The Curtiss JN "Jenny" was a series of biplanes built by the Glenn Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for the US Army, the "Jenny" continued after World War I as a civilian aircraft, as it became the "backbone of American postwar [civil] aviation".
Curtiss JN Jenny
Curtiss JN-3, the progenitor of the JN-4, deployed to Mexico, around 1916
Curtiss JN-4Ds at Camp Taliaferro, Texas, circa 1918
Converted JN-4 ambulance, operated by the Camp Taliaferro medical teams, around 1918
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many 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 monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and higher speeds made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.
First World War Sopwith Camel biplane
1920s biplane hang glider
The Gloster Gladiator, a World War II fighter biplane
Soviet Antonov An-2 biplane from the 1940s