French flying boats of WWII Ebay photo find # 30 - Seeflieger album - Breguet Br 521 Bizerte, Bv 138, He 115

Spotted on ebay with four days still to bid, currently at around 500 euros. An album featuring some nice images of Luftwaffe seaplane types photographed in Holtenau and Brest, France..

Above; two views of the rather ungainly "nose" of a Breguet 521 Bizerte - a feature which proved very useful for observation tasks while the aircraft was in flight. Note the defensive position to the right of the cockpit. Following the armistice at the end of the Westfeldzug (campaign in the West) the Germans had an urgent requirement for air-sea rescue seaplanes along the French Atlantic and Channel coastlines. Bizerte seaplanes were sold to the Germans by the Vichy government during the summer of 1940. The first loss of a Bizerte was SG+FM (N° 11), launched on 16 November 1940 to look for the crew of a KG 100 He 111 and intercepted and shot down by a N° 236 (Coastal Command) Squadron Blenheim. As of April 1944 the Luftwaffe Seenot Staffeln had just five Bizertes on strength, two with 3. Seenot at Berre (N° 20 and ??) and three with 1. Seenotstaffel (N° 3, 4 and 36) at Biscarosse. With the Allied landings in Provence during August 1944, both Staffeln were ordered back to Germany. At least one of these machines (N° 4) remained in France to be incorporated back into the French naval air arm with 30S post-war. Bizerte flying boats were based in Hourtin (Atlantic coast, north of Bordeaux) and Brest among others. It was in Hourtin that Leutnante Klingspor and Unterhorst first arrived on 30 July 1940 with two crews to take possession of Bizertes N° 11 and 34 abandoned on 18 June. Both machines were repainted in German colours and flew into Lanvéoc-Poulmic (Brest, southern Brittany) on 7 August 1940..

more Bizerte pictures below including  rare cockpit shot, and some shots of Bv 138s

The original Ebay link to the sale is here

French flying boats of WWII - the Sud-Est SE.200 Ebay photo find #23

The Sud-Est SE.200 Amphitrite  (named after a Greek sea goddess)was a flying boat airliner built in France in the late 1930s, originally developed as the Lioré et Olivier LeO H-49 by the brilliant young Russian designer Paul (Pavel)Asantchéeff prior to the nationalisation of the French aircraft industry. Asantchéeff had been captured by the Germans at the end of WWI on the Baltic Front and arrived in France in 1920 after two years as a POW. After employment with Renault he was taken on at Villacoublay in the Breguet design office and went on to complete his studies in aeronautical engineering. As a Lioré et Olivier design engineer he specialised in large flying boats and led the SNCASE design bureau following the nationalisations of 1937. The SE 200 was a large, six-engine design powered by Gnome Rhone 14R radials with a high-set cantilever monoplane wing of 52 metres span and twin tails. It was developed in response to a French air ministry specification of 1936 for a transatlantic airliner for Air France with a range of 6,000 km (3,700 mi) and capacity for 20 passengers and 500 kg (227 lb) of cargo. Planned to enter service with Air France in 1942, the SE 200's six engines could in theory develop 9,000 hp at takeoff  and propel the 72 ton fully loaded machine at some 390 km/h making it one of the fastest flying boats ever constructed - however fuel payload at 42,000 litres was not sufficient to transport a planned 60 passengers from Biscarosse to New York (see Gerard Hartmann in "L'hydravion le plus rapide du monde...." )

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Foto-Wehrmacht-Beute-franzosisches-Flugzeug-Flugboot-F-BAHE-Frankreich-/161180989737

Only three of the five SE.200s ordered were actually built (at Marignane, Marseilles). Work on them continued after the fall of France, along with a fourth and fifth machine now started. The first aircraft, christened  Rochambeau flew on 11 December 1942.Following testing, it was seized by the Germans and taken to the Bodensee (Lake Constance), where it was destroyed in an air-raid by RAF Mosquitos on 17 April 1944. A USAAF raid on Marignane on 16 September destroyed the second SE.200. Aircraft no. 3, coded F-BAIY made its maiden flight on 2 May 1946..on 30 July 1946 it flew a test flight at its maximum TOW of 70 tonnes...

SE 200 no. 3 at Berre in 1947. After three years of testing it made its last flight in October 1949, remaining on the water at Marignane until 1963, date of its scrapping

French flying boats of WWII - Biscarosse, home to Pierre Georges Latécoère and his seaplanes (Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris Latécoère 521 )

Short video in French outlining the story of Biscarosse, on France's south Atlantic coast, home to Pierre Georges Latécoère and his transatlantic seaplanes.  Latécoère is sometimes described as a visionary, the first French aeronautical engineer to design a series of aircraft conceived expressly for transatlantic mail flights via Spain and Africa to the South Americas as the aeronatiucal powers sought to conquer the Atlantic during the 1930s. His Latécoère 521 was a 37-ton monster that soon went on to break long-distance flight records.
Article extract from the remarkable " Flight " archive ...

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1935/1935%20-%200181.html?search=latecoere%20lieutenant%20vaisseau%20de%20paris

The various sub-assemblies of the Latécoère 521 were constructed at Montaudran, Toulouse, and then taken by road to Biscarosse on France's Atlantic coast where they were assembled. Biscarosse was soon designated France's 'hydro-base transatlantique' and became a hub for transatlantic flights with Pan Am Boeings and BOAC Short seaplanes regularly touching down on the lake..

During the war the Germans also deployed their seaplanes from Biscarosse and post-war the new Air France launched the six-engined Laté 631 from Biscarosse - the 631 is still the largest sea-plane ever operated..the video was produced by the office du tourisme de Biscarosse

 Also on this blog the Latécoère 631 six-engined flying boat http://falkeeinsgreatplanes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-latecore-631-six-engined-flying-boat.html

French flying boats of WWII - the Latécoère 631 six-engined flying boat- Biscarosse

.. The Latécoère 631 was a large six-engined flying boat conceived in France during the years leading up to WWII. The first machine constructed was confiscated by the Germans and transferred to Lake Constance. According to some sources it was destroyed here on 17 April 1944 by Mosquitos, wearing German codes 63+11 (along with SE-200, 2D+UT as reported in Aérojournal issue No. 4, Jan '99, 'Dans le service de l'ennemi')....rare Ebay.de image below

 The second Latécoère 631 F-BANT (no.2) is perhaps notable chiefly for the fact that it was 'hidden' by the French in the Toulouse area during WW II and re-assembled post-war for its first flight. Contrary to some accounts however the aircraft was not hidden 'secretly' - but rather with the knowledge of the Germans. This was chiefly to protect it from Allied bombing raids. Following the liberation of France the stocked parts were re-assembled and F-BANT first flew from Biscarosse on 15 March 1945. The reasons behind this project re-launch were chiefly 'political' in nature - to give the impression, at whatever the cost, that the French still had an aeronautical industry. But ultimately like most large flying boats of the period, the type was a huge white elephant. Air France never wanted it but had to fly it for reasons of national prestige as the national airline. More than 100 deaths followed in crashes and technical incidents concerning the type, mostly to do with the little-understood oscillatory phenomena of six unsynchronised engines on such a large wing - for example, on 01 November 1945 off Montevideo at 330 km/h an inboard prop sheared off the "Lionel de Marnier" F-BDRC tearing a huge hole in the fuselage, killing one passenger instantly and amputating the legs of another, who later died of his injuries. The aircraft put down safely despite losing another two props!  War-time technical advances had left the French far behind and by the time of the Late 631's first Air France transatlantic service in August 1947, TWA Constellations had been regularly crossing the Atlantic at over 400 km/h (cruise) for at least 18 months prior to this date. On the night of July 31, 1948 "Lionel de Marnier" F-BDRC (Latécoère 631 number 06) owned by Air France was flying from Fort-de-France to Port-Etienne in Mauritania when it disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of all 52 on board. It is believed to have gone down around 1200 miles from Dakar in Senegal. The U.S. Coast Guard ship Campbell reported finding debris on August 4 but no sign of survivors. 

Ten of these huge machines were built - half were lost to accidents. By way of comparison the Late 631 had a mTOW of around 70 T (9,600 hp) and could carry some 50 passengers and freight at 300 km/h. The much smaller Boeing 314 with a TOW of 38 T (6,400hp) could transport 25 passengers at 300 km/h. With its 57 metre wingspan it is still the biggest aircraft ever constructed by the French..

More on Biscarosse and the Late seaplanes on this blog here
http://falkeeinsgreatplanes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/biscarosse-home-to-pierre-georges.html

Artwork and internal views and French newspaper cuttings 


http://latecoere631.blogspot.co.uk/