The real markings of Pierre Le Gloan's Dewoitine D.520 No.277

[fubar57]

M Milos Gazdic PM sent

 

[Milos Gazdic]

Thanks Fubar! Will check in a second!

And hello le_steph40 et al,

Here is a not so great translation of Avions #161 page dealing with D.520 & Nº277:

Intro: "As technically brilliant as it was formidable in the air, the D. 520 was undoubtedly the best French fighter of 1940. However, it had been engaged while its development was still in progress, and it was a catastrophe that the pilots had to transform themselves on the elegant single-engine Dewoitine throughout the May-June 1940 campaign. Only one group, the GC 1/3, was operational on May 10th; seven others were transformed until the end of the war, of which only four had the opportunity to fight, winning a total of 12 definite and 39 probable victories. In only a month and a half of fight tests, the D.520 had taken its place among the best fighters ever built! We propose you today a brief overview of the beginnings of this exceptional fighter, which will end in our next issue with its "career end" (from 1941 to 1953)."

And about Nº277: On the left page, opening the article, there is a three-view profile showing Nº277 in BoF livery. On the right page there are three images we have seen here:
_port side in flight
_starboard side in flight (image where wing covers #6) and
_image in that hangar with 2 more aircraft inside & one outside it.
Text: "Before & after! To be compared with the left-hand page (profile illustration) which shows it in June 1940, here are three post-armistice images of the famous D.520 Nº277 of sous-lieutenant Pierre Le Gloan (11 aerial victories and 1 probable in 1939-1940), probably the most famous Dewoitine pilot...
The bottom picture shows it in the summer of 1940 in one of the hangars of the Algiers-Maison Blanche base, in Algeria. It has the armistice markings on the fuselage (white roundel and white longitudinal stripe), a diagonal stripe symbolizing the "ace" status of its pilot and the serial number on the rudder.
The two in-flight photographs, taken in November 1940 as the group was moving to Casablanca (Morocco), show the final addition: the African mask of the 5th squadron of the GC 111/6 on the tailplane. Received by the Armee de l'Air on May 26th 1940, the n° 217 was assigned to the 111/6 fighter group on June 9th."

Unfortunately, I fail to see any mention of the early air scoops. I can see them being mentioned regarding early production machines two pages later (Nº5 Nº6 Nº7... showing the tests of the new, elongated intake) and on the page dealing with Nº12 of GC I/3 a few pages later. I have to admit I just flew over the captions of all the images but I do not see Nº277 being mentioned anywhere else in the article. Sadly, still no BoF images of this machine.

 

[Milos Gazdic]

Can we suppose that this White 8 (Nº unknown to me) was photographed at the same time as Nº277's port side shot?
Light direction & hardness is the same (scan is a bit ____tier), cockpit opened, the scenery the same...
Please note that the cowling's tip (housing water tank) is very worn out (same as the access panel for the engine). I have noticed on many machines that the part which we have discussed is often weathered on the machines past the Armistice. Maybe on Ace's aircraft, it was the same? And they decided to replace it or overpaint it?
Too many "what ifs" here - but just brainstorming. Hope you guys don't mind it?

 

[le_steph40]

Here is Pierre le Gloan with his "277" at Alger-Maison blanche during Summer 1940

 

[Milos Gazdic]

Hello!
OK. It's the naming that confused us. I call those "vents" since they basically let the air out.
I call those elongated things running the whole length of the nose the "scoops" since they collect air to put it into use.
Thank you for the clarification Mr Steph!