Farman F.1020

The Farman F.1020 was an experimental aircraft built in France in 1933 to investigate the behaviour of a semi-circular wing fitted with unconventional controls. It had a short career and only one was constructed. The wing, whose study had begun in 1926, was essentially semicircular with the straight edge leading, so that the chord was broad and the aspect ratio very low at 2.1, with a root chord of 5 metres against a span of 7.2 metres. Two deep-chord control surfaces per side on the trailing edge served as ailerons and flaps, and the pilot could switch between conventional and trailing-edge control. The wing was mounted on the fuselage of a Farman F.402 with its 110 horsepower Lorraine five-cylinder radial. First flown in December 1933, nicknamed the Pelle-bêche, it proved almost impossible to spin but had no other particular merits.