- Yes
- No
- Benelux
- France
- UK
- Other / Don’t know
- I said no
The Renard R.40 was the last variant of the R.36 fighter series to be built.
In 1937, Alfred Renard built the Renard R.36, a fighter prototype that outperformed most other planes of its time, and every French design then developed.
By mid-1938, many foreign countries were interested in Renard’s aircraft, namely China, Bulgaria and France. Unfortunately, the sole R.36 prototype crashed in January 1939, and the Belgian Air Force cancelled their order of 40 planes they had placed just a few weeks prior to the crash.
While the loss of the prototype and of Belgian interest for it caused many foreign air forces to look elsewhere, like China who was about to sign an order for one hundred R.37 variants, the French kept their confidence in Renard, and ordered a prototype to be built in late 1938, with a few changes from the initial R.36.
The most notable change was the inclusion of a pressurised and ejectable cockpit, which would allow the R.40 to be a high-altitude interceptor. As the Hispano-Suiza engine powering the R.36 had a rather weak compressor and poor performances at altitude, it was initally to be replaced by a Rolls-Royce Merlin X provided by the French government. However, the French would not provide the engine, and it was later planned to equip the airframe with the exact Merlin III already in use in the R.38 prototype.
Construction progressed rather slowly, as Renard was busy working on the R.37 and R.38 prototypes throughout 1939 and the first half of 1940. The first tests with the escape capsule were to be done in May 1940, and the engine should have been installed around that time.
However, in May 1940, something else happened, and that is the rude invasion of Belgium by Germany.
By the time of the invasion, the R.40 was almost complete; only the engine and interior was missing, and a few places lacked the fabric covering.
It was decided to evacuate the unfinished prototype to Tournai, and it arrived by May 13. But as the German invasion progressed quickly, some parts were further evacuated to Amiens while others were left behind. In the end, the Germans captured some R.40 parts, other pieces were dispersed and abandoned.
Here ends the story of the Renard fighters, a rather disappointing end for a series of very promising designs, abandoned by their own country.
not the same picture!
The R.40 was quite close to the R.38, as it was supposed to share the same Merlin III engine and have very similar performances.
The main quirk of the R.40 is obviously the escape capsule, in the form of an ejectable cockpit via a compressed air system. Why have the entire cockpit be ejected instead of just having the pilot bail out?
This was because the main role of the R.40 was supposed to be a high-altitude “stratospheric” interceptor. For this role, it was decided to pressurize the cockpit, and bailing out of a pressurized cabin at very high altitudes was simply not going to be a viable option.
As strange as this may seem for 1939, Alfred Renard actually had some experience working with pressurized aircraft; in 1936, he designed and built the R.35, a trimotor airliner, the first pressurized airliner in the world! And NOT the Boeing Strato-thing.
While the R.35 would crash on its first flight in April 1937, this was not due to a depressurization event but a pilot error on takeoff.
The rest of the design held no surprises. The aft fuselage was still covered in fabric, as well as the control surfaces, and this could have caused some problems at high altitudes.
Like the R.38, the vertical stabilizer was enlarged compared to the R.36, and the nose and wing sections were reworked and were more aerodynamically refined.
Since the R.40 was built for the French Air Force however, the armament was most probably going to be reduced to four 7.5 mm machine guns, and no cannon. While the R.38 normally could be equipped with the heavy 13.2 mm machine guns, we can see the ammunition boxes in the pictures, and they seem to be for rifle-caliber cartridges, following the classic French setup with 7.5 mm.
The French Air Force did study the possibility of equipping the aircraft with wing-mounted cannons, pilot armor, and various electrical and night flight components, but they unfortunately didn’t have the time to get their hands on the aircraft.
here is a model of the R.40 I made in Flyout to make up for the lack of pictures
Specifications
According to Renard, the R.40 would have almost exactly the same performances as the R.38.
Engine: Rolls-Royce Merlin III (1150 hp)
Wingspan: 11.64 m
Length: 8.8 m
Height: 2.9 m
Wing area: 20 m²
Empty weight: 1950 kg
Loaded weight: 2600 kg
Wing loading: 130 kg/m² - Est. Turn time: 16 s
Max speed: ~550 km/h at 5000 m, 450 km/h at sea level
Never exceed speed: >800 km/h
Armament: 4 × 7.5 mm FN-Browning machine guns
Payload: 8 × 10 kg bombs + 1 grenade launcher with 30 grenades
Climb rate: 20.5 m/s
Service ceiling: 13000 m
Range: 1000 km
Sources
Nicolas Godfurnon, “Renard R-36/37/38 & 40”
