A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three sets of wings, each roughly the same size and mounted one above the other. Typically, the lower set of wings would be level with the underside of the aircraft's fuselage, the middle set level with the top of the fuselage, and the top set supported above the fuselage on struts. The first triplane was designed in 1908 by Ambroise Goupy and built by Blériot, flown with a 37kW (50hp) Renault engine.

During World War I, some aircraft manufacturers turned to this configuration in an effort to gain extra maneuverability for fighter aircraft, at a penalty of greater drag and therefore lower speed. In practice, triplanes generally offered performance that was seldom superior to biplanes, and relatively few aircraft of this configuration ever reached mass production. Triplane layouts were also experimented with on large aircraft such as early heavy bombers such as the Witteman-Lewis XNBL-1 Barling Bomber and on anti-zeppelin fighters of the RAF. Clockwise from top: Trenches in frontline, a British Mark I Tank crossing a trench, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the battle of the Dardanelles, a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks and a Sopwith Camel biplane. ... A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for attacking other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs. ... Hs123 biplane. ... LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, the most travelled airship in history A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship (or dirigible) pioneered by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century based on an earlier design by David Schwarz. ... RAF is an three letter acronym for: Royal Air Force -- the Air Force of the United Kingdom (see also Air Ministry) Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) -- a German terror organisation Rigas Autobusu Fabrika -- a factory making buses in Riga, Latvia Rapid Action Force in India Računarski Fakultet RAF...

Sopwith Triplane was the first triplane to see service during World War I, but by far, the best-known example of a triplane is the Fokker Dr.I, immortalised as the aircraft most closely identified with Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron". Categories: Aircraft stubs | British fighter aircraft 1910-1919 | World War I aircraft ... Clockwise from top: Trenches in frontline, a British Mark I Tank crossing a trench, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the battle of the Dardanelles, a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks and a Sopwith Camel biplane. ... The Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker (triplane) was a World War I fighter aircraft built by the company of Anthony Fokker, and designed by Reinhold Platz. ... Portrait of Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. ...

Recently, the term "tandem triplane" has been used for recent jet fighter aircraft that have canards in addition to normal flying surfaces for increased manouverablility. These are generally not considered triplanes in the traditional sense. Examples of these include the Sukhoi Su-37, Su-47, the Mikoyan Mig-33, and NASA's F-15 Active-an experimental derivative of the F-15 Eagle. A jet is a stream of fluid produced by discharge through an orifice into free space. ... Fighter has a number of meanings: A fighter aircraft is a warplane designed to destroy other warplanes in combat. ... In aeronautics, canard (French for duck) is a type of fixed-wing aircraft in which the tailplane is ahead of the main lifting surfaces, rather than behind them as in conventional aircraft. ... Sukhoi (Сухой) is a major Russian military fighter aircraft manufacturer. ... Categories: Military stubs | Soviet and Russian fighter aircraft 1990-1999 ... Su-47 Berkut The Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut (Russian: Су-47 Беркут - golden eagle), designated S-32 and/or S-37 during initial development, is an experimental supersonic jet fighter developed by the Sukhoi Corporation. ... The MiG logo Mikoyan, formerly Mikoyan-Gurevich (Russian: ), is a Russian military aircraft manufacturer, primarily of fighter aircraft. ... The Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting name Fulcrum) is a Russian fighter aircraft used in the air superiority role. ... NASA Logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... An F-15 executing a zoom-climb takeoff in afterburner The Boeing (formerly McDonnell Douglas) F-15 Eagle is an American-built all-weather tactical fighter designed to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. ...

See Also:

monoplane, biplane A monoplane is an aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. ... Hs123 biplane. ...