Monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or other multiplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed-wing aircraft.
Characteristics
A monoplane has inherently the lowest drag of any wing configuration and is the simplest to build. However these advantages may be offset by its inherent weight and need for higher power.
Monoplane vs. biplane
The wing of a monoplane must nominally have twice the area of the equivalent biplane wing, because the biplane has two of them. This makes the monoplane larger and less manoeuvrable. However, in practice the biplane's wings interfere with each other and the handicap to the monoplane is reduced.
A biplane wing is usually braced to stiffen the structure and allow it to be much lighter and to fly slower. However even a braced monoplane will still be more efficient and human-powered aircraft, which are among the slowest and lightest of flying machines, are monoplanes with very large wings for their weight.
Du Temple Monoplane
The du Temple Monoplane was a large aeroplane made of aluminium, built in Brest, France, by naval officer Félix du Temple in 1874.
It had a wingspan of 13 m (43 ft) and weighed of only 80 kg (180 lb) without the pilot.
Several trials were made with the aircraft, and it is generally recognized that it achieved lift-off - described by Dollfus as "short hop or leap" and in Flight International as "staggered briefly into the air" - (from a combination of its own power and running down an inclined ramp), glided for a short time and returned safely to the ground, making it the first successful powered flight in history though not the first self-powered one.
It was displayed at the 1878 Exposition Universelle ("World Fair") in Paris.
Steam engine
The aircraft used a very compact, high-speed circulation steam engine for which Félix du Temple applied for a patent on 28 April 1876. The engine used very small pipes packed together "to obtain the highest possible contact surface for the smallest possible volume"
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