The Wibault 2, Wib 2 or Wib 2 BN.2 was 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 ...

aircraft designed and built in France in the early 1920s. It was intended as a heavy night bomber, though a thirteen-seat passenger version was proposed. Only one was built.

Design and development

As the military description BN.2 indicates, the Wib 2 was designed as a two-seat night bomber, but the designer had hopes of a passenger carrying derivative. As it was structurally an all-metal aircraft it had, by the standards of the times, a low structural weight and, as a consequence, a high useful load of making the suggested capacity of thirteen passengers plausible. In addition to its metal construction, contemporaries noted other unusual design features, in particular the position of the wings well back along the fuselage, ''Flight'' speculated the idea being to distribute the passenger (or bomb) load symmetrically about the centre of pressure and over a greater longitudinal distance than usual, rather than along the span. The pilot sat quite close to the tail with the gunner (in the bomber version) in a separate, gun mounting equipped cockpit immediately behind him. Its span was large for a biplane with only a single set of struts and its upper wing had a shorter span than the lower. The wings of the Wib 2 were rectangular in plan and mounted without stagger or dihedral. The single bays were defined by parallel pairs of inward leaning interplane struts, assisted by crossed flying and landing wires from the bases of the struts to the fuselage.

Cabane struts 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 c ...

supported the upper wing above the fuselage. The wings had thick, high lift coefficient sections, constructed around deep single

spars The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS (SPARS was the acronym for "Semper Paratus—Always Ready"), was the women's branch of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. It was established by the United States ...

built up from

Duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

sheet; the ribs were formed from cross-braced metal tubes.

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 were mounted only on the lower wing. The fuselage was metal framed and fabric covered, with a straight edged, wire braced tailplane carrying divided elevators mounted on top. Its vertical tail was low and broad, with a curved leading edge; the rudder was deep and aerodynamically balanced. The Wib 2 was powered by a water-cooled V-12 Renault 12 M engine completely enclosed within a smooth cowling 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 ...

. Small radiators projected out on either side of the cowling. The undercarriage was of the fixed conventional type, with the mainwheels on a rigid axle supported by V-struts and assisted by a tailskid. The Wib 2 flew for the first time on 29 October 1921 but only one, in bomber configuration, was built.

Specifications (BN.2)

References

{{Wibault aircraft Biplanes 1920s French bomber aircraft Wib 2 Single-engined tractor aircraft