter aircraft

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets by dropping bombs....
, at a penalty of greater drag and therefore lower speed. In practice, triplanes generally offered inferior performance to biplanes, and only a few aircraft of this configuration reached production status. Triplane layouts were also experimented with on large aircraft such as early heavy bomber

Bomber

A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, primarily by dropping bombs on them....
s such as the Witteman-Lewis XNBL-1 Barling Bomber

Witteman-Lewis XNBL-1

The Witteman-Lewis XNBL-1 "Barling Bomber" was an experimental long-range, heavy bomber aircraft built for the United States Army Air Service in the early 1920s....
and on some experimental British anti-zeppelin

Zeppelin

For the English rock group, please see Led Zeppelin. For other meanings please see Zeppelin .A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century, based on designs he had outlined in 1874, designs he had detailed in 1893, and that were reviewed by committee in 1894, which h...
fighters.

The Sopwith Triplane

Sopwith Triplane

The Sopwith Triplane was a United Kingdom single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the World War I....
was the first triplane to see operational service during World War I, but relatively few Sopwith Triplanes were produced. The best-known triplane of that conflict is the Fokker Dr.I

Fokker Dr.I

The Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker was a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker. The Dr.I saw widespread service in the spring of 1918. It became renowned as the aircraft in which Manfred von Richthofen gained his last 20 victories, and in which he was killed on 21 April 1918....
, immortalised as the aircraft most closely identified with Manfred von Richthofen

Manfred von Richthofen

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was a German fighter pilot known as the "Red Baron". He was the most successful flying ace of World War I, being officially credited with 80 confirmed Aerial warfare victories....
, the "Red Baron".

Tandem Triplanes

Recently, the term "tandem triplane" has been used for recent jet

Jet aircraft

A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes -- as high as 10,000 to 15,000 meters ....
fighter aircraft that have canards

Canard (aeronautics)

In aeronautics, canard is an airframe configuration of fixed-wing aircraft in which the tailplane is ahead of the main wing, rather than behind them as in conventional aircraft empennage....
in addition to normal flying surfaces (main wings and horizontal tailplanes) for increased maneuverablility and/or increased lift for short takeoffs or landings

STOL

STOL is an initialism for short take-off and landing, a term used to describe aircraft with very short runway requirements.The formal NATO definition is:...
. These are generally not considered triplanes in the traditional sense.

Multiplanes

While triplane designs are relatively uncommon, aircraft with four or more sets of wings are even rarer. Extreme examples include multiplanes designed by Horatio Phillips, one of which had two hundred sets of wings. Another example is the Caproni Ca.60

Caproni Ca.60

The Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano was a nine wing flying boat intended to be a prototype for a 100 passenger trans-atlantic airliner. It featured eight engines and three sets of triple wings....
, a one-off transatlantic seaplane, which had three sets of triplane wings taken from Caproni Ca.4

Caproni Ca.4

The Caproni Ca.4 was an Italy heavy bomber aircraft of the World War I era....
bombers. There was also the tetra-winged (four-winged) Supermarine Nighthawk

Supermarine Nighthawk

The P.B.31E Night Hawk, the first project of the Pemberton-Billing operation after it became Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd., was a prototype anti-Zeppelin fighter with a crew of three to five and an intended endurance of 9 to 18 hours....
, designed to shoot down Zeppelin

Zeppelin