| Bratu 220 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Role | Passenger aircraft |
| Designer | Romulus Bratu |
| First flight | 26 November 1932 |
| Status | prototype |
| Number built | 1 |
The Bratu-220 was a Franco-Romanian prototype three-engined airliner of the 1930s, built in France.
| Bratu 220 | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Role | Passenger aircraft |
| Designer | Romulus Bratu |
| First flight | 26 November 1932 |
| Status | prototype |
| Number built | 1 |
The Bratu-220 was a Franco-Romanian prototype three-engined airliner of the 1930s, built in France.
The aircraft was designed in 1929 by a Romanian engineer Romulus Bratu, who worked in France. Quite unusual was its arrangement, with one engine in a fuselage front, and the other two in a common nacelle over a wing, in a push-pull configuration. A model was tested in a laboratory of St. Cyr Aeronautical Institute. Parts of the plane were made in a factory at Athis-Mons, and assembled in the CIDNA workshops at Le Bourget airport.
The prototype was flown on 26 November 1932 and after tests, received a French airworthiness certificate. The plane had high useful load 4500 kg and could fly on two engines. In March 1933 it was shown to the French Minister of Air Pierre Cot.
High-wing cantilever monoplane of wooden construction, with closed cab, three engines, and a fixed landing gear. Sparless wing, with slightly swept leading edge, straight rear edge and rounded tips, was basing on a geodetical structure of crossing ribs. Crew sat in a cab before the wing. Next and below in the fuselage, under the wing, there was a cabin for 10 passengers, with rectangular windows and access doors in front and at the rear. The landing-gear was of the conventional-type, with a tailwheel.
A single Gnome-Rhône Jupiter 420 hp radial engine was mounted in the nose of the fuselage, while two Gnome-Rhône Titan 230 hp radial engines were in a common nacelle on struts above the fuselage and wing, one of them was tractor, the other one pusher (push-pull configuration). All engines drove two-blade propellers and had no covers.
Data from [1]
General characteristics
Performance
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
The Dornier Do 12 Libelle III was the third of a line of small German flying boats of the 1930s. It started with the Dornier A Libelle I and the Dornier A Libelle II, though the Do 12 was not a continuation, but an entirely new aircraft.
The Bloch MB.130 and its derivatives were a series of French monoplane reconnaissance-bombers developed during the 1930s. They saw some limited action at the beginning of World War II but were obsolete by that time and suffered badly against the Luftwaffe. After the fall of France, a few were pressed into Luftwaffe service.
The Aero A.32 was a biplane built in Czechoslovakia in the late 1920s for army co-operation duties including reconnaissance and tactical bombing. While the design took the Aero A.11 as its starting point, the aircraft incorporated significant changes to make it suited for its new low-level role.
The MB.210 and MB.211 were the successors of the French Bloch MB.200 bomber built by Societé des Avions Marcel Bloch in the 1930s and differed primarily in being low wing monoplanes rather than high wing monoplanes.
The Aero A.38 was a Czechoslovakian biplane airliner of the 1920s and 1930s. Following the relatively modern A.35, this aircraft was something of a throwback, marrying a fuselage derived from the A.35 to wings copied from the A.23. A few served with CSA, and others with French airline Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne. These latter aircraft were powered by a French Gnome-Rhône engine instead.
The Gotha Go 244 was a transport aircraft used by the Luftwaffe during World War II.
PZL.46 Sum (sheatfish) was a light bomber of the Polish Air Force before World War II, which, was directed to serial production in the spring of 1939. These planes were in production, but the Polish industry did not manage to produce them before the outbreak of the war.
The PZL.48 Lampart (leopard) was a Polish heavy fighter-bomber design, that remained only a project, owing to the outbreak of World War II.
The Bloch MB.220 was a French twin-engine passenger transport airplane built by Société des Avions Marcel Bloch during the 1930s.
Potez 62 was a French twin-engine civil airliner, designed by Henry Potez in 1934.
The Bréguet 730 was a French flying boat of the 1930s. Built to meet the requirements of the French Navy, it was ordered into production but no aircraft were delivered before France surrendered to Germany in June 1940. Four remaining incomplete airframes were completed after the end of World War II, serving with the French Navy until 1954.
The PZL.4 was a Polish three-engine passenger aircraft for 10 passengers, built in PZL factory in 1932, which remained a prototype. It was the first Polish-designed and produced multi-engine plane.
The ICAR 36 / ICAR Comercial (sic), variously also known as the ICAR M 36, Messerschmitt M 36 or BFW M.36, was a Messerschmitt design built and tested by the Romanian company ICAR in the mid-1930s. It was a small, single-engine high-wing airliner, the first civil transport aircraft built in Romania.
The SNCASE SE.100 was a French two-seat, twin-engined fighter which first flew in 1939. Mass production was planned to begin late in 1940 but the Fall of France prevented this.
The SNCAC NC.211 Cormoran was a large four-engined military transport aircraft for passengers and cargo designed and built by SNCAC from 1945.
The Potez 32 and its military version the Potez 33 was a single-engine French monoplane transport built by Potez and based on the Potez 29 biplane.
The Dornier Do K was a German commercial passenger and freight monoplane, designed by Claude Dornier and built by Dornier Flugzeugwerke. Only three prototypes of different designs were built and the type was not a commercial success.
The Blériot 111 was a French four-seat executive transport monoplane designed by André Herbemont. The first French aircraft to be fitted with a retractable landing gear, after six years development it was not ordered into production.
The PZL.3 was a Polish project for a four-engine heavy bomber, designed by Władysław Zalewski from 1928-1930 at PZL.
The Wibault 10/II Tramontane was a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft designed and built by Société des Avions Michel Wibault in France for the French military 1923 A.2 competition for a 2-seater reconnaissance aircraft.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bratu 220 . |