A
biplane is a
fixed-wing aircraft with two main
wings stacked one above the other. The first aircraft to fly, the
Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did most aircraft in the early years of
aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane, it produces more
drag than a similar unbraced or cantilever
monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, materials and the quest for greater speed made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.