The SNCASE SE.100 was a French two-seat, twin-engined fighter that first flew in 1939. Mass production was planned to begin late in 1940 but the

Fall of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second Wo ...

prevented this.

Design and development

The origins of the SE.100 predate the creation of the

SNCASE SNCASE (abbreviated from ''Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Est'') or Sud-Est was a French aircraft manufacturer. The company was formed on February 1, 1937, by the nationalization and merger of Lioré et Olivier, Pote ...

(Sud-Est) company in the nationalisations of 1937. It was designed by Pierre Mercier and

Jacques Lecarme Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

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and was initially designated the LeO 50. Underpowered by two

Gnome-Rhône 14M The Gnome-Rhône 14M was a small 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial engine that was used on several French and German aircraft of World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world ...

engines, the design was recast to use the more powerful Gnome-Rhône 14N-20 and -21 engines, the same used in the Lioré et Olivier LeO 451 bomber, and renamed the SE.100. The aircraft was of conventional all-metal construction, having a mid-wing layout. As with most French twin-engined aircraft of the era, the engines were handed, one airscrew rotating clockwise and the other anti-clockwise, to minimise torque. The aircraft had a twin tail. In production models it was planned to redesign the wing to use components from the

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wing to ease production. The fuselage was short in appearance, with a long nose and a very short tail, the cockpit being connected to the gunner's position aft by a windowed corridor. The undercarriage was very unconventional, a taildragger with single main wheel at the front and one rear wheel fitted under each vertical tail and retracting into them, rather than two main wheels under the wings or engine nacelles and a single tail wheel as per usual practice. The aircraft was fitted with four

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20 mm cannon in the nose and one in the gunner's post. The first prototype of the SE.100 flew on 29 March 1939 at Argenteuil, and a number of necessary changes were identified during the tests. It was destroyed in a crash on 5 April 1940. The aircraft proved to be around 100 km/h faster than the

Potez 631 The Potez 630 and its derivatives were a family of twin-engined, multirole aircraft developed for the French Air Force in the late 1930s. The design was a contemporary of the British Bristol Blenheim (which was larger and designed purely as a ...

, the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Ar ...

's current twin-engined fighter, and production was authorised. While the tests were proceeding, a second prototype was being built, incorporating the changes, the most obvious of which was the removal of the windowed corridor in the fuselage and its replacement by additional fuel tanks. The armament was increased to six cannon in the nose, two in the gunner's post and one additional cannon in the floor of the gunner's post. As the second prototype was being built, the

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company was preparing to mass-produce the aircraft at their

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

works, deliveries planned to begin late in 1940. At least two paper variants were studied, the SE.101 powered by

Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp The Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp is an American air-cooled radial aircraft engine. It displaces and its bore and stroke are both . The design traces its history to 1929 experiments at Pratt & Whitney on twin-row designs. Production bega ...

engines, and the SE.102 powered by a different version of the Gnome-Rhône 14N. The SE.500 and SE.800 were to have been a 12-passenger transport and a four-engined transport, respectively, derived from the SE.100.

Specifications (SE.100)

References

Bibliography

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External links

{{SNCASE aircraft World War II French fighter aircraft 1930s French fighter aircraft SE-0100 Mid-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1939 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft