Breguet Vultur

Last updated
Vultur
RoleGround-attack aircraft
Manufacturer Breguet Aviation
First flight3 August 1951
Number built2
Developed into Breguet Alizé

The Breguet Br.960 Vultur was a French prototype carrier-based attack aircraft that first flew on 3 August 1951. Only two examples were built, but the work done on them later proved useful in the development of the Breguet Alizé anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

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.

Prototype early sample or model built to test a concept or process

A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one. In some design workflow models, creating a prototype is the step between the formalization and the evaluation of an idea.

Aircraft carrier Warship that serves as a seagoing airbase

An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, it is currently not possible to land them. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third party countries, reduce the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increase the time of availability on the combat zone.

Contents

Design and development

The Vultur was a mixed-power design, combining an Armstrong Siddeley Mamba turboprop in the nose with a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet in the tail. It was a low-wing aircraft, with the wing featuring a swept leading edge and a straight trailing edge, folding at the middle. The aircraft had tricycle landing gear, with the main gear hinged in the wings just inside the wing fold and retracting towards the fuselage, the nose gear retracting backwards.

Armstrong Siddeley Mamba

The Armstrong Siddeley Mamba was a British turboprop engine produced by Armstrong Siddeley in the late 1940s and 1950s, producing around 1,500 effective horsepower (1,100 kW).

Turboprop turbine engine which powers an aircraft propeller using a reduction gear

A turboprop engine is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.

Rolls-Royce Nene

The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent with a design target of 5,000 lbf, making it the most powerful engine of its era. It was Rolls-Royce's third jet engine to enter production, and first ran less than 6 months from the start of design. It was named after the River Nene in keeping with the company's tradition of naming its early jet engines after rivers.

The Vultur accommodated a pilot and copilot sitting side by side in a framed canopy. A typical payload was a single 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bomb and eight rockets. It was fitted with radar in a pod on the right wingtip, balanced by a fuel tank on the left wingtip. A large search radar could also be attached under the fuselage.

Radar object detection system based on radio waves

Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. A radar system consists of a transmitter producing electromagnetic waves in the radio or microwaves domain, a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna and a receiver and processor to determine properties of the object(s). Radio waves from the transmitter reflect off the object and return to the receiver, giving information about the object's location and speed.

When the Aéronavale lost interest in a turboprop attack aircraft, but was keen to purchase a new anti-submarine warfare platform, Breguet modified the second prototype as a demonstrator. Now known as the Breguet Br.965 Épaulard ("Killer Whale"), this aircraft was the immediate forerunner of the Breguet Alizé.

Anti-submarine warfare Branch of naval warfare

Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines.

Breguet Alizé anti-submarine aircraft model by Breguet

The Breguet Br.1050 Alizé was a French carrier-based anti-submarine warfare aircraft. It was developed in the 1950s, based loosely on the second prototype Breguet Vultur attack aircraft which had been modified into the Breguet Br.965 Épaulard anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

Specifications (Br.960, second prototype)

Data fromJane's All The World's Aircraft 1953–54 [1]

General characteristics

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 900 km/h (559 mph; 486 kn) turboprop and jet
  • Maximum Speed: 400 km/h (249 mph) on turboprop power only
  • Endurance: 4 hr 30 min (turboprop only)
  • Service ceiling: 13,000 m (43,000 ft)

Armament

  • Bombs and rockets carried underwing

See also

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

Notes

  1. Bridgman 1953, pp. 127–128.

Related Research Articles

Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop aircraft engine

The Rolls-Royce RB.53 Dart is a long-lived British turboprop engine designed, built and manufactured by Rolls-Royce Limited. First run in 1946, it powered the first Vickers Viscount maiden flight in 1948, and in the Viscount was the first turboprop engine to enter airline service, with British European Airways (BEA), in 1950. On 29 July 1948 a flight between Northolt and Paris–Le Bourget Airport with 14 paying passengers in a Dart-powered Viscount was the first scheduled airline flight by any turbine-powered aircraft.

Yakovlev Yak-19 prototype fighter aircraft

The Yakovlev Yak-19 was a prototype Soviet fighter built in late 1940s. It was the first Soviet aircraft to be equipped with an afterburning turbojet, the Klimov RD-10F that was derived from the German Jumo 004 engine. Only two examples were built as it was rejected for service by the Soviet Air Force.

Hawker P.1072

The Hawker P.1072 was a 1949 experimental British aircraft acting as test bed for the Armstrong Siddeley Snarler rocket booster engine. It was the prototype Hawker Sea Hawk modified to install the rocket in the tail.

Boulton Paul P.111 tailless delta experimental aircraft, United Kingdom, 1950

The Boulton Paul P.111 is a British experimental aircraft of the 1950s designed to explore the characteristics of tailless delta wings.

Blackburn B-54

The Blackburn B-54 and B-88 were prototype carrier-borne anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the immediate post-Second World War era developed for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). They shared a conventional monoplane design with a mid-mounted inverted-gull wing and tricycle undercarriage. The pilot and observer sat in tandem under a long canopy atop the fuselage. The B-54 had a piston engine and the B-88 a gas turbine driving large contra-rotating propellers. The radar scanner was mounted in a retractable radome in the rear fuselage, behind a long internal weapons bay. The program was cancelled in favour of the Fairey Gannet aircraft.

Avro Ashton

The Avro 706 Ashton was a British prototype jet airliner made by Avro during the 1950s. Although it flew nearly a year after the de Havilland Comet, it represented an experimental programme and was never intended for commercial use.

Sud-Ouest Bretagne

The Sud-Ouest S.O.30 Bretagne was a 1940s French airliner built by Sud-Ouest.

The Arsenal VG 70 was a research aircraft flown in France shortly after World War II to assist development of high-speed jet fighters. A captured German Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet was built into a highly streamlined high-wing monoplane with all-swept flying surfaces. The sermi-circular jet intake was located under the fuselage.

Avro Athena

The Avro 701 Athena is a British advanced trainer aircraft built by Avro in the late 1940s. It was designed to replace the North American Harvard in the Royal Air Force, but was bought only in small numbers, the competing Boulton Paul Balliol being preferred.

Breguet Br.1001 Taon

The Breguet Br.1001 Taon was a 1950s French prototype single-seat jet strike fighter aircraft built by Breguet.

EFW N-20

The EFW N-20 Aiguillon was Switzerland's first indigenous jet fighter aircraft. The Swiss Federal Aircraft Factory developed a design for a four-engined swept winged fighter following the end of the Second World War. During the test programme an unpowered glider was built and flown. A turbojet powered test aircraft, known as the Arbalète ("Crossbow"), also flew.

Armstrong Whitworth Apollo airliner

The Armstrong Whitworth AW.55 Apollo was a 1940s British four-engine turboprop airliner built by Armstrong Whitworth at Baginton. The aircraft was in competition with the Vickers Viscount but was beset with engine problems and only two were built.

Fiat G.80

The Fiat G.80 was a military jet trainer developed in Italy in the 1950s, and was that country's first true jet-powered aircraft. It was a conventional low-wing monoplane with retractable tricycle undercarriage and engine air intakes on the fuselage sides. The pilot and instructor sat in tandem under a long bubble canopy.

Caproni Trento F-5

The Caproni Trento F.5 was a small Italian two-seat trainer designed by Stelio Frati and built by Aeroplane Caproni Trento. The F.5 was not ordered into production and only a prototype was built.

The SNCASO SO.4000 was an experimental French twin-engine jet-bomber aircraft of the 1950s. Only a single example was built, which only made a single test flight before development was abandoned.

Tupolev 73

The Tupolev '73',, was a Soviet trijet medium bomber of the late 1940s. It lost out to the Ilyushin Il-28 'Beagle'.

Sud-Ouest Espadon

The Sud-Ouest SO.6020 Espadon was a post-war prototype French interceptor designed and built by SNCASO. Only four aircraft were built and the type did not go into production.

The Hamburger Flugzeugbau 314 was a postwar design project for a twin-turbojet medium-range transport.

References

The initial version of this article was based on a public domain article from Greg Goebel's Vectorsite.