Dewoitine D.27
The Dewoitine D.27 was a parasol monoplane fighter aircraft designed by Émile Dewoitine in 1928.
Design and development
After the end of World War I, the slump in demand for aircraft forced Dewoitine to close his company and move to Switzerland in 1927.
He produced the D.27 the following year, 66 of which were produced for the Swiss Air Force from 1931. It was also license-built in Yugoslavia by Zmaj aircraft and in Romania.
The V-12 piston engine was a liquid-cooled Hispano-Suiza 12Mc giving a power of 373 kW (500 hp) and the armament was two fixed forward-firing 7.5 mm (.295 in) Darne machine guns.
Operational history
The D.27 was used during the Spanish Civil War by French volunteers where it was able to compete with the Italian Fiat CR.32.
Seven strengthened versions, designated the D.53, served experimentally with the French Escadrille 7C1, flying from the aircraft carrier Béarn.
One of the greatest French airmen of the 30s, Marcel Doret, test-pilot for Dewoitine, exhibited in meetings around the world in a Dewoitine D.272. The destruction of this aircraft, in 1936, led to the choice of the D.530, a development of the D.27, with reinforced strength, an enlarged wing, and a more powerful engine. With the aircraft, Marcel Doret appeared for the last time in public in Reims, on May 12, 1955.
Minor variants
- D.271 : One aircraft used for testing a Hispano-Suiza 12Hb engine.
- D.273 : One aircraft used for testing a Bristol Jupiter engine with supercharger.
- D.531 : One aircraft used for testing a Hispano-Suiza engine.
- D.532 : A single aircraft used for testing a Rolls-Royce Kestrel inline engine.
- D.535 : One aircraft fitted with an HS 12Xbis engine.
- D.534 : Used for parachute trials.
Operators
- France : Aviation Navale.
- Romania : Royal Romanian Air Force.
- Spain : Spanish Republican Air Force.
- Switzerland : Swiss Air Force.
- Yugoslavia : Royal Yugoslav Air Force.
Survivors
- The only surviving specimen is on display at the Swiss Air Force Museum.
- The Bourget Air and Space Museum, near Paris, exhibits the D.530 which was last flown on April 12, 1955, piloted by Marcel Doret, shortly before his death.
- The D.27 of the Jean Salis Association, is actually a D.26, repainted in the colors of the D.27 of Marcel Doret.
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