The Bernard H.52 was a French

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

of the 1930s. It was a single engine, single-seat

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 ...

built in the hope of being selected by the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

. Two

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

s were built, but no production followed.

Design and development

In late 1932, the

Société des Avions Bernard ''Société des Avions Bernard'' () was a French aircraft manufacturer of the early 20th century. History The company was founded in April 1917 by Adolphe Bernard as Etablissements Adolphe Bernard to licence-build SPAD fighters. Immediately ...

proposed to build a

fighter to meet the requirements of the

for a shipboard fighter suitable for operation from the

catapults A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile at a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of sto ...

of its Battleships and Cruisers. The Bernard design, the H.52, was a mid-winged

based on its Bernard 260 landplane fighter, using the same wings, rear fuselage and tail surfaces as the earlier design. It was of all-metal construction, principally

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age hardening, age-hardenable aluminium–copper alloys. The term is a combination of ''Düren'' and ''aluminium'' ...

, with a

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

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 ...

and stressed skin

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 ...

wings that were integrally constructed with the centre fuselage.

Leading edge slot A leading-edge slot is a fixed aerodynamics, aerodynamic feature of the wing of some aircraft to reduce the Stall (flight), stall speed and promote good low-speed handling qualities. A leading-edge slot is a spanwise gap in each wing, allowing ai ...

s and large flaps were fitted to the wing to lower its landing speed, while its undercarriage consisted of two main floats. A single supercharged Gnome-Rhône 9Kdrs

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

powered the aircraft ''Flight'' 22 November 1934, p. 1245. The first of two prototypes flew on 16 June 1933, with the second flying in 1934. No production followed, with Bernard choosing to develop a new fighter to meet the requirements of the French Navy, the Bernard H.110. This had a similar layout, with wooden wings and a more powerful engine fitted, but had no more success in attracting orders than the H.52, the French Navy eventually selecting the Loire 210.

Specifications

Notes

Bibliography

* Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. ''The Complete Book of Fighters''. New York, Smithmark, 1994. . *
"New Aircraft:The Bernard 52 C I"
''

Flight Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...

'', 22 March 1934. p. 286.
"The Fourteenth Paris Airshow"
''Flight'', 22 November 1934, pp. 1236–1250.

External links

Aviafrance
{{Bernard aircraft 1930s French fighter aircraft Floatplanes H052 Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1933

Design and development

Specifications

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External links