The Potez 23 was a prototype French single-engine fighter

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

designed in 1923.

History

The Potez 23 was built by

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 ...

in response to the C1 fighter program issued by the STAé in 1923. The C1 fighter specification called for a speed of , an armament of two forward firing machine guns, and both armored tanks and

drop tanks In aviation, a drop tank (external tank, wing tank or belly tank) is used to describe auxiliary fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft. A drop tank is expendable and often capable of being jettisoned. External tanks are commonplace on modern ...

. The structure was made of wooden spars, the fuselage was covered with screwed and glued plywood, and the wings, empennage, and tail were covered in canvas. Wing tethering is simplified and builds on the experience gained on the

Potez XV The Potez XV (also erroneously written Potez 15) was a French single-engine, two-seat observation biplane designed as a private venture by Louis Coroller and built by Potez and under licence by Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów and Plage i Laśkiew ...

. The aircraft did achieve the required performance and was not accepted for production. However, it was developed into the

Potez 25 Potez 25 (also written as Potez XXV) was a French twin-seat, single-engine sesquiplane designed during the 1920s. A light multi-purpose Strike fighter, fighter-bomber, it was designed as a line aircraft and used in a variety of roles, including F ...

Specifications

References

* {{Potez aircraft 1920s French experimental aircraft Biplanes 23 Aircraft first flown in 1923 Single-engined tractor aircraft