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The Farman Moustique is a family of French monoplanes built by the Société des Aéroplanes Henry et Maurice Farman and Billancourt. Shortly after the end of World War I, Farman introduced a low powered single seat monoplane for sport and tourism. It flew for the first time in May 1919 and was named the Moustique (in English, Mosquito). A little later, aircraft of this kind became known in the United Kingdom as motor gliders, the subjects of the first Lympne Trials of 1923. In 1922 one Aviette, without its engine, had already won prizes at a national glider competition. Three months before the Lympne Trials several Aviettes competed in an equivalent French meeting for ''moto-aviettes'' at Buc. The design was revived, over 17 years after its first appearance, as the F 450 Moustique and was one of the aircraft purchased by the French government as part of ''l'Aviation Populaire'' programme. ==Design and development== The original Moustique, later known as the Moustique I, was a shoulder wing monoplane. The wing was rectangular in plan, fabric covered and was wired braced from above and below. The upper wires were attached to a king post protruding from the raised, curved decking ahead of the cockpit and lower wires went to the undercarriage structure. The wings carried full span ailerons.〔 Behind the cockpit the fuselage, which reached up only to the pilot's waist, was slender. It was square sectioned and covered with thin plywood. The parallel chord horizontal tail had separate elevators with the deep rudder moving between them. These surfaces were fabric covered and the rudder was round topped; there was no fixed fin. The undercarriage consisted of two parallel spruce panels mounted on the fuselage, bearing two mainwheels on a single axle. This first aircraft was powered by a flat twin ABC Scorpion engine.〔 The first Moustique flew in May 1919, but by the following year its span had been reduced from 7.65 m to 5.0 m (from 25 ft 1 in to 16 ft 5 in), saving a little weight, and was known as the HF 206 or the HF206 Moustique I. No other Moustique had so short a span.〔 In 1922 a glider version called the Aviette had flown. This had an extended span of and an unladen weight of only 43 kg. It also had a deeper fuselage, allowing the pilot to sit with his head just clear of the upper surface, and a new upper wing bracing system with the bracing wires attached to the top of a tall, three post pylon, just in front of the pilot. It also had a reshaped rudder with a linear, rising top. It was the only Moustique type glider, but the fuselage, wing bracing and rudder modifications were carried forward into all later variants.〔 In 1923 three powered Aviettes were entered for the competition at Buc, Yvelines. All had an engines but one aircraft had a 3-cylinder radial Salmson 3 Ad and the other two, 4-cylinder inline Sergant As.〔 The Moustique II or F 21 of 1924 was powered by a 3-cylinder Anzani 3 A2 radial and had a wing with a span of , fitted with short span ailerons. Two took part in the 1924 ''Tour de France''.〔 In the mid-1930s there was a government-driven revival of interest in low cost flying with the introduction of the ''Aviation Populaire'' programme. In response, Farman relaunched the Moustique with a slightly shorter span of and a longer fuselage. It first flew in December 1935. The first five prototypes were designated F 450 Moustique. The first was initially powered by a [oinsard 2 Ca flat twin engine; later it, like the others had Mngin engines of the same type and power. A visual difference between this and earlier Moustiques was the presence of a normal fin, carrying a round-topped rudder. The production version, the F 451 Moustique, had a AVA 4 Aoo flat twin two stroke. This variant was produced in much greater numbers (46) than any other Moustique.〔 The last Moustique development was the two seat F 455 Super Moustique, initially called the Moustique III, which first flew in 1936. Its span was increased by and it had a more powerful Mengin 2 A-01 engine. Only one was built; its performance in the climb was poor, but in any case the light aircraft section of the Farman works was shut down when the company was nationalised in March 1937.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Farman Moustique」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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