The Caudron 02 was a French high altitude single seat fighter that was flown in November 1917.

Design and development

The proper name and even the existence of this aircraft have been disputed in the past, but plans for the Type 02 high altitude

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

have since been found in the French Musée de l'Air. Hauet also refers to it as the C.02 and Green and Swanborough as the

Type O The ABO blood group system is used to denote the presence of one, both, or neither of the A and B antigens on erythrocytes. For human blood transfusions, it is the most important of the 43 different blood type (or group) classification system ...

, though the latter was a quite different sports aircraft from 1914. The Type 02 was designed to fight at altitudes up to through a combination of engine power and flat

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. ...

section. It was a conventional single bay biplane with fabric covered, unswept, parallel

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

wings ending in angled tips. The lower wing was smaller than the upper one, with a span reduced by 13% and a narrower chord. The wings had neither stagger nor dihedral and only the upper wing was fitted with

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s. There was a pair of parallel, upright, streamlined interplane struts on each side, with the usual diagonal wire bracing. The upper wing was close to the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

, linked by four short, leaning

cabane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s. The intention was to power the Type 02 operationally with either a

Gnome 9N The ''Monosoupape'' (French for single-valve), was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company (renamed Gnome et Rhône in 1915). It used a clever arrangement of internal transfer ports and a single pushrod-operated e ...

or a Le Rhône 9R engine, though for about fours months of initial testing it was fitted with a Le Rhône 9Jb. All of these engines were nine cylinder rotaries. Photographs show neat, close fitted cowlings. Behind the engine the fuselage maintained a circular cross-section. The pilot's open cockpit was placed under the upper trailing edge, where there was a semi-circular cut-out to increase his upward field of view. The Type 02's

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

was of unusually long chord and in plan was a highly swept delta, mounted on top of the fuselage. The

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

was also wide and shallow, though less angular. It had an un

balanced rudder Balanced rudders are used by both ships and aircraft. Both may indicate a portion of the rudder surface ahead of the hinge, placed to lower the control loads needed to turn the rudder. For aircraft the method can also be applied to elevators and ...

which reached down to the keel, operating in a nick in the

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s. There was a tailskid undercarriage with mainwheels on a single axle with a track, sprung from forward raked V-struts from the lower fuselage. First tests were made in November 1917, using the lower powered Le Rhône engine and flying from a base at . The more powerful Gnome engine was not tested until April 1918; and the larger Le Rhône was also fitted that spring. It is not known how many prototypes were built but the Type 02 did not enter production; it handled well but its performance and armament were not a significant improvement over those of the SPAD S.XIII, already in series production.

Specifications (Le Rhone 9R)

References

{{Caudron aircraft C.02 1910s French fighter aircraft Rotary-engined aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1917