Parasol wing

A parasol wing monoplane is an aircraft design in which the wing is not mounted directly to the fuselage, but rather, the fuselage is supported beneath it by a set of struts. Parasol wing designs resemble biplanes lacking their lower set of wings. This configuration has the advantage of providing excellent visibility from the cockpit, but the disadvantage of extra drag caused by the struts. Typical around the 1930s, it is no longer a common configuration, but is sometimes still found in designs for homebuilt aircraft.

In some aircraft, particularly flying boats, the parasol wing is held above the fuselage by means of a closed structure known as a pylon. This gives a cleaner appearance of these aircraft especially when combined with a cantilever wing, as there are no visible struts. The pylon reacts any wing rolling moment with its own set of spars extending from the fuselage frames. A typical example of a pylon parasol aircraft with struts is the Consolidated Catalina.