Breguet Br 905 Fauvette

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Br 905 Fauvette
Breguet Br 905 Fauvette.png
The first prototype, probably at the 1958 WGC, Leźno
RoleSingle-seat competition sailplane
National origin France
ManufacturerSociété des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Breguet (Breguet Aviation)
DesignerJean Cayla
First flight15 April 1958
Number built50

The Breguet Br 905 Fauvette (English: Warbler) is a single-seat, standard class, competition sailplane, designed and produced in France from the late 1950s. Some 50 were built but most remained grounded after a structural accident in 1969; a few remain airworthy.

France Republic with mainland in Europe and numerous oversea territories

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Contents

Design and development

Following Breguet's success in the 1954 and 1956 World Gliding Championships with the Type 901, Jean Cayla designed the Type 905 for the 1958 event. It is a Standard Class sailplane with a 15 m (49 ft 3in) span. Like its predecessor, the 905 is a cantilever mid-wing monoplane but the its structure contains glass reinforced plastic, more plastic foam and less fabric. It also has a butterfly tail. It has a wing of straight tapered planform, terminated with small "salmon" fairings at the squared-off wingtips. The major structural component is the main spar plus nose D-box unit, skinned with a plastic foam-filled ("Klegecel") sandwich with 0.6 mm (0.024 in)-ply outer layers. Ribs, ailerons and Schempp-Hirth airbrakes are attached to this torsion box. The whole upper wing surface and outboard lower surface is ply, supported by an internal Klegecell lining, with fabric below, aft of the spar. Slotted ailerons occupy the outer 45% of the trailing edge; there are no flaps. Each complete wing weighs just 34 kg (75 lb). [1] [2]

The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competition held every two years or so by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are sometimes held in the summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Breguet Br 901 Mouette

The Breguet 901 Mouette is a very successful single seat French competition sailplane from the 1950s. It was the winner at both the 1954 and 1956 World Gliding Championships.

Cantilever beam anchored at only one end

A cantilever is a rigid structural element, such as a beam or a plate, anchored at one end to a support from which it protrudes; this connection could also be perpendicular to a flat, vertical surface such as a wall. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs. When subjected to a structural load, the cantilever carries the load to the support where it is forced against by a moment and shear stress.

The Fauvettes's fuselage is built in three parts. The nose section, with a moulded plastic foam shell over a steel frame contains the cockpit, which is covered by a high, one-piece canopy over the upright seating position, giving the Fauvette a somewhat humpbacked look. The centre section also has a steel frame, covered by moulded polystyrene; wings, cockpit and twin fuselage side towing hooks are attached to this frame. Behind the cockpit the upper fuselage line is formed with a polystyrene fairing which overlaps the conical rear fuselage, made of ply-foam sandwich. The V-tail is straight-tapered with sweep on both edges. The fixed surfaces are ply-foam sandwich structures, carrying fabric covered control surfaces. The Fauvette has a fixed, monowheel undercarriage, assisted by a tailskid. [2]

Fuselage aircraft main body which is the primary carrier of crew, passengers, and payload

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, and cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, as well, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage, which in turn is used as a floating hull. The fuselage also serves to position control and stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to lifting surfaces, which is required for aircraft stability and maneuverability.

The Type 905 Fauvette flew for the first time on 15 April 1958. [3]

Breguet Bre 906 Choucas

Breguet also designed and built a two-seat version of the Fauvette, the 906 Choucas (English: Jackdaw). The Choucas, which first flew on 26 October 1959, was larger and heavier than the Fauvette with an 18 m (59 ft 7 in) span, a length of 8 m (26 ft 6 in) and an empty weight of 245 kg (540 lb). In 1962 they had plans for a production run of one hundred but gained no orders, so only one was built. [1] [2]

Operational history

The Br 905 competed in the 1958 World Gliding Championship at Leźno in Poland as was intended, though it failed to repeat the success of the earlier Breguet, coming in 9th out of 24 in the Standard Class. It was piloted by Camille Lebar. The Fauvette was well received by those who flew it, reporting light controls, good aileron response and general good behaviour. [2]

Leźno Village in Pomeranian, Poland

Leźno is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Żukowo, within Kartuzy County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) east of Żukowo, 16 km (10 mi) east of Kartuzy, and 14 km (9 mi) west of the regional capital Gdańsk.

Poland republic in Central Europe

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, covering an area of 312,696 square kilometres (120,733 sq mi), and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of approximately 38.5 million people, Poland is the sixth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.

Breguet set up a batch production line for fifty aircraft, all of which had been delivered to customers in several European countries and in North America by the end of January 1961. [2] The Fauvette was available in both flyaway form or as a kit. Some were in private hands by 1959: for example, on 12 June 1959 Tony Goodhart set a new British National Distance record of 617 km (343 mi) in his Fauvette, the 5th, preproduction, aircraft. He also participated in the Italian National Championships in it. [4]

On 11 August 1969 a Fauvette under airtow shed its tail unit, killing the pilot. Investigators found that the bonding between the fuselage and tail unit had failed and the type was grounded. Though a modification involving metal and wood straps to reinforce the bonding was devised, most Fauvettes never flew again. The strengthening added 32 kg (82 lb) to the weight. [1] Of the minority which were modified, some are still registered; in 2010 five Fauvettes remained on the mainland European civil aircraft registers [5] and there were another two in the UK in 2012. [6]

Variants

Data from Breguet production [7]

905
One Prototype.
905PS
Preproduction aircraft. three built.
905S
Production aircraft. 42 built as flyaway or kit.
905SA
Three built.
905BM
One built.
906 Choucas
Larger, two-seat version. One built.

Specifications (Fauvette / Choucas)

Data fromJane's All the World's Aircraft 1962/63 [2] The World's Sailplanes:Die Segelflugzeuge der Welt:Les Planeurs du Monde Volume II [8]

General characteristics

7.9 m (25 ft 11 in) (906 Choucas)
  • Wingspan: 15.0 m (49 ft 3 in) (905 Fauvette)
18 m (59 ft 0.7 in) (906 Choucas)
  • Aspect ratio: 20 (905 Fauvette)
19 (906 Choucas)
(906 Choucas) Root NACA 63820, Tip NACA 63013
  • Empty weight: 148 kg (326 lb) (905 Fauvette)
267 kg (589 lb) (906 Choucas)
  • Gross weight: 230 kg (507 lb)
  • Max takeoff weight: 275 kg (606 lb) (905 Fauvette)
460 kg (1,010 lb) (906 Choucas)

Performance

  • Stall speed: 54 km/h (34 mph; 29 kn) (905 Fauvette)
58 km/h (36 mph; 31 kn) (906 Choucas)
  • Never exceed speed: 200 km/h (124 mph; 108 kn)
  • Rough air speed max: 170 km/h (106 mph; 92 kn)
  • Aerotow speed: 120 km/h (75 mph; 65 kn)
  • g limits: +5.33 -2.13 at 231 km/h (144 mph; 125 kn)
  • Maximum glide ratio: 30 at 78 km/h (48 mph; 42 kn) (905 Fauvette)
31 at 82 km/h (51 mph; 44 kn) (906 Choucas)
  • Rate of sink: 0.6 m/s (120 ft/min) minimum at 65 km/h (40 mph; 35 kn)(905 Fauvette)
0.7 m/s (138 ft/min) at 70 km/h (43 mph; 38 kn) (906 Choucas)
  • Wing loading: 24.5 kg/m2 (5.0 lb/sq ft) (905 Fauvette)
27 kg/m2 (5.5 lb/sq ft) (906 Choucas)

See also

Related development

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Simons, Martin (2006). Sailplanes 1945-1965 (2nd revised ed.). Königswinter: EQIP Werbung & Verlag GmbH. pp. 205–7. ISBN   3 9807977 4 0.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Taylor, John W R (1962). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1962-63. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. p. 321.
  3. ↑ "Club and gliding news". Flight . Vol. 73 no. 2070. 25 April 1958. p. 587.
  4. ↑ "Goodright's Fauvette" (PDF). pp. 262, 265, 273. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
  5. ↑ Partington, Dave (2010). European registers handbook 2010. Air Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN   978-0-85130-425-0.
  6. ↑ "CAA register - Breguet 905" . Retrieved 19 April 2012.
  7. ↑ "Breguet production" . Retrieved 19 April 2012.
  8. ↑ Shenstone, B.S.; K.G. Wilkinson (1963). The World's Sailplanes:Die Segelflugzeuge der Welt:Les Planeurs du Monde Volume II (in English, French, and German) (1st ed.). Zurich: Organisation Scientifique et Technique Internationale du Vol a Voile (OSTIV) and Schweizer Aero-Revue. pp. 90–93.

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References

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