The Bernard H 110 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 ...
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 designed for a
French Navy competition. It flew in 1935 but had only made four test flights when the Bernard company was declared bankrupt, preventing further development.
Design and development
In the early 1930s the French Navy became interested in
catapult launched 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, ...
fighters and the
Société des Avions Bernard produced the twin
float Bernard H 52 in response, deriving it from their earlier
Bernard 20,
74 and
260
__NOTOC__
Year 260 ( CCLX) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Saecularis and Donatus (or, less frequently, year 1013 ''Ab urbe condita
''Ab urbe condita' ...
land based fighter aircraft. The ''H'' stood for the new Naval ''Hydravion'' class. The Navy did not adopt the H 52 but put forward a specification which called for
supercharging to 4,000 m (13,100 ft) and a
stalling speed of less than 100 km/h (62 mph). This brought designs from four manufacturers; one of these, the Bernard H 110, was a H 52 development, slightly larger and with a more powerful engine.
[
The Bernard H 110 had a mid mounted ]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 ...
wing. In plan, it was straight tapered with elliptical tips. Following the methods used on earlier Bernard aircraft, the wing was a single piece structure which incorporated part of the 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 ...
. In the place of 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 ...
it had six span-wise cells formed from vertical alloy plates separated by spacers close to the wing surface. Each cell was separated from the next by wider spacers, all of which were shaped to the airfoil
An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...
profile. The H 52 was metal skinned but the H 110 was fabric covered as the Navy found this easier to repair. The cells were vertically expanded at the centre of the wing structure to form the cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle.
The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...
area of the fuselage between the engine and the rear part. On its 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. ...
the wing carried horn balanced 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 ...
and inboard flaps, with pilot controlled, full span Handley Page slots on the leading edge
The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts the air;Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil sectio ...
.[
The rear fuselage, beginning just behind the open cockpit and the trailing edge of the wing, was built around four ]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. These connected, via four steel members in the wing centre section, to the engine mountings. The fuselage tapered rearwards to a mid set 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 ...
and fin
A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. F ...
. The 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 ...
and separate elevators were both balanced. Ahead of the wing leading edge, the 530 kW (710 hp) Hispano-Suiza 9Vbs nine cylinder 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. ...
was enclosed by a long chord cowling
A cowling (or cowl) is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings ...
with small superimposed fairings, two per cylinder, for the valve mechanisms and drove a three blade propeller
A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...
. The H 100 had a pair of floats close in length to that of the fuselage and fitted with mid-length steps and water rudders at the stern. They were made from ''védal'', 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'' ...
plated with pure aluminium
Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
to improve their salt water resistance. Each float was mounted by five streamlined struts, two outwards and upwards to the wing and three upwards to the lower fuselage. This arrangement left the central fuselage to carry bombs if required. The H 110 carried a pair of Darne
The Darne machine gun is a machine gun of French origin.
Development
The French gun-making company Darne, which became famous for its innovative shotguns, began making military weapons in 1915, when it was contracted by French government to man ...
7.5 m (0.295 in) calibre machine guns, mounted in the wings just above the floats and firing outside the propeller disc.[
The H 110 flew from the ]Seine
The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
in June 1935 without incident, taking off with slots open in six seconds. Three more flights were made before S.A.B. was declared bankrupt. The H 110 then became the property of the administrators and was scrapped and the Navy ordered the Loire 210.[
]
Specifications
References
Bibliography
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{{Bernard aircraft
1930s French fighter aircraft
Floatplanes
H110
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Mid-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1935