BAJ Type IV

History

With the end of the First World War (1914-1918) still unresolved in early 1918, the French Air Force continued to embrace entirely new fighter designs. The B.A.J. ("Boncourt-Audenis-Jacob" in Boulogne, France) "Type IV" was one of the late-war entries that appeared during this period and consisted of a single-engine, two-seat tandem fighter and biplane wing configuration.

However, its arrival at the end of the war and delays in development meant that only two prototypes were completed. The design of this biplane is attributed to Charles Ordnes.

Like other aircraft of the period, the Type IV's two-seat arrangement had the pilot in the front cockpit and the observer/gunner in the rear (back-to-back side by side). Armament consists of a fixed forward-firing 7.7mm Vickers machine gun, synchronized by the pilot to fire through rotating propeller blades, and two 7.7mm Lewis machine guns, mounted on trainable mounts (T.O.

3 series rings) for Used by the rear gunner.

The fuselage was kept relatively clean at the time, and even the engines were covered for aerodynamic efficiency. Power comes from a single Hispano-Suiza 8Fb 8-cylinder water-cooled inline 300 hp engine driving a two-bladed fixed-pitch wooden propeller on the nose.

The biplane configuration uses a traditional "up and down" equal-span, two-cabin wing arrangement. The support struts between the levels are one piece, using wiring if necessary. The main aircraft sit at the very front amidships. The tail itself receives small-scale aircraft, a vertical tail and low-set horizontal aircraft.

The landing gear was also conventional for the time and consisted of a fixed two-wheel main engine and a tail skid positioned under the central mass.

The French authorities were tired of the Type IV design and they commissioned the design on May 1, 1918. However, due to requests for modifications (pending Henrior), the first prototype was not delivered to Villacoublay for formal evaluation until November of the same year, and the official truce to end hostilities was signed on 18 November. After the fire at the Brown factory, work on the aircraft was not completed until January 1919. Attempts followed, leading to further repairs mid-year.

At this point, a second prototype was flown for evaluation, but the project was more or less hopeless - the war was over, any further development of the Type IV was terminated, and only two prototypes demonstrated the effort.

As there are currently no specifications for this aircraft, the author has made an estimate for this entry.

Specification

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