The Potez-CAMS 160 was a one-off 5/13 scale flight model built in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, first flown in the summer of 1938 to test aerodynamic and hydrodynamic qualities of the Potez-CAMS 161 airliner and mail carrier, which was too large for detailed modelling in existing

wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...

Design and development

In 1936 the northern

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

factories of

Potez Potez (pronounced ) was a French aircraft manufacturer founded as Aéroplanes Henry Potez by Henry Potez at Aubervilliers in 1919 in aviation, 1919. The firm began by refurbishing war-surplus SEA IV aircraft, but was soon building new examples of ...

and of the

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

maker CAMS, the latter owned by Potez since 1932, were nationalized along with those of Amiot, Breguet and

ANF Mureaux __NOTOC__ ANF Les Mureaux (full name: Les Ateliers de Construction du Nord de la France et des Mureaux) was a French aircraft manufacturer founded in Les Mureaux in 1918 as Les Ateliers des Mureaux building aircraft under license. Significant prod ...

into

SNCAN SNCAN, (abbreviated from ''Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Nord''), or commonly, Nord, was a state-owned French aircraft manufacturer in the pre- and post–World War II era. The company had been formed as one of six state ...

. In the same year the design bureau of Potez-CAMS was beginning the development of the Potez-CAMS 161 six engine, trans-Atlantic passenger

flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...

, intended to be a key component of

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

's ''Transatlantique'' fleet. To test the design they built a 5/13 scale flying scale model of it, careful not just to scale dimensions of the flying surfaces and hull, but also to copy the form the nose around the cabin, engine cowlings and retractable float housings. Control surface detail and the flaps of the 161, together with its variable-pitch propellers, were included on the resulting Potez-CAMS 160. It was intended to prove both the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic behaviour of the airliner. It flew for the first time on 20 June 1938. The 160 was a high-wing monoplane. The wing was a semi-

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 ...

structure, with two parallel bracing struts on each side from the lower

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 ...

to the wing just inside the central engines, straight-edged in plan with taper on the

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. ...

only and rounded tips. It was fitted with interconnected Handley Page

slot Slot, the slot or Slots may refer to: People * Arne Slot (born 1978), Dutch football manager, former player * Gerrie Slot (born 1954), Dutch cyclist * Hanke Bruins Slot (born 1977), Dutch politician * Tonny Bruins Slot (born 1947), Dutch assoc ...

s and

aileron 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 aroun ...

s as well as

split flap Split flap may refer to: * Flap_(aeronautics)#Split_flap * Split-flap display A split-flap display, or sometimes simply a flap display, is a digital electromechanical display device that presents changeable alphanumeric text, and occasionally ...

s. It was powered by six four-cylinder inverted inline air-cooled Train 4T engines, each producing driving three blade, variable-pitch propellers. The engines were mounted on the wing underside, housed in long, narrow cowlings intended to mimic those around the

Hispano-Suiza 12Y The Hispano-Suiza 12Y was an aircraft engine produced by Hispano-Suiza for the French Air Force before the Second World War. The 12Y became the primary French 1,000 hp (750 kW) class engine and was used in a number of famous aircraft ...

drs water-cooled

V-12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The f ...

s of the full scale aircraft. The little flying boat had a conventional stepped hull and was stabilized on the water by a pair of floats, attached under the outboard engines and retracting into their cowlings. Its enclosed,

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

seat

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 ...

was shaped to reproduced the form of the 161's nose, though the full sized aircraft had proportionally shorter glazing. The 161 had a twin

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 ...

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

with a N-strut braced, parallel chord

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 on top of the fuselage on a short pillar with marked dihedral. The fins were of the endplate type, with curved

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 ...

s and roughly symmetric above and below the tailplane; on each, 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 ...

was split into an upper and lower part. All of these features appeared on the final, full size airliner. The Potez-CAMS 160 appeared, after its first flight, at the 1938 Paris Aero Show.

Specifications

Notes

References

Bibliography

{{Potez aircraft 1930s French experimental aircraft Potez-CAMS 160