Jean Bertin article on Cygne and other heavy aircraft concepts of 1970s

[hesham]

Hi,

[Original link gone - substituted Wayback Machine link - Admin]

Wayback Machine

 

[Matej]

I think that this is related to the spanloaders. At least the general shapes are very similar.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Figure 13 is Boeing.

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

The spanloader design illustrated in the fifth uploaded file is also illustrated on page 311 in Bill Gunston's book Giants of the Sky.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Contrary to Hesham's post, this is actually a translation of an article by Jean Bertin of Societe Bertin & Cie about his Cygne 10 and Cygne 14 designs. The Lockheed and Boeing designs are used in the article as illustrations of similar concepts.

Translation of "Une nouvelle aviation de tranport lourd," L'Aeronautique et l'Astronautique, No. 46, 1974-3, pp. 2-8.

Air freight is handled today by aircraft whose performance
is designed for passenger service. Speed increase has led
to nonstop flights at high altitudes, thus requiring a fuel
load greater than the actual payload. For freight, however
aircraft flying at 200 knots would be perfectly suitable.
They could fly at low altitudes, stop on the way and carry
a payload much greater that fuel capacity. To be economical,
such aircraft must be large (1,000 tons or more), and aircushion
landing will become a necessity. Numerous tests
conducted on the Bertin air-cushion for air drops have been
quite encouraging. Transfer of this technique to aircraft
landing does not create particularly difficult problems.

We already have a topic for Jean Bertin designs - https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/jean-bertin-projects.8601/ which include these.