Max Plan PF.204 Busard

Last updated
Max Plan PF.204 Busard
Max Plan PF.204 F-PBGE Mitry 29.05.57 edited-3.jpg
The sole PF.204 Busard stored at Mitry-Mory airfield near Paris in May 1957
General information
Typelight sporting monoplane
National originFrance
Manufacturer Max Plan
Designer
Max Plan
Primary userprivate pilot owner
Number built1
History
Introduction date1952
First flight5 June 1952
Retiredby 1963

The Max Plan PF.204 Busard was a French-built light sporting monoplane of the early 1950s. Following some modifications it was redesignated as PF.214; a planned derivative, the PF.215, was never made. The plane led to the subsequent construction of the Lefebvre Busard, a single-seat racing aircraft built marketed for homebuilding.

Contents

Development

The PF.204 Busard was designed and built by Monsieur Max Plan for personal use as a racing and sporting monoplane. The PF.204 was of all-wood construction with plywood skin. The aircraft was fitted with a fixed cantilever undercarriage enclosed by light alloy fairings. [1]

Operational history

Only one example of the Busard was completed in 1952. By 1956 it had received several modifications, the most noticeable being a revised engine cowling and enlarged cockpit; at this point it was redesignated the PF. 214. [2] At that time there were plans to replace the Minié with a 90 hp (67 kW) Continental C90 4-cylinder horizontally opposed engine, producing the PF.215.

After some years of active flying, it was placed in storage at Mitry-Mory airfield on the northeast outskirts of Paris by May 1957. It no longer appeared on the French civil aircraft register by 1964. [3] By 2006 the aircraft was in storage at the Musée Regional de l'Air, [4] Angers - Loire Airport, France. [5]

Variants

Max Plan PF.204 Busard
The original racer, designed and built by Max Plan, powered by a 75 hp (56 kW) Minié 4.DC.32 h4-cyl. horizontally opposed piston engine.
Max Plan PF.214 Busard
The sole MP.204 re-designated after modifications to the engine cowling and an enlarged cockpit.
Max Plan PF.215 Busard
A planned derivative to have been powered by a 90 hp (67 kW) Continental C90 4-cyl. horizontally opposed piston engine.

Specifications (PF.204)

Data from Green (1956)

General characteristics

Performance

Notes

  1. ↑ Green, 1956
  2. 1 2 Bridgman 1956 p.145
  3. ↑ Butler 1964 p.113
  4. ↑ Angers Museum collection
  5. ↑ Ogden 2006, p. 135

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.