Bréguet 761/763/765 “Deux-Ponts”
Bréguet 941
Dassault Mercure
Hurel-Dubois H.D.34
Potez 840
Sud-Ouest S.O.30 Bellatrix/Brétagne
The last surviving Brétagne has been on display at the entrance to the Airbus factory in Saint-Nazaire since 2001
(Duch, 09Sep15; licensed)
Bréguet 761/763/765 “Deux-Ponts”
The Bréguet “Deux-Ponts” series was developed in response to a French Air Ministry specification for a twin-deck passenger and cargo aircraft with a range of 2,000 km. Air France proved to be a reluctant customer, and the first commercial services were flown by an aircraft loaned by the manufacturer to Air Algèrie. The same aircraft later operated cargo services for Silver City Airways between Berlin and Hamburg. Air France finally ordered 12 “Deux-Ponts” after having driven the price down so far Bréguet was selling at a loss, and put the type into service in March 1953. The Armée de l’Air also came to the “Deux-Ponts” relatively late, initially placing an order for 30 longer range aircraft in 1955. However, this order was soon reduced to 12 and then cancelled altogether, the military only taking delivery of four aircraft because it was cheaper to complete rather than scrap them. Six of Air France’s “Deux-Ponts” were modified as freighters and continued in service until June 1971, while others were transferred to the Armée de l’Air to support French nuclear testing in French Polynesia.
First flight: 15 Feb 49 (761 c/n 01, F-WFAM)
Production: 20, comprising 16 761/763s at Villacoublay, France, and 4 765s at Biarritz, France
First delivery: 29 Feb 52, to Air Algèrie (761S c/n 02, F-BASL)
Last delivery: Aug 59, to Armée de l’Air (765 c/n 504, F-RAPH)
Variants: 761 - prototype, powered by 4 Gnôme-Rhône 14R radials (1 built);
761S - pre-production version powered by 4 Pratt & Whitney R-2800B-31s, with seating for up to 101 passengers (3 built);
763 Provence - production version for Air France with increased span, powered by 4 water-injected R-2800CA-18s, and with seating for up to 135 passengers (12 built, first flight 20 Jul 51);
765 Sahara - production version for Armée de l’Air, with wingtip tanks for additional fuel capacity and greater range, uprated R2800 radials and seating for up to 164 passengers (4 built, first flight 6 Sep 58).
Bréguet 941
Bréguet developed the 941 as a private venture build on the technical success of the experimental 940 short-take-off-and-landing (STOL) aircraft, which had flown in May 1958 and completed some 300 flights. A family of variants was planned, including a tactical assault airlifter and a 52-seat feederliner. Despite extensive campaigning that involved tours of the United States by aircraft painted in the liveries of Eastern Air Lines and American Air Lines and a marketing arrangement with McDonnell Aircraft, no commercial orders were forthcoming. McDonnell entered the 941 into the United States Army Tactical Transport aircraft competition that was won by the DHC-5 Buffalo – although the project was cancelled after the Army’s fixed-wing fleet was transferred to the Air Force. The Armée de l’Air was reluctant to order the 941, having just purchased the much larger C-160 Transall, but eventually funding was released to cover the cost of a small evaluation batch. These remained in service until 1974.
First flight: 1 Jun 61 (c/n 01, F-ZWVZ)
Production: 5, at Villacoublay, France
First delivery: 1967, to Armée de l’Air (c/n 1, F-SDIX)
Last delivery: 1968, to Armée de l’Air (c/n 4, F-SDIY)
Variants: 941 - prototype, powered by 4 Turboméca Turmo IIID turboprops (1 built); 941S - production version with stretched fuselage and more powerful Turmo IIID-3s (4 built).
Dassault Mercure
The Mercure was launched in April 1969 as a co-operative venture between Dassault, Fiat, SABCA, the Federal Aircraft Factory in Switzerland and the French Government, the latter providing 56% of the launch and development costs. Designed for very short haul routes within Europe and with a range of only 400 miles at maximum payload, the Mercure concept was flawed as airlines at the time were demanding greater flexibility, and wanted aircraft capable of being used profitably on both short and medium haul routes. To make matters worse, Dassault designed the Mercure in such a way that it there was nowhere to install additional fuel tanks, thereby engineering out potential to develop the aircraft. Despite having a Category IIIA approach and all-weather automatic landing system, still a novelty at the time, only one customer came forward, the French domestic airline Air Inter, which placed an order for 10 aircraft on 30 January 1972. An eleventh Mercure - a modified prototype - joined its fleet in March 1985 and the type continued in service until on 29 April 1995.
First flight: 28 May 71 (c/n 01, F-WTCC)
Production: 12, at Bordeaux-Mérignac
First delivery: 4 Jun 74, to Air Inter (c/n 1, F-BTTA)
Last delivery: 1 Mar 85, to Air Inter (c/n 11, F-BTMD)
Variants: All aircraft were powered by 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 turbofans, with seating for 150 passengers.
Hurel-Dubois H.D.34
Maurice Hurel was born in Cherbourg in 1896. He joined the French Navy as an officer and subsequently trained as a seaplane pilot, before leaving to join Chantiers Aéro-Maritimes de la Seine, where he progressed to become technical director. He moved to Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Sud-Ouest after the French aviation industry was nationalised in 1936 and was later responsible for developing the S.O.90, a twin-engine aircraft intended for operation on postal services inside occupied France. Hurel fled to Algeria by tricking the Italian guards at Cannes-Mandelieu into believing the yet unflown S.O.90 was being prepared for engine runs, but, with eight passengers on board and with Hurel at the controls, the S.O.90 was instead flown out of the airfield.
Hurel returned to France after the war and teamed up with investor Léon-Joseph Dubois to form Avions Hurel-Dubois to pioneer the use of high aspect-ratio wing designs. The company’s first project was the experimental H.D.10 (now part of the the Musée de l’Air collection), which made its first flight in 1948. Five years later, the much larger H.D.31 appeared and by mid-1954 Hurel-Dubois had secured orders for 32 H.D.32s from Air France, Institut Géographique National (IGN) and Aigle Azur. The following year, Hurel-Dubois signed a production agreement with Sociéte Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Sud-Est covering 150 aircraft, with turboprop and jet-powered versions proposed along with an anti-submarine patrol variant for the French Navy. However, the project was abandoned for reasons unknown. Hurel-Dubois persevered with a specialist aerial survey version of the aircraft, designated H.D.34, and the eight aircraft ordered by IGN represent the only sale. A creditable four of the eleven built in the series survive; all can be found in France.
First flight: 27 Jan 53 (H.D.31 01, F-WFKU)
Production: 11, at Meudon-Villacoublay, France
First delivery: 19 Dec 57, to IGN (c/n 2, F-BICP)
Last delivery: 24 Apr 59, to IGN (c/ns 7 and 8, F-BICU and F-BICV)
Variants: H.D.31 - prototype with twin fin design, powered by 2 Wright Cyclones (1 built); H.D.32 - 42-passenger airliner version, powered by Pratt & Whitney R1830-92 radials (2 built with twin fins but subsequently modified with single fin); H.D.321 - re-engined conversion H.D.32s, featuring Wright Cyclone 982 C9 HE2s (2 converted); H.D.34 - H.D.321 optimised for aerial survey featuring glazed nose (8 built).
Potez 840
The Potez 840 was launched in May 1959 as a private venture, designed to be a potential turbine-powered replacement for the Dove, Heron and DC-3. Unusually for an aircraft its size, the 840 had four engines, a factor which may have impacted adversely on its commercial potential. But hopes were high at the time of the first flight and a production batch of 25 aircraft was ordered against optimistic reports of interest from Potez’s American agent, Turbo-Flight. The second prototype embarked on a promotional tour of the United States, during which Turbo-Flight increased its commitment to 24 aircraft per year for five years, prompting Potez to start work on a second-source production line at Baldonnel in Ireland. Ultimately, no firm order from Turbo-Flight was received beyond the demonstrator, and even this was subsequently sold back to Potez.
In 1964, the 840 was one of the five designs selected by the Federal Aviation Authority to replace the DC-3, but no firm order was received and of the 25 in the first production batch, only four were completed before Sud Aviation took over Potez in April 1967 and shut down the project. The last airworthy 840 crashed on landing in the Shetland Islands on 28 March 1981. Its engines were recovered for use in the restoration of the SIPA Antilope and the hulk handed over to the airport fire service. In 2005, the aircraft was sold to a private buyer and transported to a location at the opposite end of Mainland island, where it remains as one of two survivors.
First flight: 29 Apr 61 (c/n 01, F-WJSH)
Production: 6, in France. The two prototypes were built at Argenteuil and assembled at Toulouse-Blagnac, while the production aircraft were built at Blagnac.
First delivery: 20 Dec 62, to Turbo-Flight (c/n 02, N840HP)
Last delivery: 28 Oct 66, to Royal Moroccan Air Force (c/n 4, CN-MBC)
Variants: 840 – prototype feederliner powered by 2 Turboméca Astazou II turboprops, with seating for 16-24 passengers (2 built); 841 – production version optimized for US market, powered by Pratt & Whitney PT6A-6 (2 built); 842 – production version optimized for the European market, powered by Astazou XIIs (2 built).
Sud-Ouest S.O.30 Bellatrix/Brétagne
During the Nazi occupation of northern France, a group of French aeronautical engineers from Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Sud-Ouest, including Maurice Hurel and Marcel Bloch, set up a design office on the south coast of France at Cannes. Work began on a mid-size twin-engine airliner and construction of a prototype was under way when German forces began to push south in November 1942. The aircraft was hastily dismantled and the parts hidden in various locations around the town of Draguignan. Work re-started following the liberation of southern France, and the Bellatrix, as it was now known, made its first flight in February 1945. With no interest from Air France, production began in 1946 against an order for 40 from the French Government and examples were subsequently delivered to North Africa as well as to the French Air Force and Navy. By March 1949, the Brétagne name had been adopted, in line with the tradition of naming French transport aircraft after the regions of France. The only survivor spent its entire operational life with the French flight test organisation, Centre d’Essais en Vol, making its final sortie on 8 July 1971. It was initially put on display at Istres, but can now be found at the former Sud-Ouest factory at Saint-Nazaire (where Airbus fuselages are now manufactured). After an extensive restoration, the aircraft went on display there on 5 November 2001. A second survivor was destroyed in a hangar fire at Paris-Le Bourget on 17 May 1990.
First flight: 26 Feb 45 (S.O.30N c/n 01, F-BALY)
Production: 45 in France, comprising 3 prototypes at Cannes and Courbevoie and the balance at Saint-Nazaire
First delivery: 14 Sep 49 to French Air Force (c/n 7)
Last delivery: 15 Mar 55 to French Navy (c/n 45)
Variants: S.O.30N Bellatrix - prototype (1 built, at Cannes);
S.O.30R Bellatrix A - prototype airliner powered by 2 Gnôme-Rhône 14R-5 radials, with seating for up to 30 passengers, (2 built, at Courbevoie; first flight 6 Nov 45);
S.O.30C - cargo version of S.O.30R (1 built; first flight 6 Jan 50);
S.O.30P Brétagne Mk.1 - initial production version, powered by Pratt & Whitney R-2800B-43 radials (32 built; first flight 11 Dec 47)
S.O.30P Brétagne Mk.2 - developed version, using higher rated R-2800CB-18 radials with water injection (9 built).
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