The Hanriot HD.5 was a French two-seat

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 ...

prototype, built towards the end of World War I. A single-engine

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 ...

with an unusually narrow gap between the upper and lower wings, it did not enter production.

Design and development

Hanriot followed their successful HD.3 two-seat fighter with another of that kind, the bigger, heavier and more powerful HD.5. This was an equal span two bay biplane, the bays defined by two pairs of parallel interplane struts on each side, assisted by wire bracing. The wings were almost rectangular in planform, though with slightly angled tips, mounted without stagger. The interplane gap was unusually small, with the upper wing so close to the fuselage that its leading edge required a deep, slot-like cutout for the pilot's head. Behind him the trailing edge also had a cutout, this for the movement of the rear gunner's Lewis gun(s). The HD.5 had short span,

horn balanced Horn most often refers to: * Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments * Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

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. Its tailplane, mounted on top of the fuselage, had a straight leading edge, angled tips and carried slightly tapered, horn-balanced elevators with a cutout for rudder movement. The fin was small but the rudder was broad

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 ( ...

and low; it was very rounded and extended down to the keel. The fuselage of the HD.5 was flat-sided with rounded decking. The fighter was powered by a Hispano-Suiza 8Fb upright V-8 engine, water-cooled with a rectangular frontal

radiator Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

, and had a fixed

conventional undercarriage Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

, with mainwheels on a single axle attached by V-struts to the lower fuselage, assisted by a tailskid. The sole prototype began flight tests in the late spring of 1918 but there was no further development.

Specifications

References

{{Hanriot aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes 1910s French fighter aircraft Hanriot HD.5 Aircraft first flown in 1918