The Wright Model F was a prototype military aircraft built by the Wright Company for the U.S. Army in 1914. It was the first Wright design to feature a fuselage.[1][2][3][4] The major structural elements of previous Wright designs had been connected by open frameworks.[5] The application of metal armor to the underside of the fuselage, together with its unenviable performance,[6] earned the aircraft the nickname "Tin Cow".
The Model F was a three-bay, unstaggered biplane with equal-span wings. Its overall configuration was conventional, with a conventional tail carried at the rear of the fuselage.[3] The pilot and observer sat side-by-side in an open cockpit.[3] Power was supplied by a piston engine mounted in the nose, which drove two two-bladed pusher propellers mounted on the interplane struts and linked by chain drives.[3] It was fitted with fixed, tailskid undercarriage.[3]
The Model F was designed in response to a 1913 U.S. Army Signal Corps specification for a reconnaissance aircraft.[7] The specification called for the underside of the aircraft to carry a crew of two with a four-hour endurance, be protected by chrome-steel armor, and to be capable of carrying a machine gun.[7] Due to a lack of confidence in American-produced aero engines of the time, the specification also called for use of a foreign powerplant.[7] The contract was worth $9,500.[4]
Wright responded with a design by Grover Loening that resembled the contemporary French designs,[4][8] with a fuselage, and tail unit that consisted of a fin and horizontal stabilizer. Loenig also adopted the current "Deperdussin-style" controls that combined the aircraft's controls into a central control stick.[6] As originally designed, the aircraft was powered by tractor propellers.[7]
A series of revisions followed, which aviation historian Richard P. Hallion describes as "a dark comedy of errors".[6] At one stage of development, the aircraft was equipped both with "Deperdussin-style" controls, as well as the system of control wheels fitted to previous Wright designs, before the "Deperdussin-style" controls were removed completely.[6] The tractor propellers were moved to become pushers, and the seating arrangement was changed to be side-by-side.[6]
By the time the Model F was finally delivered, it was already a year late, Wright was delivering it at a financial loss, and Loening had quit the company in frustration.[6]
The Model F was accepted by the Army in March 1915, and given the serial number "39".[5][6] During testing it was described as "a lumbersome mass of rattling material" and given its "Tin Cow" nickname.[6] Test pilot Lt. Herbert Dargue said that it was "uncontrollable on the ground and out of date."[9] Only two months later, the aircraft was withdrawn[9][6] along with all the Army's other pusher designs.<ref name="roach105"> It had only flown seven times.[9]
Data from Hallion 2019, p.68
General characteristics
Performance