Villiers V

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Villiers V
Villiers V 2-view L'Aeronautique December,1926.png
Villiers V 2-view drawing from L'Aéronautique December,1926
Role Night fighter
National origin France
Manufacturer Ateliers d'Aviation François Villiers
First flight1926-7
Number built1

The Villiers V, Villiers 5 or Villiers 5CN2 was a French night fighter built in the mid-1920s. It did not go into production.

France Republic with mainland in Europe and numerous oversea territories

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.

Night fighter fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility

A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used in World War I and included types that were specifically modified to operate at night.

Contents


Design

The Villiers V made its first public appearance at the 1926 Paris Aero show, possibly before its first flight. As the military designation CN2 indicated, it was a two-seat chasseure de nuit or night fighter, designed and built to an Aviation Militaire specification. It was a sesquiplane with an upper to lower wing span ratio of about 1.4 and an area ratio of about 2.2 as the chord of the lower wing was also smaller. Apart from a centre section cut-out in the upper wing to enhance visibility from the cockpits and small root extensions on the lower wing, the two wings were strictly rectangular in plan and were wood framed and fabric covered. [1] The Villiers V was a single bay biplane braced on each side by a single, faired duralumin interplane strut which leant outward to support the upper overhang and forward because of significant stagger. [1] [2] Four cabane struts supported the upper centre section close to the fuselage. Ailerons were fitted only on the upper wing. [1]

Paris Capital of France

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts.

Chord (aeronautics) imaginary straight line joining the leading and trailing edges of an aerofoil

In aeronautics, a chord is the imaginary straight line joining the leading and trailing edges of an aerofoil. The chord length is the distance between the trailing edge and the point on the leading edge where the chord intersects the leading edge.

Cockpit area, usually near the front of an aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft

A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft.

The Villiers V's fuselage was a flat sided, plywood covered monocoque. Its engine was a 340 kW (450 hp) water cooled W-12 Lorraine-Dietrich 12Eb in a cowling which followed the outline of the three separate cylinder blocks. The pilot's open cockpit was ahead of the trailing edge, under the upper wing cut-out, with the gunner close behind. The pilot controlled a pair of fixed synchronised 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Vickers machine guns firing through the propeller disc and the gunner was provided with a pair of 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Lewis guns on a flexible mount. [1]

Plywood manufactured wood panel made from thin sheets of wood veneer

Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which includes medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board (chipboard).

Trailing edge

The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge rejoins. Essential flight control surfaces are attached here to control the direction of the departing air flow, and exert a controlling force on the aircraft. Such control surfaces include ailerons on the wings for roll control, elevators on the tailplane controlling pitch, and the rudder on the fin controlling yaw. Elevators and ailerons may be combined as elevons on tailless aircraft.

The tail unit was conventional, with a broad chord, clipped triangular tailplane mounted on top of the fuselage and fitted with separate, round edged, balanced elevators. The triangular fin and its full, rounded unbalanced rudder were also broad, the rudder extending down to the keel and operated in a gap between the elevators. The night fighter had fixed conventional tailskid landing gear with mainwheels on a single axle sprung to a pair of V-struts from the lower fuselage, assisted by a long tailskid. [1]

Tailplane small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes

A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes. Not all fixed-wing aircraft have tailplanes. Canards, tailless and flying wing aircraft have no separate tailplane, while in V-tail aircraft the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and the tail-plane and elevator are combined to form two diagonal surfaces in a V layout.

Balanced rudder

Balanced rudders are used by both ships and aircraft. Both may indicate a portion of the rudder surface ahead of the hinge, placed to lower the control loads needed to turn the rudder. For aircraft the method can also be applied to elevators and ailerons; all three aircraft control surfaces may also be mass balanced, chiefly to avoid aerodynamic flutter.

Elevator (aeronautics) type of flight control surface

Elevators are flight control surfaces, usually at the rear of an aircraft, which control the aircraft's pitch, and therefore the angle of attack and the lift of the wing. The elevators are usually hinged to the tailplane or horizontal stabilizer. They may be the only pitch control surface present, sometimes located at the front of the aircraft or integrated into a rear "all-moving tailplane" also called a slab elevator or stabilator.

The night fighter was tested by the military under the designation Vil 5CN2 but was found not to provide enough improvement over existing equipment to justify production. [1]

Specifications

Data from Green and Swanborough (1994) p.582 [1]

General characteristics

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 224 km/h (139 mph; 121 kn) at sea level, 210 km/h (130 mph) at 4,000 m (13,000 ft)
  • Service ceiling: 7,000 m (23,000 ft) service
  • Time to altitude: 43 min to 6,500 m (21,300 ft)

Armament

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Green, William; Swanborough, Gordon (1994). The Complete Book of Fighters. Godalming, UK: Salamander Books. p. 582. ISBN   1-85833-777-1.
  2. ↑ "Villiers". Les Ailes (287): 5. 16 December 1926.


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