Flaps and airbrakes history

[edi]

Hello all,

since when do all the different kinds of flaps and airbrakes to assist landing and starting exist? And what were the first planes equipped with them?

Cheers

Edi

[coosbaylumber]

I have plans for the DeBolt Viscount with details on airbrakes used for turning purposes. They are dated Sept. 1961 and signed by Hal DeBolt.

This was also the first commercially built A/C to incorporate retracting landing gear.

Wm.

[BMatthews]

The old Cessna CR racer from the 20's used flaperons to help add some camber and slow the landings down. It was also one of the earliest planes that I know of that used retractable gear as well.

[edi]

Thanks a lot. The Coanda sesquiplane of 1910 already had a semi-retractable LG and so did some experimental WWI fighter I have forgotten. The Curtiss Sperry Amphibian flying-boat from 1919 had retractables, too. Indeed, that's another interesting issue.
Hmmm, what about all the different types of flaps, normal flaps, Fowler flaps?
I can also see that a Fairey Gordon or a Handley-Page 42 or a Boulton-Paul Overstrand all have leading-edge flaps. But who invented them?

[Sparky Paul]

The Sopwith 1-1/2 strutter had small flaps on the bottom wing.
Another thing.. when was it invented.. is surface trimmers.
These would have eased the load on the pilots of the early monoplanes like the Eindecker, who had to phsyically hold the control surfaces in position, as these would otherwise streamline.
The SE-5A had a pitch trim system.