Engines integrated in the above and below wings of a biplane ?

[Deltafan]

Hi,

watching this "Stallion Turbo", fictionnal airplane from the game "Skydrift, I asked myself, if this wing configuration had really existed in reality for a biplane (or a sesquiplane) ? I only know engines between the two wings or engines integrated into one of the two wings (the one above or the one below).

 

[riggerrob]

Aside from a few with really tall radiators, I cannot name any.

The real limitation is aerodynamic. If wings are less than 1.2 chords apart, low pressure air on the bottom wing interfere with high pressure air supporting the top wing. Even the best biplanes are less efficient - aerodynamically - than monoplanes.

See the 1.2 chords spacing on 1932 Gere Sport Biplanes and subsequent EAA Biplane and EAA Acro Sport biplane. Experimental Aircraft Association founder Paul Poberezeny had access to EVERY American biplane, but he chose to update the Gere Sport.

 

[riggerrob]

The only plane that comes to mind is the hideous PZL M-15 Belphegor.
Tall chemical hoppers bridged the gap between upper and lower wings. The prototype flew in Poland during 1973. It looks like a nightmare conceived by a factory manager with a surplus of Yak-140 (commuter jet) parts and a contract to build crop dusters. Belphegor used the same jet engine as Yak-40 and the wings resemble Yak-40 wings. Belphagor had a short center nacelle containing the crew and a single jet engine. Tall chemical hoppers bridged the gap between wings and fixed housed main under-carriage. Twin booms supported tail surfaces.

The nick-name "Belphegor" derived from its ridiculously loud jet engine and the demon of noise. It was the only jet-powered biplane to reach production and also the slowest jet ever!
M-15 proved inefficient in operation and only 175 were built. They only worked on large Russian collective farms.
Overall, Belphegor was another glaring example of the inefficiency of Soviet collective farms.

The only logical explanation is the rumour that Warsaw Pact troops wanted to use Belphegors to spray noxious chemicals on NATO troops when they invaded Western Europe. Fortunately, that never happened.

 

[Deltafan]

Thanks for the answers riggerrob

I remember seeing the shape of the PZL before, but I forgot it as an example and I didn't know its history.

As I tried to find biplane with engines integrated in the wings, I found two close to the definition, but I don't really know their flight qualities: the Italian Breda 44 (not sure that the above wing is integrated in the engine) and the Sikorsky S.29 (not really an "integration" too)

 

[Deltafan]

Maybe a more modern possibility, the, maybe, future Airbus Helicopters Racer (OK, it's not really "wings" and the engine/s is/are probably in the frame)