Autodidact
Well-Known Member
Biplane cellule horizontal tail surfaces; does anyone know of a good technical paper or article concerning this archaic type of tail surface? Some fairly good aircraft used them, such as the Handley-Page HP42, Vickers Vimy and others, even though some of the very earliest designs, like the Bleriot 11, and Wright Model B had monoplane horizontal tail surfaces. The idea that it was difficult to make them strong enough as monoplane surfaces doesn't make sense to me because they could be wire braced and have no more unsupported length than the main-plane bays between the inter-plane struts. I know that they are draggy and inefficient, so why were they used? Was it strength issues after all (early monoplanes had a reputation as structurally weak)? What effect did they have on control and stability? Again, any good literature on this that anyone knows of off the top of their head?
