Besson H-5
| Besson H-5 | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Passenger flying boat |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
Marcel Besson |
| First flight: |
September 8, 1922 |
| Number of pieces: |
1 |
The Besson H-5 was a French flying boat design of the 1920s.
development
The design was the response of the designer Marcel Besson to a tender by the French government from 1919 for a four-engine flying boat that should be able to bring passengers from France to Algeria without stopping. He presented a model in 1921, and construction of the first one began a little later in Boulogne-sur-Seine . In 1922 the flying boat was ready, dismantled again and taken by train to Saint-Raphaël on the Mediterranean Sea to be accepted by the CEPA ( Commission d'Etudes Pratiques d'Aviation ).
Since no civil test pilot could be found, Lieutenant Captain Maurice Hurel , an experienced pilot in the French Navy , was assigned to the test. The first flight took place on September 8, 1922. The pilot managed with great difficulty to water the unstable flying boat; it was damaged in the process. However, all further improvements to the construction only resulted in a steadily growing curb weight. The last flight took place on June 16, 1923; The cabin floor tore open when it splashed down and Hurel just managed to put the machine on the beach. A severe storm in December of the same year, in which the tail unit was torn down, sealed the end of the project.
The CEPA issued a damning verdict on the aircraft ("... unsuitable for any type of use outside the water ...").
However, other sources also speak of "stable attitude" and "low vibrations". As originally planned reconnaissance aircraft and bomber, the designations HB-5 and / or MB-10 were provided; as a transport aircraft finally H-5 or MB-11.
construction
The flying boat was (for the time) rather conventionally constructed - a plywood-clad wooden frame with four staggered, braced and braced wings . The four-decker design wasn't that unusual in the 1920s (it was supposed to reduce the wingspan ). The tail unit consisted of two surfaces and three oars. A little more unusual was the hull, which (relatively slim) lay on a wide, single-stage hull . Four 250-horsepower engines were mounted in tandem on either side of the fuselage. With a payload of 3.5 tons, the take-off weight should not exceed 8000 kg. Even on the first flights, however, the curb weight was 7150 kg; the modifications and the necessary ballast drove it to 8830 kg in the end. But Besson not only calculated the weight completely wrong, but also the weight distribution; even 850 kg of ballast in the bow was too little to guarantee acceptable steering characteristics.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 5 |
| Passengers | 20th |
| length | 10.19 m (according to other sources 22.00 m) |
| span | 29.00 m |
| height | 6.33 m |
| Wing area | 255 m² (according to other sources 225 m²) |
| Empty mass | 7290 kg (according to other sources 5500 kg) |
| Takeoff mass | 8,830 kg (according to other sources 10,000 kg) |
| drive | four Salmson CUZ9 with 186 kW (250 PS) each (liquid-cooled nine-cylinder radial engines ) |
| Top speed | 168 km / h |
| Cruising speed | 126 km / h |
| Service ceiling | 2000 m
(according to other sources 3500 m) |
| Range | 900 km |
