The Caudron C.570 was a French twin-engine aircraft designed and built by

Caudron The Société des Avions Caudron was a French aircraft company founded in 1909 as the Association Aéroplanes Caudron Frères by brothers Gaston and René Caudron. It was one of the earliest aircraft manufacturers in France and produced planes for ...

in the mid-1930s. It was designed to function in multiple roles; as a bomber, passenger transport, paratroop aircraft, cargo aircraft and air ambulance.

Design

The Caudron C.570 was primarily designed to fill a gap in the types of aircraft available to French armed forces, that of a troop-carrier, though it could take on other roles. It was a

low wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with wings in three parts, a span rectangular centre section and outer

trapezoidal In geometry, a trapezoid () in North American English, or trapezium () in British English, is a quadrilateral that has at least one pair of parallel sides. The parallel sides are called the ''bases'' of the trapezoid. The other two sides are ...

panels, ending in rounded tips. The wings were built around twin box

spars SPARS was the authorized nickname for the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve. The nickname was derived from the USCG's motto, "—"Always Ready" (''SPAR''). The Women's Reserve was established by law in November 1942 during Wor ...

made of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

and

plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...

. The central section had an aluminium frame and light metal skin; the outer panels were ply-covered. Multi-section

ailerons An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

filled more than half the span of the outer panels'

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...

s. The C.570 had a square section

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

. Its -long forward part, reaching aft to the wing trailing edges, housed the crew and up to eighteen troops and was built with aluminium

longeron In engineering, a longeron or stringer is a load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural fram ...

s and frames, skinned in light alloy. There was a cabin in the nose for a crew-member who acted as navigator, bomb aimer and second pilot and behind that, ahead the engines, a well glazed pilot's cabin with side-by-side seating. Immediately behind the pilot was a cabin for the wireless operator and also four passengers. Next came the main cabin, which seated fourteen men and finally a small cabin for any injured. The distribution of the crew may have depended on the designated role, e.g. transport or bomber, as ''Flight'' describes a different arrangement. Access to the forward cabins was via a large port-side door. The main cabin had another large door on the starboard side at the rear; there was also a trapdoor large enough for four parachutists to leave together. The rear part of the fuselage was a welded

chrome-molybdenum steel 41xx steel is a family of SAE steel grades, as specified by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Alloying elements include chromium and molybdenum, and as a result these materials are often informally referred to as chromoly steel (common v ...

tube girder, fabric covered over a light wooden frame. It was powered by two water-cooled Renault 18Jbr 18-cylinder

W engine A W engine is a type of piston engine where three or four cylinder banks share the same crankshaft, resembling the letter "W" when viewed from the front. W engines with three banks of cylinders are also called "broad arrow" engines, due to thei ...

s, mounted on welded steel tubes in the wing centre section with

radiator A radiator is a heat exchanger used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

s below them. The C.570's

hydraulically Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

retractable main undercarriage had wheels on

Messier Messier may refer to: People with the surname *Ashley Messier (born 2002), Canadian ice hockey player *Charles Messier (1730–1817), French astronomer * Doug Messier (born 1936), Canadian ice hockey player and coach * Éric Messier (born 1973), Ca ...

oleo strut An oleo strut is a pneumatic air–oil hydraulic shock absorber used on the landing gear of most large aircraft and many smaller ones. This design cushions the impacts of landing and damps out vertical oscillations. It is undesirable for an air ...

s which folded backwards behind the engines, giving it a track of . The C.570 had a

twin tail A twin tail is a type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers—often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be—are mounted at the outside of the aircraft's ho ...

with its

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lift (force), lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters ...

mounted at the top of the fuselage. Together with the

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

s it was trapezoidal in plan; the fins were of the

endplate Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

type, oval in profile and with

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

s split into two sections to allow elevator movement. Both horizontal and vertical control surfaces had Flettner-type

servo tabs A servo tab is a small hinged device installed on an aircraft control surface to assist the movement of the control surfaces. Introduced by the German firm Flettner, servo tabs were formerly known as Flettner tabs. Servo tabs are not true se ...

. Below the tail was a fixed tailwheel.

Development

The C.570 flew for the first time, with pilots Delmotte and Lacombe and engineer

Marcel Riffard Marie André Marcel Riffard (30 November 1886 – 9 July 1981) was a French aeronautical engineer. He designed fighter aircraft and air racers, as well as airplanes for postal delivery and medical transport. He also designed racing cars and land- ...

, on 24 November 1935. By July 1936 it was undergoing official tests at Villcaoublay. In November it appeared there amongst an array of prototypes and its prolonged trials were only ended in September 1937, by when it had acquired the name Kangourou.

Specifications

References

{{Caudron aircraft 1930s French military transport aircraft C.570 Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1935 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft