| Villiers 31 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Role | Eight passenger airliner |
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | Ateliers d'Aviation François Villiers |
| First flight | 1930 |
| Number built | 1 or 2 |
The Villiers 31 or Villiers 310 was a French eight passenger airliner of advanced construction. Owing to Villiers' financial failure, it was not developed.
Ateliers Villier's Type 31 was their last aircraft before they collapsed in 1931. [1] A single engine monoplane of mixed construction, it was also their only passenger aircraft.
It was a high wing aircraft; the wing had constant chord out to rounded tips and had a wooden structure with plywood skinning. The Villiers XXIV had been the first French aircraft maker to use Handley Page slats and the Villiers 26 reconnaissance seaplane used a combination of automatically opening slats on the leading edge in front of the ailerons and another set which the pilot opened as he lowered the flaps. The Type 31 had a similar combination of automatic and commanded slats. [2]
The Villiers 31 had a flat sided fuselage of rectangular cross-section behind the wing, built around a frame of chrome steel tubes and fabric covered. [2] It was the first aircraft to have an autogenically welded structure, that is welded without the use of a filler metal. [3] There was a 310 kW (420 hp) Gnome et Rhône 9Ab nine-cylinder radial engine in the nose, which some photographs show under a long-chord, close-fitting, circular cowling. Others show it uncowled. The two crew sat in a cockpit at the wing leading edge, the wing itself raised a little above the general fuselage line on a low fairing over the cabin, which seated eight and was lit by long strips of transparencies on each side. Access was via a rear starboard side door. [2]
Like the rest of the fuselage the empennage was steel framed and fabric covered. The tailplanes were mounted just below the top of the fuselage, each braced from below with a single strut and carrying a balanced elevator. A curved, deep, balanced rudder, mounted on a small fin and slightly pointed on top, worked in elevator cut-outs. The airliner had a fixed tailwheel undercarriage. The two mainwheels were mounted independently on V-struts from the lower fuselage with near-vertical oleo struts to the wing roots. The mainwheels had brakes and the tailwheel was steerable. [2]
The exact date of the first flight of the Villiers 31 is not known, though all reports on it are from 1930. [2] [3] [4] On 13 March 1930 the Air Ministry concluded a contract for two Type 31s; [4] one of them (F-AKCR) was certainly built. [3]
Data from L'année aéronautique 1930-31. p.61 [2]
General characteristics
Performance
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