Louis Peyret, who had unsuccessfully attempted to fly the
Blériot III floatplane and had designed the
Blériot VI, a tandem wing aircraft, was a friend of
Louis Blériot. His post-
World War I glider was a true tandem wing aircraft with two identical pairs of straight edged, constant
chord high mounted wings, swept at 5°. Both also had 5° of
dihedral but the front wing was mounted at a larger
angle of incidence than the rear for longitudinal stability, as is the
tailplane in a conventional aircraft. The wings were built up around tubular
Duraluminum spars and braced with N-shaped
lift struts, also Duraluminum but with wooden fairings, which ran from the lower
fuselage longerons to mid-span. The fuselage was built around
spruce longerons and struts with some
plywood frames and covered with stress bearing 3-ply
mahogany about 2.4 mm (0.094 in) thick. Unusually, there were five main longerons. In the central region of the fuselage four of them defined a deep rectangle but the upper two came towards each other together rearwards producing an
isosceles trapezoidal section. A fifth longeron ran centrally above them, positioned so that the overall fuselage section was an
isosceles triangle at the rear. Further forward, as the upper longerons separated, the fuselage had five flat faces. The side faces came together at the nose to form a vertical knife-edge and the bottom face curved upwards. The open cockpit was formed by a break in the upper skinning, though the fifth, upper, longeron continued over the pilot's head. Near the cockpit the upper skins were dished inwards to improve the pilot's view. At the rear, above the second wing, was a small triangular
fin which carried a
rudder that extended to the bottom of the fuselage. The Peyret had a wider track and more refined undercarriage than many of the Itford gliders, with wheels on a single axle mounted below the fuselage on a combination of rubber shock absorbers and radius arms from the forward fuselage. The control system was unusual. Both front and rear wings carried full-span control surfaces operated by a control column. Sideways movement of the column made the surfaces on both front and rear wings act together as conventional
ailerons. Forward movement of the column lowered the control surfaces on the rear wing, as with conventional elevators, but also raised those on the front wing. Thus the tail was raised and the nose depressed. The rudder was operated by a conventional
rudder bar. ==Operational history==