">QAC Quickie Q2
A tandem wing is a
wing configuration
The wing configuration of a fixed-wing aircraft (including both glider (aircraft), gliders and powered aeroplanes) is its arrangement of lifting and related surfaces.
Aircraft designs are often classified by their wing configuration. For examp ...
in which a flying craft or animal has two or more sets of
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...
s set one behind another. All the wings contribute to
lift
Lift or LIFT may refer to:
Physical devices
* Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods
** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop
** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...
.
The tandem wing is distinct from the
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 ...
in which the wings are stacked one above another, or from the
canard or "tail-first" configuration where the forward surface is much smaller and does not contribute significantly to the overall lift.
In aviation, tandem wings have long been experimented with, but few designs have ever been put into production.
Tandem wings in nature occur only in insects and flying fish, although in the past there have been tandem-wing flying dinosaurs.
Design principles
A tandem wing
configuration
Configuration or configurations may refer to:
Computing
* Computer configuration or system configuration
* Configuration file, a software file used to configure the initial settings for a computer program
* Configurator, also known as choice board ...
has two main
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...
planes, with one located forward and the other to the rear. The difference is greater than the wing chord, so there is a clear gap between them and the aircraft centre of gravity (CG) lies between the wings.
[Bottomley (1977)] Compared to the conventional layout, where the tailplane exerts little or no vertical force in cruising flight, both tandem wings contribute substantially to lift.
The basic tandem configuration uses wings which are equal in size and in line with each other. Examples have flown successfully, such as the Peyret glider of 1922. However the rear wing is usually placed either above or below the fore wing, in order to avoid its turbulent wake. One wing is often made a little smaller than the other, according to the details of the design. Indeed, there are no clear dividing lines between the conventional vs. tandem, or the tandem vs.
canard configurations.
[Miles (1944)] The high-mounted fore wing and low-mounted aft wing arrangement is also sometimes treated as an extreme staggered biplane and referred to as the Nénandovich biplane.
Interference effects between the two wings can make a tandem layout less efficient in cruise than the equivalent conventional design, however examples such as the
Scaled Composites Proteus
The Scaled Composites Model 281 Proteus is a tandem-wing high-altitude long-endurance aircraft designed by Burt Rutan to investigate the use of aircraft as high-altitude telecommunications relays. The Proteus is a multi-mission vehicle able to c ...
are capable of exceptional efficiency.
The tandem layout creates a "slot effect" in which the front wing deflects air downwards over the rear wing, reducing the angle of attack (AoA) of the rear. At high aircraft AoA, this causes the front wing to stall first, allowing safer flight at low speeds than the equivalent conventional layout. It also offers good STOL performance.
Tandem wings have also been used on
ground-effect vehicle
A ground-effect vehicle (GEV), also called a wing-in-ground-effect (WIG), ground-effect craft, wingship, flarecraft or ekranoplan (russian: экранопла́н – "screenglider"), is a vehicle that is able to move over the surface by gainin ...
s, where the front wing is used to direct air downwards beneath the rear wing to create a lifting air cushion.
Stability, control and trim
In a tandem wing the lift forces on the two wings are separated longitudinally, allowing them to act together to achieve stability, control and trim. The mechanisms of stability and control for a tandem wing are similar to those for the tail-first or
canard layout; the distinction is mainly in the relative size of the forward surface.
However, the larger trim forces available compared to a smaller tailplane or foreplane mean that a tandem design can offer a greater range of trim conditions, and hence of
centre of gravity
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...
(CG) location than other layouts, which can offer a practical solution where weight loadings and distributions may vary during operations. However a wide CG range leads to other problems, including a compatible undercarriage layout and safe stalling characteristics.
Joined wing
The joined wing is a tandem-wing layout in which the front wing sweeps back and/or the rear wing sweeps forwards such that they join at or near the tips to form a continuous surface in a hollow diamond or triangle shape. The joined wing is also an example of a
closed wing
A closed wing is a wing that effectively has two main planes which merge at their ends so that there are no conventional wing tips. Closed wing designs include the annular wing (commonly known as the cylindrical or ring wing), the joined wing, ...
.
The
Ligeti Stratos is a rare example to have flown.
Structural design
In a conventional layout, the moment arm of the outer section's lifting load is large, and this stresses the root section. However, in a tandem design each wing is smaller and the outer load is absent. This allows the wing structure to be lighter overall.
In a conventional design, the fuselage is supported only in one place, with the fore and aft fuselage sections cantilevered out from it. This creates significant bending stresses. A tandem wing supports the same fuselage in two places, reducing the bending stresses. However the torsion stresses on the centre section between the wings are greater.
Because it is more compact, the tandem-wing structure is stiffer overall, meaning that less allowance needs to be made for bending, and a smaller safety margin in stress levels is possible, allowing yet further weight and cost reduction.
History
Pioneers
![LangleyAerodromeFlown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/LangleyAerodromeFlown.jpg)
The tandem wing configuration predates successful manned flight. As far back as the fifteenth century,
Tito Livio Burraitni
Tito may refer to:
People Mononyms
*Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), commonly known mononymously as Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman
*Roberto Arias (1918–1989), aka Tito, Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat, and journal ...
experimented with a tandem-wing model. Four sets of wings in tandem variously provided lift and propulsion, and Burraitni's cat became the first aeronaut to fly in a tandem design.
Having also flown simpler fore-and-aft tandem models of up to in span, in 1903
Samuel Pierpont Langley
Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22, 1834 – February 27, 1906) was an American aviation pioneer, astronomer and physicist who Invention, invented the bolometer. He was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a professor of a ...
built a full-size tandem-wing monoplane, the
Aerodrome
An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...
, and launched it from the roof of a houseboat. It failed to fly. After his death the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
sought to prove that he had flown in the weeks before the
Wright brothers, and employed successful planemaker
Glenn Curtiss
Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early ...
to secretly modify the aerodrome until it could fly, as "proof" that it had flown in 1903. Curtiss added floats and made other improvements, enabling it to undertake short hops as a true waterplane in 1914. The ruse was eventually exposed, yet the Smithsonian still sought to claim that the 1902 version had been "capable of flight". It would be many more years before they recanted.
![Bleriot VI](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Bleriot_VI.jpg)
Several pioneers had long made successful gliders. In 1905
John J. Montgomery
John Joseph Montgomery (February 15, 1858 – October 31, 1911) was an American inventor, physicist, engineer, and professor at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, who is best known for his invention of controlled heavier-than-air ...
flew a tandem monoplane glider, confirming that the aerodynamic principle was sound.
Powered flight followed two years later. In 1906
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot ( , also , ; 1 July 1872 – 1 August 1936) was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of th ...
built his
third aeroplane with tandem elliptical closed wings, later modifying it as his type IV with the fore wing converted into a conventional biplane. But it was not until the next year that his
type VI, a wheeled tandem monoplane of broadly similar configuration to Langley's Aerodrome, became the first tandem-wing aeroplane to fly.
Between 1907 and 1911, the aerodynamics studies of
Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (born Bonickhausen dit Eiffel; ; ; 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway ...
showed that the tandem layout was inherently less aerodynamically efficient that the more conventional.
[Poulsen (1943)] Overlapping with Eiffel's work, Stefan Driezewicki developed and wind-tunnel tested an inherently stable tandem-wing design. He then built and successfully flew a full-sized example at the end of 1912.
Interwar period
Experimental tandem-wing aircraft continued to be built after World War I.
The
Caproni Ca.60
The Caproni Ca.60 Transaereo, often referred to as the Noviplano (nine-wing) or Capronissimo, was the prototype of a large nine-wing flying boat intended to become a 100-passenger transatlantic airliner. It featured eight engines and three sets ...
prototype flying boat comprised a long passenger-carrying hull to which were attached in tandem three stacks of triplane wings from the successful
Ca.4 line of heavy bombers and airliners, earning it the nickname "Capronissimo". However it broke up on its first attempted takeoff in 1921.
The first fully controllable tandem-wing type was the French-built
Peyret tandem glider, which won the first British gliding competition in 1922.
Peyret's novel control system comprised full-span trailing edge surfaces on all four wings. These operated in pairs on each side as ailerons, in pairs fore and aft as elevators, and synchronously as flaps for low-speed flight. The system proved effective and, despite the glider being less efficient than the conventional high-aspect-ratio entries, it proved more controllable and manoeuvrable. This enabled the pilot M. Maneyrol to remain in updraughts for longer than the others.
Although Peyret continued to develop the design, in both gliders and powered types, they remained a curiosity.
![HB-YBK mignet HM-380](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/HB-YBK_mignet_HM-380.jpg)
The
SFCA continued the work of Peyret after he died, adopting his control system. Their
Taupin
''Taupin'' is the first debut studio album by longtime Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin. (released eponymously in the U.S.). It is a spoken word album of his poetry with music that revolves around the them. The album was produced by Gus Dudgeo ...
first flew in 1933. Its design proved practical and some 52 examples were produced.
Meanwhile
Henri Mignet
Henri Mignet, (October 19, 1893 – August 31, 1965), was a French radio engineer who became well known as an aircraft designer and builder.Ellis & Jones (1990)Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', page 142. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa ...
was taking a very different approach to flight control. Intended for amateurs to build at home, his
Pou-du-Ciel (flying flea) had a novel two-axis control system to make it easy to fly. No ailerons were needed because when the rudder was operated, yaw-roll coupling ensured that the plane banked into a turn. For pitch control the whole front wing tilted to act as a canard elevator. Introduced at much the same time as the Taupin, it became a craze, hundreds were built and variations developed in many countries. However stability issues relating to the variable front wing could lead to lethal crashes in the hands of the novice pilot, and the type eventually fell out of favour.
World War II period
![Miles M](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Miles_M.39b.jpg)
During the late 1930s,
Maurice Delanne was working on tandem-wing designs. He proposed a fighter, the Delanne 10, featuring a gulled forward wing and twin fins on the tips of the low-set and slightly shorter-span rear wing. He first built two examples of a smaller aerodynamic test aircraft, the
Delanne 20-T, which flew in 1938. The
Arsenal de l'Aéronautique
Arsenal de l'Aéronautique (commonly named Arsenal) was a national military aircraft manufacturer established by the French Government in 1936 at Villacoublay. In the years before World War II, it developed a range of technically advanced fighter ...
then constructed a prototype fighter, the
Arsenal-Delanne 10
The Arsenal-Delanne 10 was an experimental fighter aircraft of French origin. The plane had a rear cockpit and a distinctive tandem wing.
Design and development
The Arsenal-Delanne 10-C2 two-seat fighter, designed by Maurice Delanne and bu ...
. It was completed and test-flown after the German invasion of France, and was then taken to Germany for further testing.
Meanwhile
Westland Aircraft
Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. Du ...
were considering a modification of the
Lysander
Lysander (; grc-gre, Λύσανδρος ; died 395 BC) was a Spartan military and political leader. He destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, forcing Athens to capitulate and bringing the Peloponnesian War to an en ...
light observation and liaison aircraft, by adding a rear gun turret to give it some protection from attack. The Lysander already had a suitable main wing, so to support the weight of the turret Westland thought of adding a Delanne-type rear wing. By now hostilities had started but France had not yet fallen. Chief Designer
W. E. W. "Teddy" Petter and Chief Test Pilot
Harald Penrose
Harald Penrose, O.B.E, CEng, F.R.Ae.S, A.M.I.N.A (12 April 1904 – 31 August 1996) was the chief test pilot at Westland Aircraft between 1931 and 1953, a naval architect, and an aviation author. His flying experience ranged from man carryin ...
flew to Paris, where Penrose flew one of the 20-Ts and reported favourably on its handling. The tandem Lysander was not completed until 1941, when Penrose began test flights. Although it performed flawlessly – he wrote that "here was a military prototype that needed no alteration" – it was not ordered into production.
George Miles saw the tandem Lysander at
RAF Boscombe Down
MoD Boscombe Down ' is the home of a military aircraft testing site, on the southeastern outskirts of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. The site is managed by QinetiQ, the private defence company created as part of the breakup of the Def ...
and realised its potential as a short-span, short-take-off Naval fighter. The ensuing
Miles M.35 Libellula test aircraft differed from the Delanne design in having wings of approximately equal span, but with the rear wing given a longer chord and swept back. Although the design was rejected, it flew well enough to prompt development of the larger
M.39B, a subscale test aircraft for the proposed M.39 high-speed bomber to meet Specification B.11/41. This time the fore wing was smaller and mounted low, while the swept rear wing was high-mounted with twin engine nacelles slung beneath. Flying in 1943 it performed well, but the bomber requirement was subsequently cancelled.
Postwar
After WWII, interest returned to the Flying Flea's tilting forewing concept and, with its worst dangers now understood and fixed, designers have continued to develop the idea, typically still for home construction.
The
Curtiss-Wright X-19
The Curtiss-Wright X-19, company designation Model 200, was an American experimental tiltrotor aircraft of the early 1960s. It was noteworthy for being the last aircraft of any kind manufactured by Curtiss-Wright.
Design and development
In Marc ...
of 1963 marked the entry of the tandem wing configuration into the VTOL arena, as a quadrotor convertiplane, with large tilting proprotors mounted on each wing tip. It proved overly complex and unreliable for the technology of the day.
Other tandem approaches such as the Delanne were largely forgotten, until David Lockspeiser conceived of his Land Development Aircraft, a low-cost utility transport. It was to utilise three interchangeable wing component; one each mounted high up for the left and right rear wings, and a third fore wing mounted centrally beneath the nose. His prototype
LDA-01 flew in 1971. It proved successful enough to develop for production, but the project ended before it could be modified.
![Scaled Composites Proteus in flight 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Scaled_Composites_Proteus_in_flight_1.jpg)
The next breakthrough to manufacture came once again in the homebuild market. Up-and-coming maverick designer
Burt Rutan
Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the record- ...
was working on a low-powered but highly efficient plane for home construction. The tandem layout offered a low-drag fixed undercarriage installation, by placing the main wheels in housings at the tips of the fore wing and applying anhedral to raise the fuselage high enough for a propeller. The high-mounted rear wing had compensating dihedral. The Quickie first flew in 1977 and the next year won the EAA's Outstanding New Design Award at Oshkosh. It became popular, and several variants subsequently appeared.
Rutan set up
Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to develo ...
and some of the company's later designs were also tandems.
List of tandem-wing aircraft
:''This list is incomplete. Please help by expanding it''
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Airbus A³ Vahana
The Airbus Vahana (Sanskrit: ''Vāhana'', or Vahanam literally means "vehicle") was an electric-powered eight-propeller VTOL personal air vehicle prototype financed by A³ (pronounced "A-cubed"), by Airbus and Airbus Urban Mobility. The Vahan ...
, , US , , Propeller , , Private , , 2018 , , Prototype , , 2 , , Tiltwing personal air vehicle.
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Arsenal-Delanne 10
The Arsenal-Delanne 10 was an experimental fighter aircraft of French origin. The plane had a rear cockpit and a distinctive tandem wing.
Design and development
The Arsenal-Delanne 10-C2 two-seat fighter, designed by Maurice Delanne and bu ...
, , France , , Propeller , , Fighter , , 1940 , , Prototype , , 1 , ,
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Blériot III
The Blériot III was an early French aeroplane built by pioneer aviators Louis Blériot and Gabriel Voisin. It was later modified and renamed the Blériot IV, but both versions failed to fly.
Design and development
The Blériot III was radically ...
/IV , , France , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1906 , , Project , , 1 , , Failed to fly as either the III or IV.
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Blériot VI
The Blériot VI "Libellule" ("Dragonfly"), was built in 1907 and was one of the series of experimental aircraft built by Louis Blériot which eventually led to the Blériot XI aircraft in which he made the first flight across the English Channel. ...
, , France , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1907 , , Prototype , , 1 , ,
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Caproni Ca.60
The Caproni Ca.60 Transaereo, often referred to as the Noviplano (nine-wing) or Capronissimo, was the prototype of a large nine-wing flying boat intended to become a 100-passenger transatlantic airliner. It featured eight engines and three sets ...
, , Italy , , Propeller , , Transport , , 1921 , , Prototype , , 1 , , Nine-wing triple-tandem triplane.
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Curtiss-Wright X-19
The Curtiss-Wright X-19, company designation Model 200, was an American experimental tiltrotor aircraft of the early 1960s. It was noteworthy for being the last aircraft of any kind manufactured by Curtiss-Wright.
Design and development
In Marc ...
, , US , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1963 , , Prototype , , 2 , , Four-engined tiltrotor
convertiplane
A convertiplane is defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI or World Air Sports Federation) as an aircraft which uses rotor power for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and converts to fixed-wing lift in normal flight. In the ...
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Delanne 20-T , , France , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1938 , , Prototype , , 2 , , Test plane for the
Arsenal-Delanne 10
The Arsenal-Delanne 10 was an experimental fighter aircraft of French origin. The plane had a rear cockpit and a distinctive tandem wing.
Design and development
The Arsenal-Delanne 10-C2 two-seat fighter, designed by Maurice Delanne and bu ...
fighter.
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Moscow Aviation Institute Sh-Tandem
The Moscow Aviation Institute Sh-Tandem (russian: Ш-Тандем, other designations include Sh-MAI and MAI-Tandem) was a Soviet experimental ground attack aircraft of the 1930s. Designed by Peter Grushin at the Moscow Aviation Institute (hence ...
, , USSR , , Prototype , , Attack , , 1937 , , Prototype , , 1 , , Also known as the Grushin Sh-Tandem. MAI-3.
[Gordon, Yefim and Gunston, Bill; ''Soviet X-Planes'', Midland, 2000. pp.62-3.]
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Langley Aerodrome
The Langley Aerodrome was a pioneering but unsuccessful manned, tandem wing-configuration powered flying machine, designed at the close of the 19th century by Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley. The U.S. Army paid $50,000 for the ...
, , US , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1902 , , Project , , 1 , , Failed to take off.
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Ligeti Stratos , , Australia , , Propeller , , Private , , 1985 , , Prototype , , 2 , , Joined wing. (Cited in main text)
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Lockspeiser LDA-01 , , UK , , Propeller , , Utility , , 1971 , , Prototype , , 1 , ,
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Mauboussin Hémiptère , , France , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1936 , , Prototype , , 1 , ,
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Mignet Pou-du-Ciel
The Flying Flea (french: Pou du Ciel, lit=Louse of the Sky) is a large family of light homebuilt aircraft first flown in 1933.
The odd name comes from the French nickname for the Ford Model T automobile: ''Pou de la Route'', or "Louse of the Ro ...
, , France , , Propeller , , Private , , 1933 , , Homebuilt , , , ,
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Miles M.35 Libellula , , UK , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1942, , Prototype , , 1 , ,
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Miles M.39B Libellula
The M.39B Libellula (from Libellulidae, a Family (biology), taxonomic family of dragonfly, dragonflies) was a Second World War tandem wing experimental aircraft built by Miles Aircraft, designed to give the pilot the best view possible for landi ...
, , UK , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1943 , , Prototype , , 1 , ,
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Montgomery Aeroplane ''The Santa Clara'' , , US , , Glider , , Experimental , , 1905 , , Prototype , , 1 , ,
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Payen PA-22
The Payen PA-22 was a French experimental aircraft designed by Nicolas Roland Payen.
The aircraft had an unconventional design: it had a set of delta wings, in front of which were a set of short conventional wings. It had a fixed front landi ...
, , France , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1942 , , Prototype , , 1 , , Delta rear wing. Begun prewar.
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Peyret Tandem
The Peyret Tandem or Peyret Alérion, was a French single seat glider of tandem wing configuration. It won first prize at the first British Glider Competition of 1922.
Design and development
Louis Peyret, who had unsuccessfully attempted to fly ...
, , France , , Glider , , Private , , 1922 , , Prototype , , 1 , , Won the 1922 British Glider Competition.
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Peyret VI
The SFCA Taupin was a French tandem-wing aircraft, designed to provide a simple, stable and safe aircraft able to take-off and land in small spaces.
Design and development
In 1907 Louis Peyret, a friend of Louis Blériot designed the tandem ...
, , France , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1933 , , Prototype , , 1 , , Forerunner of the
SFCA Taupin
The SFCA Taupin was a French tandem-wing aircraft, designed to provide a simple, stable and safe aircraft able to take-off and land in small spaces.
Design and development
In 1907 Louis Peyret, a friend of Louis Blériot designed the tandem ...
.
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Piel CP-10 Pinocchio , , France , , Propeller , , Private , , 1948 , , Prototype , , 1 , , Similar to the
Mignet Pou du Ciel.
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QAC Quickie Q2
The Quickie Q2 or Q2 is a two-seat version of the unique Rutan Quickie, produced in kit form by the Quickie Aircraft Corporation founded by Tom Jewett and Gene Sheehan. Canadian Garry LeGare was involved in the design.
The Q2 is a tandem win ...
series , , US , , Propeller , , Private , , 1980 , , Homebuilt , , , , Derivatives of the
Rutan Quickie
The Rutan Quickie is a lightweight single-seat taildragger aircraft of composite construction, configured with tandem wings.
The Quickie was primarily designed by Burt Rutan as a low-powered, highly efficient kit-plane. Its tandem wing design ...
.
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Rutan Quickie
The Rutan Quickie is a lightweight single-seat taildragger aircraft of composite construction, configured with tandem wings.
The Quickie was primarily designed by Burt Rutan as a low-powered, highly efficient kit-plane. Its tandem wing design ...
, , US , , Propeller , , Private , , 1978 , , Homebuilt , , , ,
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Scaled Composites ATTT
The Scaled Composites Model 133-4.62 ATTT, or Advanced Technology Tactical Transport was a technology demonstration project built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites in 1986 under contract to DARPA.
Design and development
In the mid-1980s, the Ame ...
, , US , , Propeller , , Experimental , , 1986 , , Prototype , , 1 , ,
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Scaled Composites Proteus
The Scaled Composites Model 281 Proteus is a tandem-wing high-altitude long-endurance aircraft designed by Burt Rutan to investigate the use of aircraft as high-altitude telecommunications relays. The Proteus is a multi-mission vehicle able to c ...
, , US , , Jet , , Experimental , , 1998 , , Prototype , , 1 , , High-altitude endurance.
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SFCA Taupin
The SFCA Taupin was a French tandem-wing aircraft, designed to provide a simple, stable and safe aircraft able to take-off and land in small spaces.
Design and development
In 1907 Louis Peyret, a friend of Louis Blériot designed the tandem ...
, , France , , Propeller , , Private , , 1936 , , Production , , 53 , ,
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SFCA Lignel 44 , , France , , Propeller , , Private , , 1946 , , Prototype , , 1 , , 4-seat development of the Taupin.
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Viking Dragonfly
The Viking Dragonfly is an American amateur-built aircraft, designed by Bob Walters and produced by Viking Aircraft LLC of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The aircraft is supplied as a kit or as plans for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - H ...
, , US , , Propeller , , Private , , 1980 , , Homebuilt , , , ,
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Westland P.12 Lysander Delanne , , UK , , Propeller , , Utility , , 1940 , , Prototype , , 1 , , Modified Lysander to include rear wing and gun turret.
Tandem wings in nature
Insects
Several orders of flying insects employ tandem wings, each with its characteristic
anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
and flight modes.
Insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...
s with tandem flapping wings include the
Odonata
Odonata is an order of flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies. Members of the group first appeared during the Triassic, though members of their total group, Odonatoptera, first appeared in Late Carboniferous.
The two comm ...
(
dragonflies
A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threa ...
and
damselflies
Damselflies are flying insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies, which constitute the other odonatan suborder, Anisoptera, but are smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most species fold the wings along ...
),
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...
(
butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
and
moths
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
) and some Thysanoptera or
Thrip
Thrips ( order Thysanoptera) are minute (mostly long or less), slender insects with fringed wings and unique asymmetrical mouthparts. Different thrips species feed mostly on plants by puncturing and sucking up the contents, although a few are ...
s. Odonata species typically have long, thin wings and can synchronise the flapping of fore and aft pairs in various different modes, allowing them to be both fast and highly manoeuvrable. By comparison the Lepidoptera have wider wings which are flapped in synchrony and may even overlap in flight, and are better suited to endurance flying. Thrips are smaller insects and the flying species have relatively stiff wings. Due to their small size, they generate lift via
clap and fling
Insects are the only group of invertebrates that have evolved wings and flight. Insects first flew in the Carboniferous, some 350 to 400 million years ago, making them the first animals to evolve flight. Wings may have evolved from appenda ...
flapping rather than the usual leading-edge vortex generation of most insects.
Many flying beetles, such as the
ladybird
Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...
, have forward wing cases which open out in flight but do not flap significantly. While on the ground they protect the delicate main, hind wings, while in the air they may be used to modify the aerodynamics of the flapping main wing.
[Geisler, Tomasz (2012);]
Analysis of the Structure and Mechanism of Wing Folding and Flexion in Xylotupes Gideon Beetle (L. 1767) (Coloptera, Scarabaeditae)
, ''Acta Mechanica et Automatica'', Vol.6 No.3, 2012.
Flying fish
Flying fish
The Exocoetidae are a family of marine fish in the order Beloniformes class Actinopterygii, known colloquially as flying fish or flying cod. About 64 species are grouped in seven to nine genera. While they cannot fly in the same way a bird do ...
have enlarged
pectoral fin
Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...
s and are capable of gliding flight, though not of true flapping flight. Some species, such as the band-wing, also have sufficiently enlarged
pelvic fin
Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods.
Structure and function Structure
In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two en ...
s, further back along their bodies, to form a tandem layout.
Dinosaurs
Microraptor
''Microraptor'' (Greek, μικρός, ''mīkros'': "small"; Latin, ''raptor'': "one who seizes") is a genus of small, four-winged dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. Numerous well-preserved fossil specimens have been recovered from Liaoning, China. They dat ...
was a genus of tandem-winged
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s, possibly only a single species. It is known only from the fossil record, principally in China. Both fore and hind limbs were covered in flight feathers and it is thought to have been capable of true flapping flight as well as gliding. Its flight mode is not known.
See also
*
Stagger (aeronautics)
In aviation, stagger is the relative horizontal fore-aft positioning of stacked wings in a biplane, triplane, or multiplane.
An aircraft is said to have ''positive stagger'', or simply ''stagger'', when the upper wing is positioned forward o ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
*Bottomley, J. W. (1977). "Tandem-Wing Aircraft", ''Aerospace'', vol. 4, October 1977. pp. 12–20.
*Miles, George H. (1944).
*Poulsen, C. M. (1943). "The Tandem Monoplane: Does it Still Have a Future? Some Past Experiences Recalled", ''Flight'', 12 August 1943, pp. 167–8. (Archive
Page 1https://web.archive.org/web/20140526032653/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1943/1943%20-%201994.html Page 2])
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Wing configurations
Aircraft wing design
Tandem-wing aircraft