Biplane wing bracing methods

[HagarTheHorrible]

Yes, obviously, this links into FC’s wing ‘issues’, well actually it’s more accurate to suggest that it’s inspired by, rather than about.  One thing I love about flight sims, especially historically based ones, is that it promotes a further interest and exploration of aspects that might not have even garnered a thought previously.

 

Enough preamble, the meat !
 

FC doesn’t seem to make any distinction, or allowance, for different aircraft bracing methods used in WW1 ( not necessarily a failing, or indeed peculiar to FC, just an observation, although in my earlier thread, from a couple of weeks ago, one that could, with sufficient time and consideration, be addressed, I think).  Obviously aircraft designers of the period were trying to build, not only light aircraft, but ever stronger ones into the bargain.   My interest was piqued by watching the dogfight between an SE5a, from the pilots perspective (using a GoPro), recently posted.  The SE has flying wires attached mid way between the fuselage and outer plane struts. This is not entirely without president, the Spad VII and XIII having a similar system if also incorporating intermediary strutlets (?).  So what did they do, these wires, what was their purpose, after all German Scouts from the same period managed without ?  When I had a quick look at aircraft stats before writing this I noted, with some surprise,  that the SE (single bay with intermediary bracing) had a wingspan of just over 8m, the Albatros (single bay) had a wingspan of slightly more than 9m and the soon to be released Snipe (2 bays) had a span of 9.9m, the same as the Dolphin. The Spad (1 bay but with intermediary struts) was smaller with a wingspan of less than 8m.
 

Obviously, wing twist was, or at least methods to combat this were considered important, even at the expense of complexity, speed loss or weight gain.  It interests me that in all the time, since the inception of RoF and continuing through to FC, with all the time spent discussing aircraft performance and FM’s, this discrepancy has never been rectified, adjusted, improved, or considered.

 

It goes without saying that, without the decidedly ‘odd’  wing strength differences between aircraft in the sim, due to combat damage, this might have never occurred to me, to consider the various methods employed to make robust light weight wing structures.

With a whole new aircraft in development, it will be interesting to see if anything has been learnt over the years and if the bracing style of the Snipe plays any role in determining it’s combat effectiveness.