Tuesday 21 August 2018

Amiot AAC.1 Toucan *Updated with foreign users*

During the World War II, Amiot's factories located in Colombes, at the outskirts of Paris, produced hundred of copies of the famous Junkers Ju.52/3m for the Luftwaffe. At the end of the war, when it came to re-equip the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) and, for economical reasons, the French government decided to take advantage of the existing stock and the adquired experience to relaunch the aircraft production on their own.
More than 400 AAC.1 Toucans were produced (AAC standing for Ateliers Aéronautiques de Colombes - Colombes Aeronautical Workshops) between the end of 1944 and 1947/1948.
The first production batch was quickly integrated into the Armée de l'Air and the Aéronavale (Naval Aviation) together with forty original Ju.52/3m recovered directly from the Luftwaffe, even when the fight was still going on with the Allies.
Those original Ju.52/3m received also the denomination of Toucans and got the serial numbers from 001 to 040, regardless of the manufacturer's original serial number.
The main user of the Toucan was the Armée de l'Air as at least 216 Toucans served there. It served first in the transport units in mainland France. In fact, the Groupe de transport III/15 'Maine' was half equipped both with Toucans and American Douglas C-47 Dakota. Based in Le Bourget, this unit took part together with the GT II/15 'Anjou' and GT I/15 'Touraine' (which were fully equipped with the C-47 Dakota) in the repatriation operations of French prisoners and deportees in Germany. Some units were converted to the Toucan after the war, like the GT IV/15 'Poitou' which received the Toucan in 1946.
The Toucan served in the Indochina War in big numbers with the GM III/64 'Tonkin', GT I/64 'Bearn' and GT II/52 'Franche-Comté' transport units as well as the Algerian war as the GSRA 76 and 78 (Groupes Saharienes de reconnaissance et d'appui - Saharian Reconnaissance and Liaison Groups) were fully equipped with Toucans during the whole war. The Toucan was present in other transport and Liaison units during the 1950s and even part of the 1960s as it also served with the Aéronavale. In fact, around 51 exemplars served with various Aéronavale squadrons until at least 1962. It served also with many braches of the French administration, as well as with Air France which operated it for both metropolitan and colonial flights.
Update: Apparently the Amiot AAC.1 was exported to Lebanon, Portugal, Syria and Yugoslavia. The Portuguese ones were used for transport duties during the early stages of the Portuguese colonial wars, however, as we couldn't find graphical evidence, it should be considered as speculative. It was also exported to Yugoslavia where nowadays it's displayed at the Belgrade aviation museum.
It seems that Lebanon also received at least one AAC.1  for evaluation purposes, together with Syria. However as it looks impossible to find graphical evidence of the Toucan with those colours, the drawings must be considered as speculative.























Sources:
1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_AAC.1_Toucan (translated) 
2. http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/zbiory_sz.php?ido=194&w=a
3. Fonthill Media - The Junkers Ju 52 Story

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