French airforce from 1935 to 1940-41?

[biber550]

Thank you.
Seems like 1030 HP is the power on 87 oct, not 900

A short-term mode, which was not recommended. More than 2700 revolutions per minute were difficult for the first Merlins to tolerate. And on two-bladed propellers, if I'm not mistaken, this mode was completely prohibited. Because it provoked the propeller to spin up

 

[Archibald]

I believe the fighters and bombers got engines of the same quality, so this would only help if it means replacing the Blochs with more bombers. A gamble if we get the exact same MS-406/D520 programs as OTL, but certainly doable if we unfuck the fighter situation without any input from Bloch.


It's probably excessively cautious/restrictive on my part, but much like some users who dislike an engine company that suddenly moves to radials instead of Vees and reversely, I feel like Bloch's inroad into the fighter market was inopportune in 1934.

Bloch clearly was inexperienced in the field and while the later types were promising, one can only wonder how much was lost by doing engineering hours on the Bloch fighters instead of the bombers. The MB-130/133 series were overly conservative and a focused effort on bomber developments may have hastened the switch to MB-17X design principles, thus helping both the 170 series proper and possibly obtaining a much better 130 candidate than the one we got - which forced France to wait for the LeO 45 and Amiot 340/350 prototypes for proper B4 bombers.

The British example - once again - is interesting. Bristol had excellent radials (Orion / Perseus / Taurus / Hercules / Centaurus ) but they were not used on single engine fighters - after Gladiator and before Tempest, I mean. Seems they were "reserved" to either twin engine heavy fighters and bombers ?
https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/hercules-engined-fighters.59745/Was there a single Hercules fighter prototype or project ? (Bristol Type 153 maybe ? I'll check)

 

[tomo pauk]

A short-term mode, which was not recommended. More than 2700 revolutions per minute were difficult for the first Merlins to tolerate. And on two-bladed propellers, if I'm not mistaken, this mode was completely prohibited. Because it provoked the propeller to spin up

Don't bother.
Bye.

 

[biber550]

...

As for the German engines being quote "insanely" complex, I dont really know what that means, in which aspect?

The Japanese had problems with the production of DB 601 because it demanded a higher class of accuracy than other engines that they produced.

.

The DB is "large" in capacity, but not actually appreciably different in physical size, and in fact is similar in weight to a Merlin!

I forgot to note that the Hispano Suiza weighed a little less than 500 kg dry with all the bodywork, and the Daimler Benz weighed 600 kg dry and without the bodywork.
Well, visually, next to Merlin and DB-601 it seems much smaller.
This is the engine museum at Khai where I studied and worked
https://tour.khai.edu/To get to the museum, click "моторний корпус" and "музей поршневих авіаційних двигунів"

 

[Ambreville]

With decades worth of hindsight, what might be the best steps for French AF and industry to make in the 1935 to 1940-41 time frame, in order to put up a better fight against Luftwaffe? Organizational changes, logistics, choice of what to make (whether the historical types, or whatever you think serves the purpose), what to buy abroad (from complete aircraft down to items that French industry is not well versed in), etc. Copy what works in other countries, with or without licence. AA guns are included, too. I've included 1941 here for a case Allies actually managed to thwart the German onslaught in 1940.

Not a thread about the Army- or Navy-related questions, like doctrine, tanks, MGs, guns, Maginot line, ships etc.

I summarized the sources of issues that plagued French air power in WWII, and added a few "what-ifs" along the way in an article I recently posted on my blog. You might find some of this useful in this thread. Cheers!

https://bruce-heard.blogspot.com/2025/07/FrenchWWIIAviation02.html

 

[Sivuch]

Hello. Does anyone have any information about the bombsights and other equipment on French pre-war bombers? So far, sufficiently detailed information is only available on the Bronzavia D 30 installed on the LeO 451. There's not even a scrap of information about earlier versions.
Thank you.

 

[Archibald]

See the last posts in this discussion and TL.
https://1940lafrancecontinue-org.tr...e66374529&_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=frThe MS-406 could have done much, much better.