Tuesday 26 September 2017

Amiot 355

The twelfth Amiot 351 was selected to be fitted with the new Gnome-Rhône 14R 02/03 engines (which were an advanced version of the previous 14N) delivering 1200hp of power each of them and with some advanced features, for 1939, like a two-speed compressor.
The Amiot 350 was about to start its flying tests in June 1940 in Bourget but, due to the rapid German advance, it was quickly transferred on 10th June to the airfield Landes de Bussac, close to Pau in southern France, without the engine cowlings, piloted by the famous French woman pilot Maryse Hilsz and, later to Clermont-Ferrand with the hope of keeping it away from the frontlines and complete it some time in early 1941 at the AIA Aulnat (Amiot's research office in Vichy France). As the type was never ordered into production, the prototype was used briefly as a transport to carry Marshall Petain from the colonies of Algeria and Morocco to Metropolitan France, but after that it was storaged and not used again.












Sources:
1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_354 (translated)
2. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_amiot_355.html
3. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action - French Bombers of World War II in Action

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