Bernard 260

[Atomeur 525]

Hello !

I want to suggest here another French fighter : The Bernard 260.

This aircraft, when we see it for the first time, looks like a Dewoitine 510. He has some differences.

The history of this aircrat began in 1930, when the French Army issued a program for a single place fighter with a max. speed of 325 km/h (202 mph) at 3,500 m (11,500 ft) and 300 km/h (190 mph) at 6,000 m (20,000 ft). His armament has to be four machine guns, or two cannon, or one cannon with two machine guns.

Bernard has presented the Bernard 260. It is an all metal aircraft, quipped with almost full-span Handley-Page slots as well as flaps on its low coantilever wing. He is considered as the more advanced (in terme of technology) aircraft. The wing plan was straight edge and square tipped, with most of the taper on the trailing edge , its whole span occupied by ailerons and flaps which could be lowered together. The wing had a duralumin structure with a riveted metal skin. The tail surfaces had swept, almost straight leading edges, rounded tips and unswept trailing edges on the unbalanced control surfaces. The fuselage was built from two metal half-ovals joined vertically, with a riveted skin. The open cockpit was placed at the wing trailing edge, the fuselage tapering behind it. He has fix wheels and the tail wheel was mounted on a vertical faired leg. He was powered of a Hispano-Suiza 12 Xbrs engine of 690 hp.

He did his first flight in spetember 1932, with Roger Baptiste. He is 6 km/h faster than the Dewoitine 500 at sea level, and 9 km/h faster at 6,500 m. But he has some defaulst : he has a higher weight, a lower speed of climb and problems with the radiator. Despite of this, he did more than 100 hours of flights, doing several hundred takeoffs at Villacoublay. The 6th july 1933, the prototype lost his propeller in flight. His pilot, Jean Doumerc, could go to the airfield to land without the propeller. The French Air ministery would like to know the price of 20, 30 or 50 of this aircrafts, but it stays a prototype.

Two variants were proposed : one with a more powerfull engine, the Bernard 261 who was maybe built but never flew, and one like a carrier-borne fighter, the Berard 262 who was never built.

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Details of the wing.

 

Performances :

-Engine: Hispano-Suiza 12 Xbrs engine of 690 hp

-Wingspan: 12.55 m

-Length: 7.80 m

-Height: 3.90 m

-Load-bearing surface: 18.20 m²

-Empty weight: 1375 kg

-Total weight: 1868 kg

-Autonomy: 800 km

-Max. speed: 376 km/h at 5000 m

-Max. altitude: 10 200 m

-Armament: 2 × 7.5 mm MAC machine gun or two underwing cannon

Sources :

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fww1/bernard260.html

https://www.aviafrance.com/bernard-260-aviation-france-466.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_260

[ItssLuBu 1,726]

Approved and open for discussion. 

[Milocat 4,662]

+1, would be a fun fighter to add to the game.

[T_rexflameche 85]

+1 I'm pretty interested in the "two underwing canons"; would it be like the H.S.9 ?

[VT_88 333]

I would rather see the Bernard 261 with a more powerful Hispano-Suiza 12 Ybrs and retractable undercarriage.

 

 

[lancasteryak 17]

On 23/01/2023 at 00:36, VT_88 said:

Je préférerais voir le Bernard 261 avec un Hispano-Suiza 12 Ybrs plus puissant et un train de roulement rétractable.

 

 

Yes, but we don't have pictures or blueprint of the Bernard 261, if you have them, please show us them

[Xenecrite 897]

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Source :Docavia N°3:Les Avions Bernard