Potez 540

Last updated
Potez 540
Potez 54.jpg
Aircraft Potez 54 fitted with 2 Hispano-Suiza 650 HP engines
General information
Type Reconnaissance/bomber
Manufacturer Potez
Primary user French Air Force
Number built192
History
Introduction date 1934
First flight14 November 1933
Serial 'N' Potez 542 of the Spanish Republican Air Force. Its crash would inspire French writer Andre Malraux to make a movie named L'Espoir. Potez 540-.JPG
Serial 'Ñ' Potez 542 of the Spanish Republican Air Force. Its crash would inspire French writer André Malraux to make a movie named L'Espoir .

The Potez 540 was a French multi-role aircraft of the 1930s. Designed and built by Potez, it served with the French Air Force as a reconnaissance bomber, also serving with the Spanish Republican Air Force during the Spanish Civil War. Although obsolete as a bomber, it remained in service in support roles and in France's overseas colonies at the start of World War II.

Contents

History

This two-engine aircraft was built by the French Potez company to fulfill a 1932 specification for a new reconnaissance bomber. Built as a private venture, this aircraft, designated the Potez 54, flew for the first time on 14 November 1933. Designed by Louis Coroller, it was intended as a four-seat aircraft capable of performing duties such as bomber, transport and long-range reconnaissance. The Potez 54 was a high-wing monoplane, of mixed wood and metal covering over a steel tube frame. The prototype had twin fins and rudders, and was powered by two 515 kW (690 hp) Hispano-Suiza 12Xbrs V-12 engines in streamlined nacelles, which were connected to the fuselage by stub wings. The main landing gear units retracted into the nacelles, and auxiliary bomb racks were mounted beneath the stub wings. There were manually operated turrets at the nose and dorsal positions, as well as a semi-retractable dustbin-style ventral turret. During development, the original tailplane was replaced by a single fin and rudder, and in this form, the type was re-designated the Potez 540 and delivered to the Armee de I'Air on 25 November 1934. [1] A total of 192 Potez 540s were built.

Their first combat was in the Spanish Civil War, where they were employed by the Spanish loyalist side. A poor design that was already obsolete just two years after its introduction, when confronted by the higher performance German and Italian planes of the same period, the Potez 540 proved itself a failure in Spanish skies during the Civil War and was labelled as 'Flying Coffin' (Spanish : Ataúd Volante) by Spanish Republican pilots. [2] In the late 1930s, these aircraft were becoming obsolete so they were withdrawn from reconnaissance and bombing duties and were relegated to French transport units. They were also employed as paratrooper training and transport aircraft. By September 1939 and the beginning of World War II, they had been largely transferred to the French colonies in North Africa, where they continued to function in transport and paratrooper service. Their role in even these secondary assignments was problematic given their poor defensive armament and vulnerability to modern enemy fighters. Following the French capitulation to Germany in June 1940, those Potez 540s still flying served the Vichy French Air Force mainly in the French overseas colonies. Most of these machines were retired or destroyed by late 1943.

Variants

Potez 54
One prototype, later converted (with twin tails) into the Potez 540 No. 1.
Potez 540
Production aircraft with 1 each of 590 kW (790 hp) Hispano-Suiza 12Xirs and 12Xjrs, (left and right hand rotation), V-12 inline engines. 185 built. Used by France and Spain.
Potez 541
540 re-engined with 640 kW (860 hp) Gnome-Rhône 14Kdrs radial engines. One converted from a 540.
Potez 542
Derivative of 540 powered by 540 kW (720 hp) Lorraine 12Hfrs Pétrel V-12 engines. 74 built. Used by France and Spain.
Potez 543
Production derivative of Potez 541, powered by 640 kW (860 hp) Gnome-Rhône 14Kdrs radial engines. 10 built for Romania, only eight were delivered and four were diverted to Spain for use by Spanish Republicans.

Operators

Flag of France.svg  France
Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg  Italy
Flag of Romania.svg  Romania
Flag of Spain (1931-1939).svg Spanish Republic

Specifications (Potez 540)

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related lists

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American T-6 Texan</span> American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft

The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Air Force (USAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces of the British Commonwealth during World War II and into the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloch MB.200</span>

The MB.200 was a French bomber aircraft of the 1930s designed and built by Societé des Avions Marcel Bloch. A twin-engined high-winged monoplane with a fixed undercarriage, over 200 MB.200s were built for the French Air Force, and the type was also licence built by Czechoslovakia, but it soon became obsolete, and was largely phased out by the start of the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farman F.220</span> 1932 bomber aircraft family by Farman

The Farman F.220 and its derivatives were thick-sectioned, high-winged, four engined French monoplanes from Farman Aviation Works. Based on the push-pull configuration proven by the F.211, design started in August 1925 and the first flight of the prototype was on 26 May 1932. The largest bomber to serve in France between the two world wars was the final F.222 variant. One variation was intended to be an airliner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ANF Les Mureaux 113</span> Military reconnaissance aircraft

The ANF Les Mureaux 110 and its derivatives were a family of all-metal military reconnaissance aircraft developed and produced by the French aircraft manufacturer ANF Les Mureaux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dewoitine D.27</span>

The Dewoitine D.27 was a parasol monoplane fighter aircraft designed by Émile Dewoitine in 1928.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morane-Saulnier M.S.225</span>

The Morane-Saulnier M.S.225 was a French fighter aircraft of the 1930s. It was produced in limited quantities to be used as a transitional aircraft between the last of the biplanes and the first monoplane fighters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloch MB.120</span>

The Bloch MB.120 was a French three-engine colonial transport aircraft built by Société des Avions Marcel Bloch during the 1930s.

The Potez XV was a French single-engine, two-seat observation biplane designed as a private venture by Louis Coroller and built by Potez and under licence by Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów and Plage i Laśkiewicz in Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CAMS 30E</span> Flying boat built in France

The CAMS 30E was a two-seat flying boat trainer built in France in the early 1920s. It was the first aircraft designed for CAMS by Raffaele Conflenti after he had been recruited by the company from his previous job at Società Idrovolanti Alta Italia (SIAI). It was a conventional design for the era featuring a two-bay equal-span unstaggered biplane wing cellule. The prototype was exhibited at the 1922 Salon de l'Aéronautique and evaluated the following year by the Aéronautique Maritime. The type's favourable performance led to an order of 22 machines for the French military and an export order of seven for Yugoslavia and four for Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loire 46</span>

The Loire 46 was a French single-seater fighter aircraft of the 1930s. A high-winged monoplane designed and built by Loire Aviation, it was purchased by the French Air Force. It was also supplied to the Spanish Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War, but was almost out of service by the outbreak of World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dewoitine D.1</span> Type of aircraft

The Dewoitine D.1 was a French single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1920s, built by the French industrial company Dewoitine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potez 452</span> French reconnaissance flying boat in service 1935-1944

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caudron C.440 Goéland</span> Type of aircraft

The Caudron C.440 Goéland ("seagull") was a six-seat twin-engine utility aircraft developed in France in the mid-1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dewoitine D.21</span> Type of aircraft

The Dewoitine D.21 was 1920s French open-cockpit, fixed-undercarriage, parasol winged monoplane fighter aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potez SEA VII</span> 1910s French airliner

The Potez SEA VII, otherwise known simply as the Potez VII, was an early airliner developed in France shortly after the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wibault 7</span> French monoplane fighter

The Wibault 7 was a 1920s French monoplane fighter designed and built by Société des Avions Michel Wibault. Variants were operated by the French and Polish military and built under licence for Chile as the Vickers Wibault.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starck AS-70 Jac</span> Type of aircraft

The Starck AS-70 Jac is a French-built single-seat light aircraft of the mid-1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bréguet 460 Vultur</span> Type of aircraft

The Bréguet 460 Vultur was a French bomber of the 1930s. Few of these twin-engined monoplanes and its variant, the Breguet 462 Bréguet , were built. At least one Breguet 460 was sold to the Spanish Republican Air Force during the Spanish Civil War.

Groupe de Chasse or groupe de chasse is the French language term for "fighter group" or "fighter wing". More literal translations include "pursuit group" and "hunting group".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potez VIII</span> Single-seat French training aircraft, 1920

The Potez VIII was a French training aircraft which first flew in 1920. Originally it had a very unusual vertical inline engine and a four-wheeled undercarriage, though the production version was more conventional.

References

  1. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing.
  2. Potez 540/542 Archived 2011-08-11 at the Wayback Machine

Bibliography