Levasseur PL.10

what is it?

The Levasseur PL.10 was a carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft developed in France in the late 1920s. It was a conventional, single-bay biplane along similar lines to Levasseur's contemporary designs for the French navy, including a watertight, boat-shaped fuselage, small underwing floats, and undercarriage that could be jettisoned in flight in order to improve the chances of a successful ditching. Thirty of these machines were purchased by the Aéronavale, entering service aboard the carrier Béarn in 1931 under the designation R3b.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 14.2 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 220 km/htop speed
• range 600 kmwithout refuelling
• size 3,150 kgmax take-off weight
• built 63made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 97 years ago, in 1929.
• 🏎️Top speed is 1.7× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 14.2 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1929

introduced

1931

number built

63

role

carrier-borne reconnaissance aircraft

origin

🇫🇷 France

makers

Pierre Levasseur

engines

1× Hispano-Suiza 12Lb / Hispano-Suiza

length

9.8 m

wingspan

14.2 m

height

3.8 m

max take-off weight

3,150 kg

top speed

220 km/h

cruise speed

130 km/h

range

600 km

ceiling

4,500 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.