aircraft/loadouts Amiot 143

[CaID 8,992]

 

i would like to suggest what should have been the lowest bomber of the french bomber line, the Amiot 143

 

The Amiot 143 was the first french bombardier ordered after the Armée de l'aire was an army on their own and not a part of the french army. the plane was a medium bomber who could be use as reconnaissance and gunship at the same time. the plane was seen as 3 in 1 fallowing the concept of the multi-purpose aircraft of the Italian General Giulio Douhet. the plane was also cheap to built which was going well with the low budget of the early Armée de l'aire. In 1928, the French Air Ministry issued a specification for a four-seat Multiplace de Combat. the plane was to be able to fill the role of bomber, reconnaissance and escorts aircraft at once. the competition fallowing the specification give birth to serial bomber in the early 30s to be evaluated against each other. amounts of those aircraft was the Amiot 140 who at his early prototype wasn't much different of his competitor but was meeting all the requirement. the first plane flew the 12 April 1931 with Hispano-Suiza 12Nbr of 740 hp and open cockpit for the pilot and the nose and dorsal gunner. a second prototype was built in 1932 but the intended engine wasn't available so it never flew. despite of the absence of engine, an order of 40 plane was made and to be powered by Lorraine 12Q Eider and armed with 3 turret. the nose dorsal and rear gondolas with twin Lewis 7.7mm.

in the end of 1932. the french ministry concentrated the requirement on the bomber role of the new plane and required a redesign of the Amiot 140. 2 new plane was design differing each other by their engine. the Amiot 142 and 143. the gondolas was enlarged, the nose turret and pilot cockpit was now glassed and the engine was now Gnome-Rhône 14K on the Amiot 143 and Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs for the Amiot 142. while the Amiot 143 was flying in 1934. the Amiot 142 wasn't ready before 1935. the both plane was having very similar performance and appearance but it was beside that the Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs would be use only on fighter aircraft and by consequence, the Amiot 143 was selected. the order of the 40 Amiot 140 was changed into Amiot 143. the first batch was still armed with the Lewis gun but the rest of the plane was the Amiot 143 as we know it.

further up-grade was tested while the first Amiot 143 was deliver in April 1935. the major upgrade was the installation of the new MAC 34 7.5m in replacement of the Lewis and a glassed copula for the dorsal gunner, a longer nose and a 4th gun at the floor in the front of gondolas for the bombardier/navigator. the upgraded plane was named the Amiot 143M. an additional order of 72 Amiot 143M was made in April 1935.

in january 1936 a new plane called the Amiot 144 flew for the first time, the prototype of the plane was simply a version of the Amiot 143 without turret and retracting gear. an order of 25 of those plane was made but later converted into Amiot 143 because of the vulnerability of the plane.

The Amiot 143 was out-of-date by 1938 and to be replaced by the more modern plane, the Bloch MB.131 on his way. the delivery of the last Amiot wasn't even done when the replacement was already ready. almost all the Amiot was still in service when the started and before the armistice, it was reported that the Amiot 143 was almost exclusively used as night bomber on German airfield and line of communication with very little lose. by the armistice, at least 87 plane was still in serviced in unoccupy zone. those obsolete plane was affected to training role in 1942 and saw service until the french liberation in 1944.

 

^{early Amiot 143 with lewis gun. those plane was originally meant to be Amiot 140M}

 

 

 

 

General characteristics

• Crew: Five (pilot, navigator/bombardier, radio operator, nose and dorsal gunners)
• Length: 18.24 m (59 ft 10 in)
• Wingspan: 24.53 m (80 ft 6 in)
• Height: 5.68 m (18 ft 8 in)
• Wing area: 100 m² (1,100 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 5,455 kg (12,026 lb)
• Gross weight: 8,611 kg (18,984 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 10,360 kg (22,840 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × Gnome et Rhône 14Kirs/Kjrs 14-cyl. air-cooled radial engines (counter-rotating), 640 kW (858 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 310 km/h
• Range: 1,300 km (808 mi; 702 nmi)
• Ferry range: 1,995 km (1,240 mi; 1,077 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 7,500 m (24,600 ft)
• Time to altitude: 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in 6.8 minutes

Armament

• Guns: 4× 7.5 mm (0.295 in) MAC 1934 machine guns (one each in nose and dorsal turrets, forward gondola and rear gondola)
• Bombs: up to 1680kg (880kg internally with either, 1x 500kg or 4x 100kg or 4x 220kg or 16x 50kg or 64x 10kg and up to 800kg on the wing with either 8x 100kg or 4x 200kg)

 

Source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_143

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_143

http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/amiot-143.php

http://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?f=236&t=12384

http://world-war-2.wikia.com/wiki/Amiot_143

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_amiot_143.html

Edited May 19, 2018 by CaID

[blakeob 8,086]

Open for discussion. 

[BrentD15@psn 1,116]

+1 from me.

[onemax9000 1,242]

French tb3 yes plz +1

[Atomeur 529]

I love this one becase he is strange and I want to drive it, to bomb and kill ennemies!

[Milocat 4,848]

This would be a great BR 1.0 French bomber.  +1.  

[Atomeur 529]

I want this plane just for 1 reason : doing like Laubier during battle of France : to be up tier !

[Valcour 1,141]

A classic!  +1

 

[BrentD15@psn 1,116]

On 20/12/2018 at 13:42, Valcour said:

A classic!  +1

 

Agreed.

[Arghail 1,220]

I found a website with some detailed pictures of the plane.

 

http://www.pangea-systems.com/wwiiws/aircraft/Amiot_143/

Examples :

 

Spoiler

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Arghail

[Kasukaru 2,164]

Why not? +1

[Head3masher 2,272]

I never knew about the downward firing gun.. very interesting.. was it used for shooting at ground targets?

[Z3r0_ 4,127]

14 hours ago, Head3masher said:

I never knew about the downward firing gun.. very interesting.. was it used for shooting at ground targets?

 

Unlikely.  They were probably there to provide extra defensive coverage from fighter attack (a lot of early-war and interwar bombers had a gap in their defensive coverage at twelve o'clock low - even some midwar bombers like B-17s up until the B-17G had a blind spot there))

[Indo_Pilot 80]

+1 They should be put in the tree before the Farmans

[Dyneem4x 0]

+1 

Edited May 3, 2021 by Dyneem4x

[Xenecrite 899]

 

[CokeSpray 7,272]

Suggestion passed to the developers for consideration.