interwar period

Pierre Levasseur was a French aircraft designer born in 1871. His company was called Sociéte Pierre Levasseur Aéronautique and thay produced aircraft mainly for the French Navy in the inter-war period. As a subsidiary, Levasseur also ran a successful flying school. The chief pilot of his...

Alfred Renard built a number of aircraft, mostly before the start of World War II. Alfred started on the ACAZ T-2 but his early substantial design input was at Société Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques (S.A.B.C.A.) before joining forces with Stampe and Vertongen. His main work for...

OKA series no nbr. «Makaka» ("Macaque") training glider (1923) OKA-1 «Golub» ("Dove") sports glider (1924) OKA-2 sports glider (1925) OKA-3 sports glider (1928) ? «Standard-1» training glider (1929) OKA-5 «Standard-2» training glider (1930) OKA-6 «Gorod Lenina»...

Gabardini/CANSA Aircraft Designations After designing a radical catamaran flying boat in France in 1910, Giuseppe Gabardini returned to Italy in 1912 and set up Aeroplani Gabardini at Taliedo. In Dec 1913, Gabardini took over the Cameri facilities of AVIS (Ateliers Voisin Italie Septentrionale)...

...so as not to hijack the British thread! Let's start with a subject to which I hope to be able to make a meager contribution to: design constraints and philosophy behind design decisions. Hermione Giffard's PhD thesis and hopefully soon-to-be book "The Development and Production of Turbojet...

The LVG was ordered in 1917 to develop a "Großflugzeug" (large aircraft) in tri-plane configuration, because it was hoped to increase climbing performance and maximum ceiling this way. The aircraft was finished just shortly before the armistice and the company was thinking about a civil use...

I've found three photographs of this interesting French single seat monoplane of 1935, together with some technical data, but little else. The first two images show the Trébucien Sport in its original form (with an open cockpit and a 30 hp Poinsard engine) - These appeared in an issue of...

C.M.A.S.A. - Construzioni Mecchaniche Aeronautiche SA Designations Rinaldo Piaggio began SCMP (sometimes 'SDCMP' for Societa di Costruzioni Meccaniche di Pisa) in 1922 to license Dornier designs. In 1929, SCMP joined the Fiat Group and, in 930, the name was changed to Construzioni Mecchaniche...

It was the little biplane, which could be built around a 660-horsepower Rolls-Royce Goshawk III and based on the experience of the company with bodies flying boats, Petty used a covered working dural fuselage skin with integrated keel. The rest of the aircraft was a standard scheme for Blackburn...

Any comments on this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spitfires-Forgotten-Designer-Career-Supermarines/dp/0752487590/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364752165&sr=1-1

Finnish Air Force Aircraft Codes - Two-Letter System I've been trying to compile a complete list of Finnish 2-letter aircraft codes. No doubt I'm reinventing the wheel and there's a full listing out there somewhere ... but I haven't been able to find it. The 2-letter system seems to be the...

Leopold Bauer worked for the Jacob Lohner & Co aircraft firm until the end of World War One. The firm was one of the first aircraft companies in Austria-Hungary, which began with the production of aircraft propellers. Starting in 1912 a propeller construction division was created, which...

Hi, we spoke before about many Fiat projects,but I open this topic to continue talking about more Fiat Projects. the G.4 was a two seat light aircraft project,powered by one 760 hp Fiat A.6 R engine,I hope we get a more unknown Fiat G series projects...

The MBI book on the Heinkel He 162 presents several contenders in the "Volksjäger" competition, including the Blohm & Voss P 211. Attached below are three-view arrangements of the two proposals described above.

Found this British aircraft of the 1930s and have no idea if it was actually produced, or if the Navarro company did anything else. Here are excerpts from the 1931 brochure... Has anyone heard of Navarro before? Other pics would be greatly appreciated! THE NAVARRO "CHIEF" THREE SEATER SALOON...

Here are some summary notes on the Scottish Company Beardmore who's aircraft manufacturing activities began in 1913 and ended in the 1920's. Beardmore-D.F.W. Round Britain Racer In 1913 William Beardmore and Company took over the building rights in Britain for the German Deutsche Flugzeug Werke...

For a book I'm gathering info on the biggest blunders in WW2 aviation history. For example: The Luftwaffe never acquiring a dedicated strategic bomber... Please give me your feedback. Thank you. -SP

Aircraft were already launched from airships during WW I, when the British airship R.23 was used for trials with two Sopwith Camel fighters. But the first practical design, that could launch AND recover more than one aircraft, was the USN ZRS-4 Akron, later followed by the ZRS-5 Macon. In...

Hi, the Heinkel He.120 was a four engined long range flying boat project of 1938, http://www.flying-things.ch/air46.htm

After WW I Schütte-Lanz, led by Prof. Schütte tried to get into the civil airship business by designing Trans-Atlantic airships. SL 101 "Atlantic" would have had a volume of 95,000 cbm, whereas SL 102 "Panamerica" would have been considerble bigger with 205,000 cbm. Apart from the wartime...