The slightly less well known

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Gourdou-Leseurre GL-812 HY.

The Gourdou-Leseurre GL-812 HY was a 3-seat reconnaissance floatplane from the early 1930`s.

The prototype,known as the L-2,was built in 1926-27.It has a steel tube fuselage,and rectangular wooden wing,the tail had two fins, one above and one below the fuselage.
The entire plane was fabric covered, except the 380 hp Gnome-Rhône 9A Jupiter engine, which was uncowled. The prototype was flown to Copenhagen,and was demonstrated to representatives of several countries.

Six prototype L-3s were constructed,they featured a larger 420 hp Jupiter,steel spars instead of wood, and stronger struts,which allowed for shipboard catapult launching. After successfully testing the L-3, the French navy ordered 14 production GL-810 HY aircraft.The first production 810 HY flew on 23 September 1930, taking off from the Seine at Les Mureaux.
In 1931, 20 GL-811 HYs were ordered, for operation from the seaplane carrier Commandant Teste and from 1933 to 1934 twenty-nine GL-812 HYs and thirteen GL-813 HYs were ordered.

The aircraft had a crew of three,(pilot, observer and gunner),armament consisted of 1 x fixed forward-firing synchronised 7.7 mm (0.303 in) machine gun and 2 x 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Vickers machine guns on a flexible mount in the rear cockpit, a small bomb load could also be carried.
Most aircraft had been retired by 1939,but that August the remaining aircraft were brought together to re-equip the recently re-activated and mobilized Escadrilles 1S2 and 3S3 to perform coastal anti-submarine patrols.

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Gourdou-Leseurre GL-832 HY

The Gourdou-Leseurre GL-832 HY was a 1930s French light shipboard reconnaissance floatplane.

In 1930 the French Navy issued a requirement for a light coastal patrol seaplane mainly for use in the French colonies.Gourdou-Leseurre built and designed a prototype GL-831 HY which was a modification of the companies earlier GL-830 HY with a smaller Hispano-Suiza radial engine.
It first flew on 23 December 1931 and after testing,in 1933 the French Navy ordered 22 aircraft designated GL-832 HY,this had a less powerful engine (230HP) than the prototype, (250HP)
The two crewed aircraft GL-832 HY was a metal construction low-wing monoplane with fabric covered wings and twin floats.There was two open cockpits in tandem for the crew, each cockpit having a windscreen.The first production aircraft flew on 17 December 1934 and the last on 12 February 1936.

The French Navy used the GL-832 HY on second-line cruisers and on smaller colonial sloops.The smaller sloops did not have a catapult and the aircraft were lowered into the sea using a crane. The aircraft were still operational at the start of the Second World War and were not retired until 1941.

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Hanriot D.I

The Hanriot D.I was a French monoplane racing aircraft,designed in France in flown in early 1912.

René Hanriot had hired Alfred Pagny,from Nieuport as a designer in 1911. Pagny's designs reflected Nieuport practice, particularly with the replacement of Hanriot's graceful boat-like shell fuselages with flat sided, deep chested desgins.His first such monoplane design for Hanriot was the D.I, often known as the Hanriot-Pagny monoplane though since Hanriot sold his aircraft interests to another of his designers,later in 1911 this aircraft is alternatively known as the Ponnier D.I.

The Hanriot D.I was a single seat, Nieuport style mid wing monoplane, with slightly tapered, straight edged wings. Landing wires on each side met over the fuselage at a short pyramidal four strut pylon like that on the Nieuport IV. The single, open cockpit was under the pylon.It was powered either by a 50 hp Gnome rotary engine, partially enclosed in an oil deflecting cowling, open at the bottom or a 6-cylinder Anzani static radial engine of similar power output.
At least one D.I was built early in 1912 in the UK by the recently founded Hanriot (England) Ltd company.

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Hanriot HD.2 Series.

The Hanriot HD.2 was a biplane floatplane fighter aircraft produced in France during the First World War.
The design was based on that of the HD.1, but was a purpose-built floatplane,rather than just a modified type.It had larger tail surfaces and a shorter wingspan with greater area.Like its predecessor, though, it was a conventional single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span.

The HD.2 was developed specifically as an interceptor to defend flying boat bases, but soon was used as an escort fighter to protect French reconnaissance flying boats.The US Navy also bought 10 examples with wheeled undercarriages, designated HD.2C.
The French and USN used these aircraft in early experiments in launching fighters from warships. The USN replicated the French trials where a HD.1 had been launched from a platform built on top of one of the turrets of the battleship Paris and built a similar platform on the USS Mississippi to launch a HD.2 from. The French Navy also converted some of their HD.2s to wheeled configuration and used them for trials on the new aircraft carrier Béarn.

A final experiment in launching a HD.2 from a ship was carried out in 1924 with two new-built examples designated H.29.A launching system was developed where the aircraft were equipped with three small pulley-wheels, one on each tip of the upper wing, and one at the tip of the tail fin. These ran along metal rails that had been attached to project horizontally from the mast of the battleship Lorraine. This did not work as planned, succeeding only in dumping the aircraft into the water below.

Only 15 aircraft were completed however they used a range of engines 130 HP, 170 HP and 180 HP.

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Hanriot HD.3 Series

The Hanriot HD.3 C.2 was a two-seat fighter aircraft produced in France during World War I.

Similar in appearance to a scaled-up HD.1, the Hanriot HD.3 was a conventional,single-bay biplane with staggered wings of equal span.The pilot and gunner sat in tandem, open cockpits and the main units of the fixed tailskid undercarriage were linked by a cross-axle.Short struts braced the fuselage sides to the lower wing.
It`s first flight was in June 1917,flight testing revealed excellent performance, and the French government ordered 300 of the type in 1918.When the war ended the contract was cancelled with around 75 aircraft having been delivered to the Aéronautique Militaire and at least 15 to the Aéronautique Maritime.Powerplant was aSalmson 9Za nine-cylinder water-cooled radial engine of 260 hp,which gave a max speed of around 120 mph and a cruise of 105 mph.

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Hanriot HD.15

The Hanriot HD.15 was a French two seat fighter aircraft from the 1920`s fitted with a supercharger for high altitude performance.
It was powered by a Hispano-Suiza 8Fb 8-cylinder upright water-cooled V-8 engine fitted with a Rateau turbo-supercharger intended to maintain sea level powers to altitudes up to 5,000 m.

The fuselage of the HD.15 had tubular cross-section longerons with similar, triangularly arranged, cross bracing.The pilot's open cockpit was just behind the main wing spar, under a deep trailing edge cut-out to improve upwards and forward vision.it had two fixed forward firing 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Darne machine guns.
Behind was the observer's cockpit, fitted with a mounted pair of 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Darne machine guns. The fuselage was fabric covered from the pilot's cockpit aft. The Hispano engine, enclosed under a metal cowling, was cooled with a pair of circular cross-section radiators mounted ventrally between the undercarriage legs.It had a fixed conventional undercarriage,with mainwheels on a single axle mounted on the lower fuselage by two pairs of V-struts.

It first flew in April 1922 and should have been in competition with the Gourdou-Leseurre GL.50, but the two seat reconnaissance fighter programme had been abandoned before this date. The whole high altitude fighter project,was dropped due to the inability of Rateau to deliver reliable superchargers in quantity.
The Japanese Army became interested in supercharger-engined fighters and in 1926 the prototype HD.15 was sold and delivered to them.An order for three more followed, but the ship taking them to Japan was sunk by a tidal wave enroute.


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Hanriot H.35

The Hanriot H.35 was a 1920s French intermediate training monoplane designed and built by Avions Hanriot.
It was developed from the earlier H.34 basic trainer and was a two-seat strut-braced parasol monoplane.The H.35 was powered by a 180 hp Hispano-Suiza 8Ab piston engine. Twelve aircraft were built for use with the Hanriot flying school and also the Societe Francaise d'Aviation at Orly.

A 1925 development of the H.35 was the H.36 which was a twin-float equipped version powered by a 120 hp Salmson 9Ac piston engine.An order for 50 H.36s was placed by Yugoslavia, but only 12 H.35`s were completed.

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Hanriot H.43 Series.

The Hanriot H.43 was a military utility aircraft produced in France in the late 1920s and early 1930s which was primarily used by the Aéronautique Militaire as a trainer.
It was an entirely new design from Hanriot,which had been concentrating on developments of the HD.14 for several years.The H.43 was a conventional single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span and a fuselage of fabric-covered metal tube.The pilot and passenger sat in tandem, open cockpits and the main units of the fixed, tailskid undercarriage were linked by a cross-axle.

Two prototypes appeared in 1927 and were followed by the LH.431 in 1928, a much-modified version that dispensed with the sweepback used on both the upper and lower wings of the H.43.It had a new tail fin and added metal covering to the sides of the fuselage.This was ordered into production by the Aéronautique Militaire, which ordered 50 aircraft.These were slightly different from the LH.431 prototype, having divided main undercarriage units, wings of slightly greater area, and redesigned interplane struts.
The Army acquired nearly 150 examples for a variety of support roles including training, liaison, observation, and as an air ambulance.At the Fall of France in 1940, 75 of these aircraft remained in service.
H.43 variants were also operated by civil flying schools in France, as well as 12 examples purchased for the military of Peru.

Various engines types were fitted in the different sub types, some 7 or 9 cylinder anything from 200hp up to almost 300hp.Around 160 aircraft were completed.

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Lorraine-Hanriot LH.70

The Lorraine-Hanriot LH.70 or S.A.B. LH.70 was a French trimotor designed to a 1930 government programme for a colonial policing aircraft.
The aircraft programme was led by the Direction Générale Technique and one of its requirements was for all metal construction to withstand the hot and humid climates of French African colonies.Another was to provide a large and flexible load carrying space, so it could be used for variety of tasks.
It had a high wing,built in three parts: a short central section which joined the fuselage and two outer panels occupying the majority of the span.The wings were constructed around four spars and, like the rest of the aircraft were duralumin skinned.There were high aspect ratio ailerons over more than half the span.

The LH.70 was powered by three 300 hp Lorraine 9Na Algol nine cylinder radial engines with narrow chord ring cowlings.Two were mounted on the undersides of the wings with full-chord nacelles and the third engine was on the nose of the fuselage.The fully enclosed cabin was just ahead of the wing, seating the pilots side-by-side with dual controls. Behind that was the main load carrying space, up to 2.0 m (6 ft 7 in) high, accessed via a port side,door just aft of the wing trailing edge and lit by a strip of small rectangular windows under the wing.
To cope with rough colonial landing fields the LH.70 needed a robust undercarriage.Its 5.7 m (18 ft 8 in) track determined by the separation of the outer engines.

The exact date of the LH.70's first flight is unknown but it thought to be late 1932,two examples were reported as under construction at Bordeaux-Merignac and in January 1933,one LH.70 was at Villacoublay where Descamps demonstrated it to S.T.I.Aé officials. At the same time the other LH.70 was at Bordeaux undergoing modifications.At Villacoublay modifications to the LH.70 required a redetermination of the centre of gravity.It was back in Bordeaux early in 1934,but returned,after three months, Deschamps once again demonstrated the aircraft.It did not succeed in the competition for a production contract, which was won by the Bloch MB.120.Their history after this is unknown,just two examples were completed. 


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Hanriot H.110 / H.115

The Hanriot H.110 was an unusual pusher configuration,twin boom,single seat fighter aircraft built in France in the early 1930s.
The all-metal H.110 had an open cockpit and engine in a short central nacelle.It was powered by a 650 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Xbrs supercharged upright water-cooled V-12 engine behind the pilot, driving a three-blade pusher propeller.The pilot's headrest was smoothly faired into the engine cowling. Max speed was 220mph with a cruise of 185mph.

It began flight testing in April 1933.Against its smaller and lighter competitors,it proved slower and less manoeuvrable and was returned to Hanriot for modification.
It flew in April 1934 as the H.115, with its engine uprated to 691 hp, a new four-blade propeller with variable-pitch and a revised nacelle, shortened forward of the cockpit by 360 mm.A 33 mm APX cannon was now housed in a fairing below the nacelle as an alternative to the earlier pair of Chatellerault 7.5 mm machine guns. With its new engine and propeller the H.115 was slightly quicker than the earlier version,with a top speed of 242 mph.After more modifications and tweeks over the winter of 1934-5 it returned to Villacoublay in June 1935 and was officially flight tested until mid August, but failed to attract a contract.

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Hanriot H.230 Series

Hanriot H.230 was a French twin-engined advanced trainer.The aircraft was produced by the nationalized factory SNCAC.

The prototype H.230.01, made its first flight in June 1937.The aircraft resembled its predecessor,the H.220 fighter-bomber, but had a lightened and simplified structure.
It was powered by two 172 hp Salmson 6Af engines and its configuration included a short crew canopy faired into the upper decking of the rear fuselage and a conventional strut-braced tail unit, and the fixed main landing gear units incorporated spatted wheel fairings. During further tests it was decided to modify the wingtips to improve stability. Later twin fins and rudders were introduced and the power was increased with new 230 hp Salmson 6Af-02 engines.

The Hanriot H.232.01 had a single fin and rudder and was equipped with twin 220 hp Renault 6Q-02/03 engines plus retractable landing gear.The H.232.02, which made its maiden flight in August 1938,introduced a redesigned cockpit and this aircraft was tested between October 1938 and May 1939.
The type was then given a twin fin and rudder tail assembly and was flown in this new configuration in December 1939, then redesignated H.232/2.01.

The French Air Ministry made an initial order of 40 H.232.2's,but this was soon extended to 57.The French Air Force started to receive their H-232.2's in February, 1940, and received a total of 35 before the defeat against the Germans in June 1940.
The Germans captured 22 aircraft of this type, and since they did not have any use of them, Finland placed an order for three aircraft from the Germans.One was destroyed in an accident during the ferry flight to Finland, the other two saw service as advanced trainers in the Finnish Air Force and were written off on January 2, 1950. During the Winter War the French had planned to send 25 aircraft of this type to Finland. The German aircraft were scrapped in 1942.

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Kellner-Béchereau EC.4

The Kellner-Béchereau EC.4 and Kellner-Béchereau ED.5 were a pair of French training aircraft with side-by-side seating and a novel "double wing" patented by their designer, Louis Béchereau. The principal difference was that the EC.4 had an all-wood structure whereas the ED.5 was all-metal.Both were single-engine, mid-wing cantilever monoplanes.

In the 1930s,aircraft designer Louis Béchereau set up Avions Kellner-Béchereau, a collaboration with the well-known automobile coach builders Kellner. In 1936–37 the company built a series of small monoplanes exploiting one of Béchereau's patents.A full span lateral division of the wing into two sections forming a "double wing", a little like that used by Junkers but with a more equal division of area.
The wing was first tested on the single-seat Kellner-Béchereau E.1 on 1936, which was followed by two larger and more powerful two-seaters, the EC.4 and ED.5.
Both of these were designed to meet the French Air Ministry's requirement for a pre-military trainer aircraft to be used by the clubs set up in the "Aviation Populaire" programme.

The dimensions of the EC.4 and ED.5 were the same,as were seating,engine and undercarriage.The loaded weight of the metal aircraft was 25 kg less.
Performance was similar, with identical maximum speeds; the lighter ED.5 had a 3 mph lower stalling speed but a 35 mi shorter range.
The Kellner-Béchereau designs were not ordered,the Air Ministry preferring the Caudron C.270 and the Salmson Cri-Cri which were both bought in large numbers.Instead, Kellner-Béchereau, along with other manufacturers, built the Cri-Cri under licence.

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Lebaudy Patrie

The Lebaudy Patrie was a semi-rigid airship (196ft long),built for the French army in Moisson, France, by sugar producers Lebaudy Frères.It was designed by Henri Julliot, Lebaudy's chief engineer, the Patrie was completed in November 1906 and handed over to the military the following month.The Patrie was the first airship ordered for military service by the French Army.

Following the successful completion of test operations,in both tethered and untethered flight in November 1907 the Patrie was transferred under her own power to her operational base at Verdun, near the German border. Due to a mechanical fault, the Patrie became stranded away from her base on 29 November 1907 in Souhesmes and during a storm on 30 November she was torn loose from her temporary moorings and, despite the efforts of some 200 soldiers who tried to restrain her, she was carried away by the high winds.
After crossing the English Channel and passing unseen through English airspace during the night, the Patrie was sighted over Wales and Ireland on 1 December.
She made a brief landfall near Belfast, before rising again to be blown out over the Atlantic Ocean.Following a sighting from a steamship off the Hebrides, she was never seen again.

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Levasseur PL.2

The Levasseur PL.2 was a French biplane torpedo bomber designed by Pierre Levasseur for the French Navy.
This was the second design of Pierre Levasseur and was a single-seat unequal-span biplane inspired by designs from Blackburn Aircraft.It had a fixed tailskid landing gear and was powered by a nose-mounted Renault engine of 580HP.
The first prototype flew in November 1922,a second prototype had a four-bladed propeller and other powerplant improvements.Nine production aircraft were built in 1923, these were fitted with ballonets and jettisonable landing gear for operations at sea.It had one 7.7mm machine gun and could carry a bomb/torpedo load of 450KG.
The aircraft entered service in 1926 aboard the French aircraft carrier Béarn and continued in use until they were scrapped in 1932.

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Levasseur PL.4

The Levasseur PL.4,was a carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft produced in France in the mid 1920s.
It was a single-bay biplane that carried three crew in tandem, open cockpits. They were purchased by the Aéronavale to operate from the aircraft carrier Béarn, it incorporated several safety features,from small floats attached directly to the undersides of the lower wing, the main units of the fixed, tailskid undercarriage could be jettisoned in flight, and the underside of the fuselage was given a boatshape and made watertight.

Power was from a Lorraine-Dietrich 12Eb W-12 water-cooled piston engine, of 450 hp which gave a max speed of around 110mph.It was armed with a 7.7mm machine gun mounted to a Scarff Ring in the centre cockpit,40 aircraft were built for the Aéronautique Navale.

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Levasseur PL.8

The Levasseur PL.8 was a single engine,two-seat long-distance record-breaking biplane aircraft modified from an existing Levasseur PL.4 carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft produced in France in the 1920s.

The aircraft were built in 1927, specifically for pilots Charles Nungesser and François Coli for a transatlantic flight attempt to win the Orteig Prize.Just two examples of the type were built, with the first PL.8-01 named L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird), that gained fame as Nungesser and Coli's aircraft.

It was based on the PL.4 for the Aéronavale,the PL.8 was a conventional single-bay wood and fabric-covered biplane that carried a crew of two in a side-by-side open cockpit.
Modifications included the reinforcement of the fuselage,the main cockpit widened to allow Nungesser and Coli to sit side-by-side,and the wingspan was increased to approximately 15 m (49 ft).Additional fuel tanks were also added.Their plan was to make a water landing in New York in front of the Statue of Liberty so the features of the PL4 being able to land in water were retained.
A single W-12ED Lorraine-Dietrich 460 hp engine was used with the cylinders set in three banks spaced 60° apart from one another, similar to the arrangement used in Napier engines.The engine was tested to ensure it would last the entire flight and was run for over 40 hours while still in the Parisian factory.

The aircraft was painted white and had the French tricolor markings, with Nungesser's WW I flying ace logo: a skull and crossbones, candles and a coffin, on a black heart.The biplane carried no radio and relied only on celestial navigation, a specialty of Coli from his previous flights around the Mediterranean.
In 1928, a second PL.8 was built,with a Hispano-Suiza 12M 500 hp engine.The PL.8-02 was intended as a long-range record breaker but modified as an air mail carrier. On 20 December 1929, the second PL.8-02, registered F-AJKP based at Dakar while flown by pilot Henry Delaunay, was badly damaged when it hit a pothole on landing at Istres and not repaired.

L'Oiseau Blanc took off at 5:17 a.m. 8 May 1927 from Le Bourget Field in Paris, heading for New York.The biplane weighed 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) on takeoff, extremely heavy for a single-engined aircraft.The intended flight path was a great circle route, which would have taken them across the English Channel, over southwestern England and Ireland, across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, then south over Nova Scotia, to Boston, and finally to a water landing in New York.

Tens of thousands of people crowding Battery Park in Manhattan to have a good view of the Statue of Liberty, where the aircraft was scheduled to touch down,but after their estimated time of arrival had passed, with no word as to the aircraft's fate, it was realized that the aircraft had been lost.
Rumors circulated that L'Oiseau Blanc had been sighted along its route, in Newfoundland, or over Long Island, and despite the launch of an international search, after two weeks, further search efforts were abandoned.

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Levasseur PL.15

The Levasseur PL.15 was a three crew torpedo bomber seaplane developed in France in the early 1930s.

It was a development from Levasseur's PL.14 that had, in turn, been developed from the carrier-based PL.7.The PL.14 retained the PL.7's boat-like fuselage,the PL.15 was a purpose-built seaplane with an all-new,slender designed fuselage.It had a rearward-firing machine gun,and could carry bombs or torpedos.
Powerplant was a Hispano-Suiza 12Nb, of 650 hp,which gave the aircraft a top speed of around 130mph and a cruise speed of 115mph.
The Aéronavale ordered 16 PL.15s,and purchased and deployed the prototype as well.These were in service from 1933 to 1938, when they were put into storage.The PL.15s were recommissioned with the outbreak of war in September 1939, and were used for anti-submarine patrol along France's Atlantic coast.

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Lioré et Olivier LeO 7

Lioré-et-Olivier was a French manufacturer of aircraft of the 20th century,founded in 1912 by Fernand Lioré and Henri Olivier.The company was nationalized in 1936,and later merged with several other aero manufactures to form the Société Nationale des Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud-Est (SNCASE) on 1 February 1937.

The Lioré et Olivier LéO 7 was a French bomber escort biplane designed and built for the French Air Force.It was a three-crew bomber escort biplane developed from the LéO 5 ground-attack biplane.In 1922 the production version began to energe (the LéO 7/2) had a wide-track landing gear and gunner's cockpits in the snub nose and amidships.The pilot was located in a cockpit just behind the wing trailing edge.

It was powered by a pair of Hispano-Suiza 8Fb V-8 engines of 300 hp each, which gave a max speed of 118mph.
Twenty LéO 7/2s were built followed by 18 LéO 7/3s which were a navalised version with increased wingspan.

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Lioré et Olivier LeO 12

The Lioré et Olivier LeO 12 was a night bomber which first flew in June 1924.
It was a large biplane of conventional design, with three-bay equal-span wings and twin engines mounted in nacelles on struts.The main undercarriage units were faired in long spats.Construction throughout was mainly duralumin,then skinned in fabric.The pilot's cockpit was open, and there was a second cockpit further back for a gunner.

The two engines were Lorraine-Dietrich 12Db, producing 400 hp each, which gave a max speed of just over 125mph.
The French Air Force was not interested in the type,so three of the four examples built were modified for other roles.One became a 12-seat passenger transport that Lioré et Olivier operated on an airline subsidiary, another had its cockpit and gunner's hatch enclosed and was used by the French air ministry as an experimental testbed.
The third received new engines and better defensive armament and was again demonstrated to the army.The reception to this type,the LeO 122,was a little more enthusiastic,so Lioré et Olivier used it as the basis for further development work that would result in the successful LeO 20.

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Lioré et Olivier LeO H-190 Series

The Lioré et Olivier H-190 was a flying boat airliner produced in the late 1920s.

It was a single-bay biplane with un-staggered wings,it had a single Gnome et Rhône 9Ad Jupiter 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine of 420 hp mounted underneath the upper wing and supported on struts in the interplane gap. The first flight was in early 1926 and proved reasonably successful.
Early examples had the pilot's open cockpit located behind the wing,but this was later relocated further forward.Military versions had 4x 7.7 mm (0.30 in) Lewis machine-guns on twin flexible mounts in front and rear gunner's compartments.
Although it was developed as a passenger transport,versions of the H-190 were also built as catapult-ready mail planes to be launched from transatlantic liners,and used for  coastal patrol.

A sole LeO H-194 was flown by Marc Bernard together with a CAMS 37 flown by René Guilbaud in a long-distance expeditionary flight across Africa in late 1926.They covered 17,000 miles in three months,visiting various French African colonies.

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Lioré et Olivier LeO H-240 Series

The Lioré et Olivier LeO H.242 was a French-manufactured flying boat that was used for European passenger air services in the 1930s.Several were operated by Air France.
The first flight was 1929,but they did not enter service until 1933 as the H-242.
They were powered by four Gnome-Rhône 7Kd Titan Major 350hp radial engines,using a push-pill configuration.Two were built for Air France and delivered in December 1933 and February 1934,they could carry ten passengers.
Then came the H242/1 a revised production version, with a modified engine installation.Twelve were built for Air France and delivered between March 1935 and May 1937, carrying twelve passengers. Most H.242/1s were fitted with wide chord NACA cowlings over the front engines only.

In total 15 aircraft were completed,Air France retired them in 1942.


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Sud-est LeO H-246

The LeO H-246 was a large four-engined flying boat from the late 1930s.

It was designed to meet a 1935 requirement for a commercial flying boat for use on Mediterranean routes of Air France.It was a four-engined parasol monoplane of mixed construction and powered by four 720 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Xir liquid cooled V12 engines.The four engines were mounted in streamlined nacelles ahead of the leading edge of the wing.It had a duralumin hull of similar layout to that the H-47 which accommodated seats for 26 passengers and a crew of four.

The aircraft was built by Sud-Est and made its maiden flight from the Étang de Berre on 30 September 1937.Air France ordered six H-246.1 aircraft in January 1938, plus the prototype also after a refit to production standard for commercial service.
The refurbished prototype and the first production aircraft were being readied for commercial service when the World War II broke out in September 1939.The French Navy planned to requisition the H-246s as maritime patrol aircraft, but Air France still needed them,so the Navy agreed to take over only four of the aircraft.This allowed Air France to commence operations with the prototype on the Marseille–Algiers route on 14 October 1939.

The third production aircraft was completed for the Navy in June 1940, with a glazed position in the nose for a bombardier/navigator, bomb racks below the wings and four 7.5 mm Darne machine guns as defensive armament.It entered service on 25 August 1940, the only aircraft of the type actually to be operated by the French Navy, with the remaining aircraft going to Air France.
In November 1942, the Allies landed in French North Africa and, in response,German forces occupied Vichy France.They seized the single French Navy H-246,along with three Air France aircraft.The Luftwaffe took over the three seized aircraft,fitting them with five MG 15 machine guns as defensive armament and carrying up to 21 soldiers or 14 stretchers.They were used for various tasks,including transport in Finland.
The ex-French Navy H-246 was destroyed at Lyon by Allied attacks in the spring of 1944.After the war, the two surviving H-246s were used by Air France to restart the Marseille–Algiers service, continuing in use until September 1946.

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Lioré et Olivier LeO H-43

The Lioré et Olivier LeO H-43 was a reconnaissance seaplane produced in the 1930s.
It was a strut-braced, mid-wing monoplane of largely conventional design, provided with an observation balcony underneath the fuselage.It was designed to be launched by catapult from warships and, after a first flight in Dec 1934,trials continued.

Disagreements and redesigns meant the prototype underwent much modification before an order for 20 machines was placed by the Aéronavale. Even after this, a major redesign to the forward fuselage was specified as part of the production order.This meant that the first test flight of the production version did not take place until 13 July 1939, by which time the H-43 was already obsolete.

The aircraft had a crew of three,and was powered by a Hispano-Suiza 9Vb,of 650 hp,which gave performance of max speed of just under 140mph with a cruise of 117mph.It was fitted with two fixed forward firing machine guns.The 20 examples purchased briefly equipped two squadrons from February 1940, but all were withdrawn with the Fall of France.

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Lioré et Olivier LeO 45

The Lioré-et-Olivier LeO 45 was a four crew French medium bomber that was used during and after WWII.

The LeO 45 was a low-wing monoplane,all-metal in construction,and equipped with a retractable undercarriage and powered by two 1,060 hp Gnome-Rhône 14N engines.
The prototype,made its first flight on 15 January 1937,was fitted with two 1,100 hp Hispano-Suiza engines.The LeO 45 had been developed as a modern and advanced bomber for the new Armée de l'air, which had gained its independence on 1 April 1933.It was introduced to operational service in 1938, it was a very effective and capable bomber.
It was too late to provide any useful contribution during the Battle of France in the face of an invasion by Nazi Germany.As a result of the Armistice of 22 June 1940, the type continued to be manufactured and operated by occupied Vichy France as Free France forces operated the aircraft.

On 29 November 1937, an order for 20 production machines was received, the first of which being specified for delivery in May 1938.On 26 March 1938, a further 20 LeO 450 was ordered in line with the French Air Ministry's new plan of reequipping of 22 bomber units.
In October 1938, it was specified that all production LeO 45 aircraft were to be equipped with Gnome-Rhône engines in place of the Hispano-Suiza powerplants.However,this caused considerable delays in the delivery of the first production aircraft.The first LeO 45 performed its maiden flight on 24 March 1939.Further production issues were encountered as a result of supply problems with Gnome-Rhone engines and associated propellers.

By September 1939, the eve of the outbreak of the Second World War, there were a total of 749 LeO 45 aircraft on order; this included several different variants of the type,including aircraft outfitted with American-built Wright GR-2600-A5B engines, and 12 aircraft which had been ordered for the Greek Air Force.At the same point, there were only 10 LeO 451 bombers in French Air Force service, while another 22 were in the process of being delivered. It was at this point that a flurry of additional wartime production orders were issued, calling for hundreds more aircraft to be manufactured, amounting to around 1,549 LeO 45 aircraft of various models.

Following the war, the 67 surviving aircraft were mostly used as trainers and transports.The LeO 451 was withdrawn in September 1957, making it the last pre-war French design to retire from active duty.

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Loire Aviation / Loire 11

Loire Aviation was a French aircraft manufacturer in the inter-war period, specializing in seaplanes, and based in Saint-Nazaire, France.
Loire was founded in 1925 as a division of Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, a shipbuilding company based at St Nazaire.ACL were interested in diversifying into the new area of naval aviation, combining its knowledge of metal work and naval construction to produce seaplanes for the French mail service.

The Loire 11 was a French three-seat general-purpose monoplane,and the first original design by the company and was to meet a requirement for a general-purpose transport for operation in the French colonies.
It was a strut-braced high-wing monoplane with three-seats and was powered by a 300 hp Lorraine Algol radial engine.This gave a max speed of 125mph and a cruise of 110mph.
Only two prototypes were produced in 1930 and the project was abandoned in 1931 despite encouraging results from trails as it failed to interest the French government.

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