Airco

Airco DH-2.jpg

Britische DeHavilland Airco DH-2, 1916

Quelle: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-468/ch2-2.htm

public domain

The photograph depicts a strut-and-wire-braced, double-bay biplane employing thin, untapered wings. A small nacelle situated on the bottom wing contained the pilot's cockpit and gun in the forward portion and the 100-horsepower Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine in the pusher position in the rear. The horizontal and vertical tail surfaces were mounted behind the engine on an arrangement of four strut-and-wire-braced outriggers, or booms, which extended rearward from the wings. Cutouts in the trailing edges of the upper and lower wings provided clearance for the rotating propeller, which had four blades to minimize the extent of the cutouts and reduce the required spacing of the outriggers. The smaller diameter four-blade propeller, as compared with a two-blade propeller capable of absorbing the same power, also reduced the length of the landing gear.