Which was first?
 

Got a toughy question for you guys.

Which model A/C was first to incorporate spoilers into the design of the wing?

I have original plans for the DeBolt Viscount of 1961 which shows how to mount upper and lower spoilers to aide in turns. Used a balsa door, top and bottom, then a cam to lift each open in cooperation with aileron movements.

Was this the first instance? The same aircraft was the first production model to incorporate retracting gear the following year.

Wm.

RE: Which was first?
 

Well, I'm not sure about model designs but full sized gliders were using them for years before that.

PS: DOH! I almost forgot! Spoilers were shown as one option for DT'ing the old free flight models. Carl Goldberg wrote up something describing various options back before the war. The pop up tail was shown as well as that silly thread bobbin on the end of 20 feet of thread and in there was a center section spoiler that could be tuned for extension just enough to steepen the glide and kill some lift but not so much that it turned into a crash dive. I believe that it was Air Trails that had the page with the sketches that I saw.

And at least one free flight model used the spoiler scheme back in the early 50's. Ted Entiknap's (sp?) giant sparky powered nostalgia era Gool used one for it's contest flights. Again his article spelled out that the amount of deflection needed to be carefully trimmed to avoid a dive. The construction article was in an early Flying Models that I just happen to have.

Howzzat?

RE: Which was first?
 

I thought the hanging wires and struts on a biplane WERE the spoilers :D

e=mc2