In 1936, ANF Les Mureaux designed and flew the ANF Les Mureaux 190, a lightweight single-engined fighter aircraft powered by a 340 kW (450 hp) ANF Les Mureaux 190 engine and with a fixed undercarriage. The unreliability of the engine caused the 190 to be abandoned in 1937.Despite this setback, and the nationalisation of ANF Les Mureaux to form part of the state-owned SNCAN combine, the former design team of Les Mureaux, René Lemaitre and Hubert led by André Brunet, did not abandon the concept of lightweight fighters, and in 1938, began work on the Potez 230, a more advanced development of the Les Mureaux 190.
Like the earlier aircraft, the Potez 230 was a low-wing cantilever monoplane, with a similar elliptical wing. The wings were built around an integral torsion box, the first example of this structure to have flown, and were fitted with split trailing-edge flaps. The aircraft's fuselage was of oval cross-section, with the pilot accommodated in an enclosed cockpit. The aircraft was powered by a 500 kW (670 hp) Hispano-Suiza 12Xcrs V12 engine driving a three-bladed Ratier propeller in a tractor configuration. Armament was planned to be a single Hispano-Suiza 20 mm cannon mounted between the engine cylinder banks and firing through the propeller, with four 7.5 mm machine guns to be mounted in the wings.
The unarmed prototype made its maiden flight at Villacoublay on 30 March 1940.Testing was relatively trouble-free, with the aircraft reaching a speed of 439 km/h at sea level and 560 km/h at 5,000 m , with it being planned to fit a more powerful Hispano-Suiza 12Y engine. The German invasion of France disrupted testing, however, with the prototype captured by the Germans when they seized Villacoublay airfield in June 1940. The Germans were interested in the novel wing torsion box, and the prototype, together with all available drawings and data, was shipped to Germany for closer study.
| Type |
Single seat fighter |
| Engine |
1 Hispano-Suiza 12Xcrs |
| Dimensions |
Length 7,57 m, height 2,18 m, span 8,74 m, wing area 10,97 m2 |
| Weights |
Flying weight 1800 kg |
| Performance |
Max. speed at 5000 m 560 km/h, cruising speed at 4500 m 480 km/h, endurance 1,5 h, service ceiling 10000 m |
| Armament |
(Proposed) One engine-mounted Hispano HS 404 20-mm cannon and four wing-mounted MAC 1934 M39 7,5-mm machine guns. |
| Type |
Werk.Nr |
Registration |
History |
| Prototype |
|
|
The Potez 230 was flown on 30 March 1940. the first flight lasting 20 minutes, with test pilot Georges Détré at the controls.. Only minor teething troubles were encountered during the initial test phase, and on May 8, 1940, after modifications to the coolant water pump and some softening of the landing gear shock absorbers which had previously interrupted the fuel supply to the carburetors when the aircraft was taxiing over rough ground, When German forces occupied Villacoublay, the sole prototype of the Potez 230 was seized and transported to Germany for examination of the wing torsion box, which, of integral construction, was the first of its type to have been flown. |
