The Wibault 2, Wib 2 or Wib 2 BN.2 was a single engine

biplane 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 ...

aircraft designed and built in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the early 1920s. It was intended as a heavy night

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

, though a thirteen-seat passenger version was proposed. Only one was built.

Design and development

As the military description BN.2 indicates, the Wib 2 was designed as a two-seat night bomber, but the designer had hopes of a passenger carrying derivative. As it was structurally an all-metal aircraft it had, by the standards of the times, a low structural weight and, as a consequence, a high useful load of making the suggested capacity of thirteen passengers plausible. In addition to its metal construction, contemporaries noted other unusual design features, in particular the position of the wings well back along the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

, ''Flight'' speculated the idea being to distribute the passenger (or bomb) load symmetrically about the centre of pressure and over a greater longitudinal distance than usual, rather than along the span. The pilot sat quite close to the tail with the gunner (in the bomber version) in a separate, gun mounting equipped cockpit immediately behind him. Its span was large for a biplane with only a single set of struts and its upper wing had a shorter span than the lower. The wings of the Wib 2 were rectangular in plan and mounted without stagger or dihedral. The single bays were defined by parallel pairs of inward leaning

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 struts, which act in ...

s, assisted by crossed flying and landing wires from the bases of the struts to the fuselage.

Cabane struts 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 struts, which act in ...

supported the upper wing above the fuselage. The wings had thick, high

lift coefficient In fluid dynamics, the lift coefficient () is a dimensionless quantity that relates the lift generated by a lifting body to the fluid density around the body, the fluid velocity and an associated reference area. A lifting body is a foil or a co ...

sections, constructed around deep single

spars SPARS was the authorized nickname for the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve. The nickname was derived from the USCG's motto, "—"Always Ready" (''SPAR''). The Women's Reserve was established by law in November 1942 during Wor ...

built up from

Duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age hardening, age-hardenable aluminium–copper alloys. The term is a combination of ''Düren'' and ''aluminium'' ...

sheet; the ribs were formed from cross-braced metal tubes.

Aileron 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 aroun ...

s were mounted only on the lower wing. The fuselage was metal framed and fabric covered, with a straight edged, wire braced

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lift (force), 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 ...

carrying divided

elevators An elevator (American English) or lift (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive tracti ...

mounted on top. Its vertical tail was low and broad, with a curved

leading edge The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts the air;Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil sectio ...

; the

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

was deep and aerodynamically balanced. The Wib 2 was powered by a water-cooled V-12 Renault 12 M engine completely enclosed within a smooth

cowling A cowling (or cowl) is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings ...

and drove a two blade

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

. Small

radiators A radiator is a heat exchanger used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

projected out on either side of the cowling. The undercarriage was of the fixed conventional type, with the mainwheels on a rigid axle supported by V-struts and assisted by a tailskid. The Wib 2 flew for the first time on 29 October 1921 but only one, in bomber configuration, was built.

Specifications (BN.2)

References

{{Wibault aircraft Biplanes 1920s French bomber aircraft Wib 2 Single-engined tractor aircraft