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Страна: Франция

Год: 1920

Единственный экземпляр

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

Levasseur "Saint Raphael" Flying Boat

  Pierre Levasseur was a French aviation pioneer whose factory built 1,500 propellers and 100 SPAD 7, 12, and 13 fighters during the war. He also built the wings for the Besson H-1 and Levy GL.40, as well as the floats for the SPAD 14, and also played a key role in the design of the Bernard SAB C1 fighter. It has been reported in some publications that Levasseur helped design and build a flying boat constructed from the remains of a captured German LVG. The aircraft in question was built by the CEPA (Technical Section) at the Saint Raphael naval base. The bottom of the fuselage was modified to form an unsinkable hull and the aircraft's wheels were attached directly to the center section of the hull. Levasseur played a key role in this modification. The aircraft is of some importance, as it was his experience with converting a landplane's fuselage to a unsinkable hull that probably led Levasseur to add this feature to many of his land-based naval aircraft of the 1920s such as the LB.2 and PL.5. This fuselage-hull configuration was to provide an extra measure of safety should the naval aircraft be forced down over the sea. An error that appears in many publications is that the modified LVG was produced in 1918. The conversion was made in 1920; thus, it was actually a postwar design using a World War I airframe.

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