Hurri

BIPES !!! what is the area of the 2 wings total on a Bipe . surely not the total of the 2 wings combined ?? I think around 60% of the two together ??? I'm after the wing loading on a new bipe
thanks HURRI

G4guy

My Feedback: (13)

Why wouldn't it be the total of both wings? They are producing lift, aren't they?

Rodney

A lot depends on the separation between the wings. The farther apart they are the closer to 100%. Most are typically around 70%.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

For any airplane, wing area is the total area of the wing or wings. If you have a biplane, then you calculate the area of the wings and then add them together. You also count the area inside the fuselage. Wing area is calculated from wingtip to wingtip.

You use that number to calculate wing loading. It works. That's how it's done, and has been done for decades and decades.

Rodney

I think his question was meant to be, how does a biplanes efficiency relative to load bearing compare to a typical monoplane. As stated wing loading is as Bax said but biplanes do not make as efficient a use of that area as monoplanes do. There has been quite a bit of wind tunnel testing trying to answer the question of how to make best use of a biplane's wing area.

Iron Bottom

Take the area of a mono plane wing that would fly the airplane and add 40%. Divide by half for equal upper and lower wings, or you may have a longer wing for the top as long as the area stays the same. Edit. Probably not the answer you wanted. Biplanes are about 70% as efficient as monoplanes if that helps.

rmh

Well - depends on who is doing the evaluation
IF you take two craft having same TOTAL area -one a bipe one a monoplane- the old rule of thumb was 70% % efficiency for the bipe
However
The bipe gets the nod for better maneuverbility in some cases due to it's lower aspect ratio and the fact that it was once possible to add more area for less weight .
Thats why they came about - -structural reasons

Hurri

Thanks for the input to everyone . I wanted to see what the wingloading was & somehow knew that the 2 wings on a bipe weren't as efficient area wise as 2 wings total from monoplanes
would seem that about70% is about right from what i see . So thanks again to everyones help / HURRI