Amiot 140

Amiot 140
Type:	Multipurpose fighter
Design country:	France
Manufacturer:	Amiot
First flight:	1931
Commissioning:	July 1935
Production time:	1935 to 1937
Number of pieces:	≈140

The French Amiot 140 was a multipurpose fighter aircraft and intended for use as a bomber , reconnaissance aircraft and escort fighter . The rectangular fuselage , the large non-retractable landing gear and the chunky wings gave this shoulder- wing wing a striking appearance. The reason for the unusually thick wings was that it enabled access to the engines from the inside .

The concept for the Amiot 140 dates back to 1925 and won a specification from 1928 over the Bleriot 137 , Breguet 410 and SPCA 30 . However, the first flight did not take place until April 12, 1931. Only one copy of the Amiot 140 was built under this designation. Two more prototypes were built later ; one was equipped with turrets ( Amiot 141 ), the second was equipped with Gnome-Rhone-14K turbocharged engines ( Amiot 142 , first flight January 1936).

Amiot 143

The first flight of the Amiot 143 (or Amiot 143M ) bomber took place in August 1934. This variant was built in series from 1935 with a total of around 138 units as a day, night bomber and long-range reconnaissance aircraft. When it entered the war in 1940, however, it was hopelessly out of date. Nevertheless, 87 Amiot 143 were deployed at the front. They were used in GB I / 34 and II / 34 in the north, I / 38 and II / 38 in the east and 17 were set up for an African group.

In the Franco-German seat war , Amiot 143 initially dropped leaflets over the German Reich . After the beginning of the war, they were initially only used for night operations against German communications links. During a day's mission against a German bridgehead near Sedan on May 10, 1940 , 12 of 13 Amiot 143s were destroyed by Messerschmitt Bf 109s . After that it was only used as a transport aircraft. Some were used by the II / 38 in Syria and handed over to the Allies after the landing . A few were flown as transporters by the German troops. Only eleven of the aircraft remained in the unoccupied zone of France in 1943, of which only three were airworthy.

The further developed Amiot 144 (first flight January 18, 1936) had a retractable landing gear and smaller wings, the Amiot 147 a double tail unit and Hispano-Suiza-12Ydrs engines. The planned Amiot 145 with Hispano-Suiza-14A4 and the Amiot 146 with Gnome & Rhône-18 engines were never built. The Amiot 150 , of which only one was built in 1937, was a reconnaissance aircraft and torpedo bomber in which the landing gear could be exchanged for floats.

List of units equipped with the Amiot 143

The time of equipping the unit with the type is indicated in brackets. The abbreviation GB stands for Groupe de Bombardement (Bomber Squadron).

• GB I / 22 and GB II / 22 in Chartres (summer 1935 / January 1936)
• GB I / 34 and GB II / 34 in Dugny (1936)
• GB I / 35 and GB II / 35 in Lyon-Bron (1937)
• GB I / 38 and GB II / 38 Metz (1938/1939)
• GB II / 63 in Marrakech (spring 1939)
• 12th Demi-Brigade Aérienne in Mourmelon (October 1936)
• 14e Groupe Aérien Autonome (May 1937)

Technical specifications

Parameter	Amiot 140	Amiot 142	Amiot 143	Amiot 144	Amiot 150
crew	4th	5
length	17.00 m	17.24 m	18.24 m
span	26.40 m	24.45 m	24.5 m	24.00 m	26.65 m
height		5.13 m	5.7 m	5.10 m
Wing area		92.00 m²	100.0 m²	91.40 m²
Wing extension		6.5	6.0	6.3
Empty mass	4,200 kg		6,100 kg	5,800 kg
Max. Takeoff mass	5,690 kg		10,360 kg	11,500 kg	10,000 kg
drive	two twelve-cylinder V-engines		two 14-cylinder radial engines
Engine type	Hispano-Suiza 12Nbr each 650 PS (478 kW)	Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs each 670 PS (493 kW)	Gnome & Rhône 14Kirs each 870 PS (640 kW)	Gnome & Rhône 14Kjrs each 850 PS (625 kW)	Gnome & Rhône 14Kdrs each 750 PS (552 kW)
Top speed	235 km / h	250 km / h	310 km / h	295 km / h
Service ceiling	8000 m		7900 m	8500 m
Range	800 km		1200 km	4000 km
Armament	two machine guns in the bow tower two machine guns in the deck tower one machine gun under the hull 912 kg bomb load		a 7.5 mm MG MAC 1934 in the bow tower a machine gun in the deck tower a machine gun under the hull 1600 kg bomb load

See also

• List of aircraft types

literature

• Green, William: War Planes of the Second World War, Vol. 7. 3rd edition, London 1969, pp. 76ff

Web links

Commons : Amiot 143  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Commons : Amiot 150  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Olaf Groehler : History of the Air War 1910 to 1980 , Military Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1981, p. 127