The slightly less well known

[Angry Turnip]

Nieuport-Delage NiD 640

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 640 was a French four-passenger transport monoplane.

It was an all-wood high-wing cantilever monoplane powered by a nose-mounted radial engine,with an enclosed cockpit for two-crew forward of the wing and a cabin for four passengers further back.
It`s first flight was 1927,but it did not enter service until 1930.The aircraft was powered by 220 hp Wright J-5C radial engine and was followed by 12 production aircraft designated NiD 641 powered by a 240 hp Lorraine 7M Mizar radial.

The NiD 640 was converted to an ambulance aircraft and later had a Mizar engine fitted to bring it to 641 standard.One aircraft was powered by a 235 hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx Major engine and designated the NiD 642 but it did not find a buyer and was later scrapped.
Seven NiD 641 aircraft were flown by Société des Transports Aériens Rapides (STAR), a subsidiary of Nieport-Delage, on cargo and passenger services from Paris.

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[Angry Turnip]

Nieuport-Delage NiD-120 Series

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 120 series was a series of French single-seat parasol monoplane fighter aircraft of the 1930s.

In 1930, the Armée de l'Air issued a specification for a single-seat fighter to be powered by a 650 hp engine and required to reach a speed of around 217 mph and a height of 29,500 ft.
A staggering 27 designs were offered by French manufacturers, of which one was selected for development to prototype status.Nieuport's design was a parasol monoplane with the wing mounted just above the fuselage on short struts. An aperture was cut out of the wing immediately above the pilot's cockpit, allowing the pilot to raise his seat so that his head was just above the wing for a better upwards view.
The engine was cooled using a radiator built into the wing, where air was sucked in through slots in the leading edge of the wing and expelled through the trailing edge.
A fixed tailwheel undercarriage was fitted.
Two versions were proposed,the Nieuport-Delage NiD 121, powered by a Lorraine-Dietrich 12H water-cooled V12 engine and the other, the NiD 122, powered by a Hispano-Suiza 12X engine of similar layout.

First to fly on 23 July 1932 was the Hispano-powered NiD 122,and the NiD 121 following on 25 November 1932.The NiD 121 was tested by representatives of the Peru Air Force in September 1933, and an order was made for six aircraft that could be fitted with either wheeled or floatplane undercarriages. A prototype of the Peruvian fighter flying on 18 July 1934.

A final version, the NiD 125, was built for evaluation by the Armée de l'Air, featuring a more powerful Hispano-Suiza 12Y engine with a 20 mm cannon firing through the propeller hub, and with the wing mounted radiators replaced by more conventional types,mounted on the sides of the fuselage.The single prototype flew in June 1934, but despite good performance, a similarly powered and armed version of the Dewoitine D500, the D.510 was chosen for production.

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[Angry Turnip]

Nord Noralpha Series

The Nord 1100 Noralpha was a French-built and re-engined Messerschmitt Bf 108 produced by Nord Aviation.
The Noralpha was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a braced horizontal tail surface and single rudder. It had a retractable tricycle landing gear. The engine was nose-mounted and it had an enclosed cabin with side-by-side seating for two and room behind for a further two passengers.

Construction of the Messerschmitt Bf 108 was transferred to the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Nord (usually known as Nord) at Les Mureaux,in occupied France in 1942.
The company built two prototypes of the Messerschmitt Me 208 during 1943/44. One survived the liberation and was redesignated as the Nord 1100.

The company then produced a re-engined version of the Nord Pingouin with a Renault 6Q-10 engine as the Nord 1101.It was designated the Ramier by the French military.
One Nord 1104 Noralpha was fitted with a 240 hp Potez 6D-0 for testing,and two earlier 1101 Noralphas were converted with Turbomeca Astazou II turboshaft engines as the S.F.E.R.M.A.-Nord 1100 Noralpha in 1959.
Nord built 200 production examples of the Noralpha and these served as communications aircraft with the French Air Force and French Navy.The final Air Force Noralphas were replaced during 1974-75, whilst a few naval examples continued for a brief period.

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[Angry Turnip]

Nord Norélan

The Nord 1221 Norélan was a 1940s three-seat training monoplane.
It was first flown on 30 June 1948,the Norélan was a single-engined low-wing cantilever monoplane with a distinctive large dihedral angle to the wings, and an odd bubble type canopy.
The aircraft was to have a retractable tricycle landing gear the design was changed to a fixed tailwheel landing gear.A number of variants with different engines were produced but no production orders were received.

The first prototype had a 180hp Mathis 8G-20 inverted Vee engine,later changed a 180hp Régnier 4L-02 inline engine which gave a max speed of around 150mph.
Just three aircraft were completed before the project was wound up.

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[Angry Turnip]

Nord Noroit

The Nord 1400 Noroit was a French reconnaissance and air-sea rescue flying boat designed and built by Nord Aviation for the French Navy.

The Noroit was an amphibian flying boat, a cantilever gullwing monoplane with a two-step hull. It had a cantilever horizontal tail surface with three vertical surfaces.
The enclosed cabin for the seven crew with a large cabin in the rear for use in rescue operations. The aircraft had two engines located one on each wing leading edge.
The prototype as a flying boat first flew on 6 January 1949 powered by two 1,600 hp Gnome-Rhône 14R radial engines.

The second aircraft was fitted with a retractable tailwheel landing gear for amphibious operation which was later retrofitted to the prototype.
The next two aircraft first flew in 1949, were designated the Nord 1401 Noroit and were fitted with two 1,800 hp Junkers Jumo 213 engines and both were tested with two Bristol Hercules radial engines.
These two aircraft were modified to production standard as the Nord 1402 Noroit and were followed by 21 production aircraft.The last aircraft was delivered to the French Navy in 1956.


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Nord 1500 Griffon

The Nord 1500 Griffon was an experimental ramjet-powered fighter aircraft designed and built in the mid-1950s by French state-owned aircraft manufacturer Nord Aviation.

It was part of a series of competing programs to fill a French Air Force specification for a Mach 2 fighter.Design of the Griffon originated in a late 1940s requirement for a high speed interceptor.
Flight tests favoured a delta configuration, which was incorporated into design studies using a variety of powerplants. Powered by a large ramjet with turbojet sustainer, the Griffon was renamed from the SFECMAS 1500 Guépard (Cheetah) after SFECMAS was merged with SNCAN to form Nord Aviation.

Two prototypes were ordered initially 24 August 1953, with the final contract, (No. 2003/55) in 1955. Although intended to fulfil a requirement for a light interceptor capable of operation from 1,000m grass runways, the two prototypes were ordered without military equipment for research purposes.
It was constructed mainly of light alloys, the Griffon comprised a large tubular fuselage which supported the middle set delta wings, fin with rudder and the forward fuselage, which extended forwards over the turbo-ramjet air intake. The forward fuselage housed the single-seat cockpit and carried small delta canards on either side of the cockpit. The tricycle undercarriage retracted into the wings and the underside of the air intake.

After proving the aerodynamic aspects and systems of the Griffon, the 1500-01 was retired in April 1957. Flying continued with the Griffon II after its first flight on 23 January 1957. With Major André Turcat at the controls, the Griffon II reached a top speed of Mach 2.19 (2,330 km/h or 1,450 mph) in 1958, proving the soundness of the basic design. However, the aircraft met several technical difficulties, such as kinetic heating, due to the lack of temperature-resistant materials, such as titanium, in the parts of the airframe experiencing the high temperatures.The ramjet was found to work well at high speed, but was unstable at medium speeds.

A preserved Nord 1500-02 Griffon II aircraft is on display in the French Air and Space Museum, at Le Bourget, near Paris.


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[Angry Turnip]

Nord 2100 Norazur

The Nord 2100 Norazur was a 1940s French civil transport monoplane.

The Norazur was a high-wing cantilever monoplane with a retractable tricycle landing gear.It was powered by two wing-mounted 420Hp Potez piston engines in pusher configuration.
It had an enclosed cabin for ten passengers or freight and was operated by a crew of two.

It was designed to meet a post-war requirement for a light transport and training aircraft it first flew Norazur at Les Mureaux on 30 April 1947.An additional prototype with 390 hp Béarn 6D-07 engines is believed to have been built.With other similar designs available the type did not enter production.

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[Angry Turnip]

Nord 3202 Series

The Nord Aviation 3202 was a 1950s French military trainer aircraft designed and built by Nord Aviation to meet a French Army requirement for a two-seat basic trainer.
The 3202 was a cantilever low-wing monoplane with a fixed tailwheel landing gear and a nose-mounted inline piston engine. It had an enclosed tandem cockpit for pupil (front) and instructor (rear).
Powerplant was a Potez 4D 32 four-cylinder air-cooled inline engine,240 hp,but other similar 260 hp engines were also used.Max Speed was around 160mph with a cruise of 130mph.
100 aircraft were built,plus two prototypes,post retirement from military use, many examples were sold to the civilian market.

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[Angry Turnip]

Nord 3400

The Nord 3400 Norbarbe was a French two-seat observation and casualty-evacuation aircraft for the French Army Light Aviation.
The 3400 was a braced high-wing monoplane with a fixed tailwheel landing gear and an enclosed cabin with tandem seating for a pilot and observer.

The prototype F-MBTD first flew on 20 January 1958, powered by a 240 hp Potez 4D-30 engine.A second prototype with an increased wing area followed,which was powered by a 260 hp Potez 4D-34 engine,which led to a production batch of 150 ordered by the French Army in the same configuration as the second prototype.

Max peed was 146 mph with a cruise of 118 mph and a range of around 620 miles.it was produced between 1959 and 1961 with 152 examples being completed.

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Nord 260

The Nord 260, built in prototype form as the Max Holste MH.260 Super Broussard, ("Super Bushranger"), was a turboprop-powered, uprated version of the piston-engined Max Holste MH.250 Super Broussard.
The MH.260 was designed in partnership with Nord Aviation to carry 23 passengers or 3,445 kg of cargo on short/rough airstrips.It was a high-wing, twin-engine turboprop aircraft powered by 980 hp Turbomeca Bastan engines.These allowed a cruise speed of around 235mph.
The fuselage was of all -aluminum construction with fabric covered control surfaces and the landing gear retracted into fuselage-mounted fairings.It`s first flight was late July 1960.

The design was taken over by Nord and production was commenced to fill a French government order for ten aircraft under the designation Nord 260. No orders were received from outside the government as the nascent Nord 262 offered better performance. Eight Nord 260s were completed and delivered to a few airlines on lease for short periods before final delivery to the French Air Force.

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[Angry Turnip]

Nord NC.850 Series

The Nord NC.850 (originally the Aérocentre NC.840) was a light aircraft developed in France in the late 1940s for use by French aeroclubs, it also saw military use for airborne observation.
The NC.850 series was developed from the Aérocentre NC.840 in response to a competition sponsored by the French government to find a domestically-produced machine for club use.
Aérocentre's entry was an ungainly high-wing, strut-braced monoplane with a fully enclosed cabin and fixed, tailwheel undercarriage. The fuselage construction was tubular, and the wings had a metal structure, the entire aircraft being skinned in fabric.

The competition was won by the SIPA S.90, but the government ordered 100 examples of this,runner-up design.These production examples, designated NC.853,differed from the prototypes in having twin tails, the fins mounted on the ends of the horizontal stabiliser.
Only 27 of the order had been completed, however, when Aérocentre was liquidated and its assets bought by Nord.The new owners continued production, with their machines identified with designation NC.853S.

In March 1951,Nord flew a heavily modified version of the design for use as an observation aircraft by the French Army.Known as the NC.856 Norvigie, this featured a more powerful engine and a lengthened and more extensively glazed cockpit.
The army ordered 112 examples which were mostly flown in the artillery spotting role,and a civil version was also offered, orders were not forthcoming and just two were built.

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Nord Aviation N 500 Cadet

The Nord Aviation N 500 Cadet was a single-seat VTOL research aircraft built by Nord Aviation in 1967.
It was to evaluate principles of the Tilt Duct propulsion concept for VTOL aircraft. The enclosed cabin contained an ejection seat.Two turboshaft engines were located side by side in the rear part of the fuselage.
They drove two 1.5m diameter props through interconnected shafts. The ducts could be turned to the horizontal position for vertical lift during takeoff and landing, and then rotated to the vertical position for forward flight. Directional control of the Nord 500 during vertical flight was done by small winglets attached to the bottom of each duct. During forward flight the aircraft was controlled using a conventional rudder/elevator tail setup.

The first Nord 500 was finished in the beginning of 1967, it was used for a variety of mechanical and ground tests. In July of 1968 a second prototype made its first tethered flight,there were never any free flights made, so the target of a 220 mph top speed were never tested.

Later Nord merged with the Aerospatiale Corporation and it was renamed the Aerospatiale N 500. A more powerful and advanced version of the aircraft was planned,but by 1971 the project was canceled.

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[Angry Turnip]

Peyret-Mauboussin PM XI

The Peyret-Mauboussin PM XI was a French high-wing touring aircraft of the early 1930s.

The PM XI was designed by Peyret-Mauboussin as a Salmson-engined two-seat touring and sporting aircraft of wooden construction.It was an enlarged and more powerful development of the single-seat Peyret-Mauboussin PM X.JustTwo examples were built.

Airframe c/n 02 was finished first and first flew on 9 July 1930. It was registered as F-AJUL. c/n 01 F-AKFD was ordered by the French Service Technique.
In July F-AJUL took part in the Challenge International de Tourisme 1930 touring aircraft contest,but damaged a landing gear in a compulsory landing.In November one was flying at their Orly base and the other was under test for its CoA at Vélizy – Villacoublay Air Base.
F-AJUL was later flown by Rene Lefevre from Paris to Tananarive, Madagascar, between 1 and 14 December 1931. The total distance flown was 11,000 km at an average speed of 120 km/hour. He also flew it, after fitting additional fuel tanks from Paris to Saigon in 10 days during December 1932, a distance of 6,500 miles The return trip in February 1933 took 8 days.

This aircraft is stored without wings at the Musee Castel-Mauboussin at Cuers-Pierrefeu airfield near Toulon in southern France, and can be viewed by request.

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[Angry Turnip]

Potez SEA VII

The Potez SEA VII, otherwise known simply as the Potez VII, was an early airliner developed in France shortly after the First World War.
It was a civil version of the SEA IV military aircraft that Henry Potez had developed with the Société d'Etudes Aéronautiques.At the wars end, the French military cancelled its orders for the SEA IV and the company dissolved.

Potez believed that the design had potential in peacetime and founded Aéroplanes Henry Potez in 1919 to refurbish war-surplus machines for civil use.
This led to a revision of the design as the SEA VII, it differed from its predecessor in having an enclosed cabin for two passengers occupying the rear fuselage.
The wings were also enlarged to reduce their loading,to allow for slower, gentler landings.The aircraft were powered by a single Lorraine-Dietrich 12Da of 370 hp giving a cruising speed of 110 mph.

Cie Franco-Roumaine purchased twenty-five examples to use on services to Eastern European destinations during the 1920s.

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[Angry Turnip]

Potez X

The Potez X was a French 1920s general-purpose colonial transport aircraft.

It was was a three-engined biplane with a fixed nosewheel landing gear and a tailskid. The first version was the Potez X A which was powered by three 140 hp Hispano-Suiza 8Aa piston engines, two were strut-mounted between the upper and lower wings and one in the nose.
It had an enclosed cabin for 10 passengers with the pilot in an open cockpit behind the cabin.Later the engines were changed to more powerful 180hp Hispano-Suiza 8Ab versions.These gave a max speed just over 100mph and a leisurely cruise speed of around 82mph.
Two other variants were built with 280 hp Hispano-Suiza 8Bec engines, the X B was a military version,and the X C a commercial type.

The Potez X formed the basis of two similar airliners in the Potez XVIII and Potez XXII.

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Potez 29

The Potez 29 was a 1920s French passenger biplane designed and built by Avions Henry Potez.

The Potez 29 was a biplane powered by a nose-mounted 450 hp Lorraine 12Eb broad-arrow piston engine.Max speed was 135mph with a cruise speed of 115mph.
It had fixed landing gear with a tail skid and was based on the earlier Potez 25, with the same wings and engine, the Potez 29 had a new fuselage with an enclosed cockpit for two crew.
There was a cabin for five passengers.The 29 proved to be a success; it entered service with civilian airlines, and 120 were delivered to the French Air Force, mainly as an air ambulance and light transport. A small number were operated by the Royal Air Force. 146 aircraft in total were completed and the first flight was in 1927.
Civilian versions had a slightly more powerful 480 hp Gnome-Rhône 9Ady Jupiter radial engine,just 15 of these were built.

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Potez 36

The Potez 36 was a French two-seat touring or sport monoplane,which made it`s first flight in 1929.

It was a high-wing braced monoplane with a conventional fixed landing gear; it featured an enclosed cabin with side-by-side seating for a pilot and a passenger.
The 36 had some unusual features including rearward folding wings to make it easier to store or to tow behind a vehicle. Some of the aircraft had Potez-designed leading-edge slats.

It proved to be popular with both French private owners and flying clubs with a small number being used by the French Air Force during the 1930s as liaison aircraft.
The 60 hp Salmson 5Ac radial engine was enough for a max speed of around 95mph, but a cruise of 80pmh would be more common.Later versions had engines of up to 100hp.

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[Angry Turnip]

Potez 50

The Potez 50 or Potez 50 A2 was a French two seat military multi-rôle aircraft, first flown in 1931.
It did not go into service but despite this seven variants using five different engines were produced,one setting several speed with load records and another,the Potez 506,setting three altitude records.

The Potez 50 and its variants were powered by five different nose mounted engines, two inlines and three radials.The first of these was a 600 hp Lorraine 12Fd Courlis water-cooled W-12 engine, enclosed by a close fitting metal cowling which followed the contours of its three-cylinder banks.
There was a large, rectangular, honeycomb radiator on the fuselage underside at the rear of the engine, equipped with a shutter.
The central part of the fuselage around the cockpits was ply skinned,with fabric further back.The pilot's open cockpit was under a cut-out in the upper trailing edge which widened his field of view; he controlled a fixed, forward firing machine gun and the gunner/observer's position close behind had a pair of machine guns on a flexible mount as well as radio and photographic equipment.

The date of the first flight of the Potez 50 is not known but it had already been tested by the end of June 1931 as it was selected,along with three other prototypes,to make a publicity tour of eastern Europe which began on 5 July.Two Potez 50s were flying by the summer of 1932, one with an Hispano engine and the other with another radial, a supercharged, fourteen cylinder,700 hp Gnome-Rhône Mistral Major.

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[Angry Turnip]

Potez 540

The Potez 540 was a French multi-role aircraft of the 1930s.

It was twin-engine aircraft to fulfill a 1932 specification for a new reconnaissance bomber. Built as a private venture, the aircraft was designated the Potez 54,it flew for the first time on 14 November 1933. It was intended as a four-seat aircraft capable of performing duties such as bomber, transport and long-range reconnaissance.
The Potez 54 was a high-wing monoplane, of mixed wood and metal covering over a steel tube frame.

The prototype had twin fins and rudders, and was powered by two 690 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Xbrs V-12 engines in streamlined nacelles, which were connected to the fuselage by stub wings.
The main landing gear units retracted into the nacelles,and auxiliary bomb racks were mounted beneath the stub wings.It featured manually operated turrets at the nose and dorsal positions, as well as a semi-retractable bin-style ventral turret. During development, the original tailplane was replaced by a single fin and rudder, and in this form, the type was re-designated the Potez 540 and delivered to the Armee de I'Air on 25 November 1934.A total of 192 Potez 540s were built.

The aircraft`s first combat was in the Spanish Civil War, where they were operated by the Spanish loyalist side.The aircraft was a poor design and was already obsolete just two years after its introduction, when confronted by the higher performance German and Italian planes of the same period, the Potez 540 proved itself a failure in Spanish skies during the Civil War and was labelled as 'Flying Coffin' by Spanish Republican pilots.
In the late 1930s, the aircraft were truly obsolete so they were relegated to French transport units.They were also used as paratrooper training and by September 1939 and the beginning of World War II, they had been largely transferred to the French colonies in North Africa, where they continued to function in transport and paratrooper service. Their role in even these secondary assignments was problematic given their poor defensive armament and vulnerability to modern enemy fighters. Following the French surrender to Germany in June 1940, Potez 540s still flying served the Vichy French Air Force mainly in the French overseas colonies. Most of these machines were retired or destroyed by late 1943.

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[Angry Turnip]

Potez 650

The Potez 650 was a French-built military transport aircraft that saw service in World War II, it was based on the Potez 62 airliner.

The Potez 62 was a high-wing twin-engine monoplane,construction used wood for the fuselage and a fabric-covered metal structure for the wings.Passengers for the first time in France enjoyed noise reduction and heating of the cabin. It was, by all accounts, considered trouble-free, safe and comfortable. The type however did not have a very long career, as it was quickly made obsolete by more modern and much faster airliners types.

The Potez 650 received relatively minor modifications: Hispano-Suiza 12X liquid-cooled inline engines instead of the Gnome-Rhône 14K radials, a less sophisticated cabin with accommodation for 14 paratroopers and their equipment (one squad) or 10 wounded (for the medevac role), and a larger door system for bulky loading.The first paradrop from a Potez 650 occurred on May 1937.
The French military did not have plans for paratroopers, which did not fit well with its defensive doctrine of the pre-World War II era.Only two paratrooper companies were formed, and never reached full strength, and just 15 Potez 650s were manufactured. They were not sufficient in numbers even for such a small number of men, so the big Farman 224 airliner which had just been refused by Air France was pressed into military service.

After the armistice, paratrooper units were officially disbanded, although training jumps were performed in North Africa. The Potez 650s were transferred to a military transport unit. When Free French and British forces attacked the French protectorates of Syria and Lebanon in mid-1941, the Vichy government established an airbridge to resupply its troops in the Middle East. Potez 650s took a significant share of the work.

In late 1936, the Romanian Air Force expressed interest in acquiring foreign military aircraft. The Potez 650 was selected, but Romania required Gnome-Rhône 14K engines to be fitted like originally on the Potez 62, since a license to manufacture these engines had already been acquired by Industria Aeronautică Română. Six examples of this new variant, designated Potez 651 were ordered in 1937, although it seems only four were operationally used.

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Potez 662

In 1936 the Potez company became part of the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautique du Nord (S.N.C.A.N.), under the Law for the Nationalisation of Military Industries.
They followed up their first four engined aircraft, the 661 of 1937 with the Type 662, which was almost identical aside from having much more powerful engines In place of the 220 hp Renault 6-Q inverted inline engines off the 661, the 662 had 680 hp Gnome-Rhône 14M Mars radials, providing much improved performance.

The 662 was a commercial aircraft with seating for up to twelve passengers. It was a low wing cantilever, almost all-metal monoplane. The wing tapered with an almost straight trailing edge that carried outboard balanced ailerons and split trailing edge flaps over the whole of the centre section.
The four Mars small diameter 14-cylinder radials were conventionally mounted of the front wing spar,enclosed with wide cowlings and large spinners,driving three bladed variable propellers.
Internally the wing was strengthened and the fuel tank capacity was increased by 37% to provide for the higher consumption.

The standard seat arrangement was for twelve,but two seats could be removed to allow the installation of chaises-longues for longer flights.The pilots' cabin was enclosed, with side by side dual control seating. The tail unit carried twin vertical endplate fins, slightly oval on a tailplane that had strong dihedral. The balanced rudders and elevators were metal structures with the only fabric covering used on the aircraft. The elevators carried trim tabs,and there was a small tailwheel, with the main undercarriage retracting into the inner engine nacelles.

The Potez 662 made its first flight on 26 July 1938 at Meaulte. It made an impression at the 1938 Paris Aero Show, not least because it was the only completed new commercial aircraft present.

Though just one 662 was built before the war,it was originally intended for Air France,with the expectation of orders to follow, but it was taken over by the French Air Ministry for its own use.No more were built,despite suggestions that it might be produced in occupied France for German use.

The single example built crashed Nov 12th 1941 near Valleraugue Gard with the loss of all 7 on board.

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Potez 840

The Potez 840 was an all-metal cantilever-wing monoplane with a retractable tricycle landing gear. It had a crew of three and a cabin for 18 passengers.
It was powered by four 440 shp Turbomeca Astazou II turboprop engines.The prototype first flew on 29 April 1961; a second aircraft flew in June 1962 and had more powerful 600 shp Turbomeca Astazou XII.

The second prototype carried out a sales tour of North America and it was planned to build a batch of 25 aircraft for Chicago-based Turbo Flight Inc. but only two more prototype aircraft were built.
The next two aircraft were designated the Potez 841 and were powered by 550 shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-6 turboprop engines.Another two modified Astazou-powered aircraft were produced, one in 1965 and one in 1967. A total of eight aircraft were completed,and it was the last aircraft to bear the Potez name.

There were plans to build Potez 840s in a factory in Baldonnel in the ROI, with financial aid from the Irish government,but the factory was closed in 1968 without completing any aircraft.

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Potez-CAMS 141  Just when you thought I was done with Potez, I found a few more of note.

The Potez-CAMS 141 was a French long range reconnaissance flying boat of the late 1930s.It was intended to equip the French Navy,but only a single prototype was completed before the German invasion of France stopped production.
It was designed to meet a 1935 French Navy specification for a long range marine reconnaissance flying boat to replace obsolete aircraft such as the Breguet Bizerte,the prototype first flew on 21 January 1938, starting trials in August 1938.

It was a four engined monoplane, powered by 860hp Hispano-Suiza 12Y engines, with a braced,wing mounted above the fuselage and a twin tail.It was armed with a dorsal turret carrying two 7.5 mm Darne machine guns, with a further two machine guns in lateral "cheek" barbettes and two in waist positions. A production order for four aircraft was placed, with a further 15 being ordered before the start of WW2.

The prototype, named "Antarès" entered service with the French Navy in September 1939.Additional orders for Potez-CAMS 141s were placed shortly after the start of the war, with delivery expected from June 1940, but these orders were cut back owing to changing priorities and the realisation that the loss rate of long range flying boats was very low.

No production aircraft had been completed by the time of the Armistice in June 1940, with Antarès being evacuated to Morocco. It was operated by the Vichy French Navy, continuing in service until the Allied Invasion of North Africa,when the French armed forces in North Africa joined with the Free French. Antarès continued in service, carrying out patrols over the Central and South Atlantic.Antarès was retired and scrapped early in 1944.

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Potez-CAMS 161

The Potez-CAMS 161 was one of three French large, six-engined flying boats intended as airliners on the North Atlantic route.In the summer of 1938, the 161's aerodynamics had been investigated and refined with the Potez-CAMS 160, a 5/13 scale flight model. An exact date for the first flight is not known, however a report in Flight gives it as within few weeks before 7 December 1939, with "further flying tests" in the first half of 1942.

The 161 was powered by six 664 kW Hispano-Suiza 12Ydrs liquid cooled V-12 engines driving three blade propellers.These were cooled via both wing surface and frontal radiators, the latter retracted after take-off.Its two step hull was flat sided forward of the wing but more rounded to the rear. Ten square windows on each side lit the passenger cabin, where twenty were provided with seating and sleeping compartments and flown and looked after by a crew of six.

It had been painted in Air France Atlantique trim and at some point it received a French civil registration. It seems to have been destroyed by enemy fire toward the end of World War II, but there is disagreement on exactly when and where,some claim the Baltic, others to Lake Constance.

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Reims-Cessna F406 Caravan II

Reims Aviation Industries was a French aircraft manufacturer located in the city of Reims, most recently producing the F406 Caravan II. Reims Aviation was a wholly owned subsidiary of GECI Aviation.

In 1960 a cooperative agreement was signed with Cessna to produce light aircraft for the European market.It was officially born as Reims Aviation in 1962, mainly producing the FR172 Reims Rocket, a more powerful version of the Cessna 172. In 1989 Reims Aviation bought back all the shares held by Cessna and became a private French aircraft manufacturer.
Production of the single-engined airplanes was halted, and only the F406 remained in production.

The company entered receivership on 10 September 2013. On 25 March 2014, the Commercial Court of Reims approved the transfer of the Company's aircraft maintenance, cabin management, integration and installation systems assets to ASI Innovation, and the transfer of its F406 assets to Continental Motors, Inc. With the disposition of the company's assets, its parent company, GECI Aviation, was also liquidated on 17 April 2014.Continental has indicated that it plans to continue production of the F406 in Mobile, Alabama.

The Reims-Cessna F406 Caravan II is a turboprop twin engine utility aircraft manufactured and designed by Reims Aviation in cooperation with Cessna.
It is a twin turboprop,fourteen-seat low-wing monoplane of conventional aluminium and steel construction.The aircraft first flew on 22 September 1983,and was produced by Reims Aviation until the company's 2013 folded.

The F406 is aimed at passenger and small cargo transport, and civilian and military surveillance. For extra cargo capacity a cargo pod can be fitted to the belly of the aircraft. The Surmar is a new maritime surveillance version of the aircraft with extra equipment such as a 360 degree radar.
Though the F406 is more expensive to operate than single-engine aircraft of the same passenger capacity such as the Cessna 208 Caravan, having two engines means it complies with European regulations regarding commercial operations, which only allow multi-engine aircraft for commercial instrument flight.
The Type Certificate transferred only had approval to produce spare parts and not the whole aircraft.

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