Breguet Br.480 (series)

History

With the end of the Second World War (1939-1945), the French aviation industry faced the difficult task of rebuilding. The French Air Force lacked the kind of four-engine bomber advocated by other forces at the time, with a considerable range and a war load to destroy enemy infrastructure indefinitely. At the end of the conflict, he was left with only two local options - the unfinished Heinkel He 274 (built on French soil in the French factory) and the Breguet Be.

The 480/482, the pre-war four-engine "heavy aircraft", has its roots in a request from the French Air Ministry in late 1936.

Br. 480

The December 1936 requirement called for a medium twin-engine bomb platform capable of a range of 1,600 miles (3,200 miles ferry) while carrying a wartime load of nearly 2,200 pounds. Breguet began work and launched its Br.

480 prototype, a twin-engine model with twin tails, low-mounted monoplanes and one engine per wing. Heavy glass is used in the nose area, and the body looks deep.

Originally, the bomber was powered by two 1,225 hp Gnome Rhone 14L air-cooled radial piston engines, each driving a three-blade propeller unit.

From Gate 480 to Gate 481 and Gate 482

In any case, the obsolescence of this engine resulted in the bomber being converted to use 2 x Hispano-Suiza 12Y production engines and a smaller main aircraft. However, this proposed model "Br. 481" was eventually abandoned in favor of a four-engine configuration - "Br. 482" (also known as "Br. 482 B4") - now powered by 4 x Hispano-Suiza 12Z engines Each had 1,350 horsepower (the Br.

481 series should be called "Br.481 B4"; the planned long-distance record-breaking version should be called "Br.481 Raid").

In May 1940, when the war turned to France, at least two prototypes were in the works. 480 / bro. 482.

In the same month of the invasion, two prototypes were rushed out of the Paris hotbed - one (the second prototype) completed the flight in southwest France, the other (the first prototype) completed the Mediterranean voyage to Algeria. The first prototype (Br. 482 No. 1) eventually fell victim to German air raids in 1942 as the Allies finally took control of the North African theater.

The second (Br. 482 No. 2) successfully existed under the eyes of the Germans near the occupied Biarritz outside Anglet, France (near the Spanish border).

The Germans were forced to return to German soil over time, much to the relief of the French aviation industry, to restart the work of rebuilding the exhausted French Air Force. This meant that, like the Br. 482, existing projects that survived the war were given new life.

By the end of 1945, however, the French Air Force had little need for pre-war propeller-driven heavy bombers, so the existing, now-completed Br. 482 was used as a research platform for the remaining flight days, recording the first flight on 28 November 1947 .

Br. 482's flying career spanned a total of 20 flights before ending September 13, 1950. She was stripped of her usefulness and abandoned.

Specification

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Performance

PERFORMANCE

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