| Caudron C.22 BN2 | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Type | Night bomber |
| National origin | France |
| Manufacturer | Caudron |
| Designer | Paul Deville |
| Number built | 1 |
| History | |
| First flight | 1917 |
| Developed from | Caudron C.21 |
TheCaudron C.22 was a French twin enginenight bomber built in 1917. It did not reach production.
The C.22 BN2 was based on the earlierCaudron C.21, but scaled up. The span was increased by 22%, requiring an extrabay and more powerful engines. The French BN2 military category specified a two-seat night bomber.
It was a four bay biplane, withfabric covered, constantchord, unswept wings with angled tips. The upper wing, which carried theailerons, had a 7% greater span and a smaller chord. There was nostagger, so the sets of parallelinterplane struts were vertical;flying wires braced each bay. Pairs of V-form engine bearing struts which supported the tworotary engines above the lower wing defined the inner two bays. It was designed to be powered either by a pair of 89 kW (120 hp)Le Rhône 9Jb or 97 kW (130 hp)Clerget 9B nine-cylinder rotary engines.Ailerons were fitted only to the upper wing.[1]
The C.22'sfuselage was almost flat sided, with a vertical knife edge at the short nose. The crew had an extendedcockpit under the wing, with the pilot under theleading edge and the second member under thetrailing edge which had a deep cut-out to increase the field of fire from his defensivemachine gun. At the rear the straight edgedfin was long and low, carrying a straight edged,balanced rudder that extended down to the keel. An angulartailplane, mounted on top of the fuselage, hadelevators with a cut-out for rudder movement.[1]
The bomber had atailskid undercarriage, with pairs of mainwheels on axles attached to longitudinal bars fixed under the engines on N-form struts. Its track was 3.24 m (10 ft 8 in). The C.22 could carry six 120 mm (4.7 in) and three155 mm (6.1 in) bombs.[1]
The military preferred theBreguet 16 and theFarman F.50 for the night bomber role and the C.22 did not go into production.[1] In February 1919, immediately after the end ofWorld War I, the French proposed a commercial passenger service betweenParis andLondon, using the C.22 and aFarman Goliath but the plans were rejected by the British authorities.[2]
Data from Hauet (2001) p.137[1]
General characteristics
Armament