Roland Payen

Canard or tandemwing?

Roland Payen was another airplane designer who lived in France. Just like Nenadovitch and Mignet.

Most of you will know his name thanks to the Pa22/2, which is mostly displayed in books in German colors, which it got after being captured in WW2. Here it is in his original colours. Most books will label it as a canard, due to the smaller front wing.

Canard or Tandemwing?

I started asking myself from what point is it a airplane a canard or a tandemwing? So i asked it in the homebuiltairplanes-forum and i got this answe from cluttonfred:

"We've had this discussion many times in many ways in this group, and I think the short answer is...no, there is no rule.

Conventional arrangement is clear...the rear horizontal surface does not lift in normal flight, but creates a down force to balance to the pitching moment due to the location of the CG forward of the aerodynamic center of the front wing as well as the forward pitching moment typical of most wing sections.

In the case of two lifting surfaces (in other words a CG behind the aerodynamic center of the front wing so, so the rear wing must take some of the load) there doesn't appear to be a set rule in terms of nomenclature:

1) When the front wing is much larger than the rear one, we see it as a conventional design with a lifting tail;
2) Two wings comparable in size, then it's a tandem;
3) Front wing much smaller than the rear one, then it's a canard.

At least that's how I have come to understand the question. If I did have to put a number on it, then I'd say a wing area ratio great than 2:1 (or 1:2) becomes lifting tail conventional or canard, not tandem. On a practical level, that does seem consistent with separating out Mignet, Croses, Miles, Delanne, etc. as "tandems" and I would include the Rutan Quickie its derivatives as well even if we often call them "canards"."

Roland Payen and Henri Mignet

Roland Payen had this tandemwing design in 1931. It was the RAP-40. Surely a tandemwing. Here his wings are having more vertical gap. When i first saw it, i saw the link to the HM-14 of Henri Mignet at once. And my thinking was confirmed when i read that they met. Payen had his RAP-40 design and Henri Mignet was working on his HM-8, which was still a conventional airplane and not a tandemwing. Did he inspire Henri Mignet? I would start to think that he did. First tandemwing of Henri Mignet was in 1932, the HM-11.

RAP-40

Engine: Anzani 35HP

Construction: wood

Span: 5m

Length: 4m

Wing area: 10m2

Empty weight: 180 kg

Max weight: 280 kg

Wing loading: 28 kg/m2

Power/m2: 3,5 HP

Weight/power: 8 kg

Max speed (level with 35 HP): 182 km/h

Pa-100 (canard) and Pa-101(tandemwing)

Another design which Roland Payen made, that is much known, is the Pa-100. He designed it as a racer. It is a canard. It was designed to house a engine with the cylinders in line of 200 HP. But the maker of the engine was so doubtful about the airplane that he decide not to sell his engine for such a airplane. Payen got hold of a huge 380 HP radial engine. He changed the design into the Pa-101. He added a lot of wing area in the front wing and now it becomes a tandemwing. I guess he did this due to the much heavier engine. The CG of his airplane needed to get more forwards to house such a engine.

They made a reproduction of the Payen Pa-100 in honor of Roland Payen. It is in a museum to be sure his work is not forgotten. I like those lines.

Other tandemwings by Roland Payen

The P.350CD was intended as a racer. Its design is very very unique. Contra rotating props. Wingrudders that also work as landinggear. The cockpit is really racer style. Nearly no forward vision.