French flying boats and amphibians

Nico — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:57:55 +0000

This article gives an overview of the most important and significant flying boats and amphibians developed and built by the French aircraft industry. In fact France more or less ‘invented’ the flying boat with the Fabre Hydravion which was flown for the first time on 28 March 1910 from the harbour of Marseille. Pilot on this historic event was Henri Fabre himself, although he had no flight experience at all! However, Fabre’s Hydravion was nothing more than a very flimsy construction without any practical use, although it was in our eyes quite ‘modern’ with its canard layout!

The historical flight of Henri Fabre on 28 March 1910 is here shown on a picture postcard

Development went fast, and already two years later we see an operational flying boat in the form of the Donnet-Lévéque. Showing a wooden hull and high-placed wings and engine, and being the first practical flying boat for military use, it shows the shapes of things to come! The type was later further developed by Louis Schreck with his FBA flying boats, which were built and used in considerable numbers by various countries before and during the First World War.

The Donnet-Lévéque flying boat as presently exhibited in the Musée de l\'Air at Le Bourget, France

Finally the small single seat scout flying boats would evolve into the big multi-engined ‘flying mailboats’- or ‘paquebots volantes’ as the French call them – from the post WW II period as we will see in this historical overview!

Latham 45

Latham designed and built at their Caudebec-en-Caux plant in the mid-twenties a 3-seat seaplane bomber as the Latham 45. It was a biplane with a light-alloy hull and wooden wings. The two engines were placed in tandem in a nacelle in the centre of the upper wing, driving two-bladed tractor and pusher propellers. The Latham 45 was in August 1927 flown to an air-show in Copenhagen, making an intermediate stop at Rotterdam harbour. However, no orders were placed and only one single machine was built. It was acquired by the French navy and served for a short period at Cherbourg maritime centre.

Rare picture of the Latham 45 at Rotterdam harbour en route to an air-show near Copenhagen in Denmark in 1927

Technical details:
Power plants: two Gnome-Rhone 9Aa nine-cylinder radial engines of 380 hp each
Dimensions: wingspan 23.50 m
length -
height -
wing area 120 m2
Weights: empty 3200 kg
all-up loaded 5100 kg
Performances: max. speed 170 km/h
range 800 km
service ceiling 4600 m
Equipment: accommodation for a crew of three

Breguet XIX in Yugoslav service

Srecko — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:33:31 +0000

Breguet XIX was appeared just after the WW 1 and originally fitted with a 450hp Bugatti engine and displayed in this form at the Salon Aeronautique of 1921. Being impressed with new warplane, general Uzelac order two samples of this brand new plane. French kindly delivered this planes and one of this was used by Gen. Stanojlovic [natural metal livery].

Andra Pavlovic in flying school

In 1924 Kingdom of Serbs, Croat and Slovenian [later changed in Yugoslavia] placed order of 150 Breguet XIX. This fleet feels the strength of the force and first large unit to be formed, 3. air regiment in Skoplje, was equipped with the type. Initially Breguet XIX saw service as a bomber and reconnaissance.

Alongside with order of planes, contract was made of license assembly and manufacturing in Kraljevo. Deal was for delivery at least 425 planes from the new built factory. In March 1928 first batch of assembled planes were on delivery way and first Breguet XIX completely built in new factory was delivered in June 30. 1930.

After success of Breguet Bidon, some modifications had been taken and this included in new versions of the plane with enhanced capability. Samples on new redesign had rounded wing tips and possibility to load more fuel.

Breguet XIXHispano 500 beli 45

Brege XIX w motor saksijska1

Yugoslav Breguet XIX saw action in 1935 when 12 samples sent to Greece to help to fight rebellions. In that time type slovenly begun to outdate and many of them saw its active service as training planes. Due to its great number, plane was used in the various tasks and unit. Most of the air staff’s had a sample or more of Breguet XIX in its service. It was preferred plane due to its very good handling characteristics. Pilots gave him a nick “Bregejac”. Modernization started by the end of 1937 and until the mid of 1940 type disappeared from the first line unit. New formed Army Aviation employ the type and 86 samples were in the order. All of them were of new type, equipped with Hispano Suiza 650 of Wright Cyclone powerplant. Rest of the great fleet was scraped or used on second line duties.

In the April war Army aviation had some limited success in combat. One of the Army group was from the same beginning flew to Greece and take operation from there. Few targets, including or amour column, was strafed. After the collapse in war a number of samples from various units was captured and used by axis. Few samples [some source stated two] survived the war but were scraped later.

Breguet XIX fuselage

Breguet XIX was single engined biplane with crew of two or three men. The same plane was of all metal construction, partially fabric covered. Airplane was built into two versions, reconnaissance marked as A2 and bomber marked as B2. In the front of the plane was housed powerplant. Various engines could use on the plane, with instance of replacing of engine mounts and take attention of the propeller gyro effect to the vertical. Following powerplant was used on Yugoslav Breguet XIX: Lorraine-Dietrich 12D 370, Renault 12Kb 450, Lorraine-Dietrich 12Db 400, Lorraine-Dietrich 12Eb 450, Hispano-Suiza 12Ha 450, Hispano-Suiza 12Hb 500, Hispano-Suiza 12Nb 650, Renault 12Ke 500, Jupiter 9Ad 420, Napier Lion XI 450, Wright Cyclone GR-1820-F56 680. Last three digit number present horsepower of the engine. Following chart give data of the version with Hispano-Suiza 650 hp engine:

Maximum speed- 241 km/h at 1500 m
Top ceiling- 7200 m
Wing span- 15,91 m
Length – 9,51 m
Take off weight- 2500 kg
Empty weight- 1540 kg
Max take off weight- 3000 kg
Climb- 5000 m in 20 min
Endurance- 3 hours
Max useful load- 1450 kg
Bombs- 44×10 kg or 40×12 kg, max 400 kg

Let Let Let - Warplanes » Breguet

French flying boats and amphibians

Breguet XIX in Yugoslav service