Fauvel AV.28

Fauvel AV.28
Role	Flying wing fighter
National origin	France
Designer	Charles Fauvel
First flight	none
Number built	0

Last updated June 11, 2019

The Fauvel AV.28 was a design for a fighter plane by Charles Fauvel in the late 1930s.

Charles Fauvel was a French aircraft designer noted for his flying wing designs, and in particular, his flying wing sailplanes. He became interested in soaring after witnessing a competition at Vauville in 1925, and set out to design a competition glider with minimal drag, settling on the flying wing formula based on the work of Georges Abrial and René Arnoux. One of his designs, the AV.10 was the first flying wing to attain a French Certificate of Navigability. His greatest commercial success was the AV.36 sailplane, first flown in 1951.

Design

The AV.28 was conceived as a two-seat, off-center cockpit fighter design powered by two Gnome-Rhône 14M Mars engines. Armament consisted of two 20 mm (0.787 in) cannon and three 7.5 mm (0.295 in) Darne machine guns. Fauvel presented the AV.28 to the French Air Ministry in 1938, but the design was rejected. In April 1940, Fauvel proposed another off-center cockpit design, the three-seat AV.30, to be powered by Pratt & Whitney engines, featuring a centrally controlled hydraulic turret, but France's defeat in 1940 prevented it from being realized.^[1]

The Darne machine gun is a machine gun of French origin.

Pratt & Whitney Aircraft engine manufacturer

Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of United Technologies (UTC). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation and military aviation. Its headquarters are in East Hartford, Connecticut. As one of the "big three" aero-engine manufacturers, it competes with General Electric and Rolls-Royce, although it has also formed joint ventures with both of these companies. In addition to aircraft engines, Pratt & Whitney manufactures gas turbines for industrial and power generation, and marine turbines. As of 2014, the company reported having 31,500 employees supporting more than 11,000 customers in 180 countries around the world. In 2013, Pratt & Whitney's revenue totaled $14.5 billion.

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.

Variants

Data from:^[1] AV.28:Two-seat twin fuselage tail-less fighter, to have been powered by two Gnome-Rhône 14M Mars engines. AV.30:Three-seat twin fuselage tail-less fighter, to have been powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engines.

The Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp is an American twin-row, 18-cylinder, air-cooled radial aircraft engine with a displacement of 2,800 in³ (46 L), and is part of the long-lived Wasp family.

Specifications (AV.28)

Data from Charles Fauvel and his Flying Wings^[1]

General characteristics

Crew: 2
Length: 4.75 m (15 ft 7 in)
Wingspan: 12.4 m (40 ft 8 in)
Wing area: 26 m² (280 sq ft)
Powerplant: 2 × Gnome-Rhône 14M Mars 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial piston engines, 600 kW (800 hp) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 670 km/h (416 mph; 362 kn)

Armament

Guns: two 20 mm (0.787 in) cannon and three 7.5 mm (0.295 in) Darne machine guns

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References

1 2 3 "Charles Fauvel and his Flying Wings". www.nurflugel.com (in French). Retrieved 1 March 2019.

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[nurflugel-1] 1 2 3 "Charles Fauvel and his Flying Wings". www.nurflugel.com (in French). Retrieved 1 March 2019.