Ailerons Drooping

[JG1_Vonrd]

I posted this on WeirdWings Reddit but no good answers. Anyone here know?

 

[PaulTheSalty]

It looks like they most likely functioned as elevation controls on top of roll. The tail looks like the horizontal surfaces are fixed, vertical are rudder for yaw. I’d imagine this is from before rigging techniques were standardized. Left and right control surfaces on the wings probably have their own sticks. Pull both back and you climb, both forward to dive. Roll by mismatching them. All surfaces on the wings are drooping due to no hands on the stick and gravity acting on them.

[JG1_Vonrd]

Found the answer:

Single acting ailerons[edit]

Used during aviation's pre-war "pioneer era" and into the early years of the First World War, these ailerons were each controlled by a single cable, which pulled the aileron up. When the aircraft was at rest, the ailerons hung vertically down. This type of aileron was used on the Farman III biplane 1909 and the Short 166. A "reverse" version of this, utilizing wing-warping, existed on the later version of the Santos-Dumont Demoiselle, which only warped the wingtips "downward".^[32] One of the disadvantages of this setup was a greater tendency to yaw than even with basic interconnected ailerons.^[33] During the 1930s a number of light aircraft used single acting controls but used springs to return the ailerons to their neutral positions when the stick was released.