J.Davilla, A.Soltan French Aircraft of the First World War (Flying Machines)

Dufaux C1

  French aircraft manufacturers developed a number of imaginative solutions to the problem of allowing an aircraft to carry a forward-firing machine gun. By far the most imaginative and unusual approach to this problem was employed by an aircraft designed by Armand Dufaux.
  Dufaux's solution was to place the engine near the aircraft’s center of gravity, driving a propeller mounted in the center ol the fuselage. Originally, it seems that he had intended to support the entire rear fuselage from struts extending from the wings and landing gear. However, the Dufaux C1 fighter which appeared in the spring of 1916 was a conventional two-seat biplane, except that the engine was almost completely enclosed within the fuselage and drove the centrally-mounted propeller.
  The engine was the 110-hp Le Rhone rotary, mounted in the forward fuselage near the center ol the wings, just ahead of the rear spar of the lower wing. The cylinders rotated through a slot in the lower fuselage. The engine was connected to the propeller via a hollow shaft through which the control cables passed. This tube was attached to two star-shaped steel structures on either half of the fuselage. This was the only attachment keeping the fuselage together aside from a long tie rod extending from landing gear struts to the large tail skid. The cockpit was in the extreme nose and the pilot and gunner were seated side by side. A single Lewis machine gun was mounted in the cockpit. The single-bay wings were of equal span. Ailerons were on the top wing only. The struts were of an I configuration and the center struts were made of steel.
  The Dufaux fighter was tested at Chateaufort in 1916. By this time the Nieuport 11 with a machine gun mounted on the upper wing and the newly-developed Alkan synchronization gear had made the Dufaux fighter unnecessary.


Dufaux Two-Seat Fighter with 110-hp Le Rhone
   Span 7.96 m; length 6.1 m; height 2.8 m
   Empty weight 530 kg; loaded weight 740 kg
   Maximum speed; 140 km/h; climb to 2,000 m in 13 minutes 7 seconds; ceiling 4,700 m; endurance 2 hours
   Armament: One 7.7-mm Lewis gun
   One built



Dufaux Twin-Engine Fighter

  The Dufaux twin-engine fighter was the result of a collaboration between the French ace Nungesser and Armand Dufaux. In 1916 Nungesser had asked Dufaux to design a cannon-armed fighter. Dufaux set out to create a high-performance, very maneuverable plane. The 37-mm Hotchkiss cannon was mounted in the center of the fuselage and fired through the hollow propeller shaft. The cannon's breech extended to the pilot's cockpit so it could be reloaded manually. The twin engines would ensure there would be enough power to carry the weight of the cannon while still allowing high performance. The rotary engines were mounted laterally (side by side) in the nose. The propeller was driven by a bevel gearing. The fuselage was fully faired and a large spinner provided a streamlined shape. It is believed that the aircraft was built and flown and may have had a top speed of 200 km/h. However, the SPAD 12 cannon-armed single-seater may have been available at that time and it certainly represented a simpler, if less ingenious, solution to Nungesser's request for a cannon-armed fighter.


Dufaux Single-Seat Canon Fighter with Two Rotary Engines (Unknown Type)
   Maximum speed: 200 km/h
   Armament: one 37-mm Hotchkiss cannon
   One built