| Caudron C.74 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Role | Ten seatairliner Type of aircraft |
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | Caudron |
| Designer | Paul Deville |
| First flight | 1922 |
| Number built | 1 |
TheCaudron C.74 was a ten-seat, four engine passengerbiplane built inFrance in 1922. It showed promise but the sole prototype crashed fatally in a competition and no more were completed.
The C.74 was a large biplane, powered by four 224 kW (300 hp)Hispano-Suiza 8Fb water-cooled, uprightV-8 engines mounted in two pairs, each pair with one engine intractor configuration and the other as apusher. It was built from wood and steel and covered inplywood andfabric.[1] An enclosed cabin could accommodate ten passengers.[2]
The C.74 had rectangular plan wings, with the upper plane slightly greater in span than the lower. It was athree bay biplane withoutstagger, with two sets of parallel, verticalinterplane struts outboard and two sets of leaning parallel struts inboard on each wing. The latter met on the lower wing but diverged upwards in a narrow V, forming a cradle for an engine pair.Cabane struts joined the wing centre section to the upper fuselagelongerons.[1]
The airliner had a flat sidedfuselage with two opencockpits intandem for the crew, one ahead of the wingleading edge and the other close behind but under the wing. The cabin had five flat side windows, arranged in a group of three in front of the cockpits and two behind, plus a curved window in the cylindrical nose. Aft of the last window was a port side cabin entry door. At the rear, the C.74'sfin was triangular and broad, carrying a vertically edgedbalanced rudder that reached down to the keel. Thetailplane was mounted on top of the fuselage and theelevators required a cut-out for rudder movement.[1]
Itslanding gear was essentially of thetailskid type. On each side, vertical V-form legs from the lower fuselage longerons and from under the meeting points of the two engine support struts carried a single axle with a mainwheel at either end. In addition, a third axle, similarly mounted from the fuselage but forward of the wing, carried a pair of slightly smaller wheels intended to prevent nose-overs. On each lower wing a pair of backward trailing thin skids, attached below each of the two rear outboard interplane struts and lightly braced from thetrailing edge extended well behind, giving protection against accidental ground contact.[1]
The C.74 was first flown in 1922 and seemed likely to sell well. Entered intoLe Grand Prix des Avions des Transports (The Great Prize for Transport Aircraft) competition held in early November 1922, it was well regarded by the jury. On 14 November, as it took off fromLe Bourget, bolts securing one of thepropellers failed and the C.74 crashed killing all three crew members, the pilotAlphonse Poirée and mechanics Courcy and Bovillier. No more were built.[1]
Data from Hauet (2001) p.175[1]
General characteristics
Performance