The Wibault Wib 1, Wib C1 or, later, Wib 1 C1 was a French World War I single seat, single engine

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. Flown near the end of the war, it was not selected for production.

Design and development

The Wib 1 was an aerodynamically clean single bay biplane, with square ended, constant

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 ( ...

unswept wings, mounted with slight stagger and braced with pairs of parallel interplane struts assisted by wires. It had short span, broad chord ailerons only on the lower wings. The fabric covered wings were metal framed like the rest of the aircraft. There was a rounded central cut-out in the trailing edge of the upper wing, under which the pilot sat in his open

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 ...

. The fuselage was rounded in cross-section and covered with light alloys panels over the engine and forward part, with fabric covering behind. A roughly elliptical plan, braced tailplane was attached to the top of the fuselage and carried split elevators with curved trailing edges. The fin was short and small but the rudder was broad in chord and extended down between the elevators to the keel; both fin and rudder had rounded edges. The Wib 1 was powered by a

Hispano-Suiza 8 The Hispano-Suiza 8 was a water-cooled V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914, and was the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers during the First World War. The original Hispano-Suiza ...

B, a water-cooled, upright V8 engine. This was neatly housed under a smooth curved cowling behind a large, domed spinner and drove a two blade

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. A pair of synchronised Vickers machine guns fired through the propeller arc. It 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 the mainwheels on a rigid axle attached to the lower fuselage by a pair of faired V-struts, together with a small tailskid. The prototype flew for the first time early in November 1918, right at the end of World War I. The C1 designation was standard French military terminology for Chasseur (fighter), single seat. It went for official testing, in the hope of winning an ''Aviation Militaire'' contract, on 12 February 1919 and turned out to be fast, despite its relatively low engine power, because of its light construction and clean design. Though faster, it had a lower climb rate than its competitor, the Nieuport 29 with its

F engine and was heavier on the controls. The Nieuport was preferred for the contract and development of the Wib 1 ended.

Specifications

References

{{Wibault aircraft Biplanes 1910s French fighter aircraft Wib 1 Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1918