The Caudron Type O was a French single seat

air racing Air racing is a type of motorsport that involves airplanes or other types of aircraft that compete over a fixed course, with the winner either returning the shortest time, the one to complete it with the most points, or to come closest to a prev ...

biplane 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 ...

first flown in 1914.

Development

The Type O was a single bay biplane with no stagger. Both wings had two wooden spars and were fabric covered. On each side there were two pairs of parallel interplane struts joining the spars, one outboard and the other passing through the fuselage between the centre sections. These placed the upper wing well above 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 ...

and the lower one a little below it. The usual crossed diagonal pairs of

flying wire 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 braced the bays. The Type O used wing warping rather than

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 for lateral control. When it first flew in the early weeks of 1914, it was powered by a semi-cowled Anzani 6-cylinder radial. There were two versions of this engine with different

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

s; l'Aérophile states a power output of , corresponding to the smaller version, but Hauet quotes , that of the larger engine. By May 1914 it was flying with an uncowled Anzani 10-cylinder radial. The fuselage was recycled from one of Caudron's earlier monoplanes, the very similar Types M and N, and was built around an

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

lattice

girder A girder () is a support beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a stabilizing ' ...

of square section which tapered to the rear. Stringers, stood off from the girder, gave the fabric covered fuselage a more rounded cross-section. An open, single seat

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

was placed under the wing trailing edge. When it first flew the Type O had an almost square, upright vertical tail with little or no

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 ...

and a large

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 aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

reaching down to the keel. The horizontal tail, narrow and with a straight, unswept

leading edge The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...

was mounted on top of the fuselage so the rudder operated in an

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, ...

cut-out. Later in the year, the aircraft, now with the 100 hp Anzani and a modified upper forward fuselage, had a very different tail with a larger fin which had a long, curving leading edge, its contour continuing into that of a broad, deep rudder. There may also have been wing modifications as well; l'Aéroplane describes the upper and lower wings as having the same span, whereas in Hauet's account the span of the upper wing was the greater. The Type O had an all-steel tailskid undercarriage, with a pair of spoked mainwheels on split axles hinged from the centre of a transverse rod mounted on four longitudinal V- struts, arranged as an inverted W from the inner, under-fuselage interplane struts. Rubber springs damped the movement of the outer ends and wheels on landing.

Operational history

Early in its life the Type O acquired the nickname of "The soap box". In May 1914, re-engined and with its new tail, it was flown by Chanteloup in a race at the Bois de Boulogne; in June it flew in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In September, a month after the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, it was delivered to the military.

Specifications (100 hp Anzani)

References

{{Caudron aircraft TO 1910s French sport aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1914