Wright Model F

{{Short description|Prototype American military aircraft of 1914 }} {{About |a prototype military aircraft built by the Wright Company in 1914 |the Wright aircraft design built under licence by the Burgess Company as the Model F |Wright Model B}} {{Use mdy dates |date=April 2025 }} {{Use American English|date=April 2025 }}  {{Infobox aircraft | name = Model F | logo = | logo_size = | image = File:Wright Model F.jpg | alt = | caption = | long_caption = | other_names = | aircraft_type = Military reconnaissance aircraft | aim = | outcome = | related = | national_origin = United States | manufacturer = Wright Company | design_group = | designer = Grover Loening | builder = | issuer = | status = | owners = | primary_user = | more_users = | service = | major_applications = | proposals = | prototypes = | number_built = 1 | construction_number = | civil_registration = | military_serial = | radio_code = | requirement = | aircraft_carried = | flights = | total_hours = | total_distance = | construction_date = | introduction = | retired = | first_flight = 1914 | initiated = | in_service = | last_flight = | expected = | developed_from = | variants = | developed_into = | preservation = | fate = | predecessors = | successors = | concluded = }}

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.<ref name="jea">Taylor 1992, p.898</ref><ref name="iea">''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft'' 1985, p.3098</ref><ref name="flight">"The New Wright Biplane" 1914, p.1133</ref><ref name="roach104">Roach 2016, p.104</ref> The major structural elements of previous Wright designs had been connected by open frameworks.<ref name="swanborough478">Swanborough 1963, p.478</ref> The application of metal armor to the underside of the fuselage, together with its unenviable performance,<ref name="hallion68">Hallion 2019, p.68</ref> earned the aircraft the nickname "'''Tin Cow'''".

==Design== 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.<ref name="flight"/> The pilot and observer sat side-by-side in an open cockpit.<ref name="flight"/> 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.<ref name="flight"/> It was fitted with fixed, tailskid undercarriage.<ref name="flight"/>

==Development== The Model F was designed in response to a 1913 U.S. Army Signal Corps specification for a reconnaissance aircraft.<ref name="hallion67">Hallion 2019, p.67</ref> 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.<ref name="hallion67"/> Due to a lack of confidence in American-produced aero engines of the time, the specification also called for use of a foreign powerplant.<ref name="hallion67"/> The contract was worth $9,500.<ref name="roach104"/>

Wright responded with a design by Grover Loening that resembled the contemporary French designs,<ref name="roach104"/><ref name="hallion6768">Hallion 2019, p.67–68</ref> 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.<ref name="hallion68"/> As originally designed, the aircraft was powered by tractor propellers.<ref name="hallion67"/>

A series of revisions followed, which aviation historian Richard P. Hallion describes as "a dark comedy of errors".<ref name="hallion68"/> 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.<ref name="hallion68"/> The tractor propellers were moved to become pushers, and the seating arrangement was changed to be side-by-side.<ref name="hallion68"/>

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.<ref name="hallion68"/>

==Operational history== The Model F was accepted by the Army in March 1915, and given the serial number "39".<ref name="swanborough478"/><ref name="hallion68"/> During testing it was described as "a lumbersome mass of rattling material" and given its "Tin Cow" nickname.<ref name="hallion68"/> Test pilot Lt. Herbert Dargue said that it was "uncontrollable on the ground and out of date."<ref name="roach105">Roach 2015, p.105</ref> Only two months later, the aircraft was withdrawn<ref name="roach105"/><ref name="hallion68"/> along with all the Army's other pusher designs.<ref name="roach105"/> It had only flown seven times.<ref name="roach105"/>

==Operators== * United States Army Signal Corps

==Specifications== {{Aircraft specs |ref=Hallion 2019, p.68 |prime units?=imp  |genhide=

|avionics= }}

{{aircontent  |see also= |related= |similar aircraft= |lists= }}

==Notes== {{Commons category}} ===References=== {{reflist}}

===Bibliography===  * {{cite book |last=Hallion |first=Richard P. |title=The Wright Flyers 1899–1916 |publisher=Osprey |location=Oxford |year=2019 }} * {{cite book |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft |publisher=Aerospace Publishing|location=London }} * {{cite journal |title=The New Wright Biplane |journal=Flight |publisher=Flight |location=London |volume=6 |number=47 |date=November 20, 1914 |page=1133 }} * {{cite book |last=Roach |first=Edward J. |title=The Wright Company: From Invention to Industry |publisher=Ohio University Press |location=Athens, OH |year=2014 }} * {{cite book |last=Swanborough |first=Gordon |title=United States Military Aircraft Since 1909 |publisher=Putnam |location=London |year=1963 }} * {{cite book |last= Taylor |first= Michael J. H. |title=Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation |year=1993 |publisher=Studio Editions |location=London }}

{{Wright aircraft}}

Category:1910s United States military reconnaissance aircraft Category:Wright aircraft Category:Biplanes Category:Conventional-tail aircraft Category:Single-engined twin-prop pusher aircraft Category:Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear Category:Aircraft first flown in 1914