Monoplane versus Biplane

HERE is no question in the development of aviation more interesting to the average observer than the relative value of the biplane and the monoplane. Types of both have so multiplied and differentiated that the man on the street can no longer distinguish at sight, say, a Nieuport from any other of the monoplanes to which Bleriot accustomed him, or pick out a Farman, a Sommer, a Voisin, from other biplanes, however they may show their peculiarities to the initiate, but the two main divisions of the flying-machine remain distinct and distinguishable to the most casual gaze. Distinct they have always been, even in the impulse that brought each into being. The dream of man for ages had been to fly; his one model in nature had been the bird; mechanical genius first set about to build a flying-machine on the bird's model. All birds are monoplanes, all insects, all flying-fish, all flyingsquirrels are monoplanes, and the imitative genius of the mechanic seems to run naturally to the production of a machine of the monoplane type. The biplane, on the other hand, starts from the kite. Originally a monoplane surface, the kite was developed and made more efficient by Mr. Hargrave, a well-known Australian scientist, who constructed the double-surface " Hargrave Kite," widely used for scientific purposes by the Weather Bureau, as well as by boys in their sports. This kiteform is not an imitation of anything in nature, but the creation of a scientific mind, worked out on engineering principles. This fundamental difference extends all down the line of subsequent aeroplane construction. The monoplane is the development of mechanical genius, Photograph from Pictorial News Co.