How about this for a show ?

During the first world war the argument was that a 3 winged airplance offered better maneuvering, quicker takeoffs etc ... etc ... Even famed ace Manfred Von Richtofen thought it was a grand idea !

Now why not a faceoff ?

Just my humble idea ... I'm sure you guys can find some old Fokkers and Sopwithes lying around !

oops ! mods can you please transfer this to the military thread ! Sorry about that !

The Fokker DR-1 did have tremendous lift and was pretty maneuverable, but all that lifting surface made for a lot of extra drag-don't forget the small winglet between the wheels. The first time they succeeded with a monoplane design, it became readily apparent to everyone that that was the way to go. That's why almost all of the new designs of WWII were cantilever wing monoplanes.

The Fokker DR-1 was the only plane in WWI that I am aware of having three wings. Just about every other plane on either side was a biplane, mainly because the monoplane was not hardy enough at that time of plane-building technology to be reliable in combat. The fact that Fokker only had the one triplane and there were no other models extant, pretty well says everyone else knew they were not as good as a biplane.

Other nations did have Triplanes, the British had a Sopwith designed one before the Camel came into service.
It predated the German Folker, and inspired it.
There`s a reproduction in the Shuttleworth Collection, in Old Warden in Bedfordshire, close to were I live, a collection that still has the Worlds oldest flying Aircraft a 1909 Bleirot.

More wings = more lift, lower stall speeds and more maneuverability

More wings also = more drag, more weight and slower top speeds (not to mention more airplane to potentially get hit).

Pick your poison. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

That's about it; with the performance of the internal-combustion engines available at that time, you had to take your pick.

Consider the maneuverability of modern stunt and aerobatic aircraft; super light carbon-fiber construction and potent fuel-injected engines make for stunts impossible for the vintage craft.