SNCASE S.E.2010 Armagnac

Le SE 2010 Armagnac sur Wikipedia de langue anglaise :

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The SNCASE S.E.2010 Armagnac was a large [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of the late 1940s built by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (Sud-Est).

The aircraft's disappointing performance and range prevented it from achieving commercial success.

Design and development

Designed originally around a French requirement for a 87-passenger, long range airliner issued in 1942, the S.E. 2000 was to have been powered by four 2,100 hp [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 18R engines.

At an early stage, the S.E. 2000 was abandoned in favour of a larger, more capable version, the S.E. 2010 Armagnac.

The Armagnac was a cantilever mid-wing monoplane with retractable tricycle landing gear designed for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
service.

A number of versions were planned from a 60-passenger "sleeping berth" version to 84-passenger, 108-passenger and
160-passenger versions.

After delays to the planning because of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] conditions, work proceeded quickly at Toulouse, Marseilles and Paris, where various components were being built and tested.

The Armagnac was designed from the outset in a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] production line prior to the first prototype which flew on 2 April 1949 with Sud-Est Chief Pilot Pierre Nadot at the controls but was lost on 30 January 1950 while still undergoing tests.

The first production series aircraft F-BAVD flew on 30 December 1950.

^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}Examples of the S.E.2010 were demonstrated at the 1951 and 1953 Paris Grand Palais.

Although the S.E.2010 was powered by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engines, the most powerful [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] ever placed into production for aircraft use, a concern that the final design was underpowered led to a planned redesign.

The final (15th) production aircraft was intended to be re-engined with 5,400 hp [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] turboprops, but production was curtailed at eight and the more advanced version was never built. An Armagnac, S.O. 2060, ended its days as an engine test-bed, alternately fitted with turbojet engines fitted in a nacelle below the fuselage.

It was tested with two [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 101 turbojets each engine having a different system of afterburner.

The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was also tested in a similar manner.

Operational history

At the time, the Armagnac was one of the largest civil aircraft ever built with a wingspan of almost 50 meters and weight over 77 tonnes.

The capacious pressurized cabin (with a near-circular fuselage section with 4.7 m/ 15 ft width and height) was intended for a three tier sleeping compartment configuration which ultimately was not fitted to any of the S.E.2010 versions.

The fuselage was left with a good deal of unusable space with only open luggage shelves mounted in the upper fuselage.

nitial production of 15 aircraft was planned for delivery to launch customer [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

After evaluation of the prototype by Air France, the airline declined delivery in 1952 when the first production aircraft was ready, citing inadequate performance.

Despite being designed for transatlantic service, the aircraft's range of 5,000 km, fell short of the 6,500 km required range for this use.

Additionally, the aircraft was too large to be operated profitably for shorter range routes.

Including the sole prototype, only nine aircraft were built with TAI ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) (later [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien])
evaluating the first production aircraft in April 1952.

A total of four S.E.2010s were delivered to TAI in December 1952, who used them for eight months and then discarded them as unprofitable.

The aircraft passed to SAGETA (the Société Auxiliaire de Gérance et d'Exploitation de Transport Aériens) in 1953 who operated seven Armagnacs to ferry cargo, mail and troops from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

They were highly regarded in this role, but French rule in the area was almost over and they were surplus by mid-1954.

Most Armagnacs were broken up in 1955 although two were used to transport the French contingent to the 1956 Olympic Games held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Jack Russell, a retired Australian Air Traffic Controller fondly recalled the Armagnac which was the most distinctive of the various aircraft types to visit Australia for the Games.

His description: "...an 80-ton aircraft which resembled two shipping containers welded together lengthways with a wing and two under-powered engines protruding on each side. The aircraft's performance matched its appearance."

^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} Visiting aircraft were ferried to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

While passing above a Mangalore-bound Armagnac, a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] pilot when asked to report the S.E. 2010's position, exclaimed "If it's that block of flats below us, we're passing it now!" F-BAVI, one of the Melbourne caravan was the last SNCASE Armagnac survivor, and was scrapped in 1975 at Bordeaux/Merignac after having lain derelict for many years.