Romano R.5

Romano R.5
Role	Reconnaissance flying boat
National origin	France
Manufacturer	Chantiers aéronavals Étienne Romano
First flight	September 1932
Number built	1

Last updated February 19, 2019

The Romano R.5 was a French reconnaissance flying boat built in 1932. It had a parasol wing, a single engine and hull stabilizing sponsons. Only one was built.

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.

A reconnaissance aircraft is a military surveillance aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance. Their roles include collection of imagery intelligence, signals intelligence, and measurement and signature intelligence. In addition to general intelligence gathering, modern technology has also enabled some aircraft and UAVs to carry out real-time surveillance.

A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water, that usually has no type of landing gear to allow operation on land. It differs from a floatplane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage. Flying boats were some of the largest aircraft of the first half of the 20th century, exceeded in size only by bombers developed during World War II. Their advantage lay in using water instead of expensive land-based runways, making them the basis for international airlines in the interwar period. They were also commonly used for maritime patrol and air-sea rescue.

Design

In 1929 the French Air Ministry drew up a programme of military aircraft specifications to meet France's needs over the next few years. One part called for a reconnaissance and observation seaplane and the R.5 was Romano's response; at least two other manufacturers also built prototypes, though funding was not yet assured.^[1]

The S.A. des Chantiers aéronavals Étienne Romano (CAER) was an aircraft manufacturing company based in Cannes, France. The predecessor company, Chantiers aéronavals de la Méditerranée had been founded by Étienne Romano in 1921.

The Romano R.5 was an all-metal flying boat. Its parasol wing was built in three parts; its centre section mounted a 480 kW (650 hp) Hispano-Suiza 12Nbr water-cooled V-12 engine in tractor configuration on its leading edge and was braced 1,650 mm (65 in) over the fuselage by parallel pairs of struts from its outer ends to the mid-fuselage. Six short cabane struts braced it centrally. The inner and cantilever outer panels together provided a trapezoidal plan wing out to rounded tips; ailerons occupied most of the outer panels' trailing edges. Structurally a mixture of steel and duralumin, with dural skinning, the wing was built around two spars; in the centre section these were elaborated into a trellised girder.^[2]

The Hispano-Suiza 12N was one of two new V-12 engine designs first run in 1928 and was manufactured by Hispano-Suiza's French subsidiary for the Armee d'l'Air. It produced about 485 kW (650 hp), was the first to use gas nitride hardening and introduced wet cylinder liners into Hispano-Suiza's aircraft engine range. It powered the first non-stop flight from Europe to the United States.

Tractor configuration arrangement of propellers on an aircraft to face forward

An aircraft constructed with a tractor configuration has the engine mounted with the airscrew in front of it so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air, as opposed to the pusher configuration, in which the airscrew is behind and propels the aircraft forward. Through common usage, the word "propeller" has come to mean any airscrew, whether it actually propels or pulls the plane.

The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts the air; alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil section. The first is an aerodynamic definition, the second a structural one. As an example of the distinction, during a tailslide, from an aerodynamic point of view, the trailing edge becomes the leading edge and vice versa but from a structural point of view the leading edge remains unchanged.

Its 15-metre-long (49 ft 3 in), flat-sided hull was built with of dural and with vedal, layers of dural and pure aluminium, for parts in direct contact with sea-water. The V-form underside had a single step under the wing and, further aft, a water rudder. The R.5 had a pair of Dornier-style sponsons, 6.3 m (20 ft 8 in) in span and 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) at their broadest, mounted on the lower sides of the fuselage instead of wing mounted floats. There were plans to use these to contain retractable wheels to turn the R.5 into an amphibian.^[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.

Dornier Flugzeugwerke aircraft manufacturer

Dornier Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in Friedrichshafen in 1914 by Claude Dornier. Over the course of its long lifespan, the company produced many designs for both the civil and military markets.

Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing.

In the nose there was a position for mooring operations, navigation equipment and a machine gun mounting. The pilots' cabin was ahead of the propeller disc, fully enclosed and with side-by-side seats and dual controls. Behind the wing there were positions for a navigator who also operated the bomb release controls and for a radio and camera operator. Behind them was a dorsal gunner's position, midway between the trailing edge and the tail. The fuselage became slender to the rear, where the tall fin carried a deep, rounded unbalanced rudder. The R.5's tapered tailplane was raised out of the spray well up on the fin and supported from below with a pair of parallel struts from the upper fuselage. Its elevators were inset and unbalanced but far enough forward to only require a small central nick for rudder movement.^[2]

Machine gun fully automatic mounted or portable firearm

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm designed to fire rifle cartridges in rapid succession from an ammunition belt or magazine for the purpose of suppressive fire. Not all fully automatic firearms are machine guns. Submachine guns, rifles, assault rifles, battle rifles, shotguns, pistols or cannons may be capable of fully automatic fire, but are not designed for sustained fire. As a class of military rapid-fire guns, machine guns are fully automatic weapons designed to be used as support weapons and generally used when attached to a mount- or fired from the ground on a bipod or tripod. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, features not normally found on rifles.

Propeller (aeronautics) aircraft component which converts engine torque into forward thrust

An aircraft propeller, or airscrew, converts rotary motion from an engine or other power source, into a swirling slipstream which pushes the propeller forwards or backwards. It comprises a rotating power-driven hub, to which are attached several radial airfoil-section blades such that the whole assembly rotates about a longitudinal axis. The blade pitch may be fixed, manually variable to a few set positions, or of the automatically-variable "constant-speed" type.

A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fins are also used to increase surface areas for heat transfer purposes, or simply as ornamentation.

The Romano R.5 first flew in September 1932. Soon after, it was delivered to the Forces Aérienne de la Mer along with its competitors, the Amiot 110-S and CAMS 80.^[1]

The Amiot 110-S was an all-metal, amphibious military flying boat built in France in the 1930s. It was intended as a maritime reconnaissance and medium bomber aircraft but only two were built.

The CAMS 80 was an amphibious reconnaissance flying boat flown in the early 1930s. Two were built with different engines and were used by the Aéronavale for VIP transport and equipment development until 1938.

Specifications

Data from Les Ailes, November 1932^[2]

General characteristics

Crew: Three
Length: 16 m (52 ft 6 in)
Wingspan: 22.60 m (74 ft 2 in)
Height: 4.50 m (14 ft 9 in)
Wing area: 67.5 m² (727 sq ft)
Aspect ratio: 7.6
Gross weight: 4,300 kg (9,480 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Hispano-Suiza 12Nbr water-cooled V-12, 480 kW (650 hp)

Performance

Maximum speed: 217 km/h (135 mph; 117 kn) at 1,500 m (4,900 ft)
Range: 1,500 km (932 mi; 810 nmi)
Service ceiling: 6,700 m (22,000 ft)
Time to altitude: 6 min 5 sec to 1,500 m (4,900 ft)

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References

1 2 Phillipe Jung (December 2011). "Cannes Aéro Spatial Patrimoine" (PDF). p. 3. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
1 2 3 4 "L'hydravion de reconnaissance Romano R-5". Les Ailes. 596: 3. 17 November 1932.

Romano R.5

Contents

Design

Specifications

Related Research Articles

References

Further reading