The Distribution of Loads Between the Wings of a Biplane Having Decalage

Abstract

It is known that in a biplane the load is not distributed equally between the wings. The presence of one wing will affect the lift characteristics of the other wings. A designer must know the total load that each wing carries in order that he may design an adequate structure. The purpose here is to determine the distribution of loads between the wings of a biplane at various angles of decalage, when the gap/chord ratio is one, and there is no stagger. The effective lift of each wing was first investigated, using the vortex theory, and later by wind tunnel experiments. The results are given in tabular form