The Deperdussin Monocoque is a French racing aircraft built by the Deperdussin company and designed by engineer Louis Bechereau, notable for pioneering true monocoque fuselage construction, a lightweight shell structure of molded plywood strips that bore the aircraft's structural loads through its own skin rather than through an internal frame of struts and wires. Streamlined and aerodynamically advanced well beyond most aircraft of its time, a Deperdussin Monocoque set the world air speed record in 1912 and again in 1913, becoming the first aircraft to exceed 200 kilometers per hour, and its monocoque construction technique influenced aircraft and later automobile body design for decades afterward.
Facts
SignificanceWon the Gordon Bennett Trophy in 1912 and 1913 and raised the world speed record to 210 km/h 1 Manufacturer or BuilderAeroplanes Deperdussin (later SPAD) 1 Sources
1. Deperdussin Monocoque (Wikipedia)
Infobox, first flight
First flight 1912
Introduction
built in 1912 by the Aéroplanes Deperdussin, a French aircraft manufacturer started in 1911 and reorganized as the Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) in 1913.
Introduction, records
The aircraft is noted for winning the Gordon Bennett Trophy in 1912 and 1913, and for raising the world speed record for aircraft to 130 mph (210 km/h).
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