The Farman HF.14 was a French two seat reconnaissance type produced by

Farman Aviation Works Farman Aviation Works (french: Avions Farman) was a French aircraft company founded and run by the brothers Richard, Henri, and Maurice Farman. They designed and constructed aircraft and engines from 1908 until 1936; during the French national ...

before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Design and development

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious commune in the Parisian area, located from its centre. It is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department an ...

north of Paris, the HF.14 was an improved version of the HF.6. The two bay

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

featured unstaggered wings with conventional

interplane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s and a fuselage of wood and steel construction. The large

ailerons An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around t ...

were installed only on the upper wing and were interconnected, unlike some earlier Farman designs with single acting ailerons that hung down with the aircraft at rest. Using the same triangular

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

support structure as the HF.6, the new aircraft had a more streamlined

horizontal stabilizer A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...

and an oval

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw a ...

. This set up was used by Farman in many of his later designs. When fitted out as a

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

the machine had one tail and two main floats. All three were of a plain non-stepped type and could move independently of each other using steel and rubber spring assemblies. The HF.14 was powered by a 7-cylinder, air-cooled

Gnome Lambda The Gnome 7 Lambda was a French designed, seven-cylinder, air-cooled rotary aero engine that was produced under license in Britain and Germany. Powering several World War I-era aircraft types it was claimed to produce from its capacity of a ...

rotary piston engine of 80 hp in a

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in no ...

. Part of the upper wing was cut away to provide clearance for the propeller and passengers had to be careful not to let anything get drawn into and strike the blades.

Operational history

Over the course of its useful life the HF.14 was employed privately as a racing plane and later by the military as a trainer. One HF.14 was seen to have four passengers behind the pilot and in November 1913 French aviator Maurice Chevillard became the first to loop a biplane, flying a Farman HF.14.

Specifications

References

Bibliography

External links

* Henry 'Henri', Maurice and Richard 'Dick' Farma

{{Farman aircraft Farman aircraft, HF14 Single-engined pusher aircraft Biplanes Floatplanes Aircraft first flown in 1912