Originally Posted by
sapperkenno
I was told by some people who know what they're talking about, that the days of biplanes are over, as they roll too slow because they have "all that wing".
Cough...splutter...
heresy!
You'll note that both the Standard and Intermediate UK National Championships this year had the highest overall scores delivered by a Pitts S2A and S2C respectively, beating plenty of monoplanes in the process, and it wasn't that long ago that an S2A won the Advanced UK national championship. A higher roll rate is only of benefit if you can stop the roll precisely on axis, and above a certain level it can become a hinderance.....and anyway, nothing comes close to the sheer immediate
feel of a Pitts, particularly in single-seat form.
That being said, in terms of absolute roll-rate, the sheer amount of aileron you can hang from a carbon wing vs. what you can safely put on the wire-braced wing of a Pitts will mean that the maximum rate of roll of the monoplane will always be higher.