The Loire 30 a.k.a.Loire 300 was a French three-seat night
reconnaissance
In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...
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 ...
designed and built by
Loire Aviation
Loire Aviation was a French aircraft manufacturer in the inter-war period, specializing in seaplanes, and based in Saint-Nazaire, France.
History
Loire was founded in 1925 as a division of Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, a shipbuilding compa ...
of
St. Nazaire.
Design and development
The Loire 30 was designed to meet a French Air Force requirement for a three-seat night reconnaissance aircraft.
It was a cantilever high-wing monoplane and powered by three
Salmson 9Ab
Between 1920 and 1951 the Société des Moteurs Salmson in France developed and built a series of widely used air-cooled aircraft engines.Gunston 1986, p. 158.
Design and development
After their successful water-cooled radial engines, developed ...
radial engines strut-mounted above the wing.
The pilot had an enclosed cockpit with an open cockpit at the nose and amidships, both fitted with pivot-mounted 7.7 mm (0.303 in) machine-guns.
Only one Loire 30 was produced in 1932, but it failed to gain an order and was relegated to experimental use.
Loire 301
After rejection in its original role, the sole Loire 30 / Loire 300 was modified with a very large windowless drum-shaped turret fitted in the nose and re-designated Loire 301. The purpose of the turret is uncertain; the favored theory of some references is an armored turret housing a large caliber gun; another theory is an airborne blind flying training simulator. To compensate the additional weight of the turret the central engine was moved backwards and inverted to drive a pusher propeller. This led to the unusual propulsion with two tractor and one pusher engines above the wings. Due to the turret resembling a type of copper laundry kettle commonly used at the time, the airplane was nicknamed ''la lessiveuse''.
Specifications (Loire 30)
Notes
Bibliography
*
{{Loire aircraft
Loire 030
030
Trimotors
High-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1932