A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques and materials and the quest for greater speed made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.
The term is also occasionally used in biology, to describe the wings of some flying animals.
Read more about Biplane: History, In Avian Evolution
Famous quotes containing the word biplane:
“This biplane is the shape of human flight.
Its name might better be First Motor Kite.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)