Engineering:Blanchard Brd.1

Short description: French reconnaissance flying boat

Brd.1
Role	Reconnaissance flying boat
Manufacturer	Blanchard
First flight	1922
Introduction	1923
Retired	1926
Primary user	Aéronautique Maritime
Number built	24

The Blanchard Brd.1 was a French reconnaissance flying boat, to the 1923 STAé HB.3 specification, used by the French navy in the 1920s. It was a large biplane with two engines mounted in the gap between the wings, each engine driving a pusher propeller. In 1924, one Brd.1 was used to set several world altitude records for seaplanes.

Operators

France

• French Navy

Units using this aircraft

Aéronautique Maritime

• Escadrille 5R1

Specifications

Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1924, Aviafrance:Blanchard Brd-1

General characteristics

• Crew: 3/4
• Length: 13.6 m (44 ft 7 in)
• Wingspan: 19.2 m (63 ft 0 in)
• Height: 4.2 m (13 ft 9 in)
• Wing area: 85 m² (910 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 2,300 kg (5,071 lb)
• Gross weight: 3,765 kg (8,300 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × Hispano-Suiza 8Fe V-8 water-cooled piston engines, 190 kW (260 hp) each
• Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch propellers

Performance

• Maximum speed: 175 km/h (109 mph, 94 kn)
• Service ceiling: 3,500 m (11,500 ft)
• Time to altitude: 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in 30 minutes
• Wing loading: 43 kg/m² (8.8 lb/sq ft)
• Power/mass: 0.1034 kW/kg (0.0629 hp/lb)

Armament

• 1 × 7.7 mm (0.303 in) machine-gun on flexible mount in bow
• 1 × 7.7 mm (0.303 in) machine-gun in flexible mount in rear fuselage
• 290 kg (640 lb) of bombs

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Curtiss NC

Further reading

• Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions. pp. 161.