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Letord LET (Series)

1916 WORLD WAR 1

History of Letord LET (series)

From 1909, Emile-Louis Letord began to manufacture aircraft at a factory in Meudon, near Paris, France. Eventually, the company contracted with other manufacturers, including Dorand and Nieuport, to build the plane, until that concern led it to develop its own three-seat biplane, the Letord Let. 1. The series includes Jean. 1 let.

The French Air Force ended up ordering seven, of which about 1,500 were used in World War I (1914-1918), but only about 300 were realized.

The First World War gave birth to many new military technologies, one of which was large multi-engine aircraft for long-range reconnaissance, bombing, and escort. For a while, airships had limited success in this role on the battlefield, but advances in air-to-air interception and ground-launched anti-aircraft (AAA) artillery have limited the tactical value of these slow-moving, inflatable systems.

In 1916, the Letord "Let" made its maiden flight as a prototype, a twin-engine, three-person platform modeled on long-range reconnaissance. To cover the distances required for this type, a multi-engine arrangement was used and mounted on a relatively large fuselage. The aircraft relies on a traditional biplane wing arrangement for lift and control, requiring a three-person crew with various systems. "Negative wing staggering" occurs in the upper and lower wing arrangements, placing the lower plane in front of the upper section, with the parallel struts angled aft. Throughout the life of the aircraft, power comes from 2 different makes and models of engines, each responsible for driving the two-bladed propeller. The engines remain on the outside of the fuselage and on the lower wing assembly.

Each of the three crew members sits in separate open-air cockpits, so communication between them is limited. The landing gear has two main legs and a tail, although nasal bones are often added to prevent accidents when walking on the ground (common on larger aircraft of war).

The tail features a single vertical tail and a low-mounted horizontal plane.

The design of this plane is credited to Emile Dorand.

Standard weapons are defensive in nature and include a pair of dedicated machine gunners. The foremost cockpit has 2 machine guns mounted on a trainable base and another 1 or 2 machine guns are mounted near the midship (back).

For offensive, light to medium bombardment, aircraft can be equipped with conventional airdrops of up to 660 pounds.

In terms of performance, the aircraft can reach speeds of 90 to 100 mph at a range of 220 miles and an altitude of 16,000 feet.

Originally provided in the form of Let. 1, with 2 x Hispano-Suiza 8A engines, followed by a similar Let. 2 model with Hispano-Suiza 8Ba engines. Let. The 3 was introduced more as a dedicated bomber form (including the Bn3 night bomber) and was based on the same engine as the Let. 2 variants. Let. The 4 is a reconnaissance platform powered by 2 Lorraine-Dietrich 8A series engines, while the Let.

5, is similar but with 240 hp (each) Lorraine-Dietrich 8Fb engines.

Let. 6 evolved into a large escort fighter and received the official designation "Ca. 3" in French service. They feature a nose-mounted 37mm gun and are powered by 2 Hispano-Suiza 8Be 8-cylinder water-cooled engines with 220 hp each. Let. 6 was born in Let.

3 Bn3 night bomber, but this type was more or less replaced by technological advances during the war.

The last notable brand is Let. 7, which is another bomber development. The product falls back to the Lorraine-Dietrich power plant.

By the end of the war in November 1918, the Let series bombers were not exported and were quickly forgotten.