The Potez 452 was a French flying boat designed and built by Potez in response to a French Navy specification for a shipboard reconnaissance machine for use on its battleships and cruisers.
Potez's design, the Potez 45, which was produced by a team led by engineer M. Delaruelle, was a single-engine parasol monoplaneflying boat of mixed wood and metal construction.[3] The wings had an unswept centre-section and swept, folding outer sections, which were fitted with leading-edge slats. The engine nacelle was mounted on the front of the wing centre-section. The pilot and observer sat in separate cockpits in the hull.[4]
Potez 45 prototype
The prototype Potez 45, powered by a 230hp (170kW)Salmson 9ABradial engine, was completed in March 1932 and was sent to the Étang de Berre for testing, making its first flight in April that year.[1][2] After initial testing, the aircraft's stabilizing floats were redesigned and moved further outboard on the wings. Thus modified, on 5 September, the aircraft was sent to Saint-Raphaël for official testing. Here, the Potez was criticised for its handling on the water, with the aircraft tending to dig into waves rather than skim over them, and was also considered underpowered.[2] As a result, the prototype, has again modified, with the hull fitted with a lengthened nose to improve its performance on water, and the stabilizing floats modified again, while the engine was replaced by a Hispano-Suiza 9Qd (a license-built Wright R-975 Whirlwind) rated at 350hp (260kW). These changes were successful, and an order for 10 production aircraft, designated Potez 452 was placed in 1935, with six more aircraft ordered in October 1936.[5][1]
The Spanish Navy also had a requirement for a replacement for its obsolete Macchi M.18s, and after testing in February 1936, Spain acquired a manufacturing license for the Potez, but the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War prevented any Spanish production.[1][6]
On 1933, the French Navy issued a requirement for a seaplane fighter aircraft, to be capable of being catapulted from the navy's cruisers. Potez decided to respond with a single-seat derivative of the 452, the Potez 453, which competed against floatplanes from Bernard (the H.52), Loire (the 210) and Romano (the R.90). A supercharged800hp (600kW)Hispano-Suiza 14Hbs radial engine replaced the Hispano-Suiza 9Qd, while the airframe was refined to reduce drag. Armament was two fixed forward-firing machine guns, with provision to add a cannon (which was never fitted).[7][8] The prototype Potez 453 made its first flight on 24 September 1935.[8] While the aircraft demonstrated a maximum speed of 335km/h (208mph; 181kn),[9] the high-mounted powerful engine on a small airframe caused a strong nose-down trim when at high power, making take-off difficult, and development was abandoned, with the Loire 210 winning the competition and reaching production.[8]
Operational history
The first 10 Potez 452s were delivered between December 1935 and February 1936, and were deployed aboard ships based in metropolitan France and France's far eastern colonies. Mixed detachments of Potez 452s and Gourdou-Leseurre GL-812 HY floatplanes were deployed aboard the battleship Lorraine and the cruisers La Galissonnière and Jean de Vienne, but these mixed detachments proved impracticable as the two different types of aircraft needed different catapult trolleys, and from mid-1936, the Potez 452 was dedicated to service in France's overseas colonies, serving on the cruiser Lamotte-Picquet and Bougainville-class avisos, with detachments alternating between Potezes and Gourdou-Leseurre GL-832 HYs.[10]
Eleven Potez 452s remained in service at the start of the Second World War in September 1939. Largely based in France's colonies in Africa and Asia, Potez 452s took no part in the Battle of France in 1940, and after the French armistice with Germany of June 1940, continued operations with the Vichy French[11] Three Potez 452s formed part of a seaplane unit formed in French Indochina and operating from Ream, Cambodia late in 1940, as tensions grew between France and Thailand, and supported the Vichy French Navy during the 1940–1941 Franco-Thai War.[12] Two Potez 452s, stored at Port Lyautey in Morocco were destroyed by American air attack during Operation Torch, the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa on 8 November 1942, and another was destroyed during the Scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon on 27 November. Indochina-based Potez 452s remained in use into 1944, with the last recorded flight on 7 September 1944.[13] In 1937 a single Potez 452 had been supplied to the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for evaluation as the Potez HXP1.
Variants
Potez 453 photo from L'Aerophile July 1936
Potez 450
Prototype flying-boat with a 170kW (230hp)Salmson 9Ab engine, one built
Potez 452
Production variant with a 260kW (350hp)Hispano-Suiza 9Qd engine, 48 built.
Potez 453
Floatplane fighter derived from the 452, powered by a 540kW (720hp)Hispano-Suiza 14Hbs. A single prototype was built, first flown on 24 September 1935.
Ledet, Michel (September 1993). "Le Potez 452 (1ère partie)" [The Potez 452 (Part 1)]. Avions: Toute l'aéronautique et son histoire (in French). No.7. pp.15–19. ISSN1243-8650.
Ledet, Michel (October 1993). "Le Potez 452, 2ème partie" [The Potez 452, Part 2]. Avions: Toute l'aéronautique et son histoire (in French). No.8. pp.12–17. ISSN1243-8650.
Roux, Robert J. (June 1970). "Le chasseur Potez 453" [The Fighter Potez 453]. Le Album de Fanatique de l'Aviation (in French). No.12. pp.7–9. ISSN0757-4169.
1 X as second letter is for experimental aircraft or imported technology demonstrators not intended for service, 2 Hyphenated trailing letter (-J, -K, -L, -N or -S) denotes design modified for secondary role, 3 Possibly incorrect designation, but used in many sources
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