Unknown Monoplane Circa 1941

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Kdmoo

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This is very interesting. I cannot identify the exact type. As pointed out in the Flypast thread, the mysterious aircraft is similar to several designs from the late 30s, but not identical to any. The three-bladed propeller seems to indicate the presence of a relatively powerful engine. I am well aware of Spanish indigenous aviation development in the Spanish Civil War era and beyond and can't ID this machine... Any ideas?
 
Mitsubishi C5M2 or Ki-15-II? Looks like a pretty close match to me, but what appears to be civil registration under the wing is a non sequitir.

Chuck
 
"I know the other thread already rejected the Sirius as an ID, but I think it's an ex-Republican Sirius that was partially rebuilt after the end of the Civil War".

Don't think so... The wing shape is different, especially the wing dihedral (on the Sirius, the wing design cants upwards at the wing root, on the mysterious type, the wing cants upwards at the u/c attachment point). Besides, the wing tips are more rounded on the mysterious type. Undercarriage is way different too.

The aircraft reminds me some Hispano Suiza projects from the mid-Thirties, namely the C-36 fighter and the RBL-36 reconnaissance/light bomber, but it is beefier...
 
Hawks-Miller HM-1 looks like it, but has retractable gear.
Image found here: http://www.aerofiles.com/_mi.html
 

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Was wondering Hispano-Suiza as well (seems logical?) but nothing has turned up.

I think it is some kind of Spanish built one-off by a lesser known designer. Still searching...
 
The unknown aircraft is possibly not a Spanish one.

I have looked through the book "Aviones Espanoles del siglo XX" and I didn't find it there although other exotic planes like e.g. the Pallarols 40 are included.

Even on the pages where there is only a description by text without a photo there is no plane that fits.

You can read the book online here
 
I thought it might have been a Soviet type, but I've been through Putnam's Soviet Aircraft and Aviation 1917-41 by Lennart Andersson and nothing seems to match.
 
This enigma is driving me mad! I've been following the discussion in the original Flypast thread and the more I think about it the more I become persuaded that this is some previously undocumented (or barely documented) type, one of which possibly extant (scant) records were destroyed or lost. This is unusual - every aircraft built has left a paper trail or at least some documents and pictures, and in many cases this applies also to projects that never left the drawing board, as this forum demonstrates - but not impossible.

I couldn't find any US type from the late 30s matching the machine depicted, but after looking at a lot of references in my library, I excluded hypothesis of French, Italian and Soviet origin. A Russian friend, to whom I emailed the link to the original thread, is also getting mad, for it can't find any match... I also managed to exclude Czechoslovak and Polish possibilities... No luck with Romanian types, neither with Bulgarian ones. And I don't think it is a Japanese type.
 
I think it was a Wedell-Williams design,

and from the book, Wedell-Williams Air Service,very close ?.
 

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Maybe it was GEE BEE Model Y ?.
 

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If you closely examine the main landing gear fairings, you will see that their leading edge extends straight from the wing leading edge or maybe bulged slightly forward from the leading edge. That is an extremely rare configuration even during the 1930s.

In comparison, most manufacturers bold main gear legs to the main wing spar, and fairings are only long enough to streamline a thin oleo-pneumatic strut. They have no need to start at the leading edge.
 
Curtis Wright, related to the 19. That knuckle on the wing/undercarriage runs through to the p40.
 
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