Caproni-Pensuti triplane
| {{Infobox aircraft begin
| name=Pensuti-2 | image=Triplano Pensuti.png | caption= Breda-Pensuti B.2 }}{{Infobox aircraft type | type=Sports triplane | national origin=Italy | manufacturer=Caproni (Società Per Lo Sviluppo in Italia) | designer=Emilio Pensuti | first flight=by 1919 | introduced= | retired= | status= | primary user= | more users= | produced= | number built= | program cost= | unit cost= | developed from= | variants with their own articles= }} |
The Caproni-Pensuti 2 was a small single-engine sports triplane aircraft designed and built in Italy just before the end of World War I. It had a wingspan of only 4.0 m or a little over 13 ft.
Design and development
The Pensuti 2 was a very compact, low-powered triplane flown in about 1918. Its first flight, piloted by Lt. Lodovico Montegani, was delayed by the death of its designer and Caproni test pilot Emilio Pensuti in an unrelated aircraft crash. Designed to do in the air "what bicycle [sic] does for the man on the road", it was categorised post-World War I as a small sporting aeroplane.
The single-seat triplane had unswept rectangular wings, each with a full span of only {{convert|4|m|ftin|abbr=on}}. These were mounted without stagger, each wing braced to the one below by two pairs of vertical, parallel interplane struts, one pair out beyond mid-span and the other from the fuselage sides. The central wing was attached to the upper fuselage and the other two held well clear of it by the struts. There were ailerons on each wing.
File:Lodovico Montegani su triplano Pensuti.png
The Pensuti had a simple rectangular cross-section fuselage, with the open cockpit at the wing trailing edge. A three cylinder, inverted Y configuration Anzani air-cooled engine of {{convert|26|kW|hp|abbr=on}} in the nose drove a two-blade propeller. The triplane had a fixed undercarriage of wide track, with a single wheel at each end of a single axle with its extremities attached to extensions of the outer interplane struts. Its cruciform tail had horizontal surfaces mounted on the top of the fuselage; the vertical surface was trapezoidal and extended equally above and below the fuselage. A small tailskid was carried on its lower tip.
A second aircraft with a redesigned tail, Anzani 10-cylinder radial engine and other modifications was built at the Breda factory in Milan as the Breda-Pensuti B.2, (regn. I-BADZ).{{cite web|url=http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_I-4.html |title=Civil Aircraft Register - Italy |work=Golden Years of Aviation |accessdate=25 May 2014}} It gained the second prize at the Italian low-powered aircraft competition held in the summer of 1920 in Milan.
Specifications
{{Aircraft specs
|ref=Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War One
|prime units?=met
|genhide=
|crew=one
|length m=3.80
|length note=
|span m=4.0
|span note=all wings
|height m=2.40
|height note=
|wing area sqm=
|wing area sqft=
|wing area note=
|aspect ratio=
|airfoil=
|empty weight kg=
|empty weight lb=
|empty weight note=
|gross weight kg=230
|gross weight lb=
|gross weight note=in flight with pilot
|max takeoff weight kg=
|max takeoff weight lb=
|max takeoff weight note=
|fuel capacity=
|more general=
|eng1 number=1
|eng1 name=Anzani
|eng1 type=inverted-Y 3-cylinder air-cooled engine
|eng1 hp=35
|eng1 note=
|power original=
|more power=
|prop blade number=2
|prop name=
|prop dia m=
|prop dia ft=
|prop dia in=
|prop dia note=
|perfhide=
|max speed kmh=95
|max speed note=
|cruise speed kmh=
|cruise speed mph=
|cruise speed kts=
|cruise speed note=
|stall speed kmh=40
|stall speed mph=
|stall speed kts=
|stall speed note=
|never exceed speed kmh=
|never exceed speed mph=
|never exceed speed kts=
|never exceed speed note=
|minimum control speed kmh=
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|minimum control speed kts=
|minimum control speed note=
|range km=
|range miles=
|range nmi=
|range note=
|endurance=
|ceiling m=
|ceiling ft=
|ceiling note=
|g limits=
|roll rate=
|glide ratio=
|climb rate ms=1.1
|climb rate note=
|time to altitude=
|sink rate ms=
|sink rate ftmin=
|sink rate note=
|lift to drag=
|wing loading kg/m2=
|wing loading lb/sqft=
|wing loading note=
|disk loading kg/m2=
|disk loading lb/sqft=
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|power/mass=
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|more performance=
- Take-of and landing distances: {{convert|20|m|ft|abbr=on}}.
}}
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{cite magazine |date=13 May 1920 |title= Small Sporting Aeroplanes|magazine= Flight|volume=XII |issue=20 |pages=522–3 |url= http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1920/1920%20-%200523.html }}
{{cite magazine |date=27 October 1921 |title= Italy Renames Her Aerodromes|magazine= Flight|volume=XIII |issue=43 |page=706 |url= http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1921/1921%20-%200706.html }}
}}
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Category:1910s Italian sport aircraft
Category:Single-engined tractor aircraft