The Caudron Type E two seat trainer was a larger and more powerful development of the Type C. Two or three were bought by the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

military and one by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

just before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

but its sales were overtaken by the superior Type G.

Design and development

All Caudron biplane landplanes from before and into the First World War followed the same layout:

tractor configuration In aviation, the term tractor configuration refers to an aircraft constructed in the standard configuration with its engine mounted with the propeller in front of it so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. Oppositely, the pusher co ...

, short

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...

s, twin booms, large

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 gyroplan ...

s and twin fins. From the Type A to the Type G.3, all were single engined. All types contained

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

examples; the early types were modified from equal span biplanes and later ones, from the type E onwards, were sesquiplanes from the start. In contrast to its immediate predecessors, the Type C and

Type D Type D or D-Type may refer to: * D-type asteroid * Jaguar D-Type, a sports racing car * Honda D-Type, a motorcycle * Type D personality, a concept used in the field of medical psychology * Type D plug, a type of electrical power plug * ''Type ...

, the Type E was a two-seater, bigger and more powerful. It was designed as a military training aircraft. The two

spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well ...

fabric covered wings had the same rectangular plan, apart from angled tips, and had an upper to lower span ratio close to 1.5. There were two wire braced bays on each side, though the inner ones were only about half the width of the outer. There was no stagger, so the

interplane 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 were parallel and vertical. The overhang of the upper wing was supported by parallel, outward leaning

strut A strut is a structural component commonly found in engineering, aeronautics, architecture and anatomy. Struts generally work by resisting longitudinal compression, but they may also serve in tension. Human anatomy Part of the functionality o ...

s from the bases of the outer interplane struts. The rear spar was ahead of mid-

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 ( ...

, leaving the

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs ( la, costae) are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the chest, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ch ...

s in the rear part of the wing flexible and allowing

roll control Roll or Rolls may refer to: Movement about the longitudinal axis * Roll angle (or roll rotation), one of the 3 angular degrees of freedom of any stiff body (for example a vehicle), describing motion about the longitudinal axis ** Roll (aviation), ...

wing warping Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of a fixed-wing aircraft. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposite direc ...

. The two seat nacelle was developed from the earlier simple, flat sided structure of the Type B, supported above the lower wing on two more pairs of external interplane struts. It was larger, with more space for the two occupants and military equipment. The pilot was at the rear with the second seat forward; the upper

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 ...

ahead of the cockpit was raised, leaving the occupants less exposed. A

Gnome Lambda The Gnome 7 Lambda was a French designed, seven-cylinder, air-cooled rotary aero engine that was produced under license in Britain and Germany. Powering several World War I-era aircraft types it was claimed to produce from its capacity of a ...

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and i ...

was mounted in the front under a semi-circular cowling intended to deflect oil spray. The

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

of the Type E was supported on a pair of girders arranged parallel to one another in plan. The upper girder members were attached to the upper wing spars at the tops of the innermost interplane struts and the lower ones ran under the lower wing, mounted on downward extensions of the inner interplane struts. The mounting was strengthened with two diagonal struts on each side, one from the base of the forward interplane strut to the upcurved tip of the lower member and the other from the rear interplane strut to the junction of the lower member and its first vertical cross member. Each of these lower members, which supported the aircraft on the ground as skids, carried twin, rubber sprung landing wheels. Behind the wing the upper and lower members converged to the rear; the drag on the lower members shortened the landing run. The wingspans of the Type E were greater than those of the Type C with an increase of the inner bay width which placed the booms further apart and increased the undercarriage track from , making landings easier. There were three vertical cross braces on each girder but the only lateral inter-girder cross-members were near the tail, though there was wire bracing. The broad chord, roughly rectangular, warping

was mounted a little below the upper girder member. Above it, a pair of blunt cornered, rectangular

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw a ...

s were separated by about one third of the tailplane span.

Operational history

The French government received two Type Es, the first in September 1912 and the second a month later. Two more were built but proved hard to sell, probably because the superior Caudron Type G was becoming available. A

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

order for Type Es was changed in favour of the newer type. One was sold to the Royal Navy though its acceptance was delayed until 29 June 1914 whilst modifications were made. The fate of the fourth and final Type E is uncertain, though it may have replaced the first French government machine after its loss in May 1913. If so, it had been modernized with the pointed, round edge form introduced on the Type F and used on all the G types.

Operators

Aeronautique Militaire The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

Specifications

Notes

References

{{Caudron aircraft 1910s French aircraft TE Twin-boom aircraft Sesquiplanes Rotary-engined aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1912