LN.40, LN.401, LN.411 @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Loire-Nieuport LN.40 Loire-Nieuport LN.40
    Loire-Nieuport LN.40
  • The LN.40-01 prototype (FW-0117) The LN.40-01 prototype (FW-0117)
    The LN.40-01 prototype (FW-0117)
  • LN.40-01 at the CEPA, Fréjus (1939) LN.40-01 at the CEPA, Fréjus (1939)
    LN.40-01 at the CEPA, Fréjus (1939)
  • LN.40-01 in flight LN.40-01 in flight
    LN.40-01 in flight
  • LN.40-01 at Hyères LN.40-01 at Hyères
    LN.40-01 at Hyères
  • LN.401 crashed at Orly (1939) LN.401 crashed at Orly (1939)
    LN.401 crashed at Orly (1939)
  • The LN.402-01 prototype, Fréjus (1940) The LN.402-01 prototype, Fréjus (1940)
    The LN.402-01 prototype, Fréjus (1940)
  • LN.411 No. 1, fighter course, Hyères (1940) LN.411 No. 1, fighter course, Hyères (1940)
    LN.411 No. 1, fighter course, Hyères (1940)
  • AB 4 LN.411, Cherbourg (1940) AB 4 LN.411, Cherbourg (1940)
    AB 4 LN.411, Cherbourg (1940)
  • No. 2 nosed over No. 2 nosed over
    No. 2 nosed over
  • AB 4 LN.411 No. 10 shot down at Berlaimont (19 May 1940) AB 4 LN.411 No. 10 shot down at Berlaimont (19 May 1940)
    AB 4 LN.411 No. 10 shot down at Berlaimont (19 May 1940)
  • Wreck of No. 12 Wreck of No. 12
    Wreck of No. 12
  • AB 4 LN.411 No. 20, Bône (1940) AB 4 LN.411 No. 20, Bône (1940)
    AB 4 LN.411 No. 20, Bône (1940)
  • AB 4 LN.411, Sidi Ahmed (1940) AB 4 LN.411, Sidi Ahmed (1940)
    AB 4 LN.411, Sidi Ahmed (1940)
  • AB 4 LN.411 and LN.401 (1940), Vichy LN.411 (1942) AB 4 LN.411 and LN.401 (1940), Vichy LN.411 (1942)
    AB 4 LN.411 and LN.401 (1940), Vichy LN.411 (1942)

Loire-Nieuport LN.401

The Loire-Nieuport LN.40, LN.401 and LN.411 were a family of French single-seat dive bombers developed in the late 1930s for the Aéronautique navale, the air arm of the French Navy. Because of its inverted gull wing and its role, the type was often nicknamed the "French Stuka", in reference to the German Junkers Ju 87. The LN.401 was the carrier-based version, intended for the aircraft carrier Béarn, while the LN.411 was a land-based version without naval equipment. Both were thrown into the Battle of France in May and June 1940, where they suffered very heavy losses to anti-aircraft fire.

Design and development

The Nieuport 140

Between 1932 and 1936, Nieuport-Delage developed a two-seat dive bomber for the Navy, the Nieuport Ni.140, designed by the engineer Pillon. It was renamed Loire-Nieuport LN.140 after Nieuport merged with Loire Aviation in 1933 to form Loire-Nieuport. The first of two prototypes flew on 12 March 1935, powered by a 690 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Xcrs engine. On 8 July 1935, during a dive test, the engine stopped after its fixed-pitch propeller oversped; the pilot, René Paulhan, made a forced landing and escaped with minor injuries, but the aircraft was not repaired. The second prototype crashed in 1936 when its pilot, Jean Decaux, failed to pull out of a dive. No technical cause was ever found, and the LN.140 programme was abandoned.

The LN.40

Work was transferred to the LN.40, a cleaner design inspired by the fuselage of the Nieuport 161 fighter. It kept the inverted gull wing of the LN.140 but had only one crew member, an all-metal structure and main landing gear legs retracting rearwards into fairings under the wings. To suit carrier operations, the wings folded. In the second half of 1937, the Navy ordered one prototype, followed by seven pre-series aircraft for the carrier Béarn, and three more were ordered for operational evaluation by the Armée de l'Air. The Air Force was also interested in a land-based version, the LN.41, and initial plans called for 184 aircraft to equip six squadrons of 18 aircraft each, plus reserves.

Built by the nationalised SNCAO (Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques de l'Ouest), which had absorbed Loire-Nieuport in 1936, the LN.40 prototype made its first flight on 6 July 1938. The second aircraft followed in January 1939 and the third in May 1939, and four pre-series machines were delivered in July 1939. The type completed its deck-landing trials aboard the Béarn. Flight testing showed that the original dive brakes, formed by a split lower rudder, were ineffective: they were removed, and the lowered main landing gear, with its large fairings, served as an air brake instead. Small endplate fins were also added to the tailplane to improve directional stability in the dive. The aircraft could not carry out dive attacks with full fuel tanks, and the Air Force judged it too slow, requesting a faster dive bomber that would become the LN.42.

The bomb was carried under the fuselage on a swinging fork that threw it clear of the propeller arc on release. The armament consisted of a 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon firing through the propeller hub and two 7.5 mm Darne machine guns in the wings.

Production

In July 1939, Loire-Nieuport received orders for 36 LN.401 carrier-capable dive bombers for the Navy and 36 LN.411 for the Air Force. The LN.411 was almost identical to the LN.401, apart from the deletion of the arrester hook, the wing-folding mechanism and the emergency flotation gear. The first LN.411s were delivered in September 1939, but General Vuillemin refused the type for the Air Force in October 1939, and the aircraft were transferred to the Navy, where they were a welcome reinforcement because production of the LN.401 was very slow.

Loire-Nieuport also tried to develop a faster version by replacing the 690 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Xcrs with an 860 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Y-31. This LN.402 first flew on 18 November 1939 and reached 378 km/h at 4,000 m, but further development was halted by the French defeat. The final development, the LN.42, abandoned the inverted gull wing and the tailplane endplates in favour of a smaller wing and a 1,100 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Y-51. It made its first flight in June 1940, too late for the war, and was hidden from the Germans. Flight trials resumed on 24 August 1945 and continued until 1947, but the type was by then obsolete and only one example was built.

Operational history

Two Aéronautique navale squadrons, AB 2 and AB 4, converted to the LN.401 and LN.411 between late 1939 and early 1940. AB 2 received its first LN.401s in November 1939, while AB 4, formed at Lanvéoc-Poulmic, received the LN.411s rejected by the Air Force from February 1940 and became operational in April 1940 at Berck. A few pre-series aircraft had also been used during the summer of 1939 by the fighter squadron AC 1.

When the German offensive began on 10 May 1940, the two squadrons were committed to ground-attack missions against German motorised columns and troop concentrations. From 15 to 17 May, AB 2 flew some 27 sorties without loss against targets on the island of Walcheren and in South Beveland, in the Netherlands, alongside the Vought V-156F dive bombers of AB 1. On the evening of 19 May, about twenty LN.401s and LN.411s of AB 2 and AB 4 attacked German armour jammed at the Berlaimont crossroads. The promised escort of Hurricanes did not appear and the dive bombers ran into intense flak: ten of the twenty aircraft were lost and seven of the survivors were too badly damaged to fly again. The next day, 20 May, three LN.401s destroyed the bridge at Origny-Sainte-Benoîte, on the Oise, for the loss of one aircraft. Production was unable to make good the losses and, after about a month of fighting, the two squadrons had lost two thirds of their strength.

The survivors, reinforced by a few new aircraft, were withdrawn to Hyères, on the Mediterranean coast, after Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940. From there they flew reconnaissance and convoy-escort sorties and, during the night of 17 to 18 June 1940, thirteen aircraft attacked Italian shipping in the port of Imperia.

After the armistice with Germany, AB 2 and AB 4 were ordered to fly to Bône, in Algeria. Two LN.411s force-landed in southern Sardinia during the flight; one of them was restored to airworthy condition and evaluated by the Italians. On arrival in North Africa, the remaining dive bombers were dismantled and placed in storage, and the two squadrons, renamed 2AB and 4AB, were re-equipped with the Martin 167F level bomber.

From March 1942, some 24 LN.401s and LN.411s were assembled at Châteauroux from existing components for the Vichy forces. Twelve of them, transferred to Hyères, were seized by the Germans in November 1942, while the rest, sent to Bizerte-Karouba in Tunisia, were destroyed during Allied air raids in 1943.

Variants

  • Nieuport Ni.140 / LN.140 : Original two-seat Nieuport design, first flown on 12 March 1935. Both prototypes lost by 1936.
  • LN.40 : Single-seat prototype and pre-series aircraft (three prototypes and four pre-series machines).
  • LN.41 : Proposed land-based version of the LN.40 for the Armée de l'Air.
  • LN.401 : Carrier-based production version with folding wings, arrester hook and flotation gear. 15 built.
  • LN.411 : Land-based version without arrester hook, wing folding or flotation gear, ordered by the Air Force and transferred to the Navy. 45 built.
  • LN.402 : One LN.401 re-engined with an 860 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Y-31, first flown on 18 November 1939.
  • LN.42 : Final development with a smaller, straight-tapered wing and a 1,100 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Y-51. One built, first flown in June 1940, tested from 1945 to 1947.

Operators

  • France :
    • French Naval Aviation (Aéronautique navale) : squadrons AB 2, AB 4 and AC 1.
    • French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) : evaluation only.
  • Italy : Regia Aeronautica (one captured LN.411 for evaluation).

References

  • Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Eight: Bombers and Reconnaissance Aircraft. London: Macdonald, 1967.
  • Prudhomme, Arnaud. Les bombardiers en piqué Loire-Nieuport : du Ni 140 au LN 42 (1932-1947). TMA, 2005.
  • Rosenthal, Léonard; Marchand, Alain; Borget, Michel; Bénichou, Michel. Nieuport 1909-1950 (Docavia n°38). Clichy: Larivière, 1997.
  • Borget, Michel. "Le Nieuport 140 ou la saga d'un bombardier piqueur". Le Fana de l'Aviation n°189, August 1985.
  • Taylor, John W. R.; Alexander, Jean. Combat Aircraft of the World. London: Ebury Press, 1969.
  • Brotzu, Emilio; Caso, Michele; Cosolo, Gherardo. Dimensione Cielo. Rome: Edizioni Bizzarri, 1973.
  • "Loire-Nieuport LN 40 LN 401 LN 411 LN 42", www.histaviation.com.

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Loire-Nieuport LN.401 of Wikipedia ( authors )

Loire-Nieuport LN.401

  • Role : Carrier-based dive bomber.
  • Manufacturer : Loire-Nieuport / SNCAO.
  • First flight : 6 July 1938 (LN.40).
  • Introduction : 1939.
  • Retired : 1940.
  • Status : retired.
  • Primary user : French Naval Aviation (Aéronautique navale).
  • Produced : 1938 to 1942.
  • Number built : 68 (7 LN.40, 15 LN.401, 45 LN.411, 1 LN.42), plus about 24 assembled from existing parts in 1942.
  • Developed from : Nieuport Ni.140.
  • Variants :
    • Loire-Nieuport LN.411.
    • Loire-Nieuport LN.402.
  • Developed into : Loire-Nieuport LN.42.

    • Specifications (LN.401)

  • Crew: one.
  • Length: 32 ft 0 in (9.75 m).
  • Wingspan: 45 ft 11 in (14 m).
  • Height: 11 ft 6 in (3.5 m).
  • Wing area: 266.4 sq ft (24.75 m²).
  • Empty weight: 4,945 lb (2,243 kg).
  • Gross weight: 6,250 lb (2,835 kg).
  • Powerplant: One Hispano-Suiza 12Xcrs V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine.
  • Power: 690 hp (510 kW) at 13,000 ft (4,000 m).
  • Maximum speed: 240 mph (380 km/h, 210 kts) at 13,000 ft (4,000 m).
  • Cruise speed: 186 mph (299 km/h, 161 kts).
  • Range: 750 mi (1,200 km, 650 nmi).
  • Service ceiling: 31,200 ft (9,500 m).
  • Guns: one 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon firing through the propeller hub and two 7.5 mm Darne machine guns in the wings.
  • Bombs: one 496 lb (225 kg) or 364 lb (165 kg) bomb, or ten 22 lb (10 kg) or fifteen 33 lb (15 kg) bombs.

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Loire-Nieuport LN.401 of Wikipedia ( authors )
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