# A Deep Dive into the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace



## nuuumannn (Dec 3, 2020)

Hi Guys, been meaning to do this for awhile. I want to do a focus on some great aviation museums I've visited by examining the collections and individual artefacts in more detail, rather than the brief picture threads I usually do. I did so with the Monino thread recently, but I'll expand it with this one - I hope to eventually do the likes of the RAF Museum since I have a personal connection to the place, as well as others I've been to here and there.

First up is the great Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget, Paris, France. I visited Le Bourget last year while I was in France as part of the Overlord 75th anniversary commemorations and was again acquainted with a magnificent collection of aeronautica in an historic setting. Regarded as the oldest aeronautical collection in the world, the museum has changed over the years although the setting remains the same, these days it's less cluttered and easier to navigate around, but somewhat disappointingly, there are fewer aircraft on display than there used to be. Even more disappointing is the fate of the Grand Galerie, which contained the pioneer aviation and Great War collection, one of the most significant of its kind in the world.

An overhaul of the hall which formerly served as the terminal when Le Bourget was Paris' principal airport, was begun to originally be completed by the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. This dragged until it was scheduled for opening in 2018, celebrating the Armistice, but this date came and went and by mid 2019, the time of my visit, the hall was still incomplete and the exhibits were covered in sheets and far from display ready. Staff on duty that day were unable to advise when the hall might reopen. Another Iconic Musée de l'Air feature that is currently missing is the Patrouille de France trio of Potez Fouga Magisters mounted dramatically on poles outside the museum entrance - the poles are there, but there are no aircraft, presumably they are undergoing refurbishment.

At the time of my visit Le Bourget was being readied for the Paris Airshow, which meant the large store of aircraft out front of the exhibition halls had been moved to make way for the airshow pavilions, so the various airframes that usually weather the elements had been relocated to the site across the other side of the airfield. I noted them while I watched the airshow, the Airbus A380 prototype in particular standing out in the distance.

So, we begin with the museum and the Grand Galerie exterior. Designed by architect Georges Labro and officially opened on 12 November 1937 by President of the Republic Albert Lebrun, the museum's Grand Gallerie building served as Le Bourget's vast terminal and contained arrivals, check-in, shops and the control tower overlooking the airfield. During World War Two and German occupation, Le Bourget was bombed by the Allies in 1944, the terminal building suffering considerable damage. Refurbished after the war, the current facade with the three allegorical statues that represent Africa, the Far East and the rest of the world by sculptor Armand Martial has been retained since the pioneer and Great War collection was located within it in 1986, although the museum had been displayed in adjacent hangars earlier. Recognised as an Historic Monument in 1994, the terminal building and museum esplanade underwent an overhaul a few years later, with space for the statues and memorials there today.





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Armand Martial's three sculptures representing destinations around the globe where aircraft departing Le Bourget flew to post war.




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One of a number of memorials to the famous Normandie-Niemen regiment in the museum esplanade.




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Sculpture honouring airmen of the Normandie-Niemen regiment.




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A Roll of Honour depicting the names of those Frenchmen whom lost their lives with the regiment in the fight for the liberation of the Soviet Union from the Nazis during World War Two. The lawns were being mowed during my visit.




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From the esplanade we progress through the museum entrance into the courtyard out front of the old terminal, where we can see the control tower, which is undergoing refurbishment. This is the post war design of the tower cupola; Labro's original was a glass fronted circle of flat panels with a 360 degree view. These rooms below the tower, which formerly served as restaurants and aircrew service rooms will eventually become exhibition spaces.




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The Grande Gallerie's interior as it was at the time of my visit hints at the treasures hidden away under the sheeting. Labro's vast columned space, now washed in white but formerly coloured, with glass ceiling panels intended on conveying a sense of spatial grandeur is evident even in this shot. This is looking toward the arrivals area and baggage claim, with the giant clock centrally located between the arrivals and departures galleries.




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Iconic Le Bourget museum exterior vehicles that appear in so many Paris Airshow shots, the former Air France B747-128 F-BPVJ is joined by scale reproductions of the European Space Agency's Ariane I and V satellite launchers. Joining Air France in 1973, F-BPVJ served its entire career with France's national carrier, with a couple of interludes leased to Air Algerie and defunct Belgian airline SABENA. It was retired in 1992 and was flown to Le Bourget in 2000. Constructed with considerable funding from French space agency Centre National d'etudes Spatiales (CNES), the Ariane rockets are a successful family of medium and heavy satellite launchers developed entirely within Europe. First launched in December 1979 from the ESA launch facility at Kourou, French Guiana, the medium sized Ariane I has been superseded by the larger Ariane V, which is still in service today after an initially inauspicious first launch failure which resulted in the rocket's destruction, in June 1996. The wording on the 747's fin instructs patrons to visit the heart of the Boeing 747.




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Unusual view of F-BPVJ's left hand outboard Pratt & Whitney JT9-D high bi-pass turbofan engine.




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More to come, including a look at the famed Normandie-Niemen regiment.

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## Jeff Hunt (Dec 3, 2020)

Super stoked to follow this thread. Next best thing to being there.

Jeff

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## Crimea_River (Dec 4, 2020)

Me too. Maybe the museum's refurbishments will be done by 2039.


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## Gnomey (Dec 4, 2020)

Great stuff!


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## Airframes (Dec 4, 2020)

Great thread Grant - looking forward eagerly to more.

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## nuuumannn (Dec 4, 2020)

Next, we move swiftly to everyone's favourite time period, World War Two and begin with the newest galerie of the museum, a room dedicated to the Normandie-Niemen regiment. Wiki sums up the unit's history in brief;

"The unit served on the Eastern Front of the European Theatre of World War II with the 1st Air Army. The regiment is notable for being one of only three units from Western Allied countries to see combat on the Eastern Front during World War II, and _Normandie-Niemen_ was the only Western Allied unit to fight with the Soviet forces until the end of the war in Europe.

Initially the _Groupe de Chasse 3_ (GC 3) (3rd Fighter Group) in the Free French Air Force comprised a group of French fighter pilots sent to aid Soviet forces on the Eastern Front at the suggestion of Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces, who felt it important that French servicemen serve on all fronts in the war. The _groupe_, first commanded by Jean Tulasne, fought in three campaigns on behalf of the Soviet Union between 22 March 1943, and 9 May 1945, during which time it destroyed 273 enemy aircraft and received numerous orders, citations and decorations from both the Free French and Soviet governments, including the French _Légion d’Honneur_ and the Soviet Order of the Red Banner. Joseph Stalin awarded the unit the name Niemen for its participation in the Battle of the Niemen River."

The unit still exists as Escadron de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niemen equipped with the Dassault Rafale.

This is a plaque honouring the death of Lieutenant Maurice de Seynes, one of the regiment's most famous pilots. A little information on the circumstances of his unfortunate death,

"De Seynes joined the FFL in 1942 and became a pilot in the Normandie the 1st of January 1944. The 15th of July 1944, then aged 29 he realised his Yak had an oil leak while flying with his Russian engineer. De Seynes tried several times to land on the airstrip but could not manage it. A Russian pilot contacted him on the radio and told him to fly as high as possible and bailout. De Seynes answered that he could jump since his engineer was with him in the plane. The Russian engineer told the pilot : ” _It does not matter. You have to jump. I am an engineer and can easily be replaced but you, you are a pilot. ” _He refused and tried to land a last time. Both him and his engineer died in the crash. Stalin ordered that both De Seynes and his engineer ( a man named Biezoloub ) were to be buried together in the same grave. De Seynes’ and Biezoloub’s deaths became legendary on the front and further developed the spirit of brotherhood between the French and Soviet pilots. Stamps in France were made at the effigy of the pilot and engineer, shaking hands."

From here: Normandie-Niemen, the most respected and feared fighter groups ever! (france-pub.com)




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This is the remains of the rear fuselage of the Yak-9 of Capt Paul de Forges, who, according to the display board went missing after a dogfight with Fw 190s south-east of Smolensk on 31 August 1943. Years later, small items of an aviation nature were recovered from a swamp near the city and with a more in depth search of the bog, de Forges' Yak was located. Only the rear fuselage was recovered, as the forward section still contains de Forges' remains, which is buried deep within the mud. Peculiar that his remains were not recovered and buried in a more suitable location back in France and given the hero's send off he deserves. Note the tail wheel and hori stab wooden spars.




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At the heart of the Normandie-Niemen galerie is its centrepiece, this suitably weathered Yak-3, which served with the unit during the war, and was one of 40 that were brought back to France as a personal gift from Josef Stalin to the airmen of the unit (what happened to the other 39?) after the end of hostilities. Construction Number 2530, the aircraft was received by the regiment as a replacement sometime after it re-equipped with the Yak-3 in December 1944. After its arrival in France it was gifted to the museum in June 1945 wearing the Number 18. It is currently wearing the Number 4 identifier of the aircraft flown by Lt Roger Marchi, who achieved four kills and two shared in the Yak-3.




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On the aircraft's right side, conservators have uncovered the coat of paint applied to it while in museum hands to reveal its fascinating origins. the aircraft's original Soviet unit markings can be seen, with traces of the Normandie-Niemen lightning flash, the tricoleur daubed spinner, the Cross of Lorraine of the fin and the Number 18 below the rear cockpit canopy visible. Of the 40 examples that arrived in France on 20 June 1945, there were 29 that had fought with the unit during the war, including this one, with the others gifted as replacements. Within five months of receiving the Yak-3s, having replaced their war-weary Yak-9s, pilots of the regiment claimed 94 individual and shared victories in the type.




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A model of a Yakovlev Yak-6 light utility aeroplane that was used by the regiment as a transport hack. Constructed of wood and fabric, the Yak-6 was powered by two 140hp Shvetsov M-11F engines driving wooden fixed pitch propellers. There were two variants of the type, a utility transport, which saw widespread use in Soviet hands and a night bomber variant capable of carrying 500kg of bombs on underside racks and armed with a dorsal gun aft of the flight deck.




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We enter the 1939-1945 Galerie now, beginning with what at first glance appears to be a Luftwaffe Focke Wulf Fw 190A, but this one is a rarer beast; it is a SNCAC (Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Centre) NC.900, one of around 70 to 75 that were assembled from left over parts and airframes at the former chalk quarry at Cravant, used by the German occupiers as a construction and repair facility for Fw 190s on the Western Front. The NC.900s in use by the Armee de l'Air were constructed from different Fw 190 variants, A-5, A-6 and A-8 fuselages and wings and therefore were not differentiated based on model, even though there was a significant lack of commonality between individual aircraft. Poorly constructed with poor quality parts, the NC.900s were difficult to fly and only one frontline unit was equipped with them, the aforementioned Normandie-Niemen regiment, Groupe du Chasse III/5 receiving just 14 of them, with the remainder going to CEV (centre d'essais en vol) training unit at Brétigny. First flying in March 1945, the NC.900 remained in service with the Normandie-Niemen regiment for 18 months and its pilots shared an intense dislike for their German designed mounts, not least for patriotic reasons, but also because they were a handful to fly as a result of their mixed quality construction. This one is the last surviving French assembled and operated Fw 190; the remainder were sold to Turkey, who operated them for another few years.




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Bearing the markings of notable Luftwaffe ace _Geschwaderkommodore_ Josef 'Pips' Priller's Fw 190A-8 Black 13 of JG 26 "Schlageter", wearing his personal playing card marking with the name 'Jutta' and a single red heart while based in France in 1944, this NC.900 certainly looks the part and has worn this scheme for many years. Owing to its now rather tatty appearance, I think it's time the museum decorated this unique aircraft in more appropriate Armee de l'Air colours.




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An example of the NC.900/Fw 190A model's nominal powerplant, the ubiquitous 41.8 litre BMW 801 14 cylinder radial engine sits alongside the NC.900, presumably one of the 100 that were found after the end of the war at Dordogne and were installed in the French operated aircraft.




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Now, an example of the Fw 190's wartime nemesis, this Vickers Supermarine Spitfire is LF.XVIe RR263, wearing a mismatched colour scheme for the model of Spitfire and the markings of TB597 GW-B of No.340 (GC Ile de France) Squadron, RAF, with its Cross of Lorraine badge on the aircraft's sides. Perhaps its colours depict 340 Squadron as first formed at RAF Turnhoose with Spitfire Mk.Is in November 1941; the unit was a part of Groupe de Chasse IV/2 (Fighter Group 4-2) and consisted of two flights - A Flight 'Paris' and B Flight 'Versailles'. Constructed in 1944, RR263 was operated within the 2nd Tactical Air Force throughout the remainder of the war, but post-war it saw fame as a stand-in during the filming of the 1956 feature film Reach For The Sky.




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Perhaps the most famous French World War Two aircraft, the pretty little Dewoitine D.520 needs little introduction to members of this forum. Its dicey handling and varied wartime service career marks the type as one of the more intriguing fighters of its era. Nestled between the Fw 190 and Spitfire, the D.520 is significantly smaller than its more famous brethren and is my favourite type on display at the museum. This example is No.862, of which its early origins are not certain, but it may have been in service with the Luftwaffe at some stage. In 1944 it was a part of 'Groupe Doret', which was a Forces Francaises de l'Interieur (FFI) unit formed in south-western France at Tarbes-Ossun named from famed aerobatic pilot Marcel Doret. Created by military units of the French Resistance, the FFI comprised militia groups that used whatever weapons they could get their hands on and so the D.520s used by the unit were ex-Luftwaffe stocks and, like the NC.900s were built up from and kept serviceable from spares scattered about the place, appeared in a mottled Luftwaffe scheme with 'Invasion Stripes' and the French tricoleur in standard locations.




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Wearing the markings of No.277 as flown by Sous-Lieutenant Pierre Le Gloan of GC III/6, France's best known wartime ace, this aircraft is one of only three survivors of the type. During the war, Le Gloan and D.520 No.277 led an unlikely career, fighting against the German invaders and their Italian compatriots, then after the Armistice, his unit retreated to North Africa, where as part of Vichy France, in unison with the Germans fought in Syria against Free French forces and the RAF, then against the British and Americans during Operation Torch in November 1942. Following the Allied invasion of North Africa, Le Gloan and his fellow squadron mates found themselves fighting alongside their former foes and against the Germans again, this time abandoning his faithful No.277 for the P-39 Airacobra. It was in this type that Le Gloan tragically lost his life on 11 September 1943, when during an operation, his aircraft suffered an engine failure, which forced his return to base. Rather than bailing out, Le Gloan attempted a forced landing, but with his drop tank failing to release, when he belly landed the aircraft erupted into flames and he was killed in the fireball that engulfed his machine.




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Next, more from the 1939-1945 Galerie.

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## Crimea_River (Dec 5, 2020)

Excellent. I always learn something from your posts. Whether or not I remember what I learned is another matter....

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## nuuumannn (Dec 6, 2020)

Crimea_River said:


> Excellent. I always learn something from your posts. Whether or not I remember what I learned is another matter....



Thank you most kindly. I cannot always guarantee the veracity of it all! I do enjoy doing the leg work in finding the information out, but do come across inconsistencies - the NC.900 is an example, different sources quote different numbers of aircraft operated by the Armee de l'Air, so I winged it, so to speak. Some say 65, some say 70 to 75, one said over 100. Its fun since I learn a lot from these things too.


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## Gnomey (Dec 6, 2020)

Lovely shots!


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## nuuumannn (Dec 6, 2020)

Thanks for following along, guys. As an addition to the previous post, I have added information about the history of the museum's D.520, which has an intriguing back story, having been used by a French Resistance unit in the Forces Francaises de l'Interieur (FFI).

Continuing on, we take a look at the museum's Douglas C-47 Skytrain, which is a genuine D-Day veteran (Le Embarquement to the French) and is perched above the rest of the exhibits and open to view. This example is Construction Number 12251, a C-47A-5-DK built by Douglas at Oklahoma City, it was taken on charge by the USAAF as 42-92449 and in 1944 was assigned to the 442nd Troop Carrier Group as part of the Ninth Air Force (not the 8th as reported on the museum's own website) taking part in Overlord and is likely to have been one of the aircraft that delivered troopers to the drop zone around Utah Beach, near the town of Ste Mere Eglise the night before the invasion. In 1948 it was assigned the French registration F-BEFB with Aigle-Azur Extreme-Orient, which operated throughout French Indochina, which saw it with Societe Aigle Azur Indochine based at Aeroport de Paris, Hanoi. In September 1955 it returned to Europe and was based at Le Bourget after which, five years later its registration was cancelled and it came into Armee de l'Air use for ten years, where it operated out of the West Indies between December 1961 and December 1964.




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On arrival and initial display at with the museum in 1970 it wore its military markings, its USAAF registration '92449' as its identifier on its fin, but it has been repainted as an Embarquement veteran 42-100558 "Buzz Buggy" with the 81st Troop Carrier Squadron of the 436th Troop Carrier Group. The original "Buzz Buggy" saw post-war service with the Fuerza Aerea Uruguaya and was scrapped in 1959. It's a peculiar decision that the museum made to depict the aircraft as a notable D-Day veteran when it has its own, equally significant Embarquement backstory.




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On to some intriguing engines tucked in behind the C-47. This is a Junkers Jumo 207B-2 and was fitted to a Junkers Ju 86 high altitude model of the typical bomber aircraft, although this variant, the B-2 was a transitional type and it was the GM.1 equipped B-3 model that went into the Ju 86Rs that saw service. Ju 86Ps were equipped with Jumo 207A model engines, for the record, which makes this engine in particular a unique specimen - there are, apparently, only three examples of the Jumo 207 in existence. Fitted with an exhaust driven two-stage turbo-supercharger, the engine has its radiator and exhaust manifold still fitted, showing the layout required for the high-altitude variant of the Junkers aircraft that caused quite the calamity within RAF Fighter Command, as at the time of the aircraft's first appearance was untouchable.




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This is a Daimler Benz DB 603A as fitted to a Messerschmitt Me 410, whose lower cowl is fitted to the engine.




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Don't let its orientation fool you, this is a Junkers Jumo 213 inverted V-12 mounted upright, just to confuse. It's possible that this was an example built within the Arsenal de l'Aéronautique factories at Villacoublay for the Germans during the war. Of note, Arsenal was responsible for the VG.33 fighter that appeared too late to have played a useful role in the Armee de l'Air prior to the German invasion in Spring 1940. After hostilities ended, Arsenal carried out further experimentation with the Jumo 213 engine as the 2,100hp Arsenal 12H, creating a 24 cylinder variant, the 4,000hp 24H, utilising 12H cylinder blocks, crankshafts and pistons mounted on a new crankcase driving a single propeller. The 12H was fitted to the natty looking twin boom SNCASO SO.8000 Narval single engine naval attack aircraft, but the 24H was fitted to only the one aircraft, the inboard engines of a Sud-Est SE.161 Languedoc test bed driving a five bladed propeller, although it was intended on powering the cancelled SNCASE SE.580 fighter, basically a Dewoitine D.520 on steroids with a contra-rotating prop. A prototype of this extraordinary machine was built and while it was intended on being powered by a Hispano-Suiza 24Z, a 24 cylinder variant of the commonly used HS 12Y engine, the decision was made to fit the Arsenal 24H while the prototype was under construction - the project was cancelled before the prototype was finished and it never flew. A little bit of company history relevant to our thread, following the war, Arsenal was relocated to Châtillon-sous-Bagneux, where it was privatised as SFECMAS (la Société Française d’Etude et de Constructions de Matériel Aéronautiques Spéciaux) in 1952. In 1955 SFECMAS joined SNCAN to create Nord Aviation. Fun facts!




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On the subject of H24 engine configurations, a war-weary Napier Sabre recovered from a Hawker Typhoon.




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Bulit as P-47D-30-RE, this Armee de l'Air example was delivered to the USAAF in September 1944 as 44-20371, but forsook its Stars 'n Bars for the Tricoleur a month later. One of 446 P-47s that equipped the Armee de l'Air, it was assigned to GC I/4 "Navarre", which gave up its P-39s for the arriving P-47s, but had previously operated Curtiss Hawk 75s in the defence of France in 1940. In 1963 the aircraft went straight from military service to the museum. It is currently wearing the markings of GC 2/5, the famous Lafayette Escadrille, named for the Maquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolutionary War, with its Sioux head badge prominent.




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Its another peculiar marking choice that the museum has made in depicting its P-51, as it wears markings that don't correspond to any previously existing aircraft - its tail serial is a variation of its original USAAF serial, 44-63871 and although it wears the red spinner and extreme nose of the famed 4th Fighter Group it wears spurious 'MO' squadron codes - the 4th's Mustangs nominally wore 'QP', 'VF' or 'WD' codes representing the 334th, 336th and 335th Fighter Squadrons respectively. Why the museum chose this route to decorate its Mustang is a mystery - it has a plentiful history the museum could have drawn from. Built as a P-51D-20-NA at Inglewood, California in December 1944, it arrived at the frontline with the USAAF in the UK in February 1945 with the 8th Air Force, but did not see combat and by April it had emigrated to Sweden. With the Svenska Flygvapnet P-51s were locally known as the J26 and this one was assigned to Upplands Flygflottilj F 16 based at Uppsala until 1952, when it was sold to Israel. Replacing Spitfire Mk.IXs, the aircraft equipped Tayeset 105 Ha'Akrav (the Cheyl Ha'Avir's second fighter unit, the Scorpion Squadron, today equipped with F-16C Block 40s) and took part in the abortive Suez Campaign. After that the unit received Dassault Mystere IVs and its Mustangs went to Tayeset 116 "Ha'Kanaf Ha'Meofeef", 'The Flying Wing Squadron', better known as 'The Wire cutters' after daring low-level flights severing Egyptian telegraph lines in advance of the Suez invasion. This unit was the last Cheyl Ha'Avir unit to operate the P-51, placing it in reserve in 1958. After that time this Mustang's history goes blurry, perhaps in the flurry of illicit arms sales to support the Israeli cause, but it was registered at some time with the US civil registration N9722F and was discovered in Cannes, before being purchased by the museum in July 1968. Surely from that the museum could have depicted its Mustang in more appropriate colours - its Israeli history alone being worthy of commemorating.




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This immaculately decked out Skyraider is more appropriately marked in Armee de l'Air colours and very smart it looks, too. Its shiny appearance and colourful markings does contrast with its role in one of the bloodiest post-war French conflicts, however. Built as AD-4NA Construction Number 7779, it was assigned Bu No. 126979 with the US Navy, but was delivered to the Armee de l'Air in 1961 as No.53, one of more than 100 Skyraiders that went to France. Seeing service with EC 2/20 "Ouarsenis" formerly equipped with the Douglas Dauntless, it saw action during the Algerian War of Independence, a brutal struggle characterised by harshness inflicted on both sides and enormous loss of life, with a sociological impact that haunts France to this day. Following retirement from the Armee de l'Air, the aircraft arrived at the museum in 1978.




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Yet another example of an object not being what it seems, this Fieseler Fi 103 is in fact an ARSAERO CT.10 recoverable target drone configured to look like a V 1 Flying Bomb, after which the CT.10 was modelled. Wiki tells us a little more about its background;

"The CT.10's design process began in August 1946 with reverse-engineering of V 1 missile stocks captured from the Luftwaffe. It was first launched from the Centre interarmées d'essais d'engins spéciaux missile range near Colomb-Bechar, Algeria, in December 1949 and became operational in 1952. It was mass-produced by Nord in Châtillon and Villeurbanne. More than 400 copies were eventually built. The CT.10 was used primarily by France, though the United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden used it as well. It was retired from French service during the 1950s in favour of more advanced derivatives such as the CT.20 and CT.41 but was still in widespread use by the British and Swedish air forces throughout the 1960s."

Visually there were significant differences between the original V 1 and the CT.10, the most notable being that the CT.10 had oval fins at the end of its horizontal stabilisers and it was shorter than the V 1. Launched using solid rocket boosters, the CT.10 employed radio guidance in flight and was recoverable, whereas, as we know, the V 1 wasn't!




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That's it from World War Two Galerie, which is missing a few machines, as there used to be an He 162 and a Polikarpov I-153 on display during a previous visit I made. The museum's B-26 Marauder that used to accompany its wartime brethren is now at the D-Day Museum at Utah Beach, Normandy - see my 2019 European Tour for a picture.

Next, the jewel in France's aerospace crown... Le Concorde!

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## special ed (Dec 6, 2020)

If I may intrude momentarily into your thread, I was struck by the nearly identical KD2G-2 to the CT.10 as described with twin fins. The KD2G-2 is also a recoverable target drone from the late 40s until the mid 50s and also powered by a pulsejet. Description on Wiki for those interested. This one at Battleship Park, USS Alabama, at Mobile Alabama.










Mods please adjust as necessary as I am out of practice and skill.
ed

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## Crimea_River (Dec 6, 2020)

Thanks Grant. I agree with you about the bogus markings on the Mustang.

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## Jeff Hunt (Dec 6, 2020)

Excellent guided tour so far. It would appear that this museum gives each aircraft enough space that photography is not the usual " too much stuffed together" proble..

Keep up the great reporting.

Jeff

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## nuuumannn (Dec 6, 2020)

special ed said:


> If I may intrude momentarily into your thread, I was struck by the nearly identical KD2G-2 to the CT.10 as described with twin fins.



No problem at all and thanks for the images. Although I have never seen an unaltered CT.10 in the flesh, from photos on the net it looks remarkably similar to the KD2G as you posted in your pictures, Special Ed. There are images on this French modelling page if you scroll down past the model bit.

Arsenal CT10 (free.fr)


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## Snautzer01 (Dec 7, 2020)

Excellent tour. Fun to watch and read.

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## special ed (Dec 7, 2020)

Thanks for the link.


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## Gnomey (Dec 8, 2020)

Good shots Grant!


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## nuuumannn (Dec 12, 2020)

So, on with this. Life intervenes... We are now in the Galerie Concorde, where there is not one, but two examples of the much vaunted Ess Ess Tee; the first prototype Concorde 001 F-WTSS and a production example, F-BTSD, the 'Pepsi' Concorde. They are joined, somewhat appropriately by a single example of a Dassault Mirage IVA delta winged nuclear bomber. This rather large room only has the three airframes in it and typical of the new minimalist style the museum is going with, which is somewhat refreshing after seeing the clutter that usually surrounds exhibits at some museums I have been to. We start with the Mirage IVA; this particular example is decked out carrying an AN-22 free fall parachute retarded 60Kt nuclear bomb under its belly and two brackets of RATO bottles, as it would have been configured when operating with the Force de Frappe, or Force de Dissuasion, France's airborne nuclear deterrent, during the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The low level strategic nuclear strike flight profile is a far cry from the serenity of supersonic passenger travel, but the connection between the Mirage, with its sharp 60 degree sweepback on its wing leading edge and Concordes is obvious. Dassault was a senior partner as part of the Aerospatiale conglomerate that developed the aircraft, and it was its development and subsequent use of the pure delta wing for the supersonic Mirage III fighter and the Mirage IV bomber that the firm's expertise was sought. For the British however, this was ironic, as Dassault gleaned raw data from the Fairey Delta Two - 'officially' the fastest air breathing aircraft in the world in 1956, which carried out a series of supersonic flight tests from Cazaux Air Base in Bordeaux, and applied it to their own delta winged prototypes. Rubbing Britain's nose in the world wide success his Mirage family has since experienced, company founder Marcel Dassault (formerly Marcel Bloch, a man with an extraordinary history, including a stint in the Buchenwald concentration camp) once remarked, "If it were not for the clumsy way in which you tackle things in Britain, you could have made the Mirage yourself!" The Image behind the aircraft gives the viewer the impression it has emerged from a Hardened Aircraft Shelter.




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This particular Mirage IVA has historic significance; it was the first French aircraft to air drop a nuclear weapon. On 19 July 1966 during Operation 'Tamoure', a remarkable trans-continental return flight from France to Tahiti via the continental United States, No.9 (individual Mirage IVs were identified by their numerical sequence from the assembly line in Bordeaux) dropped an experimental AN-21 free fall bomb at supersonic speed over the test range at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia. Initially based at Mont de Marsan at Nouvelle-Acquitane, southern France, Mirage IVs entered service decorated in all metal, with a dash of colour in the tricoleur in standard locations. With the increased effectiveness of surface-to-air missiles, in 1975 the Force de Frappe Mirages adopted a low level mission profile and gained disruptive camouflage, as seen here, the aircraft wearing the unit badge of Centre d'instruction des Forces aériennes stratégiques (CIFAS) 328 "Aquitaine" on its fin.




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In this view, the AN-22 weapon can be seen, with RATO bottles visible at left. The prominent circular fairing ahead of the bomb present on Mirage IVs, the edge just visible at extreme right of the picture, is the radome for the Thomson-CSF Arcana ground mapping doppler radar.




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On to the stars of this particular section of the museum, this is the very first example of the Concorde to be unveiled, 001 F-WTSS, which first took to the skies on 2 March 1969 from Toulouse with famed test pilot Andre Turcat at the controls, thus heralding a new era of passenger travel, in which the world shrank considerably as air travel became faster, because airlines around the world bought this first pioneering supersonic transport in significant numbers - or so it was hoped for at the time. As we know, regular supersonic passenger travel was limited to the 14 Concordes in British Airways and Air France (aside from a handful of Tupolev Tu-144s flying between Moscow and Almaty, Kazakhstan for a brief period) carrying only the very wealthy, but Concorde was an extraordinary engineering accomplishment, offering much to the airline industry to learn from. Flying a total of 812 hours 19 minutes over 397 flights, 001 spent 254 hours 49 minutes of those at supersonic speeds, trialing operations for the type for airline service. It was retired to the museum in October 1973 and for the majority of the public for many years, was the only way they could get to see Concorde up close.




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On the first two Concordes, 001 and the British prototype 002, G-BSST (preserved at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, Somerset, England) the extendable shield over the nose, protecting the occupants at the pointy end from the effects of kinetic heating, was a large streamlined fairing, through which only limited visibility was offered. During taxiing, take-off and landing, the shield was lowered, offering the pilots a clearer view of their surroundings. Note the badge below the Concorde titling, commemorating the total solar eclipse flight the aircraft made on 30 June 1973, where it followed the course of the eclipse across the skies of central Africa at two times the speed of sound, remaining in the moon's umbra for nearly 74 minutes to enable scientists on board to study the solar corona.




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Inside, 001 doesn't resemble an airliner since its entire career was spent gathering data. Its flight deck was also quite different to production variants, as we shall see. Note the limited visibility offered by the extended nose fairing through the windscreen.




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The vastness and space of the Concorde Hall from below F-WTSS.




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This is F-BTSD, one of Air France's production Concordes that saw airline service between 1975 and 2003. First flying on 26 June 1978, the aircraft was one of the few Concordes to wear markings other than that of the airline it normally operated with; somewhat notably as an advertising gimmick for the Pepsi Cola Company. Intriguingly, given the US' initial response to the Concorde flying scheduled services to New York, this particular aircraft also saw service with the US airline Braniff International for a year. So, how did the colourful but financially troubled Braniff International get a Concorde? In fact, Braniff had two, one each from Air France and British Airways. In 1979, Braniff was operating what would today be called code-share flights with the two supersonic operators across the Atlantic, and the natural step was to offer the Concorde experience inland over the United States and for a year this one as N94SD and BA aircraft G-BOAE/N94AE flew services between Dallas Fort Worth and Washington Dulles. Neither aircraft wore Braniff colours despite doctored images showing them in the Braniff International Orange scheme. Ceasing flights in May 1980, Braniff's Concorde experience was a miserable one - since the aircraft was not able to fly supersonically over the USA, thus nullifying the novelty of flying a supersonic airliner, the service was not popular and typically operated at 20 percent full. The airline lost millions. F-BTSD returned to its Air France markings following two weeks in April 1996 where it adorned Pepsi Cola's corporate Blue as part of a rejuvination of the product. Apparently the paint peeled off and higher than normal temperatures were recorded at cruising speed.




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Flying a total of 12,974 hours, 'BTSD holds a number of air speed records between destinations, and for the fastest round the world flights in both directions. Westbound around the world on 12-13 October 1992 took 32 hours 49 minutes 03 seconds from Lisbon-Santo Domingo-Acapulco-Honolulu-Guam-Bangkok- Bahrain-Lisbon. Eastbound round the world on 15-16 August 1995 took 31 hours 27 minutes 49 seconds from New York/JFK-Toulouse-Dubai-Bangkok-Guam (Andersen AFB)- Honolulu-Acapulco-New York/JFK. The Eastbound (1995) record is the current Guinness Book of Records official world record. Information from this fabulous and informative website CONCORDE SST - The Definitive Concorde Aircraft Site on the Internet ).

Retired to the museum following the withdrawal of the fleet in 2003, after the shocking disaster that befell F-BTSC on 25 July 2000. This is the aircraft's flight deck and interior.




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Note the muted colours in the cabin, designed to give an impression of space, but not succeeding in this lighting. For those of you not familiar with the Concorde's interior, it could only carry a maximum of 100 passengers, smaller than a conventionally configured Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 domestic cabin seating layout and was far less roomy by comparison to conventional long haul airliners. Its windows, by consequence of its cruising speeds and the aforementioned kinetic heating were tiny.




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And so we leave the heady days of supersonic passenger travel (wondering whether it will ever happen again) and stare at the first stage compressor fan of an example of a high bypass gas turbine engine that powers a more conventional airliner. This is a Rolls-Royce Trent 900 from an Airbus A380 and has been at the museum since 2013. Within the museum collection is also the A380 prototype, as of 2020 and the after effects of the world wide pandemic, a dinosaur of the sky, as Air France announced earlier this year it was retiring the type.




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This view illustrates the technical complexity of a high bypass gas turbine engine - for more in formation and images, take a look at Rolls-Royce's own website, here: Trent 900 – Rolls-Royce (rolls-royce.com) In case you're wondering, the two circular devices aft of the first stage compressor housing are HP compressor blow-off valves. With the enormous amount of pressure build up of air on start up, the blow off valves eject excess air to prevent compressor stall.




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That's it from the Galerie Concorde; next we look at the Hall des Prototypes and some of the most unusual concepts to take to the sky.

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## Wurger (Dec 12, 2020)




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## Jeff Hunt (Dec 12, 2020)

More great stuff. 

Thanks


Jeff


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## special ed (Dec 12, 2020)

My late friend saved money for several years so he could tour Europe's air museums one summer. He landed in Britain, rented a car and promptly, in three blocks hit a bus and taxi, which I predicted before he left the USA. The trip climaxed with the return on the Concorde.


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## Gnomey (Dec 14, 2020)

Great shots Grant!

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## nuuumannn (Dec 14, 2020)

Thanks again guys. Continuing here at Le Bourget, we enter by far the most intriguing galerie at the museum, the Hall des Prototypes and marvel at the unusual shapes within. The view as we first enter the hall.





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We start with France's first indigenous jet powered aircraft, the SNCASO (or Sud-Ouest) SO.6000 Triton. Perhaps the most peculiar of first attempts at a jet design, the Triton was allegedly conceived during the war while France was under German occupation, by aeronautical engineer Lucien Servanty in secret. Shortly after the end of the war the government, amid the rubble and despair that five years of enemy trespass had left behind but keen to maintain a prominent place in aeronautical development, issued a requirement to the ruins of the aircraft industry for a jet powered aircraft, of which five examples were to be built. An all-metal two-place cabin monoplane, the Triton's mid mounted mainplanes incorporated dihedral, which from some angles gives it the appearance of forward sweep and had a 160 sq ft wing area; all of the lifting surfaces look barely adequate. Its gas turbine powerplant was fed by two semi-circular elephant ear intakes forward of the wing root with boundary layer splitters inboard, with the engine mounted aft of the wing box, giving the jet a hump back appearance. Aesthetically it continued the French penchant for anomalous aeronautical appearance in aircraft design, and with its big shallow sloping windscreen, landing light in the nose and and sticky out intakes looks slightly comical from front on.




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Initially powered by a single 1,980lb thrust Junkers Jumo 004B turbojet engine as powering the Me 262 jet fighter, which required two of them, the Triton was terribly underpowered and was barley able to sustain momentum on its first flight on 11 November 1946. In the next three 'production' aircraft, a licence built 4,850lb thrust Rolls-Royce Nene was installed, which offered a vast improvement in performance. Capable of reaching speeds in excess of 590 mph, the Triton was no spring chicken - faster than France's first in-service jet fighter, the SE.530 Mistral, a licence built de Havilland Vampire by the same lot as those who built the Triton, but three years later, it was designed for trials only and no further development was carried out. This survivor is Triton No.3 F-WFKY and incorporates parts from No.5 in its reconstruction for the museum.




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In front of the jet is an example of its first powerplant, the Junkers Jumo 109 004B-2 gas turbine engine, sectioned for display. A few things worthy of note here for those interested; in the front cowl, the engine's APU, the Riedel starter motor, a little two-stroke piston engine can be seen, with its forward facing exhaust pipe visible. The pull handle to start it can be seen poking out the front of the intake centre body. The rectangular doors in the cowl top surface cover the fuel filler ports for the starter. Aft of the nose cowl can be seen the electrical generator and other auxiliary systems driven by the engine. Aft of that the eight stage axial compressor is visible, with the mechanical fuel control above it on its outer casing, which received inputs from the pilot and actuated fuel flow to the combustor cans via a simple governor. The horizontal drive shaft actuates the moveable cone within the exhaust outlet, known as the 'zwiebel' (onion), which varied thrust geometry exiting the rear cowl, which was a convergent duct to improve thrust output. Aft of the compressors can be seen the combustor cans and the single-stage turbine, with the zwiebel just visible within the rear cowl.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 56

During the first decade after the end of World War Two, having discovered the enormous potential of jet power, nations around the world launched a quest for speed in the air and France was no exception, with some notable early successes going to her best and brightest scientists, with more than a little Gallic flair, of course. This is the Leduc 010 ramjet, which began its gestation before World War Two, with a commission by the Ministry for Air to construct a flying test bed for René Lorin's 1908 patented aero-thermo-dynamic duct (athodyd) concept, issued in 1937. René Leduc designed the aircraft in 1938 and it was constructed by the Société des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Bréguet or simply Breguet Aviation and by May 1940, amid enormous secrecy following the German occupation was almost complete, when work was halted on it to prevent it falling into enemy hands. Reconvened after the end of the war, in December 1945 the prototype was finally finished.




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Essentially a tapered tube with a conical centre body at the aircraft's intake housing the occupant, the Leduc 010 was otherwise of conventional layout. Wikipedia provides details about this example:

"Generally similar to the 010, it featured a Turbomeca Marbore I turbojet on each wingtip, to provide better control during landings. This first flew on 8 February 1951, but was converted back to 010 standards (and thereafter referred to as Leduc 010 n°03) a few months later after problems occurred, including misting of the pilot's windows, powerplant synchronization, and wing deflection caused by the turbojets. The engines were replaced by inert mass balances. This aircraft flew 83 test flights."

The exceptional cleanness of the design can be seen mounted as it was on top of its Sud-Est Languedoc carrier aircraft.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 57

More from wiki: "It could not take off unassisted (ramjets cannot produce thrust at zero airspeed and thus cannot move an aircraft from a standstill) and was therefore intended to be carried aloft by a parasite aircraft mother ship, such as the four-engined AAS 01A & -B German-origin designs [just to interject for a moment, this was of course the Heinkel He 274 built in France before the war's end and maintained in flying condition post-war] or the French-designed Sud-Est Languedoc four-engined airliners, and released at altitude. Following test flights of the AAS 01/Leduc 0.10 composite, independent unpowered gliding tests began in October 1947. After three such flights, the first powered flight from atop an AAS 01 mother ship was made on 21 April 1949 over Toulouse. Released in a shallow dive at an altitude of 3,050 m (10,010 ft), the engine was tested at half power for twelve minutes, propelling the aircraft to 680 km/h (420 mph). In subsequent tests, the 0.10 reached a top speed of Mach 0.85 and demonstrated the viability of the ramjet as an aviation powerplant, with a rate of climb of 40 m/s (7,900 ft/min) to 11,000 metres (36,000 ft), exceeding that of the best jet fighters of the time. Of the two 010s originally built, one was destroyed in a crash in 1951 and the other severely damaged in another crash the following year. Both pilots survived with serious injuries."




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Crouching in the Leduc's shadow is this rather neat little tailless jet, the Payen Pa 49 Katy. A bit more information from the usual source (I'll be relying on Wikipedia throughout this section of our tour because information in English on these fascinating projects is scarce):

"Roland Payen was a pioneer of tailless and delta winged aircraft, building two designs, a light aircraft and a fighter, before the second world war. The Pa 49 Katy was his first post-war design. The all wood Katy was a tailless aircraft, having no separate horizontal stabiliser. The wing leading edge was swept at about 55° but, unlike the classic delta with its straight trailing edge, the Katy's was swept at about 30° with each trailing edge carrying full span control surfaces, elevators inboard and ailerons outboard. At its root, the wing merged gently into the fuselage with small air intakes for the 1.47 kN (330 lbf) Turbomeca Palas engine built into the leading edge. The cockpit was placed just aft of the intakes and the long straight-edged fin, swept at about 75° and initially as wide as the cockpit, began immediately behind it, narrowing to a slightly swept trailing edge carrying a full depth rudder. Images recorded before the first flight show the Katy with a low bicycle undercarriage with wing tip skids but, by the time of the flight itself, this was replaced by a fixed, un-faired tricycle undercarriage."

"The first flight of what was now the Pa 49A took place on 22 January 1954 at Melun-Villaroche flown by Tony Ochsenbein, a comparatively inexperienced pilot, who had previously logged only 30 minutes on jets. Ten hours of manufacturer's testing was followed, in April 1954, by assessment at the Centre d'Essais en Vol (CEV), Brétigny-sur-Orge, the aerobatic ability of the Pa 49 was established. At the CEV it was fitted with a split rudder airbrake; the two surfaces of the rudder separated from just below the tip, driven via faired external links near the bottom, into a V at the hinge for braking, rotating together for yaw control. This airbrake was designed by Fléchair SA, a company founded by Payen. At the time of its appearance at the 12th Salon International d'Aeronautique at Paris, in 1957, the undercarriage legs were faired and the main wheels enclosed in spats and the aircraft renamed the Pa 49B. For a time the nosewheel was also spatted. There were plans for a version with a retractable undercarriage, but this did not come about."




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From the gimmicky little Katy we return to the heady realms of high performance jets and René Leduc's ultimate ramjet design, the 022 Mach 2 supersonic interceptor prototype. Following the encouraging results of testing carried out with the 010, a larger aircraft was constructed, the Leduc 021, which resembled a scaled up 010 and of which two were built. Between 1953 and 1956, the 021 prototypes investigated at great length the systems and procedures that an operational ramjet would require, with the intent of building a successful jet fighter using the technology. This was the Leduc 022, which was, from the outset to be capable of supersonic flight, although neither 021 was capable of breaching the sound barrier - Leduc was entering unfamiliar territory. Since his previous aircraft were not capable of getting themselves into the air, the new jet fighter had to be powered by a conventional gas turbine engine, in this case a 7,040lb thrust SNECMA Atar 101D-3, as well as the novel athodyd, sitting centrally within the outer fuselage and exhausting out the single rear orifice. Configured as its predecessors had been, a tapered cylinder, within which the pilot sat in the intake centre cone behind a massive perspex windshield cone, the 022 was significantly larger than Leduc's previous designs, but with conventional tricycle undercarriage and swept back wings. In this image, and based on what we know about the growing sophistication of combat aircraft of the time, it is plain to see that the decidedly unconventional 022 was not a practicable proposition.




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First flying on 26 December 1956 on gas turbine power alone, the 022 finally fired its barbeque in the back on 18 May 1957 during its 34th flight. During its extensive flight testing regime, over a total of 114 flights, the 022 inexplicably demonstrated that it was not capable of exceeding the speed of sound, which is kind'a essential for a supersonic interceptor, especially a Mach 2 one. Earlier that decade, NACA scientist Richard Whitcomb had formulated the area rule principle of designing a high speed aircraft's airframe in such a way as to reduce transonic drag. Leduc's flying barrels did not have area rule applied to them by nature of their unique powerplant, and without it, the jets' tubular shape produced excessive drag when approaching transonic speeds. Finally, following the unveiling of a close rival's more conventional fighter interceptor project and subsequent government interest in its potential, the Leduc 022 programme was halted at the end of 1957. This is the only example built of this remarkably complex but ultimately dead-end jet fighter. Note how the rather flimsy looking main gear legs tuck into the wing root.




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...And this is the prototype of the machine that brought about the end of Leduc's dreams of a ramjet fighter, the very plain by comparison, yet supremely successful Mirage III. Hinted at earlier on in this piece, Marcel Dassault's Mirage family, encompassing a wide variety of airframe designs and applications under the same name, despite many of them bearing only superficial design cues to the original namesake, began with the Mirage III and this was the first example of ten pre-production Mirage III As. Earlier delta winged MD.550 prototypes were named Mystere after the manufacturer's successful jet fighter predecessor, then receiving the uninspiring 'Delta', before Dassault settled on Mirage. First flying on 12 May 1958, this aircraft, 01, became the first French aircraft to exceed Mach 2 five months later and as the first production example cemented the design of the production variants, of which some 1,422 examples (Mirage III and V) were built.




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The broad history of the Mirage family is lengthy and fulsome and I certainly couldn't do it justice here, and therefore I won't. Despite being more than 60 years old in design, the Mirage is still a striking thing to this day.




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More to come from the Prototype Hall.

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## Airframes (Dec 15, 2020)

Great stuff Grant. Some amazing machines there.


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## Wurger (Dec 15, 2020)




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## Crimea_River (Dec 15, 2020)

Fascinating. "Anomalous aeronautical appearance " is a very charitable description!

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## Graeme (Dec 15, 2020)

nuuumannn said:


> we enter by far the most intriguing galerie at the museum



Totally agree. Many thanks for the photos and insights.


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## Gnomey (Dec 16, 2020)

Lovely shots Grant!


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## nuuumannn (Dec 18, 2020)

Back in Les Prototypes galerie, we begin where we left off, with the promise of high speed and the Mirage III. Prior to Marcel Dassault's delta winged jet's enormous success, the quest for a Mach 2 supersonic fighter was being pursued by a few different manufacturers in France, to a requirement issued in 1953. We looked at Leduc's ramjets and the the folly they turned out to be, but they weren't the only ramjets being tested at the time. As we know, ramjets require another means to start from a stand still and Leduc, in his 022 interceptor buried a conventional jet engine within the core of the athodyd. The engineers at Société Française d'Etude et de Construction de Matériel Aéronautiques Spéciaux or SFECMAS, while envisioning a high speed interceptor came to the same conclusion, but were a little more cautious in their approach; unlike Leduc however, they were going to build a test bed prototype before launching into a full blown interceptor. The result was the 1500 Guépard (Cheetah). At the time, SFECMAS was merged with SNCAN to form Nord Aviation and the Cheetah became the mythical Griffon. As per Leduc's flying barrel, the Griffon was similarly shaped, but with a low set intake with a protruding nose section mounted above it. Buried within the fuselage was a combined turbojet-ramjet arrangement, which would enable high speed operations as well as cater to conventional requirements. First flying on 20 September 1955 piloted by the Great Andre Turcat, the first Griffon was powered by a single SNECMA Atar 101 turbojet (which, for those Luftwaffe aficionados among you was based on the BMW 103-003 that powered the He 162 and Ar 234) but devoid of the functioning athodyd, thus proving the aerodynamics of the design.

The remarkable visage of the Griffon is revealed in this view from an elevated position. note that compared to the monstrosity that was the Leduc 022 to the right, the Griffon is relatively small and in size is comparable to the Mirage III behind it.




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Wiki goes into detail about this particular example;

"On 23 January 1957, the Griffon II performed its first flight. During April 1957, all flying of the Griffon I was ceased in favour of focusing on the ramjet-equipped Griffon II. During a high speed test flight conducted in 1958, the Griffon II successfully attained a peak speed of Mach 2.19 (2,330 km/h or 1,450 mph) while being piloted by Turcat. This milestone was viewed as having proved the basic design of the aircraft to be sound. However, the flight test programme had revealed several technical difficulties were present in the aircraft, including concerns regarding kinetically-generated heat; the thermal issues were exacerbated by a lack of temperature-resistant materials, such as Inconel or titanium, for portions of the airframe that encountered the highest temperatures. The ramjet was determined to have functioned well when the aircraft was flown at high speeds, but exhibited instability while flying at medium speeds."

Following the results of the Griffon's test regime, the 'Super Griffon' promised to rectify the issues encountered, but, as we know, the more conventional and less technically ambitious Mirage III pipped the ramjet concept to the post. The Griffon II from the rear; note the enormous exhaust orifice and landing parachute in its fairing on the fin. We'll be looking at a third entry in the supersonic interceptor competition in our next installment.




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We now look at another indulgent aeronautical project that numerous manufacturers researched during the 50s and beyond - the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Staying with our engine manufacturer friends at Atar, which incidentally stands for Atelier technique aéronautique de Rickenbach, which was a group of German scientists that were pooled together in 1946 in the former Dornier factory at Rickenbach in Baden-Württemberg, but working for the French. These guys were led by notable designer Hermann Oestrich, who, along with fellow BMW engineers was responsible for the BMW 003 and had designed a more advanced variant, which became the Atar 101, under French agreement and built by SNECMA. Essentially an Atar 101 engine mounted vertically in a tubular casing and erected on a four-poster undercarriage framework, the Atar Volant was a vertical lift test bed family, of which three were built. The first was piloted by remote, but the second, seen here had an ejection seat, instrumentation and controls for the pilot (balls-of-steel were apparently a requirement). Producing 6,200lbs thrust, the manned Atar Volant C.400 P.2 first flew attached to a gantry in April 1957, before its first untethered flight on 14 May flown by August Morel, who was to be injured testing a more advanced example of the technology. It made a total 0f 123 tethered and free flights, including a public display at the Paris Airshow.




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Following the C.400s was the SNECMA C.450 Coléoptère, which was intended as a test bed for a vertical lift concept incorporating an annular circular wing invented by Austrian Helmut von Zborovski, which, he theorised could provide any so equipped aircraft with a ramjet housing that could accelerate any aircraft to supersonic speeds (again with the ramjet). (Coléoptère, incidentally means "beetle" in French, descended from Greek for "sheathed wing"). This rather long shot concept was trialled and revealed from our usual source;

"During early 1958, the completed first prototype arrived at Melun Villaroche Aerodrome ahead of testing. The eye-catching design of the Coléoptère rapidly made waves in the public conscious, even intentionally; author Jeremy Davis observed that the aircraft had even influenced intentional efforts, having allegedly motived the United States Navy to contract American helicopter manufacturer Kaman Aircraft to design its own annular-wing vehicle, nicknamed the Flying Barrel. In December 1958, the Coléoptère first left the ground under its own power, albeit while attached to a gantry; Morel was at the aircraft's controls. Several challenging flight characteristics were observed, such as the tendency for the aircraft to slowly spin on its axis while in a vertical hover; Morel also noted that the vertical speed indicator was unrealistic and that the controls were incapable of steering the aircraft with precision while performing the critical landing phase. Dead-stick landings were deemed to be an impossibility."

"Morel conducted a total of eight successful flights, attaining a recorded maximum altitude of 800 m (2,625 ft). One of these flights involved a display of the aircraft's hover performance before an assembled public audience. The ninth flight, on 25 July 1959, was planned to make limited moves towards entering horizontal flight; however, hindered by insufficient instrumentation and a lack of visual benchmarks, the aircraft became too inclined and too slow to maintain its altitude. Morel was unable to regain control amid a series of wild oscillations, opting to activate the ejection seat to escape the descending aircraft at only 150 m (492 ft). He survived but was badly injured, while the aircraft itself was destroyed. While plans for a second prototype had been mooted at one stage, such ambitions ultimately never received the funding to proceed."

At least the wind tunnel model looks nice.




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Our next ascent into VTOL eccentricity is the Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale SA-610 Ludion (Cadet). Wiki again;

"It consisted of little more than a chair, behind which were mounted two downward-pointing augmented rocket engines with control provided by thrust vectoring. The Ludion was intended to carry its pilot and 30 kg (66 lb) of equipment up to 700 m (2,300 ft) at an altitude of up to 200 m (600 ft). The unusual powerplant consisted of a monofuel de-composition chamber fed with pressurised isopropyl nitrate (AVPIN), ignited by a catalyst. The high pressure gasses produced in the de-composition chamber were fed to two augmentor tubes, built by Bertin Technologies, either side of the pilots seat, angled slightly outwards. As the gasses entered the augmentor tubes through rocket nozzles, thrust was augmented by inducing airflow through the ducts which acted as aero-thermo-dynamic ducts, due to the heat and kinetic energy added to the flow through the ducts, and the carefully shaped exhaust nozzles."

Apparently the British provided information on the use of Avpin as a hypergolic fuel, after research by the Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott with German T-stoff and C-stoff propellants from the Walther Werke in Hamburg. 'Nuff said...




Musee de l&#x27;Air 65

Remaining with the en-vogue obsession of vertical take-off of the era, the next airframe of note is from Dassault's hand, the Mirage III V - a practical attempt at a VTOL combat aircraft built to a military specification. In August 1961, NATO released an updated revision of its VTOL strike fighter requirement, NATO Basic Military Requirement 3 (NBMR-3). Specifications called for a supersonic V/STOL strike fighter with a combat radius of 460 kilometres (250 nmi). Cruise speed was to be Mach 0.92, with a dash speed of Mach 1.5. The aircraft, with a 910-kilogram (2,000 lb) payload, had to be able to clear a 15-metre (50 ft) obstacle following a 150-metre (500 ft) takeoff roll. Victory in this competition was viewed being of a high importance at the time as it was seem as being potentially "the first real NATO combat aircraft" (thanks wiki). The other significant entry into NBMR-3 was the Hawker Siddeley P.1154, which was to be a supersonic VTOL jet named 'Harrier' incorporating a novel single powerplant with four vectored thrust nozzles. The supersonic variant of the basic Bristol Siddeley Pegasus engine was to incorporate what was called plenum chamber burning (PCB) to achieve supersonic thrust, which was a major contributor behind the programme's downfall (regulating temperature and thrust output in two different thrust chambers simultaneously became something for the 'too hard basket', apparently). Nonetheless, without making this a post about the P.1154, which could easily fill a book, the Dassault team opted for separate jet-lift engines, which again the British had tested with the Short SC.1, eight Roll-Royce RB.162 vertically mounted jet-lift engines, with deflectors that could vector the thrust in flight.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 71

A truly international effort, Dassault received much assistance for the Mirage III V from Britain - its predecessor the Balzac was powered by a Bristol Orpheus engine with R-R RB.108 jet lift engines - and its primary engine came from the United States. This was the Pratt & Whitney JT10A low bypass turbofan, which was to power the cancelled Douglas F6D Missileer, but went on as the TF30 to power the General Dynamics F-111. Although propelling the Mirage III V to supersonic speeds, the second prototype achieved Mach 2 in September 1966, the jet never achieved vertical take off and supersonic speed in the same flight. Following the loss of the second prototype and its pilot in November 1966, Dassault pulled the plug on the programme, and, by this stage the P.1154 had been declared the winning submission to the NATO tender, which further dissuaded any official interest in the jet. Technologically simpler than the P.1154, the Mirage III V looked to be a very real possibility for a practical supersonic VTOL combat aircraft, but the impracticalities of carrying around extra engines and the extra fuel to feed them, thus consuming useable load carrying capability meant the death knell of many VTOL projects of the time. Only the Soviet Yak-38 entered service with separate lift engines, supplanted by a vectored thrust main engine, but the P.1154's direct descendent, via the P.1127 and Kestrel, the Harrier was a far greater success, as we know.

Missing its American engine, the Mirage III V prototype is one of a number of VTOL projects from the period with little practical result that litter aviation museums around the world.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 72

Finally for today, we stay with Dassault and take a look at another global aviation trend that appeared around about the same time as the VTOL revolution became consigned to the scrap heap (with the exception of the aforementioned Harrier and Yak-38, of course, which, strictly speaking were more accurately STOVL, than VTOL); variable geometry wings. It is interesting to note that a response to a French government requirement for a joint navy and air force supersonic variable geometry aircraft issued in 1964, the Mirage G aircraft were based on Dassault's Mirage F2, which was powered by the Mirage III V's US engine, the TF30 manufactured under licence by SNECMA. This particular aircraft was designed as a sophisticated low altitude strike aircraft, but was rejected in favour of Dassault's low tech version, the Mirage F1. Fitting variable sweep wings to the F2's fuselage, the wings were swept at 22 degrees when fully forward and 70 degrees when fully aft and featured full-span double-slotted trailing edge flaps and two-position leading edge flaps. In this view of the Mirage G8 01 prototype, its leading edge and trailing edge surfaces are deployed and the wing is in forward sweep.





Musee de l&#x27;Air 74

Initially, the concepts for the Mirage G family came out of France's dissatisfaction for the joint Anglo-French Variable Geometry (AFVG) programme, which, having France withdraw led Britain to look for new suitors, rather like a dating game, which they did in the form of Germany and Italy, which, combined created Panavia and the excellent Tornado multi-role combat aircraft. I guess the success of Tornado and the lack of a French equivalent could be considered payback for Dassault's comments about the Mirage success eluding the British! Designed as prototypes for a dual service aircraft, the G8s were intended on carrying a full suite of radar and nav-attack systems, but it all came to nought and a French VG aircraft never entered service, despite the Mirage G's obvious potential. This wasn't the end of it though - it was to have influence outside France, somewhat implausibly in the United States, as wiki attests to;

"In the late 1960s, the US manufacturer Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) was seeking technical data on variable-geometry wings, within the framework of a bid for the US Navy's VFX carrier fighter contract. As a result of the publicity gained by the Mirage G, LTV sought the assistance of Dassault, as well as General Dynamics, which had secured a contract with the USAF for a variable geometry fighter-bomber/attack aircraft, the F-111A. Two agreements were signed by Dassault and LTV in 1968: one for general cooperation and the other specifically in regard to variable-geometry wings. This resulted in two LTV designs, the Vought V-505 and V-507, as well as construction of a full-scale, non-flying mockup of the second design. There were two competing bids, both with variable geometry: the McDonnell F-4(FVS), which was a variant of the Phantom II, and the Grumman 303. The latter was successful and was developed into the F-14. However, during its development, Grumman approached LTV for details of the V-507, including some of the same technical solutions devised for the Mirage G."

In this view the left hand wing is at full rearward sweep. That's a Bristol Hercules incongruously parked under its wingtip.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 73

Coming up, more Prototypes.

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## DBII (Dec 19, 2020)

Nice trip. Thanks for sharing.


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## Snautzer01 (Dec 19, 2020)

Cant wait for the next bit.


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## Crimea_River (Dec 19, 2020)

Great stuff Grant.


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## Gnomey (Dec 20, 2020)

Great shots Grant!


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## nuuumannn (Dec 22, 2020)

Thanks again for following along. This just in. Whilst browsing Youtube I spotted this, on one of the subjects I posted about here! The Coléoptère tail sitter, with a clip of the Atar Volant hovering as well. This clip is concise and gives a good run down of the project, with cool animation, too.

A Plane Without Wings: The Story of The C.450 Coléoptère - YouTube

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## Crimea_River (Dec 22, 2020)

Interesting. It reminds me of one of the paper airplane styles that I used to make in university.


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## nuuumannn (Dec 26, 2020)

So, with Christmas and all that indulgence out of the way (he says while wiping chocolate from around his maw), it's time to reacquaint ourselves with more from Le Bourget. We continue with the SNCASO SO.9000 Trident, a mixed propulsion interceptor built to the same specification that was released by the French government for an indigenous supersonic interceptor to which the wacky ramjet designs we've already examined were built to. The product of research by engineer Lucien Servanty, who was responsible for France's first jet powered aircraft, the Triton, see above, the Trident, evolved from Servanty's studies for a shoulder wing supersonic interceptor incorporating dual jet and rocket propulsion - necessary, since the early jet engines had such low power outputs, the incorporation of a rocket engine would enable the jet to accelerate to supersonic speed. The rocket engine selected was developed by Société d'Études pour la Propulsion par Réaction (SEPR) and was based on that created for the cancelled Matra M.04 missile, with furaline - or phenylfuran-dihydro-imidazole alcohol mixture as its fuel and nitric acid as its oxidiser, which were hypergolic. This caused issues as the nitric acid, being highly corrosive, ate away at the engine components and airframe! Owing to the effects of rocket engines not being fully understood, a Sud-Ouest SO.6020 Espadon was fitted with a SEPR 25 rocket engine and first flying in June 1952 it became the first European aircraft to go supersonic.

A ground breaking design, powered by a single three-chamber SEPR 481 rocket motor and two 880 lb thrust Turbomeca Marboré II turbojets the Trident incorporated a number of novel concepts on its first flight on 2 March 1953. these include the entire nose could be jettisoned to prevent the pilot from suffering injury during ejection at high speed, and the tail surfaces were all moveable and the hori stabs were the primary roll control surfaces in use at supersonic speed, while conventional ailerons on the wings provided this below transonic speeds. This is Trident 01 and the join for the detachable nose section can be seen aft of the heavily framed canopy.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 89

The brief trials career of the Trident was, as with most exotic aircraft of the day, mixed, but the type demonstrated exceptional speed and achieved a few speed records for the time. From wiki, as usual.

"On 2 March 1953, the first prototype Trident I conducted the type's maiden flight; flown by test pilot Jacques Guignard, the aircraft used the entire length of the runway to get airborne, being powered only by its turbojet engines. It was initially flown without any rocket engine installed, relying solely upon its turbojet engines instead. According to aviation author Bill Gunston, the early test flights of the SO.9000 were 'hairy' prior to the installation of the rocket motor, which first occurred during September 1954. On 1 September 1953, during the first flight of the second Trident I prototype, flown by Guignard, the aircraft crashed after struggling to gain altitude after takeoff and colliding with an electricity pylon, resulting in its loss and Guignard sustaining severe injuries.

On 16 January 1954, test flights using the remaining Trident I prototype were resumed, flown by test pilot Charles Goujon. Partially in response to the loss of the second Trident I due to a lack of engine power, it was decided to adopt new turbojet engines in the form of the more powerful Dassault MD.30 Viper, a license-produced version of the British Armstrong Siddeley Viper engine, which were capable of producing 7.34 kN (1,654 lbf) thrust each, nearly double the thrust of the original engines. During March 1955, the first Trident I prototype performed its first flight following its refitting with the Viper engines. Powered by these engines, the aircraft soon proved its ability to exceed Mach 1 during a shallow dive even without the added thrust of the rocket motor. In April 1956, it was decided to end flight testing with the sole remaining Trident I. During the 18-month-long flight test programme, the Trident I had completed over 100 flights, having eventually reached a maximum recorded speed of Mach 1.8 and a peak altitude of 20,000 metres (65,000 ft). A total of 24 of these flights had been flown using the rocket engine."

As a result of its excellent performance, including time-to-height and altitude records; its officially-observed record-breaking altitude of 24,300 metres (79,700 ft) was achieved during a flight in May 1957, flown by test pilot Roger Carpentier, the French air force were keen on production and an order for 10 pre production airframes was placed, but bizarrely, events in the UK brought the programme to an end. The release of Duncan Sandys' 1957 Defence White Paper caused ripples that affected French military planning as well, particularly in the proposal to focus on an all-missile defence system and the cancellation of high speed manned interceptors, and with that, the excellent little Trident faded into history.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 75

Next, one of the most successful European jet aircraft prior to the excellent Mirage III, again from the Dassault stable, the transonic MD.454 Mystère IV, of which this is the prototype. Powered by a Rolls-Royce RB.44 Tay engine, an enlarged Nene specially constructed at the request of Pratt & Whitney, who put it into production as the J48, the Mystère IVA was a derivative design of the earlier Mystère I and II fighter bomber, but was completely redesigned to enable operation at transonic speeds. A relatively successful design, the Mystère IV saw export success with Israel, which cancelled its order for Mystère IIs in favour of the later jet, and India - both of whom's Mystères saw combat in their respective regions. We'll see an Armee de L'Air Mystère IV on display soon enough.

_



_Musee de l&#x27;Air 78

First flying on 28 September 1952, as mentioned earlier, this aircraft was powered by a 7,710 lb thrust Roll-Royce Tay engine, as was the first 50 examples built, after which the type was powered by the licence built 7,720 lb thrust Hispano Suiza Verdon 350 engine. On 17 January 1953, piloted by Constantin Rozanoff, this particular aircraft exceeded the speed of sound in a dive on its 34th flight, becoming the first French fighter jet to achieve that milestone. As a result, a commemorative smashing of the wall artwork was added to the aircraft's nose, as seen here aft of the intake.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 79

The bluff nose of the Mystère contrasts with the pointy end of the Trident...




Musee de l&#x27;Air 81

Our next brush with exoticism is the Hirsch-MAéRC H.100 research aircraft. Wiki tells us a bit about it.

"René Hirsch had been working on aerodynamic methods that would stabilize an aircraft meeting a gust since 1936 and had set up a company to this end, Moyens aérodynamiques de regulation et de contrôle (MAéRC) Making its first flight on 15 June 1954, the H.100 incorporated the results of his research but was MAéRC's only aircraft. Control systems apart, the H.100 was a fairly conventional twin engine, wooden aircraft, with a cantilever low wing of trapezoidal plan. The fuselage was strikingly clean aerodynamically, with only gradual changes of cross-section from nose to tail. Behind the pilot's transparency there were three starboard and two port side windows. The horizontal surfaces, mounted on top of the fuselage, had both a high aspect ratio and marked dihedral. Originally the vertical tail was rounded and quite small but during development a large, straight tapered ventral fin was added. The H.100 had a tall, rearward retracting tricycle undercarriage. The main legs retracted into extensions of the engine fairings beyond the wing trailing edge."

"Little detail about the stabilization system is recorded. It is known that the horizontal tail surfaces were hinged to allow the dihedral to change and that such motions were coupled to lift-changing flaps. Together, these stabilized pitch. The wing tips could rotate to control roll. The system was pneumatically powered and could be turned on and off in flight to test its efficiency. On its first flight and for early tests, the H.100 was powered by two 71 kW (95 hp) Régnier 4EO four cylinder inverted air-cooled engines. The aircraft was damaged in a take-off accident on 3 September 1955 and during a prolonged rebuild the Régniers were replaced with much more powerful 127 kW (170 hp) Lycoming O-360 flat-four engines. It flew with these engines in 1962. Test flights reportedly showed satisfactory results but, with investment lacking, nothing further resulted. The H.100 made its last flight on 16 June 1971, having flown for a total of 130 hours."

Donated to the museum in 1971, the Hirsch H.100 is quite an attractive wee machine -and it is small.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 83

Behind the Hirsch is a wind tunnel model of a jet project that I'm having difficulty identifying - should have taken a photo of the display board. Any clues will be useful. Here it is again. I'll get back to y'all with more soon.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 82

Our last aircraft within the fabulous Hall Les Prototypes is the SNCASE SE.3210 Super Frelon helicopter. Following the poor showing of the SE.3200 Frelon, which was described as such in the following terms by SNCASE design engineer René Mouille; "Le Frelon showed us precisely what not to do on a helicopter", in 1960 work was begun on its successor the Super Frelon, of which, this one, F-ZWWE was the first example, which first flew on 7 December 1962. Taking part in aerial trials with carrying the Excocet anti-ship missile in 1973, a year later it was donated to the museum on 14 March 1974. A record breaking aircraft, here is some information about its career from French wiki:

"As early as May 1963, the results obtained during the flight tests prompted the 01 to be modified to address helicopter speed records. With the help of Marcel Riffard, designer of the famous Caudron racing aircraft, the aim was to refine the aircraft: the rivet heads were covered with adhesive, the dismantled door handles, the bulging windows replaced by flat windows, the rear stall cleared under a fairing, the landing gear replaced by undamped pads, and the main rotor hub equipped with hemispheric fairing. The prototype was lightened to the maximum, but telemetry instruments were added to monitor the rotors from the ground. The aircraft was entrusted to Jean Boulet and Roland Coffignot, assisted by Joseph Turchini and the first attempt took place over the plain of The Crau, north of the Camargue, on July 18, 1963. On July 19, 1963, the record on base of 3 km was raised to 341.23 km/h above the base of Istres. On July 23 1963, the record 15/25 km held by the Sikorsky SH-34 since February 1962 increased from 320.39 to 350.47 km/h and on the same day the record over 100 km closed circuit was smashed: 334.28 km/h."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 84

We finish off with some views from the balcony of some of the aircraft we have looked at previously.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 86




Musee de l&#x27;Air 87

Next, combat aircraft of the Armee de l'Air in le Hall de la Cocarde.

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## FalkeEins (Dec 27, 2020)

excellent 'walk-around' of the exhibits at Le Bourget, thanks Grant. Re your comment in post #23 about "the ruins of the French aircraft industry " due to German occupation. 
This notion is a bit of a myth that the French have 'discreetly' encouraged post-war in an attempt to draw a veil over their extensive collaboration in the field of aviation with the Germans. 

Following the defeat and subsequent armistice in June 1940 the Vichy French authorities had very quickly opened negotiations with their new German masters. They offered to produce spares for German aircraft manufacturers and establish overhaul and repair facilities for aircraft operating from French territory. A deliberate ploy to keep aircraft manufacture going but it was one that allowed German industry to produce more fighters and more bombers, while the French built transport and training types, for example, over 700 Caudron Goelands delivered for the Luftwaffe (IIRC) . The Vichy Government thereafter concluded the so-called Wiesbaden Agreement with the Reich to bring the French aircraft industry fully into alignment with German production. Production of certain types, such as the Messerschmitt Bf.108, Siebel Si.204 and Fiesler Fi.156 Storch was transferred wholesale to France and other types were developed exclusively in France (Arados, Heinkels). There were huge stocks of (German) equipment used post-war - German life-jackets were still being used in the mid-1950s in French naval aircraft..and as pointed out many French (proto)types that flew in the post-war period had been conceived during the war..

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## nuuumannn (Dec 28, 2020)

FalkeEins said:


> This notion is a bit of a myth that the French have 'discreetly' encouraged post-war in an attempt to draw a veil over their extensive collaboration in the field of aviation with the Germans.



Thanks for the information - you mean to say the French, gulp, "collaborated"? Well, no surprise really, what option did they have. I believe that there were a number of people that felt at the time that they were better served under their new masters than under the inefficient government they had beforehand. Nevertheless, the German retention of production lines meant that France did have a stable industry from which to build.


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## nuuumannn (Dec 28, 2020)

To continue with the thread, the wind tunnel model I wasn't sure about has been identified for me (thanks Secret Projects forum) as a Breguet 1001 Taon, which was a 1950s design for a single seat strike aircraft to a joint NATO strike fighter proposal, which was in competition with the Fiat G-91, which was selected as the 'winner', although only the Germans, Italians and Portuguese used it. Only two Taons were built - the name is French for gadfly, but is also an anagram of NATO, or French OTAN. Powered by a Bristol Orpheus turbojet, the Taon did achieve a couple of notable records, it set an international speed record for a 1,000 km (620 mi) closed circuit with a speed of 1,046.65 km/h (650.36 mph) at 7,620 m (25,000 ft) on 25 April 1958. On 23 July, it broke the record again at a speed of 1,075 km/h (667.98 mph). Here's the model again.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 82

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## Wurger (Dec 28, 2020)




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## Jeff Hunt (Dec 28, 2020)

Grant.
Amazing stuff.
The French certainly had a flair for aircraft design with some"different" designs.

Cheers

Jeff

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## Gnomey (Dec 29, 2020)

Good shots Grant!

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## nuuumannn (Jan 4, 2021)

Thanks again guys. Glad you are enjoying this. It is s informative to me as you are finding it.

Now we are across the dividing balcony from the previous Prototype Hall and overlooking the Hall de la Cocarde, or the Roundel Room. This hall focusses on aircraft of the Armee de l'Air since the end of World War Two to the introduction of the Dassault Mirage 2000, which took place in 1984, with its principal display feature being a roundel painted on the floor, with aircraft arranged around it. Here are three views of the hall, which has been a recogniseable feature of the Musee de l'Air displays for years now.





Musee de l&#x27;Air 91




Musee de l&#x27;Air 92




Musee de l&#x27;Air 94

One of the most eye catching and imaginative things here is the Dassault Mirage F1 Cristal, a life size reproduction of a Mirage F1 fuselage made of perspex with interior equipment installed, including its SNECMA Atar 9K-50 engine and its Thomson CSF Cyrano IV radar unit. The entire thing lights up and there is an audio accompaniment to the display as well. Built by Dassault for promoting the type, the Cristal made its airshow debut at the 1977 Paris Airshow and after display at a few other events was donated to the museum in 1979.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 90

We go down the stars and start with the twin boom SNCASE SE.535 Mistral. Although based on the de Havilland Vampire FB.5, of which SNCASE assembled 67 from company supplied components, and licence building 120 in its own factory, the SE.535 Mistral differed from the Vampire in that it was powered by a licence built Rolls-Royce Nene engine and was fitted with an ejection seat for its occupant. Here is a concise synopsis of the type, which I'm supplying here since I'd just be repeating what someone else wrote anyway:

"Assigned the designation Vampire Mk 53 by the parent company and given the appellation of SE 530 by Sud-Est, this was developed at the behest of the Armee de l'Air. It utilised the basic Mk 5 airframe mated with the 2270kg Hispano-built Nene 102, the wing root intakes being enlarged and the split-trunk intake of the Hawker P.1040 being adapted to provide the extra air demanded for the rear face of the Nene's double-sided impeller. Fuel tankage was increased, cabin pressurisation introduced and the pilot was provided with an SNCASO ejection seat. A pre-series of four aircraft was built, the first of these flying on 1 April 1951. Baptised Mistral, the type entered series production in SE 532 form, the first flying in December 1951 and 97 being built. These were followed by 150 examples of the SE 535, the last of which was delivered on 25 March 1954. The SE 535 was powered by the Nene 104 with similar rating to the Nene 102B of the SE 532, and, in addition to its four 20mm HS 404 cannon, could carry eight T-10 or HVAR rockets, or two 450kg bombs. The Mistral entered Armee de l'Air service in 1952 and was finally withdrawn in 1961."

From here: Sud-Est SE 530 Mistral - fighter (aviastar.org)




Musee de l&#x27;Air 95

This is a rather shiny model of a Sud Aviation Vautour that I took a fancy to. I washed the colourt out because the base was a strong red that spoiled the image. Here is some info from wikipedia on the type, which, although the museum has one in its collection was not present on the day of my visit because of the airshow:

"The Vautour was operated by France's Armée de l'Air, having been originally developed by Sud Aviation in response to a French requirement for a jet aircraft for bombing, low-level attack and all-weather interception operations. The Vautour was used in the Force de frappe under the Commandement des Forces Aériennes Stratégiques; each aircraft was suitable for the carriage of a nuclear weapon. The shortcomings of the type as a bomber, such as its lack of radar or other advanced navigation/attack systems, led to the type being replaced by the more capable Dassault Mirage IV. The Vautour never saw combat use with the French Air Force.
The only other customer for the Vautour was Israel. During its service with the Israeli Air Force (IAF), the type undertook various mission and roles and was quickly used in combat. Vautours were used during the wars between Israel and its neighbors, including the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition. Only one air-to-air kill was recorded by a Vautour; the type was used more for bombing and ground strafing and was reportedly considered by Israel to be comparable to the Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-28 medium bombers used by its regional adversaries."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 96

This next aircraft followed the Mistral into Armee de l'Air service, the Dassault MD.450 Ouragan (Hurricane); the first wholly French jet design to enter military service, although powered by a Hispano-Suiza licence built Nene engine. One of the unsung early jet designs to emerge following World War Two, the Ouragan was a wholly French design, but shared its configuration of a nose mounted intake with the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 and SAAB J-29 Tunnan and low set wings with the North American F-86. First flying on 28 February 1949, some 350 were delivered to the Armee de l'Air, of which, like much of the rebuilt French military, 185 were funded under the United States Mutual Defense Assistance Act, which supplied funding to Allied nations as a bulwark against the threat from Soviet Union allied countries. Seeing service with El Salvador, India and Israel, the type saw combat in regional conflicts with its foreign operators. This particular aircraft is the second prototype 02, which first flew on 20 July 1949, it is decorated with the Sioux Head of the famous Lafayette Escadrille on its left side, visible here and the Stork emblem of EC 1/2 Cicognes on its right side. After ending its career in 1953, the aircraft was presented to the museum in 1977.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 97

Our next aircraft is the Ouragan's immediate successor in Armee de l'Air service, the Dassault MD.454 Mystère IV, the prototype of which we saw in the Prototype Hall. In this view, the type's resemblance to its predecessor is noticeable, even down to the nose undercarriage door layout, aside from its sharply swept wing.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 98

Like the Ouragan, the Mystère IV was a moderately successful design that cemented its designer's modern fighter jet credentials, and, like its foreign contemporaries, was an evolutionary step forward from its predecessor, through the less successful Mystère II, which never entered service. Powered by a 7,720 lb thrust Hispano-Suiza Verdon 350 turbojet, a licence built Roll-Royce Tay, like its predecessor, in foreign service the Mystère IV saw combat with the Indian and Israeli air forces. Its performance was commendable too, reaching supersonic speeds at low altitude, the first time the type did so was in the prototype we have seen already. This particular one is No.105. It's interesting to note that construction of the Mystère IV was also funded under the Mutual Defense Assistance Act and we'll hear more about the strange consequences that had on the British aviation preservation scene in forthcoming images.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 99

Next is the rakish North American F-100D Super Sabre, which, owing to its descent from the F-86 and its similarity in look to the previous two Dassault products, looks very natural in French markings - it _could_ almost be a direct descendant of the previous two aircraft! This one wears the Masque de Comédie winged badge of the World War Two vintage EC 6/GCIII/6 on its fin whilst serving with EC 1/11 "Rousillon", and, like the Mystere IV before it, its purchase was covered under the US Mutual Defense Assistance Act.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 100

Interestingly, the Armee de l'Air was the first US aligned air force to receive the F-100; the first arriving in May 1958. A total of 100 aircraft (85 F-100Ds and 15 F-100Fs) were supplied to France, and assigned to the NATO 4th Allied Tactical Air Force. They were stationed at German and French bases. French F-100s were used on combat missions flying from bases in France against targets in during the tragic War of Independence in Algeria. In 1967, France left NATO and German-based F-100s were transferred to France, using bases vacated by the USAF. The last unit on F100D/F was the Escadron 4/11 Jura, based at Djibouti, which kept the Super Sabre until 1978 (thanks again wiki). Interesting detail visible from underneath.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 101

Between 1975 and 1978, a small air force of ex-Armee de l'Air jets landed at RAF Sculthorpe, Norfolk, which was in use by units of the United States Air Force at the time, for disposal; the American government had decided that these aircraft, paid for by the US were to be scrapped on retirement from French use. And so they were, although a few escaped the cutting torch. On 24 November 1975, the first F-100 arrived and less than a year later it and its fellow arrivals at that time had been destroyed. Further F-100 arrivals at Sculthorpe in 1976 were similarly disposed of, alongside Mystère IVAs and Lockheed T-33s, the first of which flew into Sculthorpe on 25 January 1978. Not all were scrapped however; a few enterprising individuals representing local museums were lucky enough to rescue a number of these aircraft, and to this day there are nine Mystères, nine F-100s and eight T-33s from the Sculthorpe Armee de l'Air that can be seen in British aviation museums around the country. The shark like F-100 looks menacing from this angle.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 103

Next, more from the Hall de la Cocarde.

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## Wurger (Jan 4, 2021)




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## Crimea_River (Jan 4, 2021)

Great stuff Grant. It would be interesting to start a thread about types that the French did NOT use!


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## Airframes (Jan 5, 2021)

That would only be half a page !!!!

Great info and pics Grant, looking forward to the next batch.

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## Gnomey (Jan 5, 2021)

Great shots Grant!


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## nuuumannn (Jan 15, 2021)

Welcome back to this deep dive into the Musee de l'Air and we pick up where we left off in the Hall of the Cocarde and we are looking at the only surviving Armee de l'Air North American F-86K Sabre on display in France. The last of 60 examples supplied to France, the F-86K all-weather interceptor was a NATO specified export variant of the F-86D Sabre Dog, with notable changes from the original, such as the absence of the underbelly Mk.4 unguided rocket launcher, instead is fitted with four 20mm cannon, nor were they fitted with the Hughes E-4 Fire Control System (FCS), instead fitted with the MG-4 FCS and were fitted with the AN/APG-37 all-weather radar. Another change was the modification to carry AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs, implemented on French aircraft halfway through their brief service in 1959. Built under licence by Fiat in Italy, only two Armee de l'Air units operated the type, first acquired in 1956 and replaced by the Mirage IIIC six years later; these were EC I/13 "Artois" and EC II/13 "Alpes" based at Colmar-Myenheim Air Base in the Alsace region near the German border. In Armee de l'Air service the aircraft had a charmed existence as an interceptor of high flying Soviet bombers, suffering some 22 incidents, including the death of an engineer sucked into the intake of a running aircraft in 1958, with only six hull losses. On retirement, 22 of the aircraft were sent back to Italy and distributed to Central and South American countries, while, 15 went to the United States and the remaining airframes were scrapped at Colmar-Myenheim, their home for their brief sojourn in France.




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Next is the last of Dassault's line of Mystère jet fighter airframes, the MD-456 Super Mystère. The first truly supersonic in level flight European in-service jet fighter, the Super Mystère was based, not surprisingly on the Mystère IV airframe, of which we've seen previously during our museum visit, which was supersonic in a dive only. It bears the distinction of being the first French designed jet fighter with a French developed powerplant and not a licence built variant of a foreign engine, the 7,500 lb thrust SNECMA Atar 101G-2. Beginning production in 1957, a total of 180 were built, remaining in Armee de l'Air service until 1977 as strike fighters until replaced by the Mirage F1. Here's what wiki has to say about their export career:

"In addition, 24 aircraft were sold to the Israeli Air Force in 1958. The aircraft saw action in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. They were well liked by the Israeli pilots and were a match for the Arab MiG-19 aircraft in air-to-air combat. In 1973, the Israeli Air Force and Honduras Air Force upgraded their Super Mystère B.2s with a non-afterburning version of the Pratt & Whitney J52-P8A and new avionics. In Israeli service these upgraded SMB.2s were also known as the IAI Sa'ar (after a Hebrew word meaning "storm").

In 1976, Israel sold 12 complete airframes to Honduras. In 1979, Honduras purchased 4 more complete airframes, totaling 16 aircraft. They were involved in numerous border skirmishes with Sandinistan Nicaragua and were finally withdrawn from service in 1996, replaced by 12 Northrop F-5Es. The 11 surviving aircraft are for sale as surplus and 1 more is preserved at the Museo del Aire de Honduras at Toncontin International Airport."




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Now, you'd think that with an aircraft as widespread as the North American T-6, it would be easy to find out about the use of the type with the Armee de l'Air, but firm details are few and far between, suffice to say, more than 1,000 T-6s were used by the French and the type saw conflict in that bloodiest of post-war France involved conflicts, the Algerian War of Independence. Wiki has a very detailed page on this nasty war that escapes the attention of the English speaking world: Algerian War - Wikipedia

As with the A-1 Skyraider in the World War Two hangar, the T-6G saw combat with the Escadrilles d'aviation légère d'appui, or EALA for short as the most numerous of the many different types operated in theatre as light attack aircraft. At the time, the French threw in everything they could in use, including an AAC.1 Toucan, or Junkers Ju 52/3m (!), as well as Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and its descendant the F-84F Thunderstreak, which we'll see later, with pilot training for this hazardous role being provided in France in the angular Morane Saulnier MS.475 Vanneau two-seat training aircraft. In March 1956 the first 150 of nearly 700 examples of the T-6G were ordered from the USA, arriving at SFERMA at Bordeaux-Mérignac for conversion for Armee de l'Air use before being sent to Algeria. More than thirty units of EALA were equipped with the type, this particular one wearing the markings of 8/72 "Dog's Head" based at Tebessa in the northeast of Algeria - of note, if it was Cheikh Larbi Tébessa Airport that the unit was based at, that airport was constructed for use by the USAAF's 12th Air Force during WW2, in use by the 31st Fighter Group operating Supermarine Spitfires, but I digress... Below the T-6 is the cockpit section of a Potez Fouga CM-170R Magister, with the Mirage F1 Cristal behind, and peaking out just below the right hand wheel is the nose of a Morane Saulnier MS.472 Vanneau, differing from the MS.475 mentioned above by dint of its radial powerplant.




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Apparently, T-6G losses were heavy and the aircraft was generally underpowered for the armed operations it was engaged in in the North African heat and it was replaced with the T-28 Trojan, or Fennec in French use. Small arms fire also claimed many aircraft in theatre. Nominal armament of the T-6G with EALA was 7.5mm pack guns fitted with two guns each, 68mm SNEB unguided rocket launchers as fitted to our example, 127mm T.10 unguided rockets, napalm canisters and various sizes of small bombs, all carried under the wings. Normally, the T-6Gs were bare aluminium, with the tricoleur in the usual places and insignia of the various units, as well as the all-over yellow as seen here.




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Next up is the prototype of the last of the Mirage line in Armee de l'Air service, the Mirage 2000-01. Delivered to the museum in 1988, Here is a snippet of information from Wiki France (hence the slightly vague English) on the development of the Mirage 2000 that led to our titular airframe:

"In 1972, the French Air Force launched the Future Combat Aircraft (ACF) program, for which it requested a twin-engine aircraft equipped with Snecma M53 and with a fixed wing, intended for air superiority missions. While preparing a response to this call for tenders, the manufacturer Dassault Aviation launched the study of a single-jet delta aircraft called "Delta 2000" on private funds the following year. On December 12, 1975, the ACF program was discontinued, due to cost issues, and the government decided to adopt the Delta 2000 project instead.

Four prototypes of a single-seat fighter aircraft (Mirage 2000C) were officially ordered in 1976. They must be powered by a 7.5-t thrust M53-2 engine, pending the more powerful M53-5 for standard aircraft. The first prototype made its maiden flight on March 10, 1978. The first series aircraft took off on 20 November 1982, equipped with the M53-5 reactor, and deliveries to the French Air Force began the following year. On July 2, 1984, the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of the Air Force, the 2nd Fighter Wing, stationed in Dijon, was the first squadron to receive the Mirage 2000. The first 37 series aircraft come with an RDM radar (Radar Doppler Multifunction), as the development of the RDI (Radar Doppler to Impulses) radar is proving difficult. It was not until 1987 that the first copies finally equipped with the RDI radar were delivered, and they also received an even more powerful M53-P2 reactor (9,700 kgp)."




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Now the final airframe of the Hall of the Cocarde, a Republic F-84F Thunderstreak. Another Mutual defense Assistance Program airframe, the F-84F was another type, like the F-86K previously seen that was delivered in numbers to NATO countries, becoming numerically the most important aircraft in the Armee de l'Air, from 1955 with 384 examples supplied. These were all built under licence by General Motors as the F-84F-46 GK. Remaining in service for 11 years with the air force, five fighter units were equipped with the type. Decorated as 727 "3-VA" this one is devoid of unit markings and nothing is known of its history. Originally, the aircraft was displayed as "4-VA", but this was changed to its current marking in honour of an aircraft that operated during the Anglo-French-Israeli Suez Crisis of November 1956, apparently. Not really visible in my reduced resolution shot, but faint evidence of the '4' can be made out around the '3' if one looks closely at the real thing.




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Used in combat during the aforementioned Suez Crisis, aircraft of all five air force units saw detachment to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus during the rather controversial invasion of Egypt. Carrying out attacks on Egyptian airfields between the 1st and 5th November, as well as attacking Egyptian armour, only one F-84 was lost in the operation. The type was also to see action during the Algerian War of Independence mentioned earlier here. Since the French F-84Fs were supplied under US jurisdiction, most ended up being returned to the United States, although there are a few remaining in France as museum pieces, as a very common type on display in Western European aviation museums. We say goodbye to the Hall of the Cocarde and progress to our next destination, with this parting shot of the F-84F from the rear, showing its perforated air brakes deployed.




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See you in the Hall des Voilures Tournantes!

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## nuuumannn (Jan 15, 2021)

Crimea_River said:


> It would be interesting to start a thread about types that the French did NOT use!



There can't be many, but of the types the French Air Force did use that are _not_ part of the museum collection, I'd like to see a Dornier Do 335, He 274, Ju 88, Ki-43, P-39...

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## Crimea_River (Jan 15, 2021)

Wouldn't we all!?

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## Gnomey (Jan 16, 2021)

Excellent shots Grant!


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## nuuumannn (Jul 5, 2021)

So, it's been a while since I did anything on this thread but I thought I'd continue while I'm on a semester break. We left the Musee at the Hall of the Cocarde and now we are in the Hall des Voilures Tournantes and start with the Pescara rotorcraft in the entrance. Firstly, Argentina-born Raul Pateras Pescara was something of a polymath and was trained as an engineer and a lawyer whilst conceiving a variety of aircraft designs not limited to rotorcraft. Before the Great War, he dabbled in the design of a torpedo-carrying seaplane of basic design, attempting to convince the Italian Naval Ministry of the feasibility of the concept and it was Capt Guidoni of the Italian Navy that carried lead weights in a canoe-shaped fairing that was dropped from a modified Farman seaplane in 1914, but the Farman was not powerful enough to carry a full-size torpedo aloft. On 26 February 1914, the Pescara-Guidoni PP twin float monoplane seaplane fitted with hydrovanes on its floats lifted an 875 lb dummy torpedo into the air and dropped it; this is recognised as the first airdropping of a torpedo from an aircraft, despite the torpedo being a dummy. Pescara's next aerial venture was rotorcraft and although by the time he began investigating them, the first helicopter had flown - Paul Cornu's pioneering rotorcraft first got airborne in 1907 - existing designs, such as those of his rival Étienne Oehmichen were, although more sophisticated were driven by secondary rotor blades for forward motion. Pescara's rotorcraft had no secondary means of propulsion except the main rotors. Pescara's rotorcraft in the Hall des Voilures Tournantes showing its contra-rotating biplane rotors.




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Evidently, Pescara got around as his first helicopter was built in Barcelona, Spain in 1919, being completed in 1920, but powered by a 45 hp Hispano Suiza engine was not capable of lifting itself off the ground. Moving to Paris, France he received government funding from Service Technique de I'Aeronautique
and his No.2 was capable of hovering about 1 and a half metres above the ground for short periods of time in 1922. His No.3 (named the No.2F in France) however was the breakthrough aircraft; powered by a 180 hp Hisso vee eight engine cooled by a Lamblin radiator mounted vertically in its tail, its rotors were biplane blades that were capable of warping in flight to alter their pitch, which enabled the coaxial rotors to achieve lift and thrust. In January 1924 named _The Marquis Pateras _the No.3 achieved a record for rotor-wing craft by remaining in the air for 8 minutes and 13 seconds. Pescara's machine became the first rotorcraft to achieve a 1-kilometre closed circuit, which Pescara achieved in a time of 10 minutes and 33 seconds, but his attempt at the Grand Prix was disqualified as the aircraft hit the ground and sustained damage during the flight. After further distance and height records achieved by the No.3, Pescara lost interest in his new toy and he returned to Spain and went into automobile manufacturing. The Pescara aircraft in the Hall des Voilures Tournantes is unusual as it has the features of the No.3 but with a radial engine and devoid of the Lamblin radiator in its tail, but its rotor layout is the same. The museum's website doesn't identify the type, other than stating it's a Pescara design. Close up of the radial engine and rotor stem.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 112

From an elevated position, the rotor layout can be appreciated.




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This bizarre contraption was built by Pescara's rival Étienne Oehmichen, whose rotorcraft designs appeared at around the same time as Pescara's but were larger and less practical, relying on four main rotors unable to be actuated, for lift, and a series of wooden propellers mounted at different locations and plains around the crucifix framework that made up the body of his aircraft, for thrust. Like Pescara, Oehmichen was a capable individual who trained as a biologist but was also an inventor, who built a camera capable of shooting 1,000 frames per second. Beginning at around the same time as Pescara, Oehmichen's first helicopter first hovered in 1921 but his No.2, first flying in 1922 was the first reliable rotorcraft, and owing to its fixed-pitch rotors, the small propellers led to the development of the tail rotor as a means of steering the aircraft, which is universally applied to helicopters today. This device, Oehmichen's No.6 was, strictly speaking not a helicopter, but a steerable balloon with take-off and landing lift augmented by four upward-facing propellers he called a Hélicostat. Built in 1931, it was designed to be able to operate without ground crew, which lighter-than-aircraft relied on in numbers back then, so the theory went, although Oehmichen tested it inside the big airship shed at Orly it never saw practical flight. It was donated to the museum in February 1936.




DSC_0313

This next rotorcraft is as bizarre a concept as the Hélicostat, but was applied successfully in its original designed role, that of observation. The Focke-Achgelis Fa 330A-0 Bachstelze (Water Wagtail) was an unpowered rotor kite carried by U boats. Here's a comprehensive description from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: "The navy asked Focke-Achgelis GmbH to build a rotor kite that a U-boat could tow aloft to search for targets. The aircraft had to fly high enough to substantially boost the scouting range, yet remain small, easy to store, and mechanically simple to maintain and operate. Focke-Achgelis proposed a clever design best characterized by simplicity. The Fa 330 was simple to fabricate, easy to assemble on deck for flight, and weighed so little that two men could comfortably hoist the entire machine. The Fa 330 needed no engine because the submarine towed the gyro kite through the air. Like a gyroplane, the rotor kite flew by autorotation, meaning that the movement of relative wind through the rotors caused them to turn with sufficient speed to generate lift.

The airframe consisted of two 6.35 cm (2.5 in) diameter steel tubes joined to form an inverted 'T.' One tube served as the fuselage of the aircraft, which mounted the pilot's seat and rear control surfaces. The other tube served as the rotor mast. A control stick hung from the blade hub atop the mast. The pilot moved the stick for direct (no intervening control linkage) pitch and roll control, and he used foot pedals to move the large rudder and control yaw. The horizontal stabilizer had no moving control surfaces. Weight was saved on the rotor hub by using steel cables to support the blades against blade droop when the aircraft was not flying. The cables also limited the blades' range of movement when during flight. Instrumentation consisted of an altimeter, airspeed indicator, and tachometer. Its landing gear consisted of two small skids.

The three-bladed rotor turned freely but was limited to 250 rpm. This limit was reached if the aircraft attained a never-exceed speed of 80 kph (50 mph). Normal flight rpm was about 205 at a standard towing airspeed of 40 km/h (25 mph). A minimum speed of 27 kph (17 mph) was required to maintain autorotation. Blade pitch could only be set before flight by turning adjustment screws. The blades used flapping and dragging hinges equipped with variable dampers. The rotor blades consisted of a 3.2 m (10 ft 4 in) steel spar that supported plywood ribs. The blades were 0.3 m (12 in) wide and skinned with fabric-covered plywood. The blade airfoil was almost symmetrical. The blades were precisely balanced during the manufacturing process, which eliminated the need for difficult and time-consuming manual balancing at sea.

The Fa-330 was stowed in two tubes of approximately 3.75 meters (12 ft 4in) length built vertically into the U-boat's conning tower. One tube contained the blades and tail and the other contained the fuselage. Four crewmen could assemble the entire structure in three minutes in calm conditions. Rotation of the blades in preparation for flight could be done by hand, but if a course pitch (which provided the best operating performance) was preset on the rotor blades this became extremely difficult. In that case, a rope wrapped around the drum on the rotor hub was used to get the rotor turning. The Fa 330 took off from a small platform attached to the aft railing of the U-boat's conning tower. A towline extended from an electric winch to a quick release coupling on the Fa 330. Since the primary duty of the Fa 330 was to spot suitable targets, communication with the towing vessel was essential. The pilot used an interphone system that consisted of a telephone cable, which paralleled the towline. Upon landing a rotor brake was provided to quickly stop the rotor spinning. Disassembly time was not much greater than that required for assembly. If the U-boat came under attack and had to make a crash dive the pilot could pull a quick-release lever above the seat, and the towline would separate from the aircraft in addition to releasing the rotor hub from the mast. As the rotors departed they pulled a line out, which deployed a parachute. Once the parachute opened, the pilot released his seat buckle, which allowed the remainder of the aircraft structure to fall away. Additionally, the towline quick-release coupling could be manually operated without engaging the rotor release."

This example, Wk Nr 100150 served aboard U 196 and was recovered in Bordeaux and tested by the French navy in the wind tunnel at Chalaix-Meudon in July 1945. Elements from two other Bachstelzes were used in its restoration.




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This particular autogyro is quite famous when on 18 September 1928 it became the first rotorcraft to fly internationally when it crossed the English Channel and arrived in France. The only Avro built Cierva C.8L Mk.II, this aircraft is based on the fuselage and engine of the Avro 504N two-seat trainer powered by a 180 hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IV and received the Avro type designation Type 611 and the civil registration G-EBYY. Built in 1928, the C.8L Mk.II was ordered by Air Commodore James 'Jimmy' Weir, Scottish industrialist and financial backer and chairman of the Cierva Autogiro Company, which, devoid of facilities of its own contracted the construction of aircraft fitted with Juan de la Cierva's rotor technology to different aircraft firms, including Avro. Front view of G-EBYY.




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Test flown by famed Australian aviator Bert Hinkler at Hamble, it took part in the King's Cup Air Race at Hendon on 20 July but it was forced to retire after a forced landing due to fuel shortage. In August, test pilot A. H. Rawson flew it on a 3,000-mile tour of principal airports around the UK, stopping at Jimmy Weir's estate at Dalrymple, near Turnhouse, Edinburgh. During its successful Channel crossing, it was flown by Cierva himself with French journalist Henri Bouché of the magazine _La Aéronautique_ as a passenger, from Croydon to Le Bourget, making stops at Saint-Ingelvert and Abbeville. After service in various individual hands in France, it remarkably survived World War Two and was exhibited in the museum sometime after the war.




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This next autogyro is the SNCASE C.302 and was built under licence following experience building Cierva C.30s by Lioré et Olivier (LeO) in 1931. Nationalised as a part of SNCASE in 1937, LeO manufactured around 100 C.30s and 120 of the French specific C.301 powered by a 175 hp Salmson 9 nine-cylinder engine as opposed to the Armstrong Siddeley engine in the C.30. Four LeO C.30s went to Groupe Aérien d'Observation 504 at Chartres in 1937 as the French military's first rotorcraft but were not fully operational at the time of the German invasion in May 1940 as there could not be found a practical use for them. Built from salvaged parts, two C.302s were cobbled together by SNCASE after World War Two and were similar to the C.301 apart from an altered rotor head, which enabled the rotor to be driven by the engine for what was known as a jumping start, a near-vertical take-off, although after take-off the rotor was disengaged from the engine drive shaft. This one, F-BDAD was the second built and was formerly a part of an aero club at the SNCASE airfield at Marignane before coming to the museum. It's seen here with Channel crossing Cierva C.8L Mk.II G-EBYY for comparison.




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This Piasecki HUP-2 Retriever represents one of 15 operated by the Aeronavale between 1953 and 1965, although it is an ex-US Navy example gifted to the museum and decorated in the markings of No.130086 of Escadrille 23S at Saint-Mandrier in 1954, the unit being the first in the Aeronavale to operate helicopters. The Aeronavale Retrievers were primarily used for plane guard and utility duties aboard the French aircraft carriers of the LaFayette Class, the former USS Langley as LaFayette and USS Belleau Wood as Bois Belleau, and the Colossus Class Carrier Arromanches, formerly HMS Colossus.




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A ubiquitous Bell 47, construction number 710, F-MBCV.




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Finally for today, this is the SNCASO SO.1220 Djinn, the first helicopter powered by a gas turbine that drove rotor tip jets. Powered by a single Turboméca Palouste 4, this is the second prototype of the production SO.1221 Djinn; wiki describes the use of the tip jets in detail: "The Sud-Ouest Djinn was the first tip-jet propelled rotorcraft to enter production. As such, the propulsion system involved a Turbomeca Palouste gas turbine engine that drove a pump to produce compressed air, which was in turn fed into the aircraft's hollow rotor blades to exit at their tips, causing the blades to rotate. The rotor hub assembly, which freely oscillated around a spherical thrust bearing, was mounted on a steel pylon by means of a ball joint and rubber shock absorbers. Unlike some of the experimental tip-jet designs of the era, a 'cold' tip-jet approach was used: that there was no combustion activity present at the exhaust nozzles installed at the ends of the rotor blades. Consequently, the nozzles produced little noise in operation, and were claimed by Sud-Ouest to be "noiseless".

The all-metal rotor blades, through which the compressed air travelled to be ejected at the blade tips, consist of a spar of tapering thickness, a honeycomb-filled trailing edge, and feature faired roots to increase their lift coefficient. It was claimed that the blades possessed a highly homogenous structure, a highly finished surface and a constant profile, and could be easily dismantled to facilitate inspection of the main spar. The blade had no risk of icing owing to the internal current of warm air. The Djinn used relatively standard flight controls, such as the collective pitch control (upon which the throttle was positioned) and adjustable friction trims."

Making its first flight on 2 January 1953, 178 examples of the Djinn were built, with the type seeing military service with the Armee de l'Air and the Bundeswehr.




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Next, more rotorcraft...

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## Wurger (Jul 5, 2021)




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## rochie (Jul 5, 2021)

great stuff Grant.

that No2F thingy looks like a Wile e Coyote ACME contraption !

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## Crimea_River (Jul 5, 2021)

Good to see you back at this Grant and hope the last term went well.

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## Airframes (Jul 5, 2021)

Good stuff Grant.

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## Gnomey (Jul 5, 2021)

Lovely shots Grant!

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## nuuumannn (Jul 5, 2021)

Thanks guys.



Crimea_River said:


> Good to see you back at this Grant and hope the last term went well.



It did thanks Andy; final results for the subjects of last semester saw two As and two Bs, which I'll take! I got a C in a couple of essays, hence the Bs, but, as they say, "a Cee is a Degree"! This semester I have another four papers, including Air Power and The History of Aviation, which I might enjoy a little more than I should!

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## nuuumannn (Jul 5, 2021)

More French rotorcraft, first up, two of the best and most successful French helicopter designs. Whilst the Djinn was the first turbine-powered rotorcraft produced in substantial numbers, the SNCASE SE.3130 Alouette (Lark) II was one of the first truly practical turbine-powered rotorcraft put into production and with some 1,324 units built in France, one of the most successful. A derivative, which was equally a success is the SA315B Lama, which combines the powerplant of the later Alouette III with the frame of the Alouette II. This is the prototype Alouette II, the Alouette I was built in prototype form only. It made its last flight on 3 October 1995 when it flew into Le Bourget for display in the museum.




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A production example of the Aérospatiale SA.319 Alouette III of which over 2,000 were built; this Gendarmerie example flew 13,478 flying hours and saved the lives of 16,087 people over a 35-year span.




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France was the largest foreign operator of the Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw, with a total of 289 of them in French hands, with Sud Aviation assembling the first 134 from kits supplied from the manufacturer in 1959 and building under licence a further 155. The type saw service in all three branches of the French armed forces and saw combat use in the nasty Algerian liberation war. This is the very first example delivered by Sud Aviation, registered as F-ZAGP.




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The replacement for the excellent Alouette series was the SA.341 Gazelle (Gazelle in English  ), which was initially developed by Aérospatiale but also produced by Westland of the UK and became as much as an international success, with over 1,700 of them built between 1967 and 1996, 262 at Westland's Yeovil production facility, and limited production by SOKO in the former Yugoslavia. It was the first production helicopter to be fitted with a Fenestron enclosed tail rotor (and was the model for the very cool and memorable Blue Thunder helicopter!) and features composite rotor blades fitted to a fixed rotor head. Still in service with the French and British armed forces, as well as with several other countries in both civil and military form, the Gazelle is by far and away one of the most successful French helicopters in terms of longevity. The museum example is a conventional production type and saw service with _Aviation légère de l’armée de Terre,_ ALAT, literally Land Army Light Aviation.




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The Gazelle has earned the nickname the Flying Drumstick; from above, it's easy to see why...




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This is Breguet Aviation's only post-war dive into the world of rotorcraft, and, being that it was not put into production after this sole example built, it was not a success. Louis Breguet began an interest in rotorcraft with his Breguet-Richet Gyroplane built in 1907 which managed to get off the ground but was not sufficiently powerful to lift itself into the air for sustained flight - it only flew whilst restrained. In 1935 however he built the coaxial rotor Gyroplane Laboratoire, which successfully flew, but its development was stifled by a hard landing in June 1939 and with the German invasion of France in May 1940 it was abandoned altogether. Breguet began his next design whilst under the German yoke as the G.34 and this became the basis of the G.111 design seen in the museum, initially designated the G.11E.




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Wiki tells us more: "Though a much larger aircraft [than the Gyroplane Laboratoire], the G.11E used the same coaxial, three-blade twin-rotor layout as on the Gyroplane Laboratoire. It was initially powered by a fan-cooled 179 kW (240 hp) Potez 9E nine-cylinder radial engine mounted amidships, under the concentric rotor shafts. There was a 6.5:1 speed reduction gearing between the engine and the rotor drive. The rotors are built around tapered tube spars, which carry ribs and are Dural clad at the leading edges and with alloy over 3-ply elsewhere. They are mounted on flapping hinges and have drag hinge dampers. The control column alters cyclic pitch via a pair of swashplates and pedals make torque corrections and control yaw by changing the relative collective pitch of the two rotors. A mechanical inertial governor limited rotor accelerations; the pilot could increase the collective pitch over that set by the governor but not below it, emergencies apart."

"The G.11E's fuselage has a tapered, oval section. The forward part is a light alloy monocoque containing the well-glazed cockpit, accessed by two sliding doors. The rear fuselage is a steel tube structure, covered in fabric, bearing a tall T-tail with a moving, one-piece tailplane which corrected the cyclic pitch via the control column to prevent once per revolution pitch oscillations. A wide track undercarriage has main wheels mounted on horizontal V-struts from the fuselage bottom and with a single bracing strut to the mid-fuselage on each side. The first flight was made on 21 May 1949 but tests showed that the G.11E was underpowered, so a decision was made to replace the Potez engine with a bigger nine-cylinder radial, a 336 kW (450 hp) Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior. The type name was changed to G.111 and some re-design accompanied the power increase; the rotor diameter was increased by 1.00 m (3 ft 3 in) and the fuselage lengthened by 480 mm (1 ft 7 in) to include two more seats so that four passengers could be carried. Empty and maximum weights increased to 1,476 kg (3,254 lb) and 1,476 kg (3,254 lb) respectively."




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Finally for today and the Hall des Voilures Tournantes, the SNCASO SO.1110 Ariel II, a peculiar development combining the efficiency of jet propulsion and the practicality of a piston engine in an overweight and needlessly complex mess of a helicopter! From wiki: "The S.O.1100 Ariel I was first flown in 1947, it was a light all-metal helicopter with an enclosed two-seat cabin. Power was provided by a Mathis G8 engine which drove a Turbomeca compressor. The low-pressure air output from the compressor was ducted to each of the three rotor blades to the ends of each blade. At the tip of each blade was a combustion chamber where the air was mixed with fuel and ignited. The Ariel had a short tail boom with twin vertical tail surfaces. On 23 March 1949. an improved S.O.1110 Ariel II was flown, it was a similar configuration to the Ariel I was had revised tail surfaces. The final variant was the S.O.1120 Ariel III which had a combined Turbomeca Arrius turbine-compressor rather than the two units of the earlier aircraft. With the space made from the power changes, an extra seat was fitted. Another difference was the tail unit, the Ariel II had a single fin and rudder and used jet efflux from the turbine to provide directional control, a directional vane linked to the rudder directed the efflux."

With the complicated means of propulsion adding considerable weight to a basic airframe, the Ariel was not proceeded with but did lead to the Djinn, the first turbine-powered helicopter to be put into production.




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In the next instalment, the Hall de l’Entre-Duex-Guerres...

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## Wurger (Jul 6, 2021)



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## Gnomey (Jul 7, 2021)

Good shots Grant!

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## nuuumannn (Jul 13, 2021)

Onto the Hall de l’Entre-Deux-Guerres, or Between-the-Wars Hall and some intriguing civilian operated aeroplanes, beginning with this Dewoitine D.530 fighter demonstration aircraft. The D.530 was the last of Emile Dewoitine's lightweight parasol fighters, exemplified by the excellent little D.27, which was designed to meet a 1926 specification for a lightweight fighter and remained in Swiss military service with the Fliegertruppe until 1940. Following structural issues with the D.27's wing design, Dewoitine reworked the aircraft to produce the newly designated D.53, of which only seven were completed, including a single example designated D.532 fitted with a supercharged Rolls-Royce Kestrel. This aircraft demonstrated excellent performance for its time, but oscillation in the empennage resulted in the Kestrel being replaced with a 500 hp Hispano-Suiza HS.12Mb and a redesignation as the D.534. Two D.531s powered by HS.12Mb engines served in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side, where they were known as _Dewoitinillos_ or _Dewoitine pequenos, _or Little Dewoitines since the bigger D.371 fighter was in use in theatre. Note that the French system of designation saw the original design furnished with a numerical designator, such as D.53, with subsequent variants with significant differences, such as different engines or armament from the base model receiving sequential numerical suffixes after the initial designator. The D.530 from the side as you enter the building.





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Powered by a 500 hp Hispano-Suiza HS.12Mb, the only example of the pugnacious D.530 never saw military service with the Armée de l'Air and was released from the Argenteuil factory for use by famed aerobatic pilot Marcel Doret as a demonstration aircraft at international aerobatic meets. Born in 1896, Doret enlisted with the army during the Great War, but after injury transferred to aviation at the tender age of 18, where his piloting skills were noted, becoming a test pilot post-war, firstly with Renault, then after being noticed by Emile Dewoitine, with his firm at Toulouse, rising to the status of Chief Test Pilot with Dewoitine. During his career, he partook in a number of long-distance flights, one of which was an attempt at a flight from Paris to Tokyo in 1931, but the aircraft crashed due to icing over the Urals and Doret was the only survivor of his three-man crew. As an aerobatic pilot, he earned fame in France, coming third at a meet at Dübendorf, Switzerland in 1927, against famous German pilot Gerhard Fieseler. Following this meet, the two pilots devised an aerobatic competition to be held at Berlin's Tempelhof aerodrome later that year, which over 100,000 spectators witnessed, where each pilot was to fly each other's aeroplanes. Doret was crowned "King Of The Air", but the honour was short-lived as Fieseler was crowned aerobatic World Champion in 1934 in Paris. This is, of course, the very same Gerhard Fieseler of the aircraft company responsible for the little-known and not very prevalent (sarcasm) Fi-156 Storch observation aircraft, which was built in France post-war as the Morane-Saulnier Criquet. Doret's last mount as an aerobatic pilot displaying its brutish nasal features.




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Remaining loyal to Dewoitine during the war, Doret commanded 1 Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (FFI) Groupe de Chasse, composite squadron operating the D.520 fighter and thus saw combat in two world wars as an aviator, but post-war, Doret continued to fly the D.530 during public aerobatic demonstrations until his death in 1955 of cancer, his last flight shortly before his passing. Decorated with the sunburst red stripes on its upper wing and hori-stab surfaces as a reminder of the D.27 that he flew at many of his Between-the-Wars displays, the Dewoitine survives in honour of Doret's skill as an airman and holds a special place in the museum's collection.




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An example of the extensively used Hispano-Suiza 12Y Moteur Cannon engine, this one a 12Y-45 variant that powered the famous, or rather infamous D.520 fighter, which wiki.fr tells us about: "A real effort to improve the performance of the engine in 1938 resulted in the Hispano-Suiza 12Y-45, which used the S-39-H3 supercharger co-designed by André Planiol and Polish engineer Joseph Szydlowski. The Szydlowski-Planiol device was larger, but much more efficient than the indifferent Hispano-Suiza models. When used with 100 octane fuel, the supercharger boosted to the -21's 7:1, increasing power to 900 hp (670 kW). Combined with the Ratier constant-speed propeller, this allowed the D.520 to perform as well as contemporary designs from Germany and England."




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An example of the less successful Hisso 18R engine, the 18Sbr originally developed for the Schneider Trophy races, information of which from wiki.fr:

"After failing to enter the Schneider Trophy seaplane race for several years, the French Ministère de l’Air decided to enter the 1929 competition. Two companies were tasked with designing and building floatplane racers to compete with the entries from Italy and Great Britain, resulting in the Nieuport-Delage NiD-450 and Bernard H.V.120, both of which were powered by the specially designed Hispano-Suiza 18R engines.

To power the racers Hispano-Suiza married three six-cylinder blocks from the Hispano-Suiza 12Nb to a common crankshaft/crankcase, set at 80° to each other. Retaining the 150 mm (5.91 in) bore and 170 mm (6.69 in) stroke of the 12Nb, the 18R had the compression ratio increased from 6.25:1 to 10:1 with a total displacement of 54.075L (3,299.8ci). Each cylinder aspirated through two valves operated by single overhead cam-shafts with ignition from two spark plugs set on opposite sides of the combustion chamber supplied by magnetos at the rear of the engine. Fuel metering was carried out by nine carburetors each supplying two cylinders.

Construction of the 18R was largely of Elektron magnesium alloy for body components with high strength steels for highly loaded parts such as the crankshaft. In common with many multiple bank and radial engines the pistons were connected to the crankshaft via master and slave connecting rods; the central vertical bank was served by the master rod which housed the big-end bearing with connecting rods articulating from this to the other two banks. The 18R was available with or without a Farman (bevel planetary) reduction gear.

Development issues delayed production of the engine, with the first geared drive engine delivered to Nieuport-Delage in October 1929, a month after the 1929 Schneider Trophy race. Despite the effort put into its development the 18R proved to be unreliable and unable to achieve the expected power output. The poor performance of the 18R prompted the development of the 18S, a de-rated version intended for commercial use. Reducing the compression ratio to 6.2:1 at a maximum rpm of 2,000 and replacing the Elektron with aluminium alloy, the 18S was available with or without the Farman reduction gear, but was not a success, only powering the Ford 14A in the pylon mounted central nacelle."

The engine's career was not a success, only powering four individual aeroplanes, all Schneider Trophy racers, but it could not compete against its contemporaries produced by Rolls-Royce.




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An example of the Daimler Benz DB602 V-16 diesel engine, of which five powered the giant airship LZ 129 Hindenburg. Some information: "Each of Hindenburg’s four LOF-6 (DB-602) 16-cylinder engines had an output of 1320 hp @ 1650 RPM (maximum power), and 900 hp @ 1480 RPM. The normal cruise setting was 1350 RPM, generating approximately 850 hp, and this setting was usually not adjusted during an ocean crossing. The engines were started with compressed air, and could be started, stopped, and reversed in flight. Using 2:1 reduction gearing, each engine drove a 4-bladed, fixed-pitch, 19.7′ diameter metal-sheathed wooden propeller (created from two 2-bladed props fused together)."

From here, a bumper page packed with juicy detail about the Hindenburg: Hindenburg Design and Technology | Airships.net

The DB 602, or LOF.6 was originally designed in the early 1930s and rivalled the engine type of the British Airship R.101, the Beardmore Tornado in power output, but was significantly lighter, reflecting both Benz's knowledge of metallurgy in engine construction and Beardmore's decision to develop the Tornado from a locomotive engine. Modified for marine applications, the engine saw use in a triple installation in four of the notorious Schnellboote fast torpedo boats, in S 10 through 13.




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joining the Junkers Jumo 211 previously mentioned at the museum is this Jumo 205, an example of the first and for many years the only aviation types of diesel in regular operation. Info for the technophiles from wiki:

"These engines all used a two-stroke cycle with 12 pistons sharing six cylinders, piston crown to piston crown in an opposed configuration. This unusual configuration required two crankshafts, one at the bottom of the cylinder block and the other at the top, geared together. The pistons moved towards each other during the operating cycle. Intake and exhaust manifolds were duplicated on both sides of the block. Two cam-operated injection pumps per cylinder were used, each feeding two nozzles, for four nozzles per cylinder in all.

As is typical of two-stroke designs, the Jumos used no valves, but rather fixed intake and exhaust port apertures cut into the cylinder liners during their manufacture, which were uncovered when the pistons reached a certain point in their strokes. Normally, such designs have poor volumetric efficiency because both ports open and close at the same time and are generally located across from each other in the cylinder. This leads to poor scavenging of the burnt charge, which is why valveless two-strokes generally produce smoke and are inefficient.

The Jumo solved this problem to a very large degree through clever arrangement of the ports. The intake port was located under the "lower" piston, while the exhaust port was under the "upper". The lower crankshaft ran 11° behind the upper, meaning that the exhaust ports opened, and even more importantly, closed first, allowing proper scavenging. This system made the two-stroke Jumos run as cleanly and almost as efficiently as four-stroke engines using valves, but with considerably less complexity.

Some downside exists to this system, as well. For one, since matching pistons were not closing at quite the same time, but one ran "ahead" of the other, the engine could not run as smoothly as a true opposed-style engine. In addition, the power from the two opposing crankshafts had to be geared together, adding weight and complexity, a problem the design shared with H-block engines.

In the Jumo, these problems were avoided to some degree by taking power primarily from the "upper" shaft, somewhat offset upwards on the engine's front end. All of the accessories, such as fuel pumps, injectors and the scavenging compressor, were run from the lower shaft, meaning over half of its power was already used up. What was left over was then geared to the upper shaft, which ran the engine's propeller. In all, about three-quarters of the power to the engine's propeller came from the upper crankshaft. In theory, the flat layout of the engine could have allowed it to be installed inside the thick wings of larger aircraft, such as airliners and bombers. Details of the oil scavenging system suggest this was not possible and the engine had to be run "vertically", as it was on all designs using it.

Because the temperature of the exhaust gases of the Jumo diesel engines was substantially lower than that of comparable carburettor engines, it was easier to add a turbocharger for higher altitudes. This was explored in the Jumo 207 which used the energy of the exhaust gases to increase the power at high altitudes."

The engine saw use in World War Two in nautically inclined aircraft as the Blohm und Voss Bv 138 trimotor flying boat and the massive Bv 222 Wiking six engined flying boat, Dornier Do 18 and 26 flying boats, and the land-based Ju 86 bomber. Note the triangular Junkers badges on the front and below the upper casing.




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Lastly for today, another Junkers product, the ground-breaking F 13 passenger aircraft, the world's first all-metal airliner. Seeing service on almost every continent, the F 13 had a lengthy and distinguished career, first flying on 25 June 1919, signifying a technological leap forward and the eventual resurgence of Germany as an aeronautical power in the Between-the-Wars years, despite the country being racked by treaty restrictions. The museum's F 13 was one of seven seized by France as war reparations, this one being Nr 609.




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Junkers' corrugated aircraft features similar construction techniques, not being built like other aircraft types out of longitudinals, frames, and stringers covered in a semi-monocoque stressed skin outer covering. Instead, Junkers built the aircraft's skin as complete sections without separate internal bracing; the fuselage featuring bulkheads that provided shape that was covered in sections of outer skin with partial framework attached to the skin interior and the external corrugation layer providing rigidity. The wings were the same in that they did not feature internal ribs as conventional wing structures did, the supporting structure is built into the wing outer skin that fits over a multi-spar structure, with frames for rigidity at juncture locations, such as where the wings attach to the fuselage but not uniformly throughout. The Ju 87, a smooth-skinned Junkers type also featured this method of construction. Typical of the Junkers externally corrugated method, the F.13 resembles a backyard shed in appearance, a front-on view doing little to dispel the notion.




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Wiki tells us some pertinent information: "The F 13 was a very advanced aircraft when built, an aerodynamically clean all-metal low-wing cantilever (without external bracing) monoplane. Even later in the 1920s, it and other Junkers types were unusual as unbraced monoplanes in a biplane age, with only Fokker's designs of comparable modernity. It was the world's first all-metal passenger aircraft and Junkers' first commercial aircraft.

The designation letter F stood for _Flugzeug_, aircraft; it was the first Junkers aeroplane to use this system. Earlier Junkers notation labelled it J 13. Russian-built aircraft used the designation Ju 13.

Like all Junkers' duralumin-structured designs, from the 1918 J 7 to the 1932 Ju 46, (some 35 models), it used an aluminium alloy (duralumin) structure entirely covered with Junkers' characteristic corrugated and stressed duralumin skin. Internally, the wing was built upon nine circular cross-section duralumin spars with transverse bracing. All control surfaces were horn-balanced.

Behind the single-engine was a semi-enclosed cockpit for the crew, roofed but without side glazing. There was an enclosed and heated cabin for four passengers with windows and doors in the fuselage sides. Passenger seats were fitted with seat belts, unusual for the time. The F 13 used a fixed conventional split landing gear with a rear skid, though some variants landed on floats or on skis.

The F 13 first flew on 25 June 1919, powered by a 127 kW (170 hp) Mercedes D IIIa inline upright water-cooled engine. The first production machines had a wing of greater span and area and had the more powerful 140 kW (185 hp) BMW IIIa upright inline water-cooled motor.

Many variants were built using Mercedes, BMW, Junkers, and Armstrong Siddeley Puma liquid-cooled inline engines, and Gnome-Rhône Jupiter and Pratt & Whitney Hornet air-cooled radial engines. The variants were mostly distinguished by a two-letter code, the first letter signifying the airframe and the second the engine. Junkers L5-engined variants all had the second letter -e, so type -fe was the long fuselage -f airframe with an L5 engine."

A view from above highlights both the unique Junkers construction and its modern look for a 1920s vintage aeroplane.




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That's all for today, more to come from the Between-The-Wars Hall.

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## Wurger (Jul 13, 2021)



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## Snautzer01 (Jul 13, 2021)

Again a nice read. Thank you

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## Crimea_River (Jul 13, 2021)

Excellent as always Grant. Thanks for the effort you put into these interesting posts.

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## Gnomey (Jul 13, 2021)

Nice shots Grant!

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## nuuumannn (Jul 16, 2021)

Thanks again guys, yes, Andy, that's why they come and go - it takes time to collate and sift through translations, but helps me with research too, because this French stuff is just not in our purview, so it's a learning experience.

So, we continue with this fuselage section of a Farman F.60 Goliath airliner, a pioneering type that saw service throughout the 20s but began life as a bomber in 1918. Here's some information about it from the usual source:

"The _Goliath_ was initially designed in 1918 as a heavy bomber capable of carrying 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) of bombs with a range of 1,500 km (930 mi). It was a fixed-undercarriage three-bay biplane of fabric-covered wood construction, powered by two Salmson 9Z engines. It had a simple and robust, yet light structure. The wings were rectangular with a constant profile with aerodynamically balanced ailerons fitted to both upper and lower wings.

It was undergoing initial testing when World War I came to an end and Farman realized there would be no orders for his design. Nonetheless he was quick to understand that the big, box-like fuselage of the Goliath could be easily modified to convert the aircraft into an airliner. Commercial aviation was beginning to be developed and was in need of purpose-built aircraft. With the new passenger cabin arrangement, the Goliath could carry up to 12 or 14 passengers. It had large windows to give the passengers a view of the surroundings. The Salmson engines could be replaced by other types (Renault, Lorraine) if a customer desired it. Approximately 60 F.60 Goliaths were built. Between 1927 and 1929, eight Goliaths with various engines were built under licence in Czechoslovakia, four by Avia and four by Letov."

The history of the Goliath is fascinating and although only 60 were built the type was operated by lots of different airlines around the world, but it suffered a high accident rate. This particular example, F-HMFU, was employed by Air Union as _Île de France_ between Paris and London (Croydon), but in October 1925 it suffered a crash in East Sussex, resulting in the deaths of three passengers and the injuring of two more. It remained registered until 1932 and the fuselage was recovered, but the aircraft never flew again. It is the only surviving section of a Goliath airliner.




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This next aircraft is one of the three most important aircraft in the museum's collection, according to the website. It is of course the striking red Breguet XIX TF Super Bidon _Point d’Interrogation_, or simply "?_"_. Following from Charles Lindberg's historic solo Atlantic Crossing in 1927, On 1 September 1930, Captain Dieudonne Costes and Navigator Maurice Bellonte took off from Le Bourget, beginning their transatlantic crossing, arriving in the United States at Curtiss Field, New York on the 3rd, after a 37-hour 12-minute flight that covered 3850 miles. Lindberg was there to meet the two Frenchmen. A significant feat, as owing to the prevailing winds, an east-to-west aerial crossing is eminently more difficult; the first being by the rigid airship R.34, a mere two weeks after John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown's Atlantic crossing in a Vickers Vimy in June 1919. The Super Bidon wasn't the first aeroplane to make the crossing in a westerly direction, in 1928 the Junkers W 33L D 1167 _Bremen_, piloted by Hermann Koehl, with Baron Gunther von Huenefeld and Commandant James Fitzmaurice aboard became the first, flying between Baldonnel, near Dublin and New Foundland. The Super Bidon in its cherry red colour scheme, sitting on top of a display about transatlantic crossings by air.




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First flying on 23 July 1928, the _Point d’Interrogation _was the last of three TR, or Transatlantique variants built, but it was converted into a TF Super Bidon, which involved numerous modifications, including extending the wingspan, lengthening the fuselage and installing increased fuel tankage. Undertaking sponsorship from Hispano-Suiza, the aircraft's engine manufacturer, the aircraft's manufacturer Breguet and an anonymous benefactor, Costes and Bellonte began preparations for an Atlantic crossing from Paris in 1929. Adorning the aircraft was a white question mark, a nod to the anonymous benefactor, which it became known for, as well as the stork insignia of the Escadrille des Cigognes of Great War fame, which conveniently served as the emblem of Hispano-Suiza. Taking off on 13 July, bad weather hampered the flight on the southern route via the Azores and after covering 1600 miles, Costes elected to return to Paris, not wishing to risk the deteriorating conditions. To maintain the support of their sponsors the duo flew a number of record-breaking flights following their first aborted Atlantic crossing, which included a flight from Paris to Moullart in Manchuria, a journey of 4319 miles in September 1929. A number of circular endurance flights were also flown before the pair and their bright red biplane set off across the Atlantic for a second time. These are recorded on the aircraft's flanks. The mysterious benefactor from whence came its name? The perfume maker Coty!




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Their next attempt was to be made only if the weather was favourable and an agent from the French meteorological office kept a close eye on the weather prior to the flight, enabling a successful crossing in September 1930. Powered by a 650 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Nb engine, the aircrew sat in open cockpits with shielding but were entirely exposed during the flight. Costes' instrumentation was typical of the period, being very crude, with a minimum of dials, dominated by a big compass directly in front of him. After landing in New York, Costes and Bellonte received a ticker-tape parade and were widely celebrated, carrying out a flying tour of major US cities, listed on its flanks. It was returned to France by ship, where, by 1938 it had been donated to the museum. The story doesn't end there for the aircraft, as, some years later Costes decided that he wanted the aircraft back. His claim was based on the civil law title of _Usucaption_ or acquisitive prescription, essentially indicating ownership or title with the passing of a period of time, but his case was rejected by the courts and the museum retained the aircraft. There was a fear by the museum staff at the time that Costes might have disposed of the airframe for self-profit. The aircraft appears imposing from its lofty perch.




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Of course, like all the great endurance flights there were failures that littered the history of transatlantic flight. One of the most celebrated failures was that of Charles Nungesser and François Coli, who, in their white Levasseur PL.8 biplane named _L'Oiseau Blanc_, or_ The White Bird _disappeared after departing Paris for New York on 8 May 1927. This is the undercarriage of the aircraft, which was discarded after take-off, landing near Gonesse to the north of Le Bourget. It is the only surviving component of the aircraft, Nungesser and Coli's fate is unknown to this day, believed lost somewhere in the Atlantic during a storm, although there are some who believe that they might have gotten as far as New Foundland and even Maine, as people reported in that they heard the aircraft flying overhead after it had been reported missing.




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A little bit of background.

"In 1919, New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig offered the $25,000 Orteig Prize to the first aviators to make a non-stop transatlantic flight between New York and Paris in the next five years. No one won the prize, so he renewed the offer in 1924. At that point, aviation technology was more advanced and many people were working toward winning it. Most were attempting to fly from New York to Paris, but a number of French aviators planned to fly from Paris to New York.

François Coli, age 45, was a World War I veteran and recipient of the French Legion of Honor, who had been making record-breaking flights around the Mediterranean Sea and he had been planning a transatlantic flight since 1923. His original plans were to fly with his wartime comrade Paul Tarascon, a flying ace with 12 victories from the war. They became interested in the Orteig Prize in 1925, but in late 1926, an accident destroyed their Potez 25 biplane. Tarascon was badly burned and relinquished his place as pilot to 35-year-old Charles Nungesser, a highly experienced flying ace with over 40 victories, third-highest among the French. He had been planning a solo crossing to win the Orteig Prize, but designer Pierre Levasseur insisted that he consider Coli as his navigator in a new two-place variant of the Levasseur PL.4."

"Nungesser and Coli took off at 5:17 am, 8 May 1927 from _Le Bourget_ Field in Paris, heading for New York. Their PL.8-01 weighed 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) on takeoff, extremely heavy for a single-engined aircraft, barely clearing a line of trees at the end of the field. Gathering an escort of French fighter aircraft, Nungesser and Coli turned back as planned, and at low altitude, immediately jettisoned the main undercarriage. The intended flight path was a great circle route, which would have taken them across the English Channel, over the southwestern part of England and Ireland, across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, then south over Nova Scotia, to Boston, and finally to a water landing in New York.

Once in the air, the biplane was escorted to the French coast by four military aircraft led by French Air Force Captain Venson, and sighted from the coastal town of Étretat. A sighting was made by the commanding officer of the British submarine HMS _H50_, who recorded the note in his log, that he observed a biplane at 300 m altitude, 20 nautical miles southwest of the tip of Needles on the Isle of Wight. In Ireland, an aircraft overhead was reported by a resident of the town of Dungarvan and a Catholic priest reported a sighting over the village of Carrigaholt, then no further verified reports were made.

Crowds of people gathered in New York to witness the historic arrival, with tens of thousands of people crowding Battery Park in Manhattan to have a good view of the Statue of Liberty, where the aircraft was scheduled to touch down. Rumors circulated that _L'Oiseau Blanc_ had been sighted along its route, in Newfoundland, or over Long Island. In France, some newspapers even reported that Nungesser and Coli had arrived safely in New York, evoking a wave of French patriotism. _L'Oiseau Blanc_ had been carrying a sizable load of fuel, 4,000 litres (1,100 US gal), which would have given them approximately 42 hours of flight time. After this time had passed, with no word as to the aircraft's fate, it was realized that the aircraft had been lost. In France, the public was scandalized by the newspapers such as _La Presse_ which had printed false reports about the aircraft's arrival, and outrage was generated against the companies involved, with demonstrations in the streets."

A sad story, of which the French have reason to be proud. A model of _L'Oiseau Blanc._




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Some miscellaneous aircraft around the hall: A DH.89A Dragon Rapide used as a parachuting jump aircraft in the mid-1950s by Service de LAviation Legere Et Sportive. Originally built as HG721 for the RAF in 1945, the aircraft was registered as G-ALGB after a three-year military career before heading across the Channel for France.




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A Caudron C.277 Luciole, or Firefly. This unassuming biplane was built in staggering numbers in the 1930s, with over 700 being completed. As with other French types, the base model was the C.270, the 277 being distinguished by its engine, a 140 hp Renault 4PE inline. A little bit of information:

"This aircraft had a huge success with more than 700 machines built base model and variants in a decade, until the Second World War. Of this production, 296 were purchased by the French Government for the training of its pilots within the framework of the Popular Aviation. Pilot and instructor Yvonne Jourjon has trained future aces of the French fighter. Several examples have been used in the military as a liaison aircraft. During general de Gaulle's dispatch to Dakar in 1940, two Firefly aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and landed on the Ouakam Senegal aerodrome to install an optical signalling device after joining free France fighter group 1/4. It was a failure ː the head of GC 1/4, Commander Guy Fanneau de la Horie, and Colonel Georges Pelletier-Doisy, commander larmée de lair in Senegal, passing through the base, had the Gaullist emissaries arrested. The surviving examples of the conflict will be in great demand as glider tug planes at the École de lair in Salon-de-Provence."

From here ⓘ Caudron C.270. Le C.270 était un biplan conventionnel avec d which also describes the variants built.




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There is so much written about the story of Henri Mignet and his home-built Pou-du-Ciel (Flying Flea), that I couldn't begin to know where to start. Basic information:

"The Flying Flea family of aircraft was designed by Frenchman Henri Mignet. Between 1920 and 1928, Mignet built various prototypes from the HM.1 to the HM.8, a monoplane that was the first of his designs that really flew. Between 1929 and 1933, he continued building prototypes, and testing them in a large field near Soissons. In 1933, Mignet successfully flew for the first time in his HM.14, the original flying flea, and publicly demonstrated it. In 1934, he published the plans and building instructions in his book _Le Sport de l’Air_. In 1935, it was translated into English and serialized in Practical Mechanics, prompting hundreds of people to build their own Flying Fleas. Mignet’s original HM.14 prototype aircraft was powered by a 17 hp (13 kW) Aubier-Dunne 500 cc two stroke motorcycle engine. It had a wingspan of 19.5 feet (5.9 m), a length of 11.5 feet (3.5 m) and a gross weight of 450 lb (204 kg). It had a usable speed range of 25-62 mph (40â€“100 km/h). In the UK in 1935 and 1936, many aerodynamic and engine developments took place, notably by Stephen Appleby, John Carden and L.E. Baynes.

Mignet intentionally made the aircraft simple. The Flying Flea is essentially a highly staggered biplane, which almost could be considered to be a tandem wing aircraft, built of wood and fabric. The original design was a single-seater, and had two-axis flying controls. The aircraft had a standard control stick. Fore-and-aft movement controlled the front wing’s angle of attack, increasing and decreasing the lift of the wing. Because the front wing was located forward of the center of gravity, that would pitch the nose up and down.

Side-to-side movement of the stick controlled the large rudder. This produced a rolling motion because the wings both had substantial dihedral, through yaw-roll coupling. The rudder had to be quite large not only to produce adequate roll but also because the fuselage was very short, reducing the leverage of the rudder. The Flying Flea, being a two-axis aircraft, could not be landed or taken off in substantial crosswinds. This was not a big issue when the aircraft was designed because at that time aircraft were usually flown from large open fields allowing all take-offs and landings into wind. Mignet claimed that anyone who could build a packing case and drive a car could fly a Flying Flea."

From here: Flea History – The Backyard Builder's Forum

The history of this particular aircraft is not known, it's not even acknowledged on the museum's website!




Musee de l&#x27;Air 155

Finally for today, the awesome Breguet Bugatti 32b Quadimoteur! I will refer you to this extensively detailed article on this engine collaboration for further information; I was going to copy it at any rate, so I might as well just link to the page: January 2015 – Old Machine Press




Musee de l&#x27;Air 156

More to come...

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## Graeme (Jul 16, 2021)




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## Wurger (Jul 17, 2021)




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## rochie (Jul 17, 2021)

great stuff Grant

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## Gnomey (Jul 19, 2021)

Lovely shots Grant!


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## nuuumannn (Dec 8, 2021)

...And so we continue on this detailed look at the exhibits at one of the finest aviation collections in the world. It does take time to put these together, hence the infrequent posts. Also, I have had assignments to hand in, so that doesn't help. 

Our next aeroplane is the pretty if functional Caudron C.630 Simoun. This aeroplane is constructor's serial No.428, but is represented as No.19 F-ANRO in the colours of Air Bleu, which was a mail transport concern that had six Simouns delivering post to airports around France, transporting around 45 million letters in a two year period, with very high reliability for the time.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 151 

A bit about the sleek monoplane from this excellent site on the reconstruction of a surviving example: Avion Collection | Projet de Renaissance du Caudron Simoun

"The CAUDRON SIMOUN was designed by Marcel RIFFARD, with the collaboration of the engineer OFTINOVSKI in order to participate in the 4th international tourism challenge held in Poland from August 28 to September 16, 1934.

To have a chance of winning this trophy, the planes had to be low-wing monoplanes with closed cabins; have an unladen weight of 560 Kg maximum, a minimum speed of 75 Km/hour, a range of 600 Km, a take-off and landing distance of less than 100 m The retractable gear did not bring additional points contrario of the capacity, sorting or better the four-seater was therefore the rule.

The French Ministry of Air, under the direction of Pierre COT, decided in 1933 to improve France's results in this event, which had not been very brilliant in previous years. He placed an order with CAUDRON-RENAULT (which knew how to build fast aircraft, especially for the Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup), for a C500 that he thought could win the competition.

At the beginning of 1934 was therefore launched in Issy-les-Moulineaux, under the direction of Marcel RIFFARD, the manufacture of eight C500 intended to receive registrations from F-ANCA to F-ANCH, but at that time the priority went to the C366 Atalante, C450, C460 and C530 Rafale for the Deutsch de la Meurthe cup. On the first registration date, April 17, only three aircraft will be able to be registered, three others will be registered thereafter, which will limit the number of CAUDRON-RENAULT participants.

The production of C500 number 1 (n/c 6952) Simoun IV in Guyancourt was limited to three.

To make matter worse, it was noticed in mid-August 1934 that the first example was too heavy by 60 kilos. This overweight was due to various devices (flaps and wing folding system) and it was then decided to replace the RENAULT Bengali 6Pfi engine of 170 hp by a RENAULT Bengali 4 Pei less powerful but lighter (minus 50 kg), this resulting in a modification of the airframe.

These modifications involve work carried out day and night so that at least two first copies (n/c 6951 and 6952) are completed on time. Despite this, France announced, on the morning of August 24, 1934, its package for this challenge.

Despite this mishap, the C500 did not disappear. The disappointment passed, the development of the prototypes resumes, without worries of delay, nor weight limitation. If the first example keeps its RENAULT 4 Pei, the second finds a RENAULT 6 Pfi.

The tests conducted by Raymond DELMOTTE in Guyancourt show that the aircraft has remarkable performance in its category.

His future was assured when Beppo de MASSIMI and his friend Didier DAURAT obtained the financial support of Louis RENAULT for the launch of the company AIR BLEU, operating a new air mail network. The C500, which was presented to them on October 3, 1934, seemed quite suitable, subject to some modifications. It was in November 1934, that the aircraft was presented at the XIV Paris Air Show.

Nicknamed the "Viva Grand Sport des Airs" or the "Limousine de l'air" in reference to the RENAULT car model, it is offered in two versions: the C500 Simoun IV equipped with a RENAULT 4Pdi engine of 4 cylinders of 140/150 hp and the C520 Simoun VI equipped with the RENAULT "Bengali six" 6Q 06 of 6 cylinders of 170/195 hp. It is the C520 that will become the C620, then the C630 after modification of the fuselage."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 158 

Our next machine is the very pretty Potez 53 racing aeroplane built specifically for the prestigious 1933 Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup, which it succeeded in triumphing in, piloted by Georges Détré on 29 May 1933. Here's a bit of background to the race (I'll place the source at the bottom of the two posts on the aircraft since its lengthy and detailed):

"Born in 1846 in Paris, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe was an industrialist in the field of hydrocarbons. Passionate about aviation, he was one of the founding members, in 1898, of the Aéro-Club de France. He will become its president.

In April 1900, he created a prize of 100,000 francs (gold) for the one who, before October 1904, would be the first able to make the round trip between Saint-Cloud and the Eiffel Tower in less than 30 minutes. This prize will be won by Santos-Dumont, aboard his airship n°6, in September 1901, with a controversy as to the duration of the flight which would be 29 minutes for some and 32 for others.

It was in 1904 that he proposed, with his friend Ernest Archdeacon, a prize of 50,000 gold francs for the aviator who had succeeded first, one kilometer in a closed circuit, with return to his starting point; we can say by this that they are a little at the origin of the exploit of Henry Farman, commented at length in the Pegasus n °126 of March 2008.

With the progress of aviation, many competitions, and in particular speed races, are organized under the aegis of the Aéro-Club de France and its president. Interrupted by the war, they resumed in 1919. The latest saw the victory of Sadi-Lecointe in a two-time 200 km race run on 2 September 1919 and 24 January 1920, aboard a Nieuport 29 equipped with a Hispano-Suiza engine of 300 hp, at an average of 266.11 km/h.

On November 24, 1919, at the age of 73, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe died in Ecquevilly, in the Seine-et-Oise (now Yvelines department)."

"His daughter Suzanne (1892–1937), in partnership with the Aéro-Club de France, which wanted to pay tribute to its late president, set up a speed race. The first lines of the regulation are as follows: "In memory of Mr. Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe, Mrs. Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe and her children have decided to devote a sum of 200,000 F to an international speed event to be called the Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup."

The regulations provide that this cup will be played every year, so in principle, for three years. It is the National Federations that are entering the race. They designate one or more competitors who will be their representatives; they must belong to the nationality of the Federation that presents them.

The 200,000 F offered are distributed as follows: 60,000 F in cash for each of the winners of the three races. In addition, an art object worth 20,000 F will be given to them as a trophy; the National Federation, whose representative won the race, will be the holder until the next award. The final holder of the cup will be the competitor who won the event twice, or, failing that, the third winner. (These are, of course, the aeronautical firms, because the pilots who are their employees race on their behalf)."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 144 

For a 1933 aeroplane, the Potez is of remarkably advanced streamlined form. Constructed primarily of plywood, the aircraft is designed as small as possible to match the dimensions and power output of its 9B single-row nine cylinder supercharged radial engine capable of producing 310 hp and driving a metal fixed pitch propeller. Even the cockpit was tailor made in size to conform to the physical size of its pilots, the degree to which Potez wished to improve its power-to-weight ratio. Of small dimensions, over 17 feet long, with a 21 foot wingspan and weighing only 1,900 lbs fully loaded, it was fitted with fully retractable undercarriage, which retracted outwards from the fuselage into the wings, offering a narrow track, with a tail skid. Instrumentation in the cockpit was rudimentary conforming to the needs of a strictly racing aeroplane.

Here's some more on the race itself that the Potez won:

"The big day of May 28 arrives. Of course, the weather is bad and the event is postponed to the next day, May 29. Thirteen candidates registered for the race. They have been assigned, by lot, a serial number that must be written in large white numbers on the fuselages. Georges Détré's plane receives the number 10 and that of Gustave Lemoine, the number 12.

"For various reasons that it would be tedious to list (let us mention, however, the death of Captain Ludovic Arachart who killed himself, on May 24, while carrying out the tests of the Caudron n ° 11), there are only six planes left, at the start, on the 29th in the morning. Maurice Arnoux's Renault-powered Farman aircraft rolls a hundred meters, breaks its single-wheel lander, damages its propeller and is forced to give up. In the end, only five aircraft took part in the 1933 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe.

"Gustave Lemoine, on his n°12 takes off at 10:10 in 40 seconds (believe me, he must have found the time long, because it represents a good kilometer of rolling, if not more; the other planes took off in 15 or 20 seconds). Chief test driver of the firm Potez, it was obviously he who had the mission to win the race by making the most of his engine; but in his first lap of the circuit, hampered by poor visibility, he lacks control of Ormoy and loses some 25 minutes (that the drivers who have never strayed throw him the first stone: it will certainly not be me). The race is over for him. He will nevertheless run three additional laps of the circuit: lap 2 will be carried out at an average speed of 354.7 km/h, the n°3 at 352.9 km/h and the n°4 at 356.1 km/h. He broke the lap record twice. He landed at the end of his fourth lap, officially because he had consumed enough gas to lighten his aircraft and his engine was starting to heat up, but, the bad tongues say that it was mainly because it was lunchtime.

"Georges Détré, whose mission was to ensure the blow by making a waiting race while sparing his engine, took off at 10:05. He only drove for 35 seconds, because the propeller of the 3402, slightly larger than that of the 3403, was to favor the take-off of the plane, but it must also be believed that the strength and direction of the wind were more favorable for him than they will be for Lemoine, five minutes later.

"A few days before the race, aboard a Potez 36, Georges Détré, out of caution, had made a precise reconnaissance of the race route. In addition, on the morning of May 29, still on his Potez 36, he had ensured the good atmospheric conditions throughout the course. He thus had no navigation problems and was able to devote himself exclusively to driving his small car.

"Everything, for him, then takes place in a simple and regular way, I would say almost monotonous. To take his turns without losing speed, especially that of Etampes which is very tight, he prefers to fly a few distances outside the officially chosen route (the method to make a change of direction, in a minimum of time, normally taught in hunting schools is this: once past the line of control, perform a candle climb, then tilt 80/90 degrees. Keeping the depth neutral, the nose of the aircraft falls back on the horizon. After turning into a handkerchief, the aircraft resumes all its speed in the dive following this maneuver. It is clear that the Potez 53 did not allow such a fantasy and, without demanding too much from its engine, it runs regularly, slightly above 320 km/h per lap. He completed his best lap, the tenth of the first round, at 329.4 km/h. The first thousand kilometers are covered in 3 hours 05 minutes and 45 seconds. After the obligatory stop of an hour and a half, the second round took place without incident and Georges Détré, aboard the Potez 53 n°10, won the Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe 1933 in 6 hours 11 minutes and 45 seconds, at an average hourly speed of 322.8 km/h."

From here: LE POTEZ 53

Following its victory, Henri Potez donated the slick little aircraft to the museum. 




Musee de l&#x27;Air 159 

Next, the very simple yet effective planforms of the Schulgleiter SG.38, which was initially designed by Edmund Schneider, Rehberg and Hofmann at Schneider's factory at Grunau in 1938, although German aeronautical legend Alexander Lippisch is credited with contributing research to the type. Lippisch was of course later responsible for the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet's somewhat unique configuration and saw employment with Convair in the United States in researching supersonic interceptors, which is outside the scope of this thread, being quite far removed from these elementary training gliders. The foreground SG.38 represents the basic form that the majority of the type were built as, which a firm number constructed is not known but is estimated at around 10,000 with construction in Britain, Japan and Spain, contributing to the wave of interest in segelflug in Nazi Germany which culminated in the sport becoming the demonstration favourite during the 1936 XI Olympiade in Berlin, with also the small matter of the foundation of the pilots that formed the bulk of the new Nazi Luftwaffe being credited to tuition on the SG.38... The background glider differs from the foreground in having a streamlined casing for the pilot, but differs little in detail.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 161

We stay with segelflug and the Avia 41p record breaking glider. This particular aircraft was built by Ateliers vosgiens d'industrie aéronautique, or Avia and was based on the German Lippisch Wien glider, there's our man Lippisch again, which first flew in 1929. The Avia examples were built two years later and set about claiming various French and world gliding records over the next few years before the outbreak of World War Two. This one, No.3 while flown by Lt Wermert covered a distance of 207 kilometres at an altitude of 1,850 metres (over 6,000 feet) on 17 September 1936. Wikipedia gives a good description of the Avia 41p:









Avia 41-P - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org





"Though it was inspired by the Wien and followed its long span, high set, high aspect ratio wing layout, it differed significantly both structurally and aerodynamically. The project leader was Raymond Jarlaud, who was also responsible for the wing, with Eric Nessler designing the fuselage. Unlike the Wien's wing, that of the Avia 41-P was a two part structure, each half-wing having a rectangular plan centre section and a straight-tapered outer section, the latter dominating (80%) the span. The inner and outer airfoils were Göttingen 535, a thick and highly cambered section, and the flat bottomed Göttingen 527 respectively, different profiles from those of the Wien. They had a single spar formed by a leading edge, plywood covered torsion box which narrowed outwards. Behind this the wing was fabric covered. Broad chord ailerons occupied more than half the span, divided into two sections which moved separately to minimise torsion. On the first Avia 41-P the ailerons were fabric covered but the second and later examples had ply covering. Streamlined duraluminum V-struts from the lower fuselage braced the half-wings just inside the inner and outer section boundary.

The two half-wings were joined together over the fuselage on a low central pylon, placing the Avia's wing closer to the fuselage than on the Wien. Its fuselage was birch ply covered and built around four longerons. The open cockpit, placed immediately ahead of the wing pylon, was unusually narrow so Nessler introduced an unusual control column for a glider with a yoke for aileron control which minimised sideways movements of the pilot's hands. The fuselage tapered rearwards to an empennage with a very small, straight edged fin and tailplane. Its fin carried a generous, curved edge, fabric covered rudder which extended down to the keel and the separate elevators were similarly rounded. Its horizontal tail was mounted well forward on top of the fuselage so that the rudder hinge was ahead of the elevator trailing edge root. The Avia landed on a rubber-mounted skid under the forward fuselage and had a ring shaped tailskid."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 162 

Now to one of the most famous segelflug types and the machine that wowed spectators seated within the big circular stadium at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the DFS Habicht (Hawk) fully aerobatic glider. Quite a rarity, the Habicht hasn't survived well despite being quite famous; this is the only original example, although two more have been built in Germany that are currently airworthy. Designed by Hans Jacobs of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS), here's a bit of info on the Habicht from the usual source:









DFS Habicht - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org





"The flight qualities of the Habicht were praised by pilots, including Hanna Reitsch. It participated in many airshows abroad before the war, including the 1938 National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio. ​

Modified versions of the Habicht, dubbed the Stummel-Habicht ("Stumpy Hawk"), were used to train pilots to fly the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet rocket-powered fighter. Trainees included students from the Hitler Youth Glider Schools. The Me 163 was designed to use its entire load of rocket fuel to reach combat altitude of approximately 10,000 metres (33,000 ft), before returning to land as a fast glider. Trainees therefore began on a _Stummel-Habicht_, in which the original 14 metres (46 ft) wingspan, was modified to one having an 8 metres (26 ft) wingspan, and another having an 6 metres (20 ft) wingspan. The shorter wingspan closely mimicked the ME 163 handling characteristics."

Reitsch was one of the pilots who demonstrated the Habicht at the Berlin Olympics. It's interesting to note that Turkey was a recipient of the type, six examples were built after the end of the war with no help from the original manufacturers. The museum's Habicht was flown by Marcel Doret, who has featured in this thread before - that's his Dewoitine D.530 above, winning the World Aerobatic Gliding Trophy in 1939 in this typically decorated sunburst colour schemed example - apparently the last surviving original Habicht left in the world.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 163 

Finally for now, here's a youtube clip of a Habicht being put through its paces, while some Aryans look on in wunderlust:



More to come...

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## Wurger (Dec 8, 2021)




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## Airframes (Dec 8, 2021)

Good stuff Grant, keep it coming.
BTW, the post has remined me of a short-lived, but beautiful girl friend, named Simoune ( note the "e"), back in the late 1970'S - ah, memories !!

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## nuuumannn (Dec 8, 2021)

Continuing on with this since I'm on a roll, we continue with the last glider in this lot, the Avia 40p, which despite its designation was built after the previous Avia 41p, there being a total of 60 constructed by no less than seven different firms. The idea behind the Avia 40p was as a simpler type than the Avia 41p that could be operated by cash-strapped clubs, but its hardiness saw examples bought for the Armee de l'Air, including this one. Info from Wiki:









Avia 40-P - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org





The 40-P was similar in layout and construction to its larger forebear. Though the smaller span reduced the aspect ratio from 19.4 to 14.5, increasing the induced drag, it allowed a reduction of profile drag by the introduction of a cantilever wing without bracing struts. The wings of the Avia 40-P had unbroken straight taper in plan, lacked the strong camber of the 41-P's centre section, and were built around plywood leading edge torsion box spars. Behind the spars the wings were fabric covered apart from the long span ailerons, which filled about two thirds of the trailing edges. New wing features were the upper surface spoilers, mounted on the rear of the box spar just inboard of the ailerons.

The wings were mounted on a low fuselage pylon, with the open cockpit immediately ahead of it. The 40-P's fuselage was oval in cross-section, tapering to the tail and entirely ply covered. There was a landing skid under the forward fuselage and the wing aided, by a tail bumper. As on the 41-P, the ply covered fixed fin and tailplane were very narrow, with generous, fabric covered control surfaces. Its tailplane was mounted on top of the fuselage and far enough forward that only a shallow reduction in elevator chord near the root was needed for movement of the rudder, which extended to the fuselage keel.

The 40-P flew for the first time on 3 May 1935, piloted by Eric Nessler. At least forty were built, including ten in the then French colony of Algeria; one source puts the total at 125. They were chiefly used for cross country flights, in height gained (above the point of departure) competitions and for record setting; the type established several new national records and the women's height gain world record was set at 1,184 m (3,885 ft) by Edmée Jarland on 18 April 1938. Production of the Avia 40-P continued into World War II, despite the occupation of France. At its end, new women's national records were again established with the 40-P, notably the straight line distance record of 139.24 km (86.52 mi) set by Marcelle Choisnet in June 1944 and the duration record of 16 hrs 44 mins by Suzanne Melk in October 1946."

It is believed that there are only two surviving examples, this one and one that was recovered from Germany by the British after the war and was restored, making its way back to France, where it is maintained in flyable condition.




DSC_0386

Next, the Caudron C.60 biplane, a typical Caudron product demonstrating angular structure and form, and practicality of construction and use, which, based on the meagre search information out there, isn't very well loved by many. It was in use in several countries, including Finland, where at the excellent Finnish air Force Museum at Tikkakoski there is a surviving example on skis (of course). Built as a two-seater that could be controlled from both seats, the C.60 is of conventional design and construction for the period, typical wood braced structure covered in fabric and powered by a single Clerget 9B nine-cylinder rotary radial, which lessens its appeal somewhat as this engine certainly hasn't dated well and confines the C.60 to unreliable mediocrity, despite its prevalence. It was certainly a product of its time. Exact numbers built are not available, apparently, although the type saw notoriety in that Alphonse Poirée won the first edition of the Michelin Cup, on 29/30 August 1921. He completed the 2,906 km of the course in 37 hours 13 minutes and 40 seconds, at an average speed of 78.080 km/h.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 168

Something slightly comical in appearance, the spindly little Farman 455 Super Moustique (Mosquito). Designed in 1919 by the Société des Aéroplanes Henri and Maurice Farman at Billancourt, the original design took advantage of the interest in light aircraft following the Great War, apparently the type was considered a motor-glider, or moto-aviette in French, which, and it seems that the British Lympne Light aircraft Trials should be mentioned, if only to beef this post up, as motor-gliders were the subject of the first meet at Lympne Aerodrome in 1923. A similar, less publicised event was held at Buc, France a few months earlier at which aviettes attended, which were apparently unpowered Super Moustiques - as if the dandy wee toy couldn't be any less enticing...

Anyway, the French government saw the type as part of _l'Aviation Populaire_ programme in the 1930s and the design was resurrected, and Farman, seeing the potential of this market designed one for the hunter in mind, with a cutout in the rear fuselage within which the huntsman could transport his dog! Selling at around 20,000 F, the Super Moustique was powered by an Ava-4A two-stroke, two-cylinder 45 hp engine and was built in reasonable numbers, around 450 of them of both powered and unpowered aviette types with longer wingspan. This example is the single 455 prototype, the Moustique III, which was a side-by-side dual control variant. It looks too much like something that your grandfather left sitting around the shed that he'd hoped to complete but died before it was discovered, unloved and covered in layers of 70 year old dust...




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Something a little more sensible that looks a little more like an aeroplane, the Potez 437 three-seat light aircraft. As with the Caudron C.60, there isn't a whole lot out there about this little machine, apparently there were over 160 of them built, but of the 437 variant there were only six of them completed. First flying in 1932, the aircraft resembles the de Havilland Leopard Moth, but without the elegance of the British product. Primarily constructed of plywood, the wings fold rearwards to sit leading edge down, flush with the fuselage, note that it also has fixed leading edge slats mounted to the outer wings. The undercarriage is a part of a tubular metal structure, which I'm guessing makes up the main structural load bearing framework, to which the engine and wing centre section mounts, note the existence of cabane struts supporting the forward centre section inboard of the wing fold. This works in the same fashion as the de Havilland method, where a small rectangular section of the wing trailing edge folds upwards and the outer wing is folded against the fuselage.




DSC_0396

Next, one of the staple machines of the museum, the elegant Morane Saulnier MS.230 positioned upside down, which instantly reminds us of this superb museum; it is one of my enduring memories of visiting this place years earlier. Over 1,100 of these machines were built, for both military and civil use, also equipping th Patrouille d'Étampes, the predecessor to the current Patrouille de France and its dazzling Alpha Jets. More information here from wiki.fr:









Morane-Saulnier MS.230 — Wikipédia







fr.wikipedia.org





"In 1928 the French Military Aeronautics issued a two-seater transformation aircraft program for which the manufacturer Morane-Saulnier proposed an aircraft in the line of the Morane-Saulnier MoS-53 and Morane-Saulnier MoS-133 . The prototype was actually a re-engined MS.133 with an un[cowled] Salmson 9Ab star engine resting on the Messier landing gear of an MS.181. By the way, the drift was modified. It was therefore a parasol monoplane of mixed construction, the two wing spars, the empennage, the moving surfaces and the front of the fuselage having a metal structure, the rest of the aircraft using wood, while the coating was metallic at the front of the fuselage, coated on the rest of the aircraft. The wing profile was of the self-stable type and the wide-track landing gear equipped with 0.15x0.75 Dainhaut wheels with brakes and shock absorbers.

From the first tests, carried out in February 1929,the MS.230 revealed its qualities: as robust as the fighters of the time, it was easy to fly and landed without difficulty thanks to its wide-gauge train. Since all parts of the device were easily accessible, maintenance was facilitated. It proved to be very popular thanks to its maneuverability and versatility.

500 copies were quickly ordered by the Air Ministry, production being launched in March 1929 and the first production aircraft delivered on the 15th of the same month. A copy was also exhibited at the Air Show which opened its doors on November 28, 1930."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 165

This particular example has an intriguing history, built as serial No.1048 at Villacoublay in January 1941 and transferred to the Luftwaffe on 20 February as a training machine, wearing the codes BD+IF, the Luftwaffe using around 150 of this type for basic training. Some 100 examples were completed for the Luftwaffe from Villacoublay at this time, the rest of the number operated by the Germans were captured examples already in military service. Following cessation of the type's production run, MS built Fieseler Fi 156s under licence at Villacoublay, which became the primary manufacturing site for the Morane Saulnier MS.500 Criquet, which saw extensive production during and after World War Two.

Operated by a series of flying clubs following the end of the war, this particular aeroplane suffered erosion of its main spar, which grounded it in 1956, I'm presuming it has a wooden spar, and its Certificate of Airworthiness was cancelled. It was subsequently refurbished and it continued flying until 1963, a year later it was donated to the museum. It hasn't always been positioned upside down whilst on display it was displayed on its landing gear in the World War Two hangar at one time. When the current hall was refurbished to open again in 2013, the aeroplane was left in situ upside down on its pole.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 166

This next wee machine has a deadly look about it, indeed, it was designed as a chasseur (fighter) during the Great War to replace the widespread Morane Saulnier Type N. A bit of information from here:









Morane-Saulnier AI


Avion de chasse monomoteur français de la première guerre mondiale




aviationsmilitaires.net





"The Morane-Saulnier Type AI was a world war 1 fighter designed by Robert and Léon Morane as well as Raymond Saulnier, to replace the N type when it became obsolete. It was a monoplane with a parasol wing, with a slight boom. It was made of wood and covered with fabric. It was powered by a 150 hp rotating 9Nb Gnome Monosoupape. Because of this, it had a modern look. It was designed to be very maneuverable, with rigid controls mounted on ball bearings. It made its maiden flight in August 1917.

Two separate versions were born: the MoS 27C1 armed with a single Vickers 7.7 mm machine gun and the MoS 29C1 armed with two machine guns and which flew in September. This last version showed only a slight decrease in climbing speed. It was delivered in December 1917 and entered operational service in 3 French squadrons (including the 160) in January 1918. It had little impact on flight operations. In May 1918, it was replaced by the Spad XIII. The authorities suspected a weakness of the structure, but it is more certainly necessary to incriminate the rotary engine, which was blamed for a lack of power at high altitude and reliability."




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This particular A1 has a significant provenance and is one of those historic airframes that the museum proudly vaunts as being among the premier items in the collection. It is the aircraft of Alfred Fronval, a remarkable airman who, apart from being Morane Saulnier's chief pilot, invented the Link Trainer (!), as this article fraudulently claims (I thought it was the concept of Edwin Link):









Alfred Fronval — Wikipédia







fr.wikipedia.org





"Entered as chief pilot at the Morane-Saulnier school in Villacoublay, a school he was never to leave, he is a remarkable instructor, loved by his students to whom he gives full confidence. He is also the author of a flight manual and the inventor of the _Link Trainer, _a device used to reproduce on the ground the flight conditions of an aircraft, more commonly known as a Flight Simulator.

As an instructor, Alfred Fronval declared himself in favour of the aircraft that was difficult to fly, because "who can do more, can do less... when the beginner has in hand a rather thin aircraft, it will be very easy for him to fly any other aircraft", as he had to declare to the one who would become his successor and another great aerobat of the interwar period, Michel Détroyat.

In September 1925, Fronval participated in the Concours national de tourisme aérienne, a 2,310-kilometre race, the under-secretary of state for aeronautics and the Aéro-Club de France, which aimed to prove that the plane was the best means of transport for tourism."

Nevertheless, in this pretty aeroplane, Fronval won the first international aerobatic championship in 1927 in competition with such greats at Marcel Doret and Gerhard Fieseler, and later was to set a world record for loops with 1,111 completed in 4 hours 56 minutes on 25 February 1928. Following Fronval's death later that year, Robert Morane donated the aeroplane to the museum. It has recently undergone an extensive restoration into Fronval's colours.




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Finally from the hall de l'entre deux guerres, the skeletal remains from one of aviation's dinosaurs, the nose cone of the rigid airship "Méditerranée". Constructed as Zeppelin LZ 121 "Nordstern", a Y Class civil airship built by the Luftshiffbau Zeppelin at Friedrichshafen in 1919 following the end of the Great War. More information here:









Zeppelin LZ 121 Nordstern - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org





_"Nordstern_ was designed to carry about 25 passengers on a Friedrichshafen - Berlin - Stockholm route but this route was never opened. The older sister ship LZ 120 _Bodensee_ did run a regular passenger service between Friedrichshafen and Berlin in late 1919.

The LZ 120 and LZ 121 were not allowed to enter service as the Allies had forbidden Germany to make any more Zeppelins at the end of 1919. The German government had hoped that it was only a temporary measure, so the Spa Conference of 1920 was held to address the issue in July 1920 at Spa, Belgium. The Commission Chairman General E. A. Masterman decided on 9 August 1920 that the two airships be given to France and Italy as war reparations. The two ships were confiscated under protest by the German government. LZ 121 was awarded to France, which in May 1921 constructed an airship hangar for the zeppelin in Saint-Cyr-l'École at Versailles.

LZ 121 set out for its maiden voyage to France on 13 June 1921 at 11:30 am. About 10,000 people went to Friedrichshafen to get a last glimpse of the airship before it departed German airspace. It reached Saint-Cyr-l'École on the evening of the same day. LZ 121 was put under the command of the French airline Société Anonyme de Navigation Aérienne (Sana), where it was renamed _Méditerranée_ and operated as a Zeppelin air transport between southern France and Algeria.

In April 1922 the _Méditerranée_ was handed over to the French Navy and based at Cuers-Pierrefou, Toulon. The airship was used for training. New gas cells were installed, with the work finished in early 1923. In 1923, the _Méditerranée_ participated in French naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean. From December 1923 the airship was limited to short-range flights, before being decommissioned and disassembled in August 1926. In September 1926 the framework of LZ 121 was tested under increasing loads until destruction."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 169

Next, we head into space to the final hall of the museum...

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## Wurger (Dec 9, 2021)




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## special ed (Dec 9, 2021)

nuuumannn said:


> Continuing on with this since I'm on a roll, we continue with the last glider in this lot, the Avia 40p, which despite its designation was built after the previous Avia 41p, there being a total of 60 constructed by no less than seven different firms. The idea behind the Avia 40p was as a simpler type than the Avia 41p that could be operated by cash-strapped clubs, but its hardiness saw examples bought for the Armee de l'Air, including this one. Info from Wiki:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



funny - "without the elegance of the British product"

With the Morane, you have inadvertently triggered one of my gripes, " covered with canvas" to which I always say if it were covered in canvas, it would be too heavy to fly. The only canvas in aircraft is often only the seats. There - I said it - I feel better.

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## nuuumannn (Dec 9, 2021)

special ed said:


> With the Morane, you have inadvertently triggered one of my gripes, " covered with canvas" to which I always say if it were covered in canvas, it would be too heavy to fly. The only canvas in aircraft is often only the seats. There - I said it - I feel better.



Nice catch Special Ed, my editor's eye missed that completely. It's a direct translation to Frenglish. You are right, it's ugly and looks like a tent; I'll go change it to "fabric"...

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## nuuumannn (Dec 9, 2021)

special ed said:


> funny - "without the elegance of the British product"



Quite so, the Potez has nothing on the Moth; de Havilland were purveyors of finely proportioned machines, in case you were wondering...

A Leopard Moth in a distinctly larger hangar than it needs...




DSC_0278

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## Wurger (Dec 9, 2021)




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## Gnomey (Dec 9, 2021)

Nice shots Grant!


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## nuuumannn (Dec 9, 2021)

So, I'm looking to hammer this out as I'm going to be busy for a few days and won't have access to the computer and there's no way I could do this on a mobile and I want to get it done by this afternoon, so here goes...

We are entering the La Conquet Spatiale hall, and there are some fascinating items in here worthy of further examination. We begin with an obvious starting point, this is the thrust chamber from an A 4 rocket, the infamous V 2, which I need not elaborate on owing to the knowledge of our readers, but let's look at this item a little more closely. From the top we see the 18 fuel injector pots, commonly called "pepper pots", in which fuel and oxidiser was injected into the combustion chamber. This is surrounded by rings, which were designed for subsidiary cooling of the entire thrust chamber unit, being filled with flowing alcohol, the fuel before it was forced into the pepper pots for induction into the combustion chamber. Liquid oxygen, the oxidiser was ducted through the vertical pipes ringing the lower edge of the bell for primary cooling of the bell opening. As is visible, the thrust bell is integral with the combustion chamber, the direction of the thrust being dictated by carbon moveable fins mounted external to the mouth of the bell, which directed the thrust plume on exiting the bell. Made of 1604 steel, the unit had a weight of 937 lb and was 35.4 inches at its widest point, with a chamber pressure of 25 atmospheres, the combustion chamber head was designed to withstand a total pressure of 220,500 lb, the head undergoing thermal expansion by between 0.4 to 0.8 inches to accommodate this. Designed for mass production, the unit's design was carefully calculated and much research and trial was carried out to get it right, but also to facilitate the needs of mass production at satellite sites by unskilled (mostly slave) labour.





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We now jump forward in time to this Diamant A rocket, France's indigenous satellite launcher. First launched on 25 November 1965, the Diamant was the product of Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency with the task of launching indigenous satellites, lofting the Asterix communications satellite into orbit during its first attempt from the launch centre at Hammaguir, Becchar Province, Algeria. In doing so, France became only the third country to produce an indigenous rocket and payload and put it successfully into space. A three-stage liquid and solid propellant rocket, the Diamant and its subsequent launchers under the same programme is largely deemed a success, despite opposition from other European nations who wanted a joint European launcher. This was pursued through the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), whose Europa rocket's first stage comprised the British Blue Streak ballistic missile, although ultimately Europa and ELDO failed in its objective and the European Space Agency (ESA) and its largely French rocket Ariane was born from France's efforts with Diamant and former ELDO member states Germany, Italy and Britain tagging along.

Some information about Diamant A from here:









The Diamant A Launch Vehicle


The Diamant A was France's first orbital launch vehicle, making France the 3rd country with an orbital launch capability after the USSR a...




orbitalaspirations.blogspot.com





"The Diamant A had a number of innovative aspects for its day which might be applicable to small launch vehicles. It had one of the first multinozzle solid motors with gimballing nozzles. It used a solid gas generator to pressurize the first stage liquid propellant tanks. The first stage motors were extremely simple, as liquid motors go, utilizing a graphite throat and film cooling. The Diamant rockets had no guidance system, only a control system, and were guided from the ground."




DSC_0424

Testing the Diamant took many months and involved many different sounding platforms as rocketry and space research in the 1950s was very much an unknown. This cluster of sounding rockets is representative of French efforts to investigate those hard questions that needed answers, such as how much tolerance would a ballistic missile require to survive maximum aerodynamic pressure after launch, what kinds of temperatures and pressures would an object re-entering earth's atmosphere encounter and such like. The biggest rocket to the left is Rubis, which was designed to test the Diamant's third stage and nosecone, being the largest type of sounding rocket used by the French; the Diamant's third stage was spin stabilised and was powered by a solid propellant motor called P.064 which comprised an elongated wound fibreglass phenolic casing containing isolane propellant and a single thrust chamber. The red missiles are from the Sudav-Belier family, the centre rocket is the Dragon, then Centaure, and Belier's nose cone peeking above the edge, with a Veronique, France's first sounding rocket at far right.




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France is a fully fledged member of the nuclear club and this is an example of France's first deployable land based nuclear missile, the S2 Sol-Sol Ballistique Strategique (SSBS) intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM). The S2 was a two-stage solid propellant rocket with a single MR.31 120 kt warhead mounted within the nosecone, and was in service between 1971 and 1984 before being replaced by the S3 missile (see later). Operated by the 1er​ Groupement de Missiles Stratégiques (1er​ GMS) or the 1st Strategic Missile Group of the Force de Dissuasion, the land based arm of the Force de Frappe, France has developed its own nuclear arsenal independent of NATO and the United States, preferring to take its own path, the development of which is lengthy and detailed and the origins of the Force de Frappe can be read about here:



France's Nuclear Weapons - Origin of the Force de Frappe



"France began a program to develop ballistic missiles on 17 September 1959 with the creation of a special company called SEREB (the Society for Research and Development of Ballistic Engines). The technology had to be developed from scratch with the goal of building missiles for both land and sea basing with an intended range of 3500 km. The flight test center for the project, code-named "Precious Stones", was based in the Algerian Sahara.

"On 26 November 1965 France launched its first satellite. The first ballistic missile to be developed - the SSBS S2 (Sol-Sol Balistique Strategique) IRBM (intermediate range ballistic missile) began testing in launches in October 1965. It was deployed on the Plateau d'Albion between Marseille and Lyon where 18 silos were built in two groups of 9. The missile force, armed with the 120 kt pure fission MR-31, finally went operational on 2 August 1971."

The S2 IRBM to the left, with its successor the S3 alongside.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 182

This is re-entry vehicle shape, of which I cannot identify and might be a development shape as opposed to being representative of an actual warhead. It might be that which occupied the S2's nose cone, the MR.31, which was a 120 kt plutonium fission warhead weighing 700 kg, which is believed to be the highest yield plutonium fission device ever fielded. It looks similar to the TN.61 fitted to the S3 missile that replaced the S2, but we'll see one of those soon. It is most likely a test vehicle sent aloft in a sounding rocket during ballistics trials and recovered, the scorching and wear indicating atmospheric testing.

Here are passage from the above mentioned source on trialling thermonuclear warheads, firstly in Algeria and then at Mururoa, the beleaguered Pacific atoll, where France controversially continued testing, much to the rest of the world's, particularly neighbouring Pacific nations chagrin.

"In a Defence Council meeting on 17 June 1958 de Gaulle authorized a nuclear test to be held early the next year. The site chosen was the Reganne oasis 700 km south of Colomb Bechar in the Sahara Desert of Algeria; the operation was commanded by Gen Aillert. The first French nuclear test, code-named _Gerboise Bleue_, was detonated at 0704 GMT on 13 February 1960 at Reggane in Algeria (00.04 deg W, 26.19 deg N) atop a 105 m tower. This device, a prototype for the AN-11 warhead deployed three years later, used plutonium and had a notably high yield of 60-70 kt. No other nuclear power has ever detonated such a powerful device as its first test.

"France continued to use the Reggane site for the next three atmospheric tests. The last of these, on 25 April 1961, was really a low yield "scuttle" of the test device to prevent it from falling into the hands of mutineers during the "Revolt of the Generals", set in motion three days earlier by General Maurice Challe. These atmospheric test brought severe condemnation from other African nations, so all subsequent tests in Algeria shifted to underground testing at In Ecker in the Hoggar of southern Algeria, about 150 km north of Tamanrassett. In Ecker is in the mountainous area of Tan Afela and was chosen for the availability of rock strata for testing. The facility created for testing there was called the Oasis Military Test Center.

"Testing in Algeria continued until 16 February 1966, three and a half years _after_ Algeria had gained independence. The test site was returned to Algerian control 15 January 1967. France's testing program then moved to the Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls in the South Pacific.

"Sometime in the early sixties, an effort to develop thermonuclear weapons began. The man chosen to lead the project was a brilliant young physicist employed by the CEA named Roger Dautry [Who?!]. Little is known about this program, but it came to fruition in the Canopus test at 18:30 on 24 August 1968 over Fangataufa Atoll. In this test a 3 tonne device suspended at an altitude of 600 m from a balloon produced a yield of 2.6 megatons (and became the largest nuclear device France ever tested). The device used a lithium-6 deuteride secondary jacketed with highly enriched uranium and heavily contaminated the atoll, leaving it off limits to humans for six years."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 175

Now, we examine a ballistic nuclear missile up close. This is an S3 SSBS rocket, which was commissioned in 1981 and retired in 1996. Its first stage was inherited from the S2 rocket and is driven by solid propellant through four thrust chambers, which are gimbal mounted for directional control, which comes from the rocket's own inertial guidance system mounted in the nose section. The stage weighs 16 tons and is constructed of welded sections of 18/8 mm Z2-NKDT steel, carrying 37,350 lbs of solid fuel, which burns for a total of 72 seconds before it is discarded.




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The S3's second stage was inherited from the M.20 Mer-Sol-Balistique-Stratégique (MSBS) submarine launched ballistic missile, which was deployed aboard France's Le Redoutable Class ballistic missile submarines. Named Rita II, the stage was made of would fibreglass and carrying 13,261 lbs of solid fuel, burning for 58 seconds before the stage drops away. Exiting through a single fixed bell, thrust is vectored using inert gases injected through tiny holes into the bell downstream of the throat, a rather clever method of thrust vectoring, which was found to be more effective in the vacuum of space for missile manoeuvring; the US Polaris A3 submarine launched missile employing the same method of thrust vectoring in space in its second stage, using freon gas - I'm not sure what the French use, but it is likely to also be freon. The inter-stage separation collar is positioned alongside the stage.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 177

Finally, the bit that goes bang. This is the most important part of the missile and contains the guidance system and warhead, the re-entry vehicle shape visible within the cutaway shroud. The S3 was the first French missile to employ a digital flight control system that was resistant to electromagnetic impulse from proximity nuclear detonation. Housing a single thermonuclear warhead of the TN.61 type of approximately 1.2 megaton yield, a bit of information from here:



France's Nuclear Weapons - Development of the French Arsenal



"This is a family of thermonuclear warheads that began development at least as far back as 1968, when the first developmental nuclear tests were conducted. The first member of this family, the TN-60, was also France's first thermonuclear weapon. The development process was quite lengthy, requiring 21 nuclear tests spread over eight years. The resulting warhead was relatively sophisticated however, similar to U.S. designs of the early sixties such as the W-56 Minuteman II warhead fielded in 1963. The TN-60 was replaced by the improved TN-61 which was lighter in weight and was hardened against nuclear weapon effects. The TN-60/61 family was used to arm both submarine launched missiles (the MSBS M20 and MSBS M4) and land-based missiles (the SSBS S3).

"The first TN-60 was transferred from the CEA to the military on 24 January 1976, and effectively entered service in early 1977 when the first SSBN patrol carrying the MSBS M20 missile was made. The TN-60 did not remain in service for long since it was quickly superseded by the TN-61, which entered service late in 1977. Both warheads had a yield of 1 megaton, the TN-61 weighed 275-375 kg (700 kg with re-entry vehicle). The lighter weight of the TN-61 allowed the addition of penetration aids (e.g. decoys) to the RV. Enough TN-60/61 warheads were built to arm four submarines at a time, a total of 64 warheads. A maximum of about 70 warheads total were in stockpile at any given time (to allow for spares). The last TN-61 was withdrawn from naval service in February 1991.

"The TN-61 also armed the SSBS S3 missile based in silos on the Plateau d'Albion. The first set of nine TN-61 armed missiles went operational 1 June 1980, and the second set of nine on 1 January 1983. About 20 TN-61s were built for land-based deployment (18 on duty, and 2 spares). The TN-61 was retired from service with the deactivation of the SSBS S3D on 16 September 1996. A total of about 90 TN-61s were manufactured for all purposes."

The TN.61 was eventually replaced by MIRVed (Multiple Independently Targetted Re-entry Vehicle) TN.70/71 warheads that were smaller and lighter and deployed in missiles aboard submarines. With the S3 having been retired in 1996, the French concentrated its ballistic missile launched nuclear arsenal within its submarine fleet and the missile site in Haute-Provence was completely dismantled.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 176

The Musee's rocket cluster, with Rubis to the left and the small sounding rockets culminating in Veronique behind it, and the S2 and S3 SSBS nuclear missiles to the right.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 194 

Next, a friendlier approach to space vehicles...

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## nuuumannn (Dec 9, 2021)

Finally, the last post of images from the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace and we remain within the La Conquet Spatiale hall and spend this post examining equipment largely produced by the greatest interplanetary power of the 20th Century, yes, that's right, the Soviet Union, whose reign in space took it to other planets within our Solar System before anyone else and we look at some of these, with a little lunar interlude on the way.

This unmistakable shape shook the world on its audible debut in 1957, Sputnik 1's launch arguably kick started the Space Race, which culminated in the United States landing men on the moon before the Soviet Union, although the Soviets got there first with a remote probe. It is worth pointing out that despite US superiority in reaching the moon in the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was a force to be reckoned with, sending the first probes to foreign bodies, including the first to land on another planet in the Solar System, but far be it for me in hoping that this doesn't become a pissing contest, let's look at Sputnik a little more in depth from the usual source:

"Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome). The satellite travelled at a peak speed of about 8 km/s (18,000 mph), taking 96.20 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, which were monitored by radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. Sputnik 1 burned up on 4 January 1958 while reentering Earth's atmosphere, after three months, 1,440 completed orbits of the Earth, and a distance travelled of about 7.0×107​ km (4.3×107​ mi)."

"The chief constructor of Sputnik 1 at OKB-1 was Mikhail S. Khomyakov. The satellite was a 585-millimetre (23.0 in) diameter sphere, assembled from two hemispheres that were hermetically sealed with O-rings and connected by 36 bolts. It had a mass of 83.6 kilograms (184 lb). The hemispheres were 2 mm thick, and were covered with a highly polished 1 mm-thick heat shield made of an aluminium–magnesium–titanium alloy, AMG6T. The satellite carried two pairs of antennas designed by the Antenna Laboratory of OKB-1, led by Mikhail V. Krayushkin. Each antenna was made up of two whip-like parts, 2.4 and 2.9 metres (7.9 and 9.5 ft) in length, and had an almost spherical radiation pattern.

"The satellite had a one-watt, 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) radio transmitting unit inside, developed by Vyacheslav I. Lappo from _NII-885_, the Moscow Electronics Research Institute, that worked on two frequencies, 20.005 and 40.002 MHz. Signals on the first frequency were transmitted in 0.3 s pulses (near f = 3 Hz) (under normal temperature and pressure conditions on board), with pauses of the same duration filled by pulses on the second frequency. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere. Temperature and pressure were encoded in the duration of radio beeps. A temperature regulation system contained a fan, a dual thermal switch, and a control thermal switch. If the temperature inside the satellite exceeded 36 °C (97 °F), the fan was turned on; when it fell below 20 °C (68 °F), the fan was turned off by the dual thermal switch. If the temperature exceeded 50 °C (122 °F) or fell below 0 °C (32 °F), another control thermal switch was activated, changing the duration of the radio signal pulses. Sputnik _1_ was filled with dry nitrogen, pressurized to 1.3 atm (130 kPa). The satellite had a barometric switch, activated if the pressure inside the satellite fell below 130 kPa, which would have indicated failure of the pressure vessel or puncture by a meteor, and would have changed the duration of radio signal impulse.

While attached to the rocket, Sputnik 1 was protected by a cone-shaped payload fairing, with a height of 80 cm (31.5 in). The fairing separated from both Sputnik and the spent R-7 second stage at the same time as the satellite was ejected. Tests of the satellite were conducted at OKB-1 under the leadership of Oleg G. Ivanovsky."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 173

A scale model of the Vostok I spacecraft within which Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. There is much written about this momentous achievement that passages cut from wikipedia and other sites can't really do it justice, suffice to say, in Vostok, the human race took its first fleeting steps into space.

Here is a brief description of the Vostok capsule, from the excellent Technik Museum Speyer in Germany, where a full scale reproduction can be seen:









Vostok 1 Spacecraft | Technik Museum Speyer | Germany


The Vostok 1 spaceship was the first manned Soviet spaceship. The craft consisted of a spherical descent module, which housed the cosmonaut, instruments and escape system, and an instrument module, which contained propellant and the engine system.




speyer.technik-museum.de





"The Vostok 1 spaceship was the first manned Soviet spaceship. The craft consisted of a spherical descent module, which housed the cosmonaut, instruments and escape system, and an instrument module, which contained propellant and the engine system. The technical and scientific equipment mainly consisted of telemetry and communication devices as well as landing sensors and the landing parachute. The cosmonaut was strapped to an ejection seat. Since it was not possible to sufficiently decelerate the landing capsule on reentry, the cosmonaut was ejected from the craft at an altitude of about 7,000 m and descended via parachute, while the capsule landed separately. The ejection seat could also be activated during take-off if a problem with the launch rocket occurred."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 183

The Soviets' next manned spacecraft was the Soyuz, which has demonstrated remarkable longevity, to the extent that derivatives of the basic design are still in use today by the Russian Federation in transporting personnel to and from the International Space Station, as well as Progress escape modules on the ISS being based on the Soyuz, by far and away the most successful and widely used space ship built to date. This is Soyuz T-6, which in 1982 took the first French astronaut into space, Jean-Loup Chrétien, with two Cosmonauts to the Salyut space station.

A bit on Soyuz T-6:

*"*Soyuz T-6 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 24 June 1982 at 16:29 GMT. Docking with the Salyut 7 station was completed manually after problems arose with the spacecraft's onboard automatic docking systems. Once aboard Salyut 7, the crew completed joint Soviet-French, including echography and antibiotic experiments, with the station's resident crew, the crew of Soyuz T-5.

The mission transported the first Frenchman, Jean-Loup Chrétien, into space. While aboard the station, the resident crew afforded him the opportunity to eject Salyut 7's weekly bag of waste into space through the station's small trash airlock. Valentin Lebedev, writing in his diary, quoted Chrétien as saying Salyut 7 "is simple, doesn't look impressive, but is reliable."

This is the central crew capsule, the only segment of the three part spacecraft to return to Earth. Note the instructions on the back explaining how to retrieve the crew, the ablative heat shield having been jettisoned/burnt away by this stage, presumably.




Musee de l&#x27;Air 184

The inside of the Soyuz T-6, here's a detailed description of the descent module from French wiki, so excuse the Frenglish:

The descent module (Russian: _спускаемый аппарат; Spuskaemyi_ abbreviated as SA), located between the service module and the orbital module, is the only part of the ship that returns to the ground. It has an external height of 2.24 meters, an outer diameter of 2.17 meters and provides its crew with a habitable volume of 3.5m3​. In the shape of a car headlight, it has at its base the heat shield, at its top an opening closed by a hatch, and two portholes on its sides. The opening, which has a diameter of 70 cm and can only be sealed on the side of the descent module, opens as a result of a short tunnel into the habitable space of the orbital module; after returning to Earth, it allows the crew to evacuate the ship. The main parachute as well as an emergency parachute are housed in a relatively large lenticular shaped compartment, located in the upper part of the module and closed by an operculum. The entire surface of the module is covered with an ablative coating that protects it from heat during atmospheric re-entry. The base of the module, which undergoes temperatures of 1,800 °C, is protected by a thick ablative heat shield that is dropped in the final phase of re-entry.

The three occupants are lying on bunks arranged in a fan jointed at the level of the feet but spread at the level of the shoulders. The berths are placed at the bottom of the module, not far from the bulkhead behind which the heat shield is located. The head is higher than the lower part of the body to allow cosmonauts to access the instrument panels that face them. Each berth is adapted to the measurements of its occupant and wraps it in particular at the level of his head while the knees are raised, which must help him to withstand the acceleration (see photo opposite). Between the berths and the heat shield is part of the on-board electronics. Above the astronauts' heads, the parachute compartment and nets reserved for transported cargo restrict the limited living space available.

The ship's commander is installed on the central berth, the flight engineer is on his left while the third occupant, who plays no role in the conduct of the ship since the TMA version, is installed on his right. The commander is in charge of the mission: he communicates with the ground control and performs the maneuvers of change of orbit, orientation and appointments. For this purpose, he has two joysticks arranged on each side of his bunk; one makes it possible to perform translation maneuvers in the three axes (increase speed, raise altitude...) while the other acts on the orientation of the ship (roll, pitch, yaw). It does not have a porthole but the image provided by a periscope whose screen faces it and whose optical part extends far beyond the hull of the ship to allow it to observe forward during docking maneuvers. Optics can also be oriented towards the Earth. In particular, the flight engineer monitors the orientation parameters of the spacecraft and the life support system of the ship."




Musee de l&#x27;Air 185

Chrétien's suit. Information on the man himself here:









Jean-Loup Chrétien — Wikipédia







fr.wikipedia.org








Musee de l&#x27;Air 186

this rather peculiar shape is a model of the very first man made craft to make a soft landing on a foreign celestial body, this is the Luna 9 module. Not the most successful space programme, the Luna probes nevertheless gave us the first close up images of earth's nearest neighbour from its surface. Here's some background from French wiki, which is far more detailed than the English version:

"The probes of the Luna program thus carried out the first flyby of the Moon(Luna 1 in January 1959), crashed the first artificial object on the ground of our satellite (Luna 2 in September 1959) and made the first photos of the far side of the Moon (Luna 3 in October 1959). The Soviet lunar program then experienced between 1960 and 1965 a continuous series of 13 failures, of which only five were made official at the time.

"The first attempt to launch the new probe model was a success. The Luna 9 probe was launched on January 31, 1966. It landed smoothly on February 3, 1966 at 18:44:52 in the _Oceanus Procellarum _(the "Ocean of Storms") and sent the first panoramic images of the lunar soil. Seven sessions of transmissions, for a total of 8 hours and 5 minutes, allowed the restitution of four panoramas before the battery, the only source of energy, ran out. Once assembled, we could reconstruct a panoramic view of the landing site. These photographs included shots of the surrounding rocks as well as the skyline 1.4 km from the lander."

A description of the probe;

"The probe, type Ye-6M, is 2.7 meters long with a mass of about 1.6 tons. It consists of three subsets in the extension of each other.

"The main propulsion system is based on an Isaev rocket engine, with 4.64 tons of thrust and consuming hypergolic propellants, is responsible for cancelling the speed of the probe before landing. Four small motors of 245newton thrust located on its sides are used for attitude control during the descent phase.

"The engine compartment is topped by a pressurized compartment containing avionics and telecommunications system. On the sides of this module are two submodules. One contains a radar-altimeter used to trigger the firing of the rocket engine during descent as well as the engines responsible for attitude control during the Earth-Moon transit. The second contains the sensors responsible for determining the orientation during the flight.

"At the top is the lander itself which is a sphere of 58 cm in diameter hermetically sealed and weighing 105 kg. It contains a telecommunications system, a programmer, a thermal control system, batteries and scientific instruments. The sphere is surrounded by two inflated airbags during the descent phase that protect it from the impact on landing. Once on the lunar soil, the sphere opens by deploying four petals and four antennas 75 cm long are deployed. The batteries provide enough power for five hours of probe activity over a four-day period. Deployable petals and an off-center center of mass ensure that the probe lands with the upper face facing upwards."




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While the US was sending people to the moon, the Soviets were trying and failing spectacularly to do the same, but they did return to the moon and from its surface return samples of moon rock, from their successful Lunokhod mission, as a part of the greater Luna programme. Here's our usual source with a paragraph on the Lunokhod 1 rover:

_"Luna 17_ left its Earth orbit towards the Moon and entered lunar orbit on November 15, 1970. The spacecraft landed on the Moon in the Sea of Rains on November 17. He deployed a double ramp that allowed _Lunokhod 1_ to descend to the lunar surface. _Lunokhod 1_ was a tubular lunar vehicle powered by eight-wheel drive. It was equipped with a conical antenna, a directional antenna, four cameras and various articulated appendages intended to carry out tests concerning the lunar soil. It also featured an X-ray spectrometer, an X-ray telescope, cosmic ray detectors, and a laser reflector. Running on solar energy, Lunokhod was originally scheduled to operate for three lunar days but in reality it remained in operation for eleven lunar days. It was officially declared inactive on October 4, 1971,the anniversary of Sputnik 1. Lunokhod traveled a distance of 10,540 meters and transmitted more than 20,000 images, and more than 200 panoramas. It has also carried out more than 500 tests on the lunar soil."

During its extensive surveying of the lunar surface in 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found the rover, its last transmission to Earth having been made 38 years earlier.




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Across the moon at the Taurus-Littrow Valley in December 1972, Eugene Cernan became the last man to walk on the moon (to date). His space suit has found its way to France and can be seen near the Lunokhod rover model.




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Cernan needs no introduction, being one of only 12 men to have gone to another celestial body other than Earth. That makes him kind'a special. 




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While the US was investigating the enormity of the task to launch men to the moon, the Soviet Union was ploughing on with its interstellar ambitions and launched a probe whose mission has been overshadowed by the astounding achievement of landing men on the moon, but was no less spectacular in what it achieved. Venera 4 became the very first man made spacecraft to land on another planet. Information on this remarkable achievement from the usual source:

_"Venera 4_ was launched on June 12, 1967. As with previous flights, the Soviets did not make known the exact mission of the craft, even on the eve of arrival. A little heavier than the Series of Venera 2 and 3 (1,106 kg vs. 960 kg), Venera 4 is the first to successfully transmit data to Earth during its parachute descent, eclipsing the success of the flyby of Venus at the same time by the American Mariner 5probe.

"The 383 kg ovoid capsule dropped by Venera 4 descended into the atmosphere on October 18, 1967 in the unlit part of the planet, near the equator. It broadcast measurements of the density, temperature and atmospheric composition of Venus. The orbital spacecraft relayed this information to the USSR, as well as to Jodrell Bank which at the request of the Russians also provided receptions.

"During the parachute descent, the readings transmitted for thirty minutes varied from a temperature of 40 ° C to a pressure of an atmosphere to a temperature of 274 ° C and a pressure of 22 atmospheres. If at first, the media thought that the capsule had landed on the surface of Venus, the difference between the values observed by Venera 4 and those much higher obtained by Mariner 5 made it possible to interpret that the cessation of retransmission of the data of Venera 4 occurred at an altitude of 24km. The measured atmospheric composition then gave about 90 to 93% carbon dioxide, 7% nitrogen,0.4 to 0.8% oxygen and 0.1 to 1.6% water vapor."

"A crown of hydrogen was spotted at an altitude of 9,920 km, a thousand times less than that of the Earth, suggesting that the planet had leaked water into the cosmos during its youth. No radiation belts or magnetic fields were detected."




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So, that's it from the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace. I hope you have enjoyed reading through this rather extensive thread, which has taken quite awhile to produce. There are of course more images I have taken that didn't appear in the thread, they can be seen here:









Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace


Le Bourget, Paris, France, 2018.




www.flickr.com





Thanks again for following along and I'll see y'all in another Deep Dive into another great aviation collection soon.

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## Wurger (Dec 10, 2021)



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## Crimea_River (Dec 10, 2021)

A plate of bacon for you Grant. Excellent thread.

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## SaparotRob (Dec 10, 2021)

Really good stiff!

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## Gnomey (Dec 11, 2021)

Lovely shots Grant!

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## nuuumannn (Dec 12, 2021)

Thank you all, gentlemen. Oops, of course, Gene Cernan was one of 12 men to walk on the moon, not six...


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## Snautzer01 (Dec 13, 2021)

Thank you, lovely read and i say well written. Excellent thread wich i enjoyed very much.

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