• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

The Ongoing Mystery Aircraft Thread Part Deux.

Pursuit biplane-

PsX2CAh.jpg
 
Hello boys and girls!
This should be a Letov S20. By the rounded shape of the vertical tail I would say a Letov S20L....
Cheers
BG
 
That looks very much like a Parnall Peto.

There is mention of a wheeled version: "In the early days of it's career, the Peto was fitted with a land undercarriage, the oversize wheels being borrowed from the much larger Parnall Pike recon aircraft.
 
That, sir, is F-AKFH, the one and only S.P.C.A. 81 Col.2 The concept of a Colonial Monoplane does seem quaint nowadays. I always think the maker sounds like an animal charity........
 
I had it as SPCA 80Col don't know where I found it. Maybe mislabeled? Although Landing Light on wing is not there. Engine cowl different. Landing gear slightly different.

Chris
 

Attachments

  • SPCA80.jpg
    SPCA80.jpg
    63.1 KB · Views: 5
Could well be, Chris - same illustration is in Jane's 1934 as the model 81, but then we've found out Jane's ain't perfect either.

(just checked registrations - model 81/82 was F-AKFI - Jane's was wrong !)
 
It wasn't an aeroplane type generally for use in the colonies but specifically for the use of the colonial police. Although one must bear in mind that their duty was to maintain the peace in the colonies and to ensure that the French rule of law prevailed, rather than exercise the functions of a civilian police force as we know it nowadays, and frequently force and suppression had to be exercised to achieve that. The French colonial police had a quasi-military rôle, often acting in conjunction with the French arny, and were equipped with aircraft specific to serve that rôle. The SPCA 80 was one such aircraft. Aircraft for this rôle continued to be produced until the post-war years, the early Flamants being produced specifically as colonial police aircraft.
 
I know, Mike, but to my irreverent mind it conjures up a lovely vision of this machine landing somewhere in the desert with blue lights flashing and sirens going hee-haw, disgorging loads of flics with batons raised.........it really should have been corrugated....
 
Sorry gentlemen if I arrived too late regarding SPCA colonial monoplane...
I think we are all indebted to Pomme Homme for explaining what a colonial Aircraft really was in the minds of the french experts of the time secondly to summarize the Whole matter, shall I assume that:
- Moses' pic represents the SPCA 81 F-AKFI Lorraine engine
- Chtornburg's pic (which is the same I have in my files) represents the SPCA 80 F-AKFH G.R. engine

Or am I totally wrong?
Thanks for your confirmation
Cheers
BG
 
What a wonderful discussion.

To muddy the waters, my photo was labeled the "80" (not 100% accurate) but you can see what looks to me "SPCA 81" on the fin.

7f2pKph.jpg


I'm going to give Lefty the nod here as he was right in the zone with his first post.:guinness:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top