The Hurel-Dubois HD.10 was a French research aircraft first flown in 1948 to investigate Maurice Hurel's ideas about high aspect ratio wings. It was a single-seat monoplane with retractable tricycle undercarriage and

twin tail A twin tail is a specific type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers—often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be—are mounted at the outside of the aircra ...

s, featuring a very high aspect-ratio wing of 32.5:1. This was mounted above the aircraft's enclosed cockpit and braced with struts. Construction was of metal throughout. Between 1948 and 1954, this aircraft accumulated some 218 hours 27 minutes of flight time and is now preserved in the '' Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace'' in Paris.

Design and development

The French aircraft designer Maurice Hurel set up the Société des Avions Hurel-Dubois, with the industrialist Léon-Joseph Dubois, in November 1947, to develop Hurel's theories about the use of high aspect ratio wings. To demonstrate the practicality of these ideas, Hurel designed a single-engined prototype, the HD.10, with construction entrusted to the Établissements Pierre Levasseur. The HD.10 was a high-winged

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 ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with the metal wing braced by single lift struts to the fuselage.

Fowler flaps A flap is a high-lift device used to reduce the stalling speed of an aircraft wing at a given weight. Flaps are usually mounted on the wing trailing edges of a fixed-wing aircraft. Flaps are used to reduce the take-off distance and the landing ...

were fitted to the wing. The fuselage was of fabric-covered steel tube construction with the pilot sitting in an enclosed cockpit under the trailing edge of the wing. A

was fitted, and the aircraft had a manually actuated retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

. The aircraft was initially powered by a Mathis engine. The aircraft made its first flight, with Hurel at the controls, on 25 August 1948. The aircraft was underpowered with the Mathis, and it was re-engined with a

Praga D The Praga Hostivař D was a four-cylinder, air-cooled, horizontally opposed aircraft engine first produced in Czechoslovakia in 1936 but which enjoyed its greatest success after World War II due to the explosion in popularity of sports flying. A ...

. Testing at the Centre d'Essais en Vol resulted in the aircraft's vertical tail surfaces being enlarged. It made its final flight on 20 June 1954, having completed more than 218 flight hours. It was then delivered to the ''Musée de l'Air'' at

Paris–Le Bourget Airport Paris–Le Bourget Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport de Paris-Le Bourget) is an airport located within portions of the communes of Le Bourget, Bonneuil-en-France, Dugny and Gonesse, north-northeast of Paris, France. Once Paris's principal ...

for preservation and display.

Specifications

References

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External links

F-BFAN at the Musee d'l'Airthe HD.10 at the Musee d'l'air
{{Hurel-Dubois aircraft 1940s French experimental aircraft Hurel-Dubois aircraft High-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1948 Twin-tail aircraft