Caudron CR.714
| Caudron C. 714 | |
|---|---|
 A Caudron CR.714 with Finnish national emblems |
|
| Type: | Fighter plane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
July 18, 1936 |
| Commissioning: |
1940 |
| Production time: |
1939-1940 |
| Number of pieces: |
approx. 90 |
The Caudron CR.714 (or Caudron-Renault CR.714 ) was a French single-engine, single-seat fighter aircraft from 1938. The aircraft was also known as the "Cyclone".
history
In 1934, the Technical Service of the French Air Force issued the specification "C1" for a light fighter aircraft that was to replace the obsolete Dewoitine D.510 and its predecessor models in the Armée de l'air fighter squadrons . Constructions that require the smallest possible amount of strategically important raw materials should be given preference.
The Caudron company , which at that time was quite successful in the field of fast transport and training aircraft , constructed a prototype for this specification on the basis of the Caudron C.690 hunting trainer under the designation Caudron CR.710 , which was released on July 18, 1934 First flight took off. A second prototype soon followed. The CR.710 still had a fixed landing gear and was heavily armed with two 20 mm cannons . Birch wood was predominantly used as a building material, which was only partially supplemented by magnesium alloys. The drive consisted of a 450 hp V-12 engine Renault 12R03 . The basic idea was to construct a type that did not have to rely on important raw materials and engines. However, during the flight tests it became apparent that the drive and construction were not optimally coordinated, so the design was revised.
The successor model with the designation Caudron CR.713 received a new rear and a retractable landing gear, which improved the aerodynamic properties. The corresponding prototype flew for the first time in December 1937. Since the Armée de l'air initially showed no interest in the type, it was advertised abroad, including in the Soviet Union , which finally purchased three copies. At the same time, the design was revised again under aerodynamic aspects, which particularly affected the drive section and the rear. In addition, the two-blade propeller was replaced by a three-blade version of the Ratier type . The new prototype, called the Caudron CR.714 , took off for the first time on July 6, 1938, underwent some tests and was equipped with four 7.5 mm machine guns in October . Now the technical service of the Armée de l'air , which urgently needed fighter aircraft of all kinds due to the production delays in the other types, recognized the advantages of the design, which managed without engines and raw materials used for other constructions and therefore scarce engines and finally ordered 200 copies.
Series production began in the summer of 1939, but was delayed by problems with the Renault engine. In addition, construction problems became apparent even with the first series machines. The CR.714 had great difficulty gaining height quickly enough with full equipment, and the armament consisting of four 7.5 mm machine guns was considered too weak. Therefore, the Armée de l'air cut its order after the 90th copy was completed and gave priority to the more promising Arsenal VG-33 . The aircraft acquired were declared unfit for use and should eventually be sold. In fact, it was soon possible to sell around 50 machines to Finland . Five of them were delivered there before the end of the Battle of France , but were never used because it was considered too dangerous under Finnish conditions.
commitment
It was still unclear about the use of the CR.714, which remained in France. First, the only nine machines that until March 1940 were Armée de l'air had been delivered, the dépit d'Instruction de l'Aviation Polonaise ( DIAP used) to form the Polish pilots, who after the German invasion of Poland the Found their way to the west. It was originally planned to equip a special expedition squadron consisting of Polish pilots and send them to Finland. There the unit should be used against the aggression of the Soviet Union . However, these considerations were refrained from and a Polish squadron equipped with CR.714 was formed on French soil instead. The unit was launched as Groupe de Chasse I / 145 "Warszawski" (GC I / 145) on May 2, 1940 and was initially commissioned to defend Lyon before moving to Villacoublay near Paris after just a few days was relocated to protect the lower Seine valley from attacks by the Germans. The location had the advantage of being close to the Caudron works.
At the beginning of the fighting in the west, GC I / 145 officially had 35 CR.714s, of which only 18 were operational. The Polish pilots had no easy game against the Luftwaffe in these machines . In addition to the already known problems with the rate of climb and armament, there were teething troubles with the Renault engine, which tended to burst apart when fully loaded in combat, as well as the fact that there were only a few ground personnel who had experience with the aircraft or similar designs . The squadron should therefore be converted to the more reliable type Bloch MB.152 as soon as possible , but this no longer happened before the end of the battle for France.
Despite their brittle equipment, the Poles helped the Caudron CR.714 to achieve a certain fame through their fighting spirit. With four of its own losses, the squadron achieved twelve safe victories during the fighting (four Dornier Do 17 , three Messerschmitt Bf 109 and five Bf 110 ) and two probable aerial victories. On June 11, 1940, when the war in France had already been decided, the survivors fled to England together with other Polish pilots, only to be used again a little later in the Battle of Britain .
The remaining 15 or so CR.714s, which had not been delivered to Finland or to GC I / 145, remained with the training units of the "DIAP" (see above) until the end of the battle for France.
Further development
On the basis of the CR.714 construction, Caudron developed three further variants of the construction. All three were prototyped and tested.
The CR.715 was essentially a CR.714 with an Italian Isotta Fraschini Delta RC-40 engine built under license , which outperformed the Renault engine by as much as 300 hp.
It quickly became apparent that the wooden construction was not able to withstand the forces involved; a new prototype was built under the designation CR.760 , which now has a hull made of solid duralumin . The armament was reinforced to six 7.5 mm machine guns. In the first tests in April 1940, the new variant was considerably more promising than the CR.714. She was easy to steer and had a good weight-to-power ratio. Before further steps could be taken, the prototype fell into the hands of the German occupiers and was then used as a target drone .
The second prototype of the variant CR.715 was equipped with an air-cooled Renault 626 engine with turbocharger and received a revised airframe. It flew for the first time as the CR.770 in November 1939. Already on the first flight there was a serious engine breakdown, which led to a total failure. Although the test pilot made an emergency landing unharmed, the project was abandoned in favor of the CR.760. The CR.770 was destroyed when the German troops approached in Guyancourt .
Countries of operation
-
France
-
Poland ( Polish Army in Exile ) -
Finland (no combat mission documented)
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data of the CR.714 C1 |
|---|---|
| crew | 1 |
| length | 8.63 m |
| span | 8.96 m |
| Wing area | 12.50 m 2 |
| height | 2.87 m |
| Empty mass | 1400 kg |
| Takeoff mass | 1755 kg |
| Top speed | 485 km / h at 4000 m |
| Service ceiling | 9200 m |
| Rate of climb | 413 m / min |
| Range | 900 km |
| drive | 1 × V-12 engine Renault 12R 03 "Rol" with 450 PS (331 kW) | |
| Armament | 4 × 7.5 mm MAC M39 machine guns with 300 rounds each |
literature
- Bartłomiej Belcarz: GC 1/145 in France 1940. Blue Series / Mushroom Model Magazine Special, STRATUS, Sandomierz 2002, ISBN 83-917178-1-X (English).
- Dominique Breffort, André Jouineau, Alan McKay (transl.): French Aircraft from 1939 to 1942 Volume 1: From ANF to Curtiss. Histoire & Collections, ISBN 2-915239-23-1 (English).
- Kenneth Munson: The World War II Planes. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-87943-302-X .
