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Dayton
Wright RB racer
A number of racing aircraft were developed that employed the
monoplane configuration. Some of these aircraft had cantilever wings;
others employed strut-braced wings; such advanced concepts as
retractable landing gear were sometimes seen. For one reason or
another, however, none of these monoplane racers was particularly
successful. The Dayton Wright RB racer developed for the 1920 Gordon
Bennett race was perhaps one of the most advanced concepts developed
during the entire period. The pilot was entirely enclosed in the
fuselage, which was of wooden semimonocoque construction. The
cantilever wing was constructed entirely of wood an employed leading-
and trailing-edge flaps. These flaps in effect provided variable
camber so that the airfoil section could be adjusted to its optimum
shape for both high-speed and low-speed flight. This extremely
advanced feature did not appear on production aircraft until the
development of the jet transport in the 1950's. The landing gear on
the Dayton Wright racer retracted into the fuselage in very much the
same way as that used in later Grumman fighters of the thirties and
forties.
Although highly advanced for its time, the
Dayton Wright racer was not successful in the 1920 Gordon Bennett race.
The aircraft was somewhat underpowered and during the race had
to
withdraw because of a broken rudder cable. Unfortunately, the type was
not further developed.
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