The Dewoitine D371 is out

[gastonj]

Hi,

This is my Gmax rendition of the Dewoitine D-371 prewar fighter (flight model by Jean-Pierre Bourgeois and sound by Jean-Michel Renaux).

Designed by Emile Dewoitine, 28 D371 were ordered in April 1935 for the French Air force with a Gnome-Rhône 14Kfs engine (930 hp takeoff power, 880 hp to 3,250 m) and 4 7.5 mm machine-guns MAC 34 (Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault). 12 were yielded to the Spanish Republicans at the beginning of the civil war.
They equipped the André Malraux squadron " España" and the Spanish Martin Luna "Squadron International". The first Soviet pilots arriving to Spain judged the Dewoitine fighter clearly superior to Heinkel He 51 and at least equivalent to Fiat CR.32.

The Gnome-Rhône 14K engine powering the D371 was one of the most popular engines of its era, widely licensed and used around the world. A particularly important licensee was Nakajima, who produced it as the Sakae. The Sakae was one of the most popular Japanese engines, powering the Mitsubishi Zero fighter as well as other designs.

Some pictures

The successors of the D731 were the D372 (Spanish Republican Air Force) and the D373/D376 for the French Navy. The production for all the models was 84 planes.
Note you can get the updated D373 at the same site.

You can get the D371 here : http://royalefrenchnavy.restauravia.fr/RFN-Avions.htm#Hel

JMC

 

[huub vink]

What an unexpected surprise! Thank you for this nice gift!

Huub

 

[txnetcop]

Thank you for a very FINE gift!
Ted

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Gastonj,

Forgive me for coming out of left field with this, because I don't own FSX, but your project has intrigued me. Could you provide more information on the performance envelope of the Dewoitine and its maneuverability? The two closest matches in my mind are the Fiat Cr-32 Freecia and the Polish PZL P-11 fighters, and I modeled the Dewoitine D-376 in CFS2 based on them.

Specific Gnome-Rhone engine data (displacement, max manifold pressure, compression, critical altitude, etc.) would be most helpful. I use this fighter off the French carrier "Bearn" in a what-if scenario involving British attacks on Dakar in July and September of 1940.

 

[Roger]

Lovely model!

 

[gastonj]

Gastonj,

Forgive me for coming out of left field with this, because I don't own FSX, but your project has intrigued me. Could you provide more information on the performance envelope of the Dewoitine and its maneuverability? The two closest matches in my mind are the Fiat Cr-32 Freecia and the Polish PZL P-11 fighters, and I modeled the Dewoitine D-376 in CFS2 based on them.

Specific Gnome-Rhone engine data (displacement, max manifold pressure, compression, critical altitude, etc.) would be most helpful. I use this fighter off the French carrier "Bearn" in a what-if scenario involving British attacks on Dakar in July and September of 1940.

I am sorry but i am not the guy who made the flight model. Whe have very little doc on what you want. Maybe, you can ask Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, find specifications on Wikipedia. If you read French this link may be useful https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome_et_Rhône_14K_Mistral_Major

You can also take a look at this picture :

I can send you by email a scan of the preview of D371 in the periodical "Les Ailes" 1934 June but, always in French.

Ceiling was about 10 000 meters but in practice 6000 meters (best caracteristics).

For info, in DAKAR, french fighters were Curtiss P36 (H-75) of GC 1/4 (Groupe de Chasse - Fighter Group) and bombers were Martin 167F (Glenn for French and Maryland for British).


JMC

 

[Rami]

I am sorry but i am not the guy who made the flight model. Whe have very little doc on what you want. Maybe, you can ask Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, find specifications on Wikipedia. If you read French this link may be useful https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome_et_Rhône_14K_Mistral_Major

You can also take a look at this picture :

I can send you by email a scan of the preview of D371 in the periodical "Les Ailes" 1934 June but, always in French.

Ceiling was about 10 000 meters but in practice 6000 meters (best caracteristics).

For info, in DAKAR, french fighters were Curtiss P36 (H-75) of GC 1/4 (Groupe de Chasse - Fighter Group) and bombers were Martin 167F (Glenn for French and Maryland for British).


JMC

JMC,

I can understand French reasonably well, so that does help. And I am well aware of what was stationed there and when. As I said, this is a quasi-fictional premise based on this idea...

The two larger campaigns consist of fictional carrier operations between the British carrier Hermes, which was present off Senegal after leaving the harbor at Dakar when the Governor of the area declared his loyalty to the Vichy régime, and the French carrier Bearn. This clash did not occur during World War II, but the premise for the campaign could have easily happened.

In actual fact, the French aircraft carrier "Bearn" made her run to Halifax, Nova Scotia to transfer French gold bullion reserves and keep it out of German hands. While there, she was loaded up with twenty-seven P-36s for the French Air Force, six Buffaloes for the Belgians, twenty-five Stimson 105s, and forty-four Curtiss SBC-4 Helldivers. After the ship left Halifax the Dutch and Germans capitulated or were overrun, so the Bearn went to Martinique, where she remained until 1944.

My premise is that she received word about the threat to the French fleet, & raced across the Atlantic. En route, she learns about the attack by the British at Mers-el-Kebir and the Hermes' presence off Dakar and decides to exact revenge. She gets close to Dakar without being detected. In these missions, you would first fly the fighters and dive-bombers off to land at the two bases near Dakar, while the SB2U Vindicators remain on-board, and your task is to annihilate the Hermes between the carrier force and the fighters and bombers stationed on land.

For the British, your task is to defend yourself against the threat with the meager forces available to the Hermes; twelve Fairey Swordfish torpedo-bombers, & eight Blackburn Skuas. As the campaign progresses, your call for help is finally answered by the HMS Ark Royal.

 

[Jafo]

Brilliant little model....thankyou muchly....and I'm even not much into early props...

Buzzing along here at over 120 fps [Gsynch]....so all's good...

 

[gastonj]

Hello Rami,

Yes, you are right for the "Béarn" but, as many US or British people, less for the bank of France gold. Yes "Béarn" was carrying gold to Halifax not to only save it but to pay very expensive (more then French ones like the best D520) US planes such as the P36, Douglas DB7, Martin 167F etc. Just a little part of this gold was saved in North America. The most important stock was in French Africa and Caraiba (Guadeloupe) :

"En 1940 dans le plus grand secret, Lucien Lamoureux alors ministre des Finances, prend la décision, d'évacuer l'or de la banque de France puis de le sortir de France. Son geste sauvera l'or de la France, qui restera caché aux États-Unis, à Fort de France, à Dakar, à Kayes, à Alger et à Casablanca."

"In 1940 in the greatest secrecy, Lucien Lamoureux then Minister of Finance, took the decision, to evacuate the gold from the bank of France
and then take it out of France. His gesture will save the gold of France,which will remain hidden in the United States, Fort de France, Dakar, Kayes, Algiers and Casablanca."

Not all eggs in the same basket !

Perhaps, it would be the real problem of Dakar at this time for the Free French (gold to keep them fighting and less dependent of the British Government) and the French fleet for British.

JMC

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Gastonj,

Oh yes, I am aware that much of that gold was indeed payment for these aircraft. Speaking of the Dewoitine, the D-520 is one of my favorite fighters of WWII. I've often wondered how she would have performed with a powerplant in the neighborhood of 1,300hp as she was intended to be. I suspect her performance would have been on a par with the Yakovlev Yak-9, which interestingly used the Klimov VK-105; basically an enlarged and "souped" up version of the Hispano-Suiza engine.

I also find it interesting that the Szydlowski supercharger was actually deemed a detriment to the engine. The later Klimov variants used a two-stage blower, very similar to the Merlin.

Sorry...better stop there so I don't "hijack" this thread. Oops!