The Bloch MB.120 was a French three-engine colonial transport aircraft built by

Société des Avions Marcel Bloch The Société des Avions Marcel Bloch was a French aircraft manufacturer of military and civilian aircraft. It was founded by the aeronautical designer Marcel Bloch (hence "MB" in the aircraft designations), who had previously played a major ro ...

during the 1930s.

Design and development

The MB.120 design was selected by the French government for transport use in French overseas territories. It was an all-metal high-wing

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 ...

. The

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 ...

was re-worked from the MB.71. Standard accommodation was for a crew of three and up to 10 passengers. The civil aircraft normally carried only four passengers, the rest of the aircraft was filled with mail. Ten production aircraft were produced, six for civil use and four for the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...

Operational history

The aircraft entered operation in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

for

Air Afrique Air Afrique was a Pan-African airline, that was mainly owned by many West African countries for most of its history. It was established as the official transnational carrier for francophone West and Central Africa, because many of these cou ...

, which was a new airline set up by the French government on 11 May 1934 to provide service between the French African territories. Both the civil and military aircraft served only in French Africa.

Variants

*MB.120.01 : First prototype. *MB.120 : Three-engined colonial transport aircraft. Ten built.

Operators

; *

Specifications (M.B.120)

References

Bibliography

* * {{Bloch aircraft MB.120 1930s French airliners 1930s French military transport aircraft Trimotors High-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1932